I looked back up at the representatives, as if trying to will the impossible and change the fact that I had done the unlikely by getting chosen by Dragon Tower.

  The pink for Pixie.

  The blue for Pegasus.

  The orange for Salamander.

  The yellow for Slyphid.

  The brown for Basilisk.

  The white for Banshee.

  The purple for Kraken.

  The green for Kelpie.

  No one was wearing Dragon red. Because of course not.

  “Oh no,” I voiced the worried thought out loud. No. No. I didn’t want to stand out…

  “What? Didn’t get the Tower you wanted?” Celica asked me, her voice had a sharp taunting edge to it. I glanced up at her. Her sheet was completely blank. Mine still had the Dragon Tower symbol on full display.

  “I got chosen by Dragon Tower.” I answered in a calm deadpan voice.

  Her disinterest melted into a delighted grin. “What?”

  I held up my paper wordlessly.

  She laughed and leaned backwards. “Sucks to be you.”

  I set it down and shrugged at her. “I’ll probably have to talk to Professor Hearth.”

  The strange glee on her face, the glint in the dark grey and electric yellow of her heterochromatic eyes, made me nervous.

  It was everything that I didn’t want.

  Color sprung itself on to Celica’s page. I stared down at mine wondering what I was supposed to do now. I put my head on the table and fought back a groan of despair.

  A few moments passed before she nearly screeched, “Are you kidding me?!”

  I looked up at her while keeping an even face. Her jaw slacked open. My eyes flashed to the paper. From my angle I couldn’t see much, but I could see the familiar red covering the paper.

  I burst out laughing.

  I was not alone in this mess.

  “No one has been chosen by Dragon Tower in years! What is going on?!” she continued.

  I laughed harder.

  “This is not funny!”

  “No,” I said around my hysterics, “no, it’s not. This is absolutely terrible.” I did mean that sincerely, but it’s hard to not sound sarcastic when you’re having nervous hysterics.

  Mom was going to have a field day when I told her about this.

  “Dragon Tower…” Celica was ranting. “What…how…what?” At least she was quieter about her freak out. We were starting to get looks from nearby students.

  “Is something the matter, you two?”

  Of course our nonsense got the attention of Professor Hearth.

  I, still shaking with laughter and trying to breathe, held up my sheet of paper for her to inspect. Celica was too busy staring off into the distance with her jaw on the floor.

  “Oh dear. Both of you? It happens. Nothing to be worried about. A few more minutes and we’ll get it all sorted out.”

  I placed my paper back on the table and reunited my forehead with the wood of the table. I took a deep breath to calm myself and then sat back up normally. Celica seemed to be snapped back to the real world.

  “The rules say that no Tower will have less than five students in it. So we’ll likely be assigned different Towers.” She was talking mostly to herself, I doubted she was saying it for my benefit.

  “Well, nothing to do about it except sit here and wait.”

  Celica nodded numbly. “Right, this will get sorted out. We might even choose our own Tower.”

  I shrugged again. “Possibly.”

  Celica scoffed, “Can you please react like a normal person? Or am I stuck with a wierdo Towermate?”

  “I might still be in shock at actually being here.” There had to be a protocol or precedent for what to do in this scenario. I was not the first student this happened to.

  “Ugh. This sucks.” She groaned. “I was hoping for Sylphid Tower. We’re probably going to get stuck in the boring ones.”

  “I’m sure it will be fine.” I was aiming for comforting. But her raised eyebrow and accompanying eyeroll told me I didn’t succeed.

  “All right, all of you are done now.” Professor Hearth spoke loudly to the room. “Representatives line up your new first-year students. The rest simply follow the guidance of the representative matching the color you just received. If your color does not have a representative, please speak with me on the other side of the room. All of you keep those papers for the time being. You will need them.”

  Oh good. Not awkward at all.

  “Please don’t be a big deal,” I quietly wished as I got up to walk in the opposite direction from ninety-nine percent of the room.

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  By the time Celica and I broke out of the crowd, I noticed three other students heading for the Professor. The boy with the reddish-brown hair, a boy with short but very neat black hair, and a third boy with a long ponytail of light brown hair with a streak of green.

  All five of us arrived at about the same time. Papers in hand.

  Professor Hearth’s face went a shade paler. Besides that she stayed composed. “That’s…more of you than I expected. In any case the five of you are to follow me to the headmaster’s office. We’ll get this sorted out.”

  The five of us shared looks. It might have just been me but there was a nervous energy that seemed to spark between the five of us.

  Somehow, being in a small group was more comforting than being just Celica.

  Professor Hearth was quick to soothe, “None of you are in trouble. But with five of you this might get complicated and we’d rather you all be in the same place since none of you know your way around yet.”

  That made partial sense to me. And really what were our options at that point? She turned around and started swiftly walking in a direction. We all hurried to follow her.

  “Dragons. Five of them. All in the same year. Ten years without a single one and then five all at once,” Vivian Hearth muttered to herself in a quiet, trembling voice. I might not have heard it if the hallways weren’t empty.

