Candles and Stairs.

Fifteen splashes. The whole Royal Academy counted, and now every house in Octavia wants the Saint of Greymark.

His three sisters ride into Sanctara to be titled by the Queen, who has one question for Fabian: "What about one of my daughters?" And one order: think about it. So he does. He counts his reasons the way he counts splashes, and every count ends in the same place: a princess with a spear, who keeps blaming her racing heart on the stairs.

But the headmistress has come home with mud on her boots and a warning: the demons are back. In the garden at the heart of the Academy, where everyone walks and nobody looks, something has been planted. Quarrels flare. Girls cry without knowing why. And Fabian, whose pool would run dry by noon in a tide, starts trying to bottle a healing.

Some things grow in the dark. Some things have to be said out loud.