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All at once, a bright red warmth pulses at my chest. The snake hisses, flinching from the glow, and then its heavy body thumps the floorboards as it drops. The horrible weight lifts from my chest. Then the rustling noise of its scales scraping wood grow fainter.
When I wake up, Mack sits at the end of my cot, one hand over her mouth. Tears clump in the dark brown eyelashes framing her blue eyes. I follow her gaze to the next cot over, where a crowd of students gather. One of them shifts enough that I can see what they’re looking at.
It’s the Spring Court shadow from last night. Her eyes are shut, the soft pink hush of dawn streaming through the windows and falling over her face.
She could be asleep, but deep in my heart I know she’s not. Not with her ashen skin, pebbly and coarse. The way her mouth contorts as if still gasping for breath. Lips rigid and stormy-blue. Beneath the white sheet, one bare arm hangs to the side, gray and hard as . . . stone.
It’s as if someone stole a statue from outside and placed it in the bed as a joke. But it’s not a joke.
My pulse jumps erratically in my wrist as I quickly dress. My dream felt so real. What if it wasn’t a dream after all?
Professor Balefire, the Mythological Creatures professor, arrives with some fourth years. He orders us to leave so he can begin the search for the basilisk. Under his breath, I hear him muttering over and over.
“Don’t know how he got out,” he says, tugging at one of his tufted ears. “The cage was locked. I checked myself. Don’t know how . . .”
Snickering draws my attention to Reina and her friends. They’re laughing and taking photos with their cell phones, for Shimmer’s sake. When Reina notices my glare, she turns the camera on me.
“Aren’t you sad, Summer?” she asks sweetly. “You are literally so hideous that you turned an innocent girl to stone.”
Mack grabs me before I can react. “Not worth it,” she whispers.
Furious, I storm from the gym. For the first time ever, I’m looking forward to my Sunday training with Eclipsa.
Evelyn and Mack try to cheer me up, but all I can think about is the poor girl who died. Rumors are swirling about what happened. Theories range from a spurned Fae lover spelling the basilisk to the Mythological Creatures instructor, Professor Balefire, being to blame. After my training with Eclipsa, the headmistress called me in for a statement.
She was not happy, and I had to give two statements: one to Mr. Willis, and one to a representative from the Council for the Mistreatment of Humans.
Mack gets up from the lower bunk and rifles in her closet. “Enough of this pity party. We’re taking you out.”
“Where?” Normally I would argue, but I need something to wash this horrible weekend from my memory permanently.
I duck just in time to miss the black blouse she tosses at my head. “Get dressed and brush your teeth. I have a surprise.”
The top is meant for her curvier chest and is a little big, but I knot it at the bottom and it looks cute. My jeans are the same frumpy ones I arrived with. Only now, thanks to a steady diet of food and some new muscles, I actually fill them out.
My new coat goes on last. I’ve learned to assume that wherever we go, it’ll be freezing.
I glance in the mirror right before we leave. My hair is the same train-wreck as always, but it’s kinda sexy knotted high on my head. And I notice my face is glowing, my sunken cheekbones filled out and eyes bright.
Fresh food and exercise for the win.
The surprise ends up being a secret portal in the basement that takes us to another city. Apparently when Mack’s parents were here, they discovered the portal, and only a handful of people know about its existence.
Also, apparently Mack doesn’t play around when it comes to surprises. rsquo;m not invisible.
My heart spikes into my throat as the prince holds my stare. A surge of electricity zips up my spine.
Then he winks, his stupid, infernal lips mouthing, thank you.
What the everliving—
I don’t even see the prince gesture, but an explosive boom shudders the forest. Ice and snow burst off the branches. Ruby wakes with a screech as an avalanche of snow and wind scour the trees, nearly knocking me from my perch.
Dark, ominous clouds blacken the sky and blot out the moon, veiling the meadow in layers of shadows.
His power—he didn’t use it up. It’s everywhere. Vibrating from the trees; swelling the air; roiling in the dark clouds above. A maelstrom of magic and death.
Tightening my hold, I turn my attention back to the meadow to see Rhaegar caught inside a tornado of ice and snow. The churning force lifts him into the sky, higher, higher . . . and then slams him down with a bone-cracking thud.
