I nod slowly as if I’m finding her explanation hard to accept. “So you were stalking your friends around the school, and you happened to see me getting it on with someone right here at Luminary where anyone could have noticed?”
The blush darkens with a flash of anger in Cadance’s eyes. “I know what I saw. You were trying to deflect anyone who came by with concealing magic, but I sensed the ephemera and pierced through it.”
Just as I suspected. With her acidic tone ringing in my ears, I don’t feel the slightest guilt about making her look like an idiot, even though she’s right.
“Oh. So you didn’t see me at first, you sensed a bunch of magic. And then you assumed that when you pushed aside some of that magic, the rest of what you saw was real.” I summon all the derision I can into my tone. “It didn’t occur to you that maybe what you saw next was magic too—an illusion someone conjured up to mess with my reputation?”
Cadance sputters for a second before she manages to speak. “Why would anyone bother to do that?”
I stare her down through a few thuds of my heart, drawing out my answer. “I don’t know. Why would one of my best friends jump at the chance to use what she thought she saw against me? You’d probably understand their reasoning better than I do.”
“I saw you,” Cadance insists. “Idid.” But the furor in her voice has faltered slightly.
And all around us across the green, our schoolmates have paused to listen in on the conversation. I’ve purposefullypitched my voice loud enough that many of them will have heard my alternate explanation.
Let this new gossip spread like hers did last week.
It seems worth ending the conversation with a dramatic flourish.
I push my lips into a sharp smile. “Say whatever you want. We’re not friends anymore. The last thing I need is some vamp hanging around trying to suck the life out of me.”
Without waiting for a response, I spin on my heel and walk away.
“Bitch,” Cadance shouts, but if that’s the best insult she can come up with, I think my ego will remain intact.
I keep my head high until I’ve walked through the doorway to Thesan Hall. Out of sight of all those eyes on the green, my breath sags out of me. I have to stop in the entry hall to gather myself.
It’s done. I’ve sown doubt and made Cadance look bad enough that the rumors about me and Salvatore should dwindle out quickly.
One set of firm footsteps veers toward me amid the current of students. Madison comes to a stop nearby, her petite frame tensed as if she’s preparing for a sparring match.
“She’s the one being a bitch,” she says without preamble. “I always thought the story sounded shaky anyway.”
I’m not sure Madison’s friendship is worth much more than Cadance’s… but if she’s taking my side, it must be at least a little.
I glance toward the main doors. “Mia didn’t agree?” Between the two of them, I always assumed the perkier, sweeter twin would be the one most likely to ditch the mean girl chatter.
Madison shrugs with the air of Border Terrier sturdiness I appreciate more now than I did when I first pictured all Other Elodie’s friends as canines. “She doesn’t like pickingsides. And she’s seen what it’s like when Cadance has it out for someone. She’s probably hoping this will all blow over and we’ll be back to normal tomorrow.”
I grimace. “That’s not going to happen. I meant what I said to Cadance.”
A different voice pipes up from right behind me. “Good.”
At the twitch of my head, Stella moves into view. She eyes me with the new wariness that’s become familiar, but her stance looks more relaxed than it has in weeks.
“You could have stooped to her level,” she says. “Radiants know there are enough things we’ve seen and heard about Cadance she wouldn’t like having spread around. But you didn’t go there.”
I offer a shrug of my own. “I figured I wouldn’t have much right to complain about her tactics if I was going to use the same ones.”
The first genuine-looking smile I’ve gotten from Stella since I insulted her crosses her face. “That makes sense. I’m glad you see it that way.” She hesitates. “And maybe, with the way we’ve all gotten caught up in that kind of talk before… Maybe it wasn’t obvious to you that I see it like that too. Not that I appreciate the assumptions you made?—”
I hold up my hands in surrender. “I apologized, and I’ll apologize again. I was shooting my mouth off, and it wasn’t fair. It won’t happen again.”
“Fair,” she says, and I find myself wondering if we really could be friends, even if she knew all there is to know about me.
Before I can follow that train of thought, all of our phones chime simultaneously with incoming messages. We pull them out and read the text together.
Members of the supplementary combat program should report to the senior gymnasium immediately for a short briefing.
