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M y eyes blink open, and the first thing I see is white. White walls, white sheets and bedding, and a white door.

“Where am I?” I mumble and sit up while trying to remember the last thing that happened.

The house. The four males. Dawn. The mirror. It all flashes across my mind as Dawn comes into view with a reassuring smile on her face.

“You’re in the healing center. How are you feeling?” she asks.

Healing center… I glance down at my body. A body that looks a little healthier than… than my real one.

Shit… this really happened. Someone switched my body with this one.

Dawn still stares at me, waiting for a reply and I try to think back to what she asked and focus on that instead of having another panic attack.

“Tired but okay.” I reach up to my head and relax when I don’t feel any pain.

“Do you remember anything?” she asks, and the concern on her face makes me want to answer her genuinely.

“I remember… waking up in a strange house and meeting four dickheads.”

She tries to contain her smile but fails. “And anything before that? Of your life as Sena?”

I freeze, realizing she still thinks I’m her… The girl in the mirror.

Swallowing hard, I shake my head while trying to figure out how to explain what happened to me.

Dawn nods and writes something on the notepad in her hands and then gives me a sad smile. “It’s not uncommon for a head wound like yours to cause amnesia.”

Amnesia … She thinks I’ve lost my memory and not that I’ve swapped bodies with someone else. Which now that I think about it, sounds even crazier.

If I say anything when I don’t know where I am or who these people are, I might end up in a straitjacket instead.

Maybe I’ll stick with the amnesia for now. At least until I can figure out how I can get out of here.

“So, you’re saying she actually has amnesia?”

I jump and turn to the right, spotting four pairs of angry glares.

How the fuck did I not see them?

“Yes. The head wound was deep. It caused damage to the temporal lobe and even though I’ve healed the injury, it looks to have already caused some damage,” Dawn answers them before looking back at me.

“I can’t give you your memory back, but there have been many cases where people recover them partly or fully over time.” She pats my hand in a soothing gesture. “Don’t give up hope yet.”

I nod, playing along with this farce of a lie but the minute I glance over at the guys, I can see none of them buy it, their suspicion slashed across their faces in droves.

“These dickheads will meet you at home,” Hazel Eyes grits out.

“Can’t I just go?” I ask Dawn, hoping I can just get out of here.

Hearing my words, the four guys put a pause on their little dramatic exit.

“You said I was healed,” I remind her.

Her eyes grow sad, and she takes a seat beside me. “Sena, you’re a female Shadow. It’s what we call human females that have a percentage of Shadow DNA.”

I shake my head. “No… I?—”

She takes my hand. “I know you don’t remember this, but you were matched with these four Shadows when you were a child.”

I glance over at the guys as the room grows thick with tension. Their expressions quickly morph from annoyed to outright hostile.

“Where am I?” I ask her, fearing I might already know the answer if any of the horror stories I heard growing up is true.

“The Shadow Academy,” she says, and just like that, my whole world tilts on its axis.

The Shadow Academy is a school for warriors and those that fight against the terrigons and dark beasts that slip from another realm called the Hollow.

The entire academy holds the ethos of kill or be killed.

It’s supposed to be brutal and savage, and those that manage to stay alive only become more vicious.

Not only that, but the entire academy is a fortress. With shields and barriers that hide it from the outside world. No one knows where it is. And anyone that accidentally ends up too close to it is said to have mysteriously disappeared.

There’s no way I’m going to escape without coming up with one seriously thought-out plan.

“We’ll take care of you as we do all female Shadows.

With the help of our instructors and your Shadow companions, you’ll train.

You’ll go to class with the other females and you’ll…

you’ll get the chance to be a part of something much bigger than yourself.

” Dawn gives me a soft look full of compassion before she steps out of the room, leaving me with my so-called Shadow companions.

As soon as the door shuts, Hazel Eyes steps closer to the bed, his eyes narrowing to slits.

“You’re stuck here with us for the next year whether you like it or not.

Play your little game all you want. But we sure as hell won’t let you ruin our only chances of getting out of here.

You already fucked us over. We won’t let you do it again.

” Each word drips with venom, and the icy look in his eyes just adds to the raging asshole look he’s got going on.

I tense my body, ready to dive out of the way of the incoming hit. But it never comes.

With cutting glares, they turn and leave. But it’s not until the door slams shut that I start to relax.

Fuck. It looks like Sena did a number on them. But lucky me, I’m the one that gets the end tail of it.

His words finally filter pass the panic and fear, and a sliver of hope starts to grow.

Ruin our only chances of getting out of here.

They want to get out of here too. Maybe I can convince them I want the same thing?

That is, if they don’t end up killing me first.

F ollowing the map of the academy Dawn gave me, I try to head in the location she circled.

The male Shadows that have companions are placed further away from the main building and dorms on the academy grounds. Which doesn’t give me a lot of confidence should any of my four companions decide to kill me.

And the large forest that weaves in and around the buildings—the one that could be used to hide my body—makes the sliver of confidence I do have plummet.

My companions are also supposed to train me, help me to adjust here at the academy, and guide me toward an awakening of my Shadow abilities.

Something I doubt any of those four will be doing. Nor will any Shadow abilities be awakening.

I push it to the back of my mind and focus back on the path. I finally spot a large modern two-story house with deep gray walls covering the entire building. There’s a line of small windows placed on the first story with all the lights still on.

A jolt of nervous energy slides through me at the thought of them all sitting around waiting for me to arrive.

Shaking it off, I steel myself for the four assholes and their attitudes and make my way to the front door.

I try the handle, but it’s locked. Regretting my life choices and cursing my bad luck, I release a harsh breath, pull up my big girl pants and knock on the door.

