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I’m not sure if I’m awake or dreaming. I know I’m in bed because I can feel cold, starched sheets lightly fitted over my legs and waist. But it’s like I’m underwater, in a pocket of space between sleep and reality.
I can’t open my eyes, can’t speak or move.
The first voice I hear is Eclipsa’s. “Are you sure you didn’t heal her? Because a healing of that nature . . .”
“I think I would know if I did,” the male voice answers.
Oh, I know that voice. The confident, sultry tone practically runs through my head on repeat. The prince.
“You have to be careful,” Eclipsa warns. “If it takes hold—”
“It won’t. Believe me. She hates me.”
Who hates him? What are they talking about?
They continue speaking but it’s far away now, muffled voices from the end of a long tunnel. And then I plunge into a warm, velvety darkness.
“Why do I have to stay here even though I’m healed?” I ask, sitting up in bed. The healing center is on the main campus, a good-sized three-story white brick building with large windows and flowers in every room.
My nurse, a blue Fae girl with a huge nose and black eyes, glances at the clock and sighs. “Twenty more minutes and you’re released. Some humans have reactions to the healing magic.”
Right. I remember reading about that in class. Humans who have adverse reactions usually do so within twelve hours. Which means I’ve been stuck in this room for the entire morning.
“Pfft, she’s fine,” Ruby yells from where she sits on my headboard. “Look at her.”
The nurse shoots Ruby a dark look before handing me two herbal drinks to help with any residual pain; one reeks of swampy mud and is lumpy and gray, the other has a verbena and lavender scent.
Ick.
Ruby flits over and snatches the verbena tumbler. “You gonna drink this, kid?”
“All yours.” I throw the covers off, antsy to find a way back to the library and grab that book. Hopefully it’s still a crime scene, or whatever, and I can somehow slip by and find it.
Mack and Evelyn sit in the faded blue loveseat in the corner, pretending to read human magazines. They burst in here a few minutes ago when nurse killjoy decided I could have visitors.
The moment the nurse finishes with me and leaves the room, they rush to my side.
“We heard what happened,” Mack squeals. “A Cave Orc? Really, Summer?”
“Yeah, the whole school is talking about how it almost ate you,” Evelyn adds.
Mack grins. “Did it stink? Cave Orcs are supposed to smell the worst.”
Evelyn’s face drains of color. “Oh . . . God. I think I’m going to be sick.”
Mack rolls her eyes and jerks her shoulder at Evelyn. “Someone had way too much Faerie wine last night.”
“Nope, not gonna puke. It passed.” She flashes a bright smile, as if not puking is an achievement. “And I can’t help if Rhaegar kept handing me drinks. He asked where you were, Summer, by the way.”
Rhaegar? He seems like the last person who’d be plying a first year with alcohol.
“That’s why we didn’t show up until now,” Mack adds, frowning at her feet. “If I had known what happened . . . well, anyway. Thank the Fae the school’s shadow guardians heard the noise and came.”
I cringe at the lie. The prince left almost as soon as he brought me here. But not before making me promise to stick to that story. I wouldn’t be surprised if he glamoured all the Fae witnesses to forget, too.
Can’t have his bad boy image tarnished. Not that I mistake him saving me as kindness—he obviously doesn’t want me to die before he gets to torment me as his shadow.
“Yes,” a female voice says. Headmistress Lepidonis strides through the room, her moth wings tucked low into her back. “Thank the Fae.”
