Evernight
By Claudia Gray
HarperTeen
Copyright © 2008
Claudia Gray
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-06-128439-7
Chapter One
It was the first day of school, which meant it was my
last chance to escape.
I didn't have a backpack full of survival gear, a wallet
thick with cash that I could use to buy myself a plane
ticket somewhere, or a friend waiting for me down the
road in a getaway car. Basically, I didn't have what
most sane people would call "a plan."
But it didn't matter. There was no way I was going to
remain at Evernight Academy.
The muted morning light was still new in the sky as I
wriggled into my jeans and grabbed a warm black
sweater-this early in the morning, and this high in the
hills, even September felt cold. I knotted my long red
hair into a make-shift bun and stepped into my hiking
boots. It felt important to be very quiet, even though I
didn't have to worry about my parents waking up. They
weren't morning people, to say the least. They'd sleep
like the dead until the alarm clock woke them, and that
wouldn't be for another couple of hours.
That would give me a good head start.
Outside my bedroom window, the stone gargoyle glared at
me, fangs framing his open grimace. I grabbed my denim
jacket and stuck my tongue out at him. "Maybe you like
hanging out at the Fortress of the Damned," I muttered.
"You're welcome to it."
Before I left, I made my bed. Usually it took a lot of
nagging to get me to do that, but I wanted to. I knew I
was going to freak my parents out badly enough today, so
straightening the covers felt like I was making it up to
them a little. Probably they wouldn't see it that way,
but I went ahead. As I plumped up the pillows, I had a
sudden strange flash of something I'd dreamed the night
before, as vivid and immediate as though I were still
dreaming:
A flower the color of blood.
Wind howled through the trees all around me, whipping
the branches in every direction. The sky overhead
churned, thick with roiling clouds. I brushed my
windswept hair from my face. I only wanted to look at
the flower.
Each rain-beaded petal was vividly red, slender, and
bladelike, the way some tropical orchids are. Yet the
flower was lush and full, too, and it clung close to the
branch like a rose. The flower was the most exotic,
mesmerizing thing I'd ever seen. It had to be mine.
Why did that memory make me shiver? It was only a dream.
I took a deep breath and focused. It was time to go.
My messenger bag was ready; I'd loaded it up the night
before. Just a few things-a book, sunglasses, and a
little cash in case I needed to go all the way to
Riverton, which was the closest thing to human
civilization in the area. That would keep me occupied
for the day.
See, I wasn't running away. Not for real, where you make
a break and assume a new identity and, I don't know,
join the circus or something. No, I was making a
statement. Ever since my parents first suggested that we
come to Evernight Academy-them as teachers, me as a
student-I'd been against it. We'd lived in the same
small town my whole life, and I'd attended the same
school with the same people since I was five years old.
That was just the way I wanted it. There are people who
enjoy meeting strangers, who can strike up conversations
and make friends quickly, but I'd never been one of
those people. Anything but.
It's funny-when people call you "shy," they usually
smile. Like it's cute, some funny little habit you'll
grow out of when you're older, like the gaps in your
grin when your baby teeth fall out. If they knew how it
felt-really being shy, not just unsure at first-they
wouldn't smile. Not if they knew how the feeling knots
up your stomach or makes your palms sweat or robs you of
the ability to say anything that makes sense. It's not
cute at all.
My parents never smiled when they said it. They were
smarter than that, and I always felt like they
understood, until they decided that age sixteen was the
right time for me to get past it somehow. What better
starting place than a boarding school-particularly with
them along for the ride?
I could see where they were coming from, sort of. Still,
that was theory. The first moment we'd come up the drive
at Evernight Academy-and I'd seen this huge, hulking,
Gothic stone monstrosity-I'd known that there was no way
I could possibly go to school here. Mom and Dad hadn't
listened. I would have to make them listen.
On tiptoe, I eased my way through the small faculty
apartment my family had shared for the past month.
Behind the closed door of my parents' bedroom, I could
hear my mother snoring lightly. I shouldered my bag,
slowly turned the doorknob, and started downstairs. We
lived at the very top of one of Evernight's towers,
which sounds cooler than it is. This meant I had to make
my way down steps that had been carved out of rock more
than two centuries ago, long enough to be worn and
uneven. The long spiral staircase had few windows and
the lights weren't yet on, making for a dark, difficult
trip.
As I reached out for the flower, the hedge rustled. The
wind,
I thought, but it wasn't the wind. No, the hedge
was growing-growing so quickly that I could see it
happening. Vines and brambles pushed from the leaves in
a tangled snarl. Before I could run, the hedge had
almost surrounded me, walling me in behind sticks and
leaves and thorns.
The last thing I needed was to start flashing back to my
nightmares. I took a deep breath and kept going
downstairs ...
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Evernight
by Claudia Gray
Copyright © 2008 by Claudia Gray.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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