Chapter 33 · Loopbound - Chapter 33: Eight Hundred Awake

I open the dorm door and they're already there.

Eight hundred students packed shoulder to shoulder in the quad. Some still in pajamas. Some holding coffee they haven't drunk. All of them staring up at my third-floor window like they've been waiting for me to show my face.

Evan's behind me. "Holy shit."

"Yeah." I don't move. Can't move. Because I know what this is.

They remember.

Every single one of them died when the ward collapsed. Felt the summoning circle rip through the foundation, felt the air turn to glass in their lungs, felt the reset snap them back into a body that doesn't have those wounds anymore. And now they're awake. Now they know.

A girl in the front row—second-year Abjuration, I think—takes one step forward. Her voice carries. "Callum Ash."

I don't answer. What the hell am I supposed to say?

"You've been looping." Not a question. She's got her phone out, but she's not recording. She's checking notes. "How many times?"

Evan mutters something I don't catch. I grip the doorframe. "More than I can count."

"Then you know." Another voice, somewhere in the middle. A guy I recognize from Practical Wards.