Page 57 of Bone Year

Poppy crawls up to my shoulder and presses her face against my cheek. I can feel her worry. Her anger. Her fierce little heart beating in time with mine.

“Good girl, Poppy,” I whisper.

I slide down the wall until I’m sitting on the floor, knees pulled to my chest. I need a weapon. A real one, something sharp that will make the next person who fucks with me think twice.

I run my hands down my face and force myself to breathe. After a few minutes, I get to my feet. Poppy stands beside me, studying me with her round, knowing eyes.

I don’t want Jace to see me upset. The last thing I need is him going after Malric and getting hurt or causing more trouble for me. Malric reeked of liquor. Maybe he won’t even remember this tomorrow if I’m lucky.

Poppy sits back on her haunches, her plump little belly and fluffy face tilted up at me.

“Okay, not a word,” I tell her.

I know she doesn’t speak and isn’t going to tell Jace anything, but maybe eidolons can communicate somehow. I have no idea how any of this works yet.

She rubs her face with her tiny hands, and I take that as a good sign.

I walk to my door, and Poppy waddles alongside me.

“Mae.”

Jace is in front of me as soon as I step inside. He’s changed into sweats and a loose shirt like he’s planning on sleeping over.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” He cups my cheek, searching my eyes.

I shake him off and move farther into the room. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m fine.”

I can practically feel his stare on my back, heavy with questions I don’t want to answer. I need to change the subject before he presses more.

“Where’s your bat? Is it a he or a she? What’s its name?” I ask, pulling the wardrobe open and grabbing some shorts and a button-up sleep top.

“His name is Flick, and he retreats when I don’t need him.” He crosses his arms. “He’s not a pet you bring out to play with.”

I scrunch my nose at him before pushing into the bathroom to change.

He sounds like a grouch. Poppy is adorable, and I’m going to let her do whatever she wants.

I come out of the bathroom in my comfy clothes and find Poppy in a pile of pillows on the floor next to the bed, munching on some crackers I had stashed from earlier. Her tiny hands hold the cracker as she shovels them into her mouth, and it’s ridiculously cute. Tiny crumbs keep falling down onto her belly, and she grabs them and eats them too.

“You don’t have to feed them, you know. They don’t need food to survive.” Jace watches her with one eyebrow raised.

“She clearly enjoys it.” I shrug. “I’ll let her eat the whole box.”

I plop down on the bed and sit cross-legged, grabbing a pillow to hold in my lap. Jace comes and sits across from me, kicking off his shoes. His wings settle behind him, tucked close but relaxed.

“Before anything else,” he says, reaching forward to tuck my hair behind my ear so he can see my face, “tell me what happened in the mirror.”

I pull the pillow tighter against my chest. I knew this was coming.

“It was dark,” I start, staring at the threads in the pillowcase. “Nothing existed except me and this…presence, this voice.”

“What did it say?”

“It asked me things about what I fear. About who I am. It said it recognized my blood and that my father had been to Ashwell.” I look up at him. “I didn’t know that. He never told me. It seems impossible, right?”

Jace’s brow furrows. “Your father went here? But he was human. I would have been able to tell if he wasn’t, unless he found some way to hide it. It does seem impossible.”

“I thought so.” I pick at the edge of the pillow. “But after the ceremony, Professor Nestor pulled me aside and said something that’s been stuck in my head ever since.”