Page 101 of Alchemy of Souls

“Bloody hell, I’m right?” she whisper-yells at me. “Eloise Elizabeth Belrose, do you know how dangerous trying to call that thing is? The people who might try to—” Her eyes widen. “Feck, the prince is in on this, isn’t he?” She looks around. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to—”

“No,” I say quickly, grabbing her arm. “He’s the only one I’mnotscared of right now. And I am scared, Maggie. I’m terrified I—”

Which is when Adrien appears. “Headed to dinner, ladies?”

“I don’t want to talk,” I say quickly, wiping at my face and turning away from him. I pull Maggie toward the dining room, wanting to get away.

“About the party Friday night,” Adrien says, keeping pace with us and not taking the hint. “I found this on my balcony railing. You must have forgotten it.” He pulls out the flower ring and offers it to me.

I have way bigger problems than Adrien right now, but this hits me in exactly the wrong way—one more person who’s screwed with me for no reason. And I get big mad.

“That’s because I don’t want it,” I say bluntly, and push through the dining room doors.

Maggie raises an eyebrow.

Adrien exhales. “Listen, I wanted to apologize to you. I never meant to cause a scene and run you out of there.”

I stop by our table near the windows. “No, you meant to cause a scene and runGraysonout of there. With lies. You told people Grayson was reeling me in just to break my heart.”

Maggie whistles. “Ye didwhat?”

“I was looking out for you,” Adrien says.

“You made me think he washooking up with Naomiwhen hewasn’t,” I say, aghast. “With absolutely no regard for how I might feel about it.”

“Can ye not read the room and piss off, Frenchie?” Maggie says.

But Adrien doesn’t even look at her. “Which is why you were hyped up enough to call the Key?” he asks, and my heart nearly stops. “I mean, if the rumors are true.”

I see red, and my magic tingles in my fingertips.

But before I can open my mouth, Maggie grabs him by the shirt and gives him a shove. “Ye conniving little gobshite. You’re going to walk away and do it now before I blast you into yer next life.”

The jackass has the nerve to smile as he straightens his shirt. He looks me directly in the eyes as he backs away. “Come find me when you realize I’m right. I look forward to the apology.”

Maggie raises her hand to cast, but I pull it down. Because we’ve already caused one hell of a scene. Everyone is staring.

I’m about to ask her to go someplace less public, but before I can even open my mouth I’m cut off by a loud thud on the glass behind us.

Maggie and I turn around in a flash, and there, embedded in the glass, not two feet from where we are about to sit, is a dagger. For a split second, I can’t make sense of it or the splintering lines in the glass from the impact. Then all at once, ten more daggers hit the surrounding windows, turning the translucent glass wall into a milky spiderweb.

We jump back just as Naomi yells, “Watch out!” She flings a spell from the other side of the room and everyone ducks. Her spell hits the glass with a thick layer of ice.

For a second it seems to hold, but the magic is unstable, or maybe it was the wrong counter spell. Because all of a sudden,there is a series of loud popping noises and the entire window, along with her ice, explodes—throwing vicious shards directly at us.

Students jump backward into tables, knocking over pitchers and toppling chairs. Maggie throws up a shield to protect us and there’s a sickening crunch as glass and ice bounces off it. But as I look around, I realize not everyone got their spells woven fast enough. Because three chairs away a guy stares at a sharp piece of glass piercing his chest that goes straight through to his back.

Utter chaos erupts.

“Lawless!” a girl screams, and I peer into the distance, spotting a handful of figures dressed all in copper on the wall surrounding the University.

Next to me Maggie stumbles and as I turn, I scream.

Because she didn’t make her shield wide enough. Maggie protected me, but—she didn’t shield herself. Horror washes over me as she grips the table behind us. We both stare at the shard of glass that pierces her shoulder under her collarbone.

“No, no, no,” I plead. Not Maggie. Not my Maggie. I step toward her.

She looks at me with wide eyes, her face turning ghostly pale and her balance faltering.