Normal can be the most beautiful thing there is...
No one knows that more than Aline and her brother.
Aline Blake never knew what was going to happen. Only thirteen years old, she had no clue about life's dark secrets. But that would soon change...
...
Mom met me in the hallway when I got down the stairs. She tried to talk to me but I ignored her, couldn't bear to continue where we left off.
She called after me as I locked myself in the bathroom. "Don't go to the ceremony, Aline!" she called. "It's for your own good!"
I rolled my eyes from where I sat. I wasn't going to listen to her, I was going to go anyway. She couldn't stop me, couldn't demand me to listen. I was almost thirteen now and in Canai you were an adult when you were that. She couldn't control me anymore.
As soon as I suspected she had disappeared into her study, I opened the bathroom door ajar, peered out the narrow crack to see if I was right.
It was empty in the long hallway, what little light there was came from the evenly placed torches that adorned the walls. It was dark now. It was past ten o'clock. In fact, it was past midnight. December twenty-third. In one day it would be my birthday.
Mystic Academy had slightly different start times compared to the regular school. It started at Christmas and ended in the summer, so the test was held on Christmas Eve. It was tomorrow. Tomorrow I would try to get into Mystic.
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