  She continued, “Hecate help me. Dellik is going to have a field day.”

  We all exchanged similar confused looks.

  Oh good. I wasn’t the only one worried and not thrilled with this development. Yay. We finally stopped in front of an open doorway, a plaque above read: Headmaster Theodore Pan.

  “Vivian, you’re back early-” A younger looking man, probably in his forties, noticed us and gave Professor Hearth a raised eyebrow. “Please tell me you are not about expel these students. You always say you will but you’ve never followed through-”

  “Dellik, these five first-years all were chosen by Dragon Tower.” Professor Hearth explained in a tense voice. Her posture grew impossibly straighter.

  His eyes boggled. “Curious. Very curious. Headmaster Pan is going to be very interested. Mind if I come with?”

  “You can watch them while we talk. No unaccompanied first-years until classes start.” Professor Hearth told him.

  “Very exciting,” he grinned at us.

  My nerves increased tenfold.

  The two adults lead us past the doorway and into a smaller room where twelve armchairs circled a small fire burning in a pit at the center.

  Dellik spoke, “Why don’t you lot all sit down? We can have a cozy chat while Vivian and Headmaster Pan figure out the next step.” He sat down in a sky blue chair closest to the fire waved an arm around the room.

  I sat in a teal green chair farthest from him, though the angle kept him in my direct line of sight.

  Celica sat in a purple chair right next to the fire, her posture as neat and proper as before.

  The boy with the long hair looked the wariest. I noticed his eyes were red. He sat down in a white chair close to the door.

  The Salamander hopeful with the red hair sat down in an orange chair close to Celica, on the other side of the fire from Dellik.

  The last member of this makeshift group, the one with the neat black hair, sat down in a brown chair next to me.

  “How are you so calm right now?” he whispered as he sat down.

  “I’m not,” I told him with a shaky laugh. “I am panicking. This is my panicked face.”

  “Impressive.”

  “I’ll start simply, my name is Hansel Dellik. I teach Entry, Beginner’s, and Intermediate History here as well as coach the Chaser team. Do any of you have questions? I will be happy to answer them.”

  The long haired-one spoke. “What’s wrong with Dragon Tower?”

  Oh thank the gods, someone else asked before I had to.

  Dellik laughed. “Nothing is wrong with it, it just hasn’t had occupants in a century.”

  The guy rolled his eyes. “Yeah, we know, but why?”

  Dellik laughed again. “Dragon Tower has always been very, very picky about who gets to reside within it. But we never wanted a student to feel isolated here. Being alone could hinder their education, so in the early days of our great school a rule was put in place that if a Tower’s occupants across all five years was less than five then those students would be placed within other Towers. How they’re placed is up to the current Headmaster.”

  “But there are five of us now,” I said.

  The grin on Dellik, which I was sure was supposed to be reassuring or comforting, got bigger. “Yes. Yes there are. For the first time in a century, Dragon Tower might be reopened for occupancy. Which would make this the first time all nine Towers were occupied in a very, very long time.”

  No pressure or anything.

  “Is that why the door was sealed? Because there weren’t enough Dragons present?” the guy with the pony tail asked.

  Dellik, still grinning, shook his head. “No. The lock on the door has nothing to do with whether it is in use or not. One summer day, when there were six Dragons that were due to return the next school year, the Tower, which was undergoing regular maintenance and cleaning, closed its door and hasn’t reopened it since. No one knows why.”

  Oh. Wonderful. That’s not foreboding or anything.

  “So are we getting reassigned or not?” the same guy pressed.

  Dellik’s grin faltered. “Not sure. I guess that depends on whether or not we can get that door open. If not, I suppose you all will get placed in different Towers and continue your school years like this first day never happened.”

  I wanted that option. I didn’t want attention. I didn’t want the spotlight.

  “It’s going to be fine,” My neighbor said in a normal tone. “You can relax. We’re here, the hard part’s over. What’s your name?”

  I swallowed before answering, “I’m Serafina, what’s yours?”

  He had a small but relaxed smile on his face, it was much more calming than whatever Dellik was doing.

  “I’m Fethris Nightcall.” He held out his hand for me to shake. He moved himself so that he was facing me while in his chair.

  I shook his hand, adjusting myself to mirror his posture. “I’m okay. This is just not how I wanted today to go. I don’t know what’s going on and I don’t like it. How do you feel about this?”

  “Ancient castles, mysteriously locked doors, and teachers who are just as bewildered as the students? Can’t say I’m a fan either.”

  I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. “Yes…exactly. I’ve watched enough fantasy movies to know where this is going.”

  “Aren’t you a little curious though?” the Salamander asked. “I mean clearly there is something in there. Doors don’t just lock by themselves and why bother locking a door unless you want to keep people out or…” his face twisted to a wicked, mischievous smile, “something in.”

  “Like what?” Celica asked, her disinterested look giving way to curiosity as she leaned towards him.

  “Like he said,” he said, pointing to Fethris, “this is an ancient castle. You know how many people have come and gone through those gates? Any of them could have had something dangerous to hide.” Salamander seemed thrilled with the attention he was getting.

