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Eclipsa rolls her eyes. “She didn’t say we had to return her.”
“No, but at some point she’ll need answers as to why. Any progress on that end?”
Stabbing a square of cheese with a disconcertingly big steak knife, Eclipsa shakes her head. “Still working on it. They tested the basilisk for residual persuasion magic, but so far nothing. And they’ve released the girl’s friend who they suspected. She had an alibi.” She gives a shrug meant to make her seem less worried than she is. “Speaking of friends, Summer, one of yours came by today. A Mackenzie Fairchild?” alk back to my dorm seems like miles instead of a few hundred feet.
Inside, I silently pack my bag (singular). Totally dejected.
Everything I own—a few borrowed clothes and toiletries—fits easily in the black Nike duffel Mack gave me. Ruby rouses from where she passed out on the safe, flies drunkenly toward me, and opens her mouth to no doubt yell something obnoxious.
But when she spots Eclipsa, posted stoically against the door frame, Ruby’s lips slam shut and her eyes go wide.
“Why is there a Winter Court assassin in our room?” Ruby whisper-yells next to my ear. The pungent scent of brambleberry wine nearly bowls me over.
“She can hear you,” I whisper-yell back.
Tears sting my throat. Mack isn’t here, and when I passed Evelyn’s open door on the way here it showed her room empty too.
I won’t even get to say goodbye to my two friends, the entirety of the people in this academy who will actually care that I’m gone.
Now that I’m faced with the reality of leaving, I understand a quiet truth: I want to stay here.
Sure, it’s dangerous, and we’re treated like dirt. But I like my friends. I like the academics. I even like being a shadow and the purpose it provides me. And the idea of becoming a weapon, of taking back the power I’ve never had . . . intoxicating.
Only all of that is gone now.
We traipse across the snow. As a whisper of warmth settles over my cheeks, I crane my head up to see the ghost of a sun. I mean, it’s buried behind a curtain of dirty gray winter clouds, but it’s there. Its fiery outline visible.
Just my luck, the day I get kicked out is the day the sun returns.
My chest clenches as I follow Eclipsa through the snow to a stone manor hidden behind the lake. When we get to the massive arched double doors and I see the prince’s crest, an owl over two daggers, I halt, shifting the duffel higher on my shoulder.
Leaning sleepily against the door, holding a steaming cup of tea, is the Winter Prince. His tunic hangs wide open, giving me full privy to his god-like abs. Each ridge is so well defined I contemplate running my fingers over them. Black leather pants end in bare feet, the toenails just as neat and manicured as his fingernails.
Bare feet—in the freezing cold. Must be nice.
Ruby is buried in a hot-pink infinity scarf Mack gave me, and she lifts her head. “Dayuum, kid. I could do laundry on those abs.”
I blink, unable to tear my gaze from his perfect form. Tats adorn his chest, all Unseelie symbols, from the look of them—
Holy hell.
His expression is a mixture of annoyance and concern as he eyes Eclipsa then me. “You said it was an emergency, Eclipsa. Care to explain?”
I raise my hand. “I’d like an explanation too. Am I not getting kicked out?”
Ruby leans forward on my shoulder, her little face agleam with mischief. If she had popcorn she’d be eating it about now.
Crossing her arms, Eclipsa turns to me. “Kicked out? You’re not getting expelled, Summer. How could you even think that?”
I shift on my feet, the porch’s warped wooden boards groaning softly. “Sorry, I have a bad habit of expecting the worst.”
That’s what happens when your parents are murdered . . . but I don’t add that last part.
“Well this isn’t the worst-case scenario. In fact, I think you’ll like this new arrangement.”
“What arrangement?”
“I’m relocating you.”
