She followed him out of some doors on the side of the building and stopped when he stopped at the top of some stone steps, overlooking a great bowl of grass. Then she stood there and watched the scene before them, as he did. A great mass of students, running and shrieking and firing magic all over the place, loud enough that she could make out what they were doing before he even told her.
The bell wasn’t a bell at all.
It was a burning bright wink of light, small as a firefly, darting through the darkness. And this time it wasn’t some book she had read that told her what it was. She felt it, deep in her bones. The magic still buzzing through her grew louder; it sung to see that familiar thing. A star from the sky of the Underneath, fallen from its own sky and now lost in theirs. And if you caught it—
“It grants you favor through the halls of Calabaraia,” he said, almost as if he’d heard her thoughts and wanted to finish them off for her. Though why he wanted to—why he would wantanyof this—she had no idea. Favor was a prize beyond measure, she knew. It was endless amounts of time there to drink in all thatmagic, without ever being driven mad, without being murdered, without losing any sense of self and getting stuck. Anyone who managed it would eventually be powerful enough to do almost anything—never mind fight off one vampire, or survive petty student squabbles, or pass every brutally cruel practical lesson.
She couldn’t imagine what use it would be to him, to see her win it.
And shecouldwin it.
She knew she could.
She watched them all down there, fighting with one another for a chance at snatching or shooting it down, and just knew. Like she’d done all this before and could now just do it again.You don’t compete to wound it over someone else; you give something of yourself to guide it back,a voice whispered to her. And she knew who that voice belonged to.Lilibet, she thought.It was Lilibet who did it. Before she ended up in her bloody dress, she chose her weapon and made her shot.
And before she could even fully consider this, her hands simply took hold of something. A shape in the air but more solid than anything she’d actually ever touched. A bow, like the bow Penrith had strung to shoot the monstrous stag of the upside-down sky. A bow like something that belonged to her, like something she instinctively knew how to draw back, even though she’d never even done so with a toy.
And when she did, the arrow emerged in a wave of light. It hung suspended, like there really was a string, like there really was a bow.All she had to do was aim as true as that girl who wore a velvet ribbon around her throat, and with as much magic at her command. All she had to be was bright and brilliant and enough.
And just as she was thinking she couldn’t be, she felt Harkerlean down, until his lips were almost kissing her throat, her ear. His breath burned over her skin, in a way that made that bloom through her body almost burst out of her. Then he whispered soft as silk,You don’t have to be more magical than you think; you only have to know that you already are.
Then everything in the world was silver.
And through it, she held on tight. And she let fly.
Chapter Fifteen
She only knew the wound she had made in the world had let the star fly through, when the sound of a bell rung out, and everyone turned. Every one of them at once, even though some still sat astride brooms. Some were still in the middle of dueling. One student had turned themself into a centaur, and he stopped and looked, just the same.
She wanted to say,It wasn’t me, under their sudden scrutiny.
And not just because she’d never liked crowds. There was something undeniably unsettling about it. Something too silent, too still. Like she’d committed some terrible faux pas. “So this was the secret plan? To make me think this was something worth winning, when they’re all now going to kill me for it?” she asked into that ringing silence. But she knew as she did it that she wasn’t entirely serious.
It was hard to be, when he had said those words.
Most likely not meant at all, yet even so. They lingered in her mind.
And lingered even harder when he answered, “They could try, I suppose. But once you walk those halls, they will never be stronger than you, and they know it.” He shook his head, eyes bright with a kind of rueful amusement. “I mean, did you really think I was popular because I’m so charming and handsome? Everybodyhere is charming and handsome. No, bookworm. I’m popular because I am powerful. And power is the only thing any of these people ever understand.”
“Yes, but here’s the thing, Harker: I haven’t gone through a door yet.”
“Maybe not. But you did just perform an impossible feat, in front of them.”
“And you think that’s enough to keep them at bay?”
“Even if it’s not, they will never get past me,” he said, and she knew what he meant. She knew why he wanted to protect her. He thought that letter would drop if she was too dead to stop it. But the way he worded it—the way he sounded,so suddenly heated—made her look at him anyway.
She searched his face for something more.
And found precisely nothing. His expression was as bland as always—not to mention unfocused on her. He had fixed it on the other students, as they climbed the steps toward them. Like a retinue, greeting their king and queen. Some of them saying “well-done,” others smiling, a few as resentful as she had imagined.
But nothing serious.
She even turned back toward the ballroom. Safe suddenly, among the crowd, in a way she had never felt before. And now she could see Anaya, in the glowing light beyond. She had stood on a chair, so Mina could see her above all the heads of everyone trooping in, and she waved her arms in excitement.
Like she had seen and wanted to celebrate with her.
I wonder if I can take Anaya there with me, she thought, as she waved back frantically. Though she suspected Anaya had other plans, for the foreseeable future. As Mina watched, one of the boys she had seen holding serving platters swept her down, offthe chair, and into a kiss. And he was as handsome as she had imagined, when she had thought of her friend having someone. Eyes like stars, a jawline to die for, skin a soft brown under the glittery lights.