  “Like they’d let us sleep in there with a century-old evil locked inside,” the long-haired one scoffed. “It’s probably just haunted or something.”

  “The other Towers all have their quirks. Pixie rotates constantly and there’s an eternal rainstorm over Pegasus.” Fethris’s smile was wider.

  “Why do you all sound like you want to sleep in a Tower with an evil being inside it?” I demanded incredulously.

  “Mostly because it does sound kind of fun,” Fethris shrugged indifferently.

  I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You are all insane,” I told the room in a flat voice. What metric put me in the same Tower as these weirdos?

  The one with a ponytail gave me a big toothy grin, “If we’re insane then what does that make you?”

  “The straight man to this clown show. Clearly,” I deadpanned.

  They all laughed and despite my nerves, I laughed too.

  “It’s nice to see you all took my advice about being nice to your Towermates to heart.” Professor Vivian Hearth’s voice cut through the room like a cold wind. We all froze.

  All eyes snapped to her.

  She let out a sigh. “We haven’t made a final decision just yet. Dellik, would you please escort them through a tour of the grounds while we deliberate? This is going to take longer than I thought.”

  “I would be thrilled to show these fine youngsters our wonderful school,” Dellik said with his grin still in place.

  The five of us shared a look as Vivian Hearth rolled her eyes. “Do be careful not to be too enthusiastic. We don’t want to frighten them.”

  At least somebody can read a room.

  He looked at all of us, “I’m sorry. I can get carried away.” At least he had the decency to look vaguely ashamed. “All right, everyone make sure you still have your papers and we can begin to get you settled in wherever you might end up.”

  Professor Hearth sighed as Dellik stood up and gestured for us to do the same. She then went back where she came from, in the opposite direction of where he was directing us.

  At least we are back on some kind of track, closer to how today was supposed to go. It was more reassuring than anything else right now.

  “Are you going to take us to Dragon Tower?” the Salamander as we exited back out into the hallway. I really needed to get his and the other guy’s name this was getting fairly ridiculous.

  Dellik’s eyes sparkled. “So eager! Show that kind of spirit in my class and passing will be easy! Of course I will! It’s actually not far from where my classroom is located so we won’t even have to go out of our way.”

  “It’ll be nice to see what all the fuss is about.” Fethris walked next to me in the unorganized cluster behind Dellik.

  I nodded.

  “If this is our history teacher maybe it won’t be too boring,” Ponytail muttered.

  Dellik made a strange scoff-like sound. We turned a corner and saw a much larger cluster of students. About twenty at most twenty-five students were led by a boy in brown who looked about eighteen. He nodded at Dellik but he looked a little confused at the five us.

  I shrugged at him as we passed. Not like any of us had a proper answer for him anyway.

  Dellik stopped in front of a hallway leading towards the center of the castle. “Down there and to the left is my classroom. It’s labeled H1 on your maps and above the door. The further down the hallway the more difficult the class. The same pattern works for every classroom section. Questions?”

  Silence.

  “Good. On to Dragon Tower!”

  Two right turns past hallways that all seemed to be the same shape but had hints of color. We also passed the stone doors for Banshee and Sylphid Towers. At least I assumed that’s what they were, judging by the ghostly woman and dancing flowers on the respective doors.

  “And here we are, Dragon Tower.”

  Standing before us was a stone door with a beautifully detailed carving of a stone dragon, long and serpentine and embracing the doorway in a complete circle. The head rested upon the tail at the foot of the door.

  “Well, go on. All the first-years try and open it when they learn it’s unopenable. Please.” Dellik gestured towards the door.

  After a brief non-verbal exchange with Ponytail, Celica tried her hand first. She strutted confidently towards it, placed a hand on the knob shaped like an extended claw, almost like it wanted to shake hands, and pulled on the door.

  Nothing.

  She huffed and turned back around.

  After her Ponytail gave it a whirl.

  No luck.

  Salamander actually rolled up his sleeves and rubbed his hands together. I heard him faintly whisper something as he attempted to push the stone door, forgoing the knob altogether.

  Nope.

  Fethris, amused by this, went up and simply knocked.

  The stone door held its ground.

  “I suppose you all are going to make me attempt this, aren’t you?” I sighed while looking around. “Okay.” I slowly walked towards the door, eyed it apprehensively and decided to have a chuckle. I took a deep breath, squared my shoulders, and without an ounce of irony, spoke in a calm clear voice, “Open Sesame.” Nothing. I turned around and started walking back to the group.

  The looks from my audience ranged from Celica’s confusion to Salamander chuckling.

  I let out a laugh, “Wasn’t expecting that to work anyway.”

  I took another step forward.

  Something behind me clicked.

  “No….” I said slowly, not believing that that actually worked.

  All eyes went wide. They heard it too. I turned around slowly.

  The knob on the door started spinning on its own.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Salamander said. “Really? Really?”

  The door opened with a loud slam. Before any of us could react something grabbed me. An invisible force of some kind pulled me into the Tower. I stumbled forward and turned back around just in time to see the door slam shut.

  Oh no.