Page 92 of Resurgent

“Not nearly enough, considering you two just wrecked my makeup,” Sasha shoots back with mock irritation. She laces her fingers through mine and starts skipping—forcing us to join her or stumble the rest of the way back to her room. “Why do you ask?”

“Because she’s apparently gone deaf…or maybe she has amnesia?” I tease. “Either way, she missed me just telling Theo tonight isn’t a date.”

“Uhm, I’m right here, and I can hear you!” Emily protests, grinning as she sticks her tongue out at me.

“Well,” Sasha cuts in, already in full performance mode, “now that you’ve both ruined my makeup masterpiece, your own hair, and we’re running out of time—” she pauses for dramatic effect. “It’s time to pull out some old spells!”

I consider pointing out that we still have enough time to get ready without magic, but quickly think better of it when I see the mischievous glint in her eyes and the ‘Don’t argue with me or else,’ already waiting on her pursed lips.

Sasha kicks her door shut behind us and immediately goes into full whirlwind mode, darting from her desk to her dresser like she’s on a mission.

“Sit,” she demands, knife-hand directing us to the bottom of her bed as she pulls a stack of books from her desk drawer and drops them with a loud thud onto her desk.

“What do you two have in mind for your hair and makeup? Actually, you know what? Don’t answer that. Since neither of you is any good at spellcasting…and you both owe me…I’ll be the one deciding all of our looks tonight.”

Emily and I exchange a look but stay quiet—for once.

Sasha, obviously satisfied by our compliance, practically bounces as she flips through page after page of neat, looping script and strange symbols shimmering when the light hits them just right. For a minute, I’m worried she isn’t going to find what she’s looking for—some spells barely spared a glance, while others have her scrunching her nose and chewing on her bottom lip in contemplation.

Maybe the styles in her book are outdated—is that even a thing with magic?

“Here!” she says, voice so high-pitched I’m imagining the dragons on guard are wishing they were deaf.

“If Scion didn’t have warning sirens already, that noise alone would be enough to alert the city and scare away any would-be attackers all in one go,” Tyr groans, and it takes all of my effort not to laugh out loud.

“Lee, we’re going with something elevated,” she murmurs. “Refined. Radiating confidence.”

“Okay…but what does that mean, exactly?”

“It means…that you are going to love it! Now, shut your noise nozzle off and sit still.”

“Noise nozzle?” Emily chuckles, but Sasha’s too focused on me to pay her any attention.

Lifting her hand in the air, fingers poised like she’s about to conduct an invisible orchestra, she gives one last quick look over the spell before she flicks my temple and begins reciting an incantation.

At first, nothing seems to change, but then a faint warmth brushes over my scalp, like standing under a skylight for just a little too long. Then the sensation deepens, threads of heat and cool weaving between strands of my hair—lifting, pulling—magical fingers moving with impossible precision.

I reach up instinctively, but Sasha’s already slapping my hand away. “No touching. Trust the process.”

Not willing to risk her wrath, I do as I’m told, hands folding in my lap just to force them from reaching up to feel for hints of what’s happening.

Just when I think we’re done, Sasha mutters something else under her breath, and I feel a gentle breeze brush across my cheeks, before my lashes suddenly have a slight weight to them that definitely wasn’t there before.

Emily leans forward, eyes wide as she takes in my new hairstyle from every angle. “Okay… that’s actually kind of impressive.”

“Kind of?” Sasha mutters, but there’s a flicker of a smile tugging at her lips.

“Yeah, yeah. You’re a rockstar and the greatest spellcaster to ever grace Scion, blah blah blah…Now do me!”

We all laugh, and as Sasha begins telling Emily about the edgy look she’s thinking will go best with Em’s dress, I carefully walk toward her bathroom to check out her creation.

Tears fill my eyes as I take in the woman staring back at me, and a moment of déjà vu passes as I remember when I first got to Scion eight months ago. But the woman staring back at me isn’t that same girl.

That girl had thought she had known rock bottom, but she was so full of hope. Hope for this new chapter. Hope that Scion would give her all of the opportunities she had missed out on. Hope that the world would be gentler than the hell she had escaped.

But the woman staring back at me now knows better. She knows that pretty words are often spoken half-heartedly, that sometimes people do terrible things for reasons she may never know. But more importantly, she knows this: no matter how impossible these past months have been, she will never be defeated, never be diminished.

I will not break.