A minute passes and then another and another. But no one comes to open the door.

Narrowing my eyes, I knock again, harder this time, but more minutes pass, and no one comes to answer. I’m about to try a third time when the lights switch off, sending me a clear message.

They’re not going to open the door.

Absolute dicks. I glance around, wondering what I’m supposed to do now.

Dawn said I had to stay with them. That there aren’t any female dorms, and all female Shadows stay with their companions.

I glance down at the map, wondering if there’s anywhere else I can go.

At least for the night or until I can figure out something.

But unless I want to sleep in a dorm full of male Shadows, one of the classes or rooms in the main building—which are probably locked by now—or back in the healing center, my only option is the forest.

It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve slept outside or in the cold.

The breeze grows cool, reminding me it’s only going to get colder the later it gets and that I need to find a place not out in the open.

Instead of waiting around for one of them to open the door, I mentally wish them all a shitty night’s sleep with warm pillows and horrible nightmares before heading back into the forest and making my way toward the spot on the map that shows me there should be a lake close by.

A few minutes later, I come out to the edge of one. The minute I see it, something instantly calms inside me. A warmth that spreads through my chest and then out to every limb making me feel like I can finally breathe since the moment I woke up here.

The thick trees from the forest grow out far enough to block me from view if I wanted to stay here, but I spot a group of rocks nearer to the lake that look like they might block the breeze better.

Glancing around to make sure no one is nearby, I head over to it and toward a high flat rock that looks like it would conceal me while also protecting me from the growing wind.

Pocketing my map, I move to sit in front of it when I spot a small pool of still water a couple of feet beside it.

Taking a deep breath to steel myself, I move over to it and glance down, jolting when I see the image of the girl from the mirror, her turquoise eyes wide with fear.

I breathe through the rush of panic sliding through me and try to inspect the rest of my new body. I twist and turn it wondering if I’ll feel like I’m in a suit that’s been pulled too tight. But everything feels normal.

Which I suppose should be the first sign that something is wrong.

I usually felt pain in my left foot from when one of my foster mothers decided to stomp on it, breaking it.

She wouldn’t let me go get it checked out, and it never healed right.

The twinge of pain in my wrist is also gone.

And there’re no more dull headaches that I used to suffer from incessantly every day.

Instead, I feel strong. Stronger than I have in a long while.

My eyes find the blonde in the pool of water once more. At least we look around the same age. It would have been beyond strange if I had ended up in an older body. Or even worse, younger.

I wince when I realize I’m thinking how worse this could be when it’s already surpassed that.

Maybe it’s because none of this feels real. How can it? I’m in someone else’s body, my own most likely burned to ashes, and in the notorious Shadow Academy with four Shadow warriors that think I’m their companion. Someone that Dawn said can help keep them sane.

All male Shadows are apparently drawn to the dark. They can become volatile and unstable if not kept in check. That’s why most live here, to train and to learn how to control their shadow abilities, and in turn, become stronger to fight against the Hollow and its dark beasts and creatures.

If they don’t learn to control it, the madness sets in.

Instead of thinking about how most females here are used as a damn Xanax, I let the rocks block me from view as I spin and move, testing out multiple combinations of fighting moves I’ve learned and burned into memory.

This body moves like it was born to do it, with far more graceful spins and kicks than I could ever manage with my broken body.

I guess that’s what happens when you have a healthy body that’s taken care of with consistent food and rest. But most of us don’t have that luxury.

A pang of guilt hits me like a punch to the chest when I realize I might have technically stolen this girl’s life. Not by choice, but whoever switched us might have placed her in my body and killed her before she… burned.

My stomach knots and rolls. I hate that I’m a part of this. But another part of me is still glad I’m alive too. Even if my entire life has completely changed. At least alive, I have a chance to figure everything out.

I run my hands along my side, expecting to feel the jagged scar, but pause when all I feel is smooth skin.

I glance down and pull up my top. There’s nothing there. No jagged scar. No uneven skin.

But of course, it wouldn’t be there. This isn’t my body. This body was never attacked by a group of vicious terrigons. Never beat by her multiple foster parents or abandoned and left to survive in a world that always looks down on you.

An icy shiver slithers down my spine when it finally hits me.

My real body burned in that building. And unless there’s someone out there that can resurrect me, I have no way of getting it back. No way of turning back time and changing whatever messed up thread fate has fucked up with.

This is my body now. Whether I like it or not.

Everyone here also thinks I’m a female Shadow. Something that isn’t possible.

Unless you call attracting trouble at every turn, I’ve been normal my entire life. I’ve had to fight to survive each day, claw my way through the darkness to even find a sliver of light.

I suppose, at least that will help me while I’m here. My stubborn nature and will to live has never done me wrong. I doubt it’s going to start now.

I move over to the long flat rock and sit with my back to it, ready for this day to be over already.

In my own little hiding space, I wrap my arms around my body and glance out at the lake while trying to figure out what I’m going to do now.

Those four men hate me. Well… they hate Sena , not me. Not… I try to think of my name again, but there’s a blank spot in my memory where it should be.

After a few minutes of getting nowhere, I give up, leaning my head back against the rock and glancing up at the sky now starting to twinkle with stars.

I need answers. But in order to get them, I need to get out of here first. To get past the shields and barriers that are supposedly impenetrable.

Exhaustion quickly seeps into my mind and body, and my stomach grumbles, reminding me I haven’t eaten in a while. But it’s not the first time I’ve gone without food, and I doubt it will be the last.

Pushing the thought of food away, I curl into my knees, letting the soft ripple of the water help lull me to sleep.

Tomorrow… I’ll figure it all out tomorrow.