Chapter 1

Nira woke up. Now, it was actually time to get up. She sighed. Yet again, she was the last one up. The other three beds in her room were empty, and presumably their occupants were at breakfast. Hey, wait. The light was on. Samantha would have turned it off. A puzzled look crossed her face for a moment. Then, a feeling hit her. Nira felt like something was wrong. She looked around the room, and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but then she heard a creak. From the closet. She stood up, shaking her covers off. Someone was there.

"Who's there? Raine?" she said loudly, her voice shaking just a little. There was no answer. Nira walked slowly and carefully over to the closet. She put her hand on the knob, but before she could open it, it opened from the inside. Before Nira could even register the face she saw, the man within jumped at her with a cloth, and he pressed it against her mouth and nose. Nira held her breath for as long as she could, but the man was persistent, and soon she took a breath. The chloroform in the cloth filled her nose, and she fainted.

When Nira regained her consciousness, she felt movement beneath her. For a moment, she wondered if it was an earthquake, but then she realized that she was in a van. Then she finally remembered the previous events. She tried to sit up, but it made her head ache. Then the man from her closet loomed over her with another cloth. This time, Nira didn't even try to resist. She fell backwards into the blackness.

Back at Gallagher Academy, Raine returned to her room. She had wondered where Nira was when she hadn't come to breakfast. But Nira wasn't there. Raine looked closely at the room, for signs of her missing friend. Then she saw a discarded cloth. She waved her hand over it, wafting the smell to her nose. Her eyes widened, and she felt slightly dizzy. Chloroform!

She held the cloth close to her chest, and ran through the halls of her school. Arriving at the headmistress' office, she knocked sharply.

"Come in" said the headmistress. Raine opened the door, and came face-to-face with Rebecca Baxter, the headmistress of Gallagher Academy.

Raine Baxter listened to her mother as she paced the office, wondering who could have kidnapped Nira and how.

"It has to be the Cirlce" she said, in her crisp British accent. Raine nodded.

"And now I need to tell Cammie" Bex said, her face falling even more. She walked dejectedly over to her phone, and dialed Cammie's cell number. Raine watched her mother, realizing that she had never seen her this upset before.

"Hi, Cam" said Bex, into the phone. Raine watched as her mother explained what Raine had seen, and she felt a pang of sadness. It occurred to her that she might never see her friend again.

Nira woke up in a room. She had no idea where she was. There was nobody else there, but as she began to regain her full consciousness, she realized that she must be in Blackthorne. She was lying on a bed, and around her were stone walls, like in a castle. Her room was circular, like a tower. Then Nira realized that she wasn't in Blackthorne. Blackthorne was not in a castle. Nira knew that the Circle of Cavan had kidnapped her, and she also knew that they had taken control of Blackthorne. Apparently, they also had a castle. Nira swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and stood up. Slight dizziness hit her, but it went away quickly. She walked over to a small window, and she looked out. Then she looked down. She had to have been 50 feet in the air, or so it seemed. She returned to her bed and sat down. It was raining outside, she realized. And she must be near the roof, because she could hear the rain on her ceiling.

"England" she said, and her voice echoed emptily around the room. She noticed a door, set in the wall. She stood up again, and attempted to open it. But the handle didn't work. She pounded her fists on the wood, and then fired off a roundhouse kick to it. It didn't budge. She fell backwards onto the floor, and buried her face in her hands. The tears that followed came fast and furious.

"I WANT TO GO HOME!" she screamed. Then she heard a creak. She dried her tears on her pajama sleeve and looked towards the door. It opened. Nira stood up. The man that had kidnapped her walked in, followed by a boy. The man smiled.

"How do you like the accommodations?" he asked. Nira sneered.

"Cold and drafty" she replied, trying to appear tough. The boy stared curiously at her. Nira made a face at him.

"Good" said the man. "In case you were wondering, my name is Michael Goode. This is Fallon Goode."

"You" Nira said. She recognized her uncle's name now. The boy, she didn't know, but he had the same last name as her.

"Oh, Nira Goode, this is your brother" said Michael, and Nira gasped. Fallon Goode.