The Hidden Academy

Summer had no answer for that. The map beneath her coat was not a school map. She had drawn it herself from fragments found in the archive, following a line of faded ink that ended beneath the lake. Until tonight, she had assumed the line marked a collapsed drainage tunnel.

Then the lake had pulled back from the western bank.

Stone steps now descended beneath the water.

Summer could see them clearly in the moonlight: narrow slabs vanishing into the black, each marked with a pale line of mineral salt. At the bottom, far below the rippling surface, something glinted.

Tessa came closer. “Summer.”

“I only need to look.”

“That’s what you said before the west wing nearly buried you.”

“And I looked.”

“And we spent six hours digging you out.”

Summer faced the lake. Cold pressed against her cheeks. Somewhere beneath the water, the bell rope gave another muffled knock.

“I need to know what’s down there,” she said.

Tessa stared at her. “Why?”

Summer touched the map through her coat. The line she had followed ended at the same symbol carved above the submerged steps: a circle split by three vertical strokes, the academy’s oldest crest. The crest had been removed from every tower and doorway after the Founders’ Hall burned, but the mark still appeared in the margins of forbidden records.

“Because someone hid it,” Summer said.

“That doesn’t mean it belongs to you.”

“No.” Summer unfastened her coat. “But it might tell us why the school keeps changing.”

Tessa caught her wrist. “If the water moves - ”

“I’ll come back.”

“That isn’t what I was going to say.”

Summer looked down at Tessa’s hand.

Tessa released her. “If the water moves, don’t fight it. Let it take you toward the bank.”

Summer wanted to promise. Instead, she stepped out of her boots.

The lake swallowed her feet with a shock so sharp it stole her breath. She waded to the first step, gripping the rusted chain fixed along the bank. The water reached her knees, then her waist. Her coat dragged at her shoulders. Behind her, Tessa said something, but the wind tore the words away.

Summer descended.

The lake closed over her head.

For a moment, there was only cold and the hard pressure of water against her ears. Moonlight fractured above her into trembling strips. She held her breath and followed the chain downward, fingers scraping over rust.

One step.

Two.

The stairway continued farther than it should have. The academy’s lake was deep, but not this deep. Summer’s lungs began to burn. She kicked toward the next landing and found her hand striking stone instead of another step.

A ledge.

She pulled herself onto it and surfaced beneath a low arch.

Air filled her chest. She coughed, bracing one palm against the wall. Water streamed from her hair and sleeves. The arch rose only a few inches above the lake, and waves slapped against the ceiling with wet, echoing clicks.

“Tessa?” she called.

Her voice returned in pieces.

Summer lifted the small glass charm tied around her neck. Its blue light flickered awake, painting the passage in a dim, watery glow. The submerged stairwell stretched behind her, disappearing into the lake. Ahead, a corridor sloped upward through black stone.

The landing was not on her map.

That made her pulse quicken.

She moved forward, one hand sliding along the wall. The stone was warmer than the water, ridged with carvings worn almost smooth. At intervals, the old crest appeared again. Each one pointed farther into the passage.

A tremor ran through the floor.

Summer stopped.

Water rushed behind her.

She turned. The surface at the archway had begun to churn. The lake was draining into the stairwell, drawing foam and dead leaves through the opening. The chain rattled against the steps.

“Tessa!” Summer shouted.

No answer came.

The corridor tilted beneath her boots. Water spilled over the landing and spread around her ankles.

Summer ran uphill.

The passage narrowed until her shoulders brushed both walls. Her charm flashed blue-white, revealing iron brackets, cracked tiles, and words scratched into the stone.

KEEP THE DOOR BELOW.

She slowed just long enough to read them.

Then the water struck her from behind.

Summer slammed into the wall. A wave surged past her knees, cold enough to numb her legs. She grabbed an iron bracket and held on as the current dragged at her coat.

The lake had found the passage.

She tore the coat free and let it vanish into the dark. The map went with it.

“No,” she gasped.

The corridor shook again. Dust sifted from the ceiling. Ahead, a narrow doorway appeared, sealed by a slab of black stone. The academy crest was carved across it, deeper than the others, its three strokes filled with a faint copper glow.

Summer staggered toward it.

The water climbed to her thighs.

She reached the door and shoved both hands against the slab. It did not move.

Behind her, the current roared louder.

Summer searched the wall, the floor, the carved crest. Her fingers found a shallow hollow beneath the center stroke. It was shaped like a thumbprint.

She pressed her hand into it.

The stone bit her skin.

A thin line of light raced up her arm, tracing the veins beneath her wrist. Summer yanked back, but the hollow held her for one terrible second before releasing her.

The sealed door groaned.

“Summer!”

Tessa’s voice came from far behind, muffled by water and stone.

Summer looked back. The stairwell had vanished beneath a rolling wall of black water. The current filled the corridor from floor to ceiling, carrying broken branches and fragments of ice.

She turned to the door.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, though she did not know whether she meant Tessa or herself.

Then she drove her shoulder into the stone.

The slab opened inward.

Summer fell through as water crashed after her. She landed on a dry floor, struck her chin, and rolled aside. The door slammed shut with enough force to shake the chamber.

For several seconds, she heard nothing but her own ragged breathing.

The room beyond was small and perfectly round. Its walls were lined with sealed niches. A single brass fixture hung from the ceiling, though no flame burned inside it. In the center stood a stone pedestal.

Something rested on top.

Summer rose carefully. Her knees trembled beneath her. The water hammered against the other side of the door, but no leak appeared around its edges.

The object on the pedestal was a brass token, dark with age. Its face bore the academy’s old crest, the three vertical strokes surrounded by a ring of tiny letters. Summer stepped closer.

She knew that crest.

It appeared in the archive records beside the names of the first students admitted to the Hidden Academy. But the version on the token differed from the one in the books. Beneath the crest was a narrow mark like an open eye.

Summer reached for it.

The moment her fingers closed around the token, every niche in the walls clicked.

She froze.

One by one, the stone covers shifted outward. Not enough to open, only enough to reveal darkness behind them. A low vibration moved through the room, traveling from niche to niche until it reached the pedestal beneath Summer’s hand.

The token warmed.

Letters surfaced across its back, bright as wet ink.

RETURN THE ABSENT.

Summer stared at the words.

A hard knock struck the sealed door.

“Summer!” Tessa shouted from the other side. “Can you hear me?”

“I’m here!”

“Open the door!”

“I can’t!”

Another knock came, weaker than the first.

Summer ran to the slab and pressed her palms against it. “Tessa, get back!”

The water boomed against the stone.

“I’m not leaving you!”

“You don’t have a choice!”

“I always have a choice!”

Summer looked at the token. The letters had faded, but the open-eye mark remained, pulsing faintly against her palm.

The chamber floor tilted.

Water seeped beneath the door.

Summer stepped back. “Tessa, move!”

A crack split the stone above the doorway. The ceiling groaned. Tessa shouted, and then the sound vanished beneath a violent rush.

Summer stumbled toward the center of the chamber as water spilled across the floor. It spread quickly, circling the pedestal, rising over her boots.

The door remained shut.

She had reached the landing. She had found what the old records had hidden.

But the way back was gone.

Summer closed her fist around the brass token. Its edges cut into her skin as the water climbed to her knees.

Beyond the sealed door, the lake pressed against the academy’s buried bones.

And somewhere in the dark behind the walls, something answered with three slow knocks.

End of chapter one. 39 more chapters and about 78,574 words in the full book.