Excerpt Chapter Twelve

      “Did you sleep well last night?”

      “Mmm.” Heather took a drink of her milk. She swallowed. “Pretty

good, I guess. I had a strange dream, though.”

      “Did you, now?” Grandma Dawn said, sitting and sliding in towards

the table, her cup of coffee and small bowl of berry-covered oatmeal

before her. “Want to tell me about it?”

      Heather nodded vigorously, milk and waffle being worked over in her

mouth. “Well,” she said, adding a few more chews before swallowing the

soggy assortment, “I was a bird and I flew to an old school.”

      Grandma Dawn was unfolding the newspaper, her attention drawn

to the splash of headline. “Uh-huh,” she said, absently, her eyes grabbing

at details in the finer print. “An old school?”

      “Yeah. It was the MaidenHall Academy of the ShadowSlip Wood, in

Autumnsloe.”

      Grandma Dawn’s attention stayed fixed to the paper, but she was no

longer reading.