Chapter 28 · Dropped Into Witch Academy at Midnight - Chapter 28: The Living Go First

My heart's not beating.

I know because I've felt this exact thing a hundred times on the other side of the ER table. The floating. The cold that's not cold. The weird calm that comes right before your brain realizes it's about to die.

Except I'm standing. And the headmistress is staring at me like I just pulled a grenade pin with my teeth.

"The real Midnight Summoner," she says again.

Cassandra's across the room, pale as I've ever seen her. Vivienne's got her hand on my wrist, fingers where my pulse should be. She's not finding it.

"Alex." Her voice cracks. "Your heart—"

"I know." I pull my wrist back. The defibrillator's still humming in my other hand, warm and alive in a way I'm not. "How long do I have?"

The headmistress steps forward. She's old, way older than she looks, and right now she looks ancient. "The prophecy said the Summoner would return at the cost of her own life. That she'd open the gate between death and the living, and stand in the threshold."

"Great. Love a good prophecy." I'm shaking. Can you shake without a heartbeat? Apparently. "How do I close it?"

"You don't.