AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I imagine that wouldn’t be great for her career.
She regains some of her color as she realizes that everyone survived. Then she settles her focus on me. Her eyes narrow, her wings curling tight to her back.
She hesitates before saying, “Thank you, for saving the Winter Prince.”
Ruby scoffs. “That’s all Summer gets? A lame thank you? If Summer hadn’t come back to warn you, that attack would have been a bloodbath. Fae and human body parts everywhere.” Ruby flits over to stare the headmistress in the face. “She didn’t have to come back here. Hell, with the way this school has treated her, she should have let everything burn.”
Eclipsa raises an eyebrow in offense, but doesn’t say a word.
Lepidonis settles her firm gaze on me once more. “We owe Miss Solstice a great debt. What would you like in return?”
I don’t even hesitate. “I want to come back next year.”
Her eyes widen in surprise, and it takes a few moments before she answers. “As you wish. You are now enrolled for year two at Evermore Academy. At your own peril, might I add.”
Mack and the others cheer along with half the school. The Seelie side, at least. But Inara and her friends don’t even bother to hide their boos.
And Valerian . . . Valerian has donned his icy mask once again, his reaction totally unreadable.
Valerian stays true to his word. After all of us are assessed at the healing center to ensure we weren’t bitten or otherwise injured, he leads me silently down to the vaults. Eclipsa follows at a distance. Probably because of the wary, hurt way I still look at Valerian. Even though the prince who humiliated me in front of the entire school wasn’t actually him, he still hurt me.
Deeply.
“What are we doing here?” I ask. We’re in the hall of antiquities where the beautiful gowns float around the room like specters.
“You’ll understand soon.” He stands there for a heartbeat, almost as if unsure where to start. Then his focus moves upward and catches on something.
I do the same. When I see what he’s staring at, the Summer Princess suspended midair, a puzzled frown finds my face. “Did you . . . know her?”
His eyebrows gather as something dark shifts inside his eyes. “I loved her.”
Oh—oh. I stare at the Summer Princess with renewed interest, a pang of jealousy worming into my heart.
“But you and Princess Hyacinth fought each other in the Nocturus.” I remember now the story of how the princess bested him with the whip and then spared his life.
A wry smile quirks his lips. “Yes. I knew I loved her way before she ever felt the same about me.” He drags his eyes away from the floating Fae girl and settles his gaze on me. “Did you really think a whip with snowdrops would best me?”
“So the story about your father having you whipped isn’t true?”
“Oh, it’s true. But I let her win.”
“Why?” “Because I had to know if she loved me back.”
“She could have killed you,” I snap, trying and failing not to sound petty as another round of jealousy burns across my cheeks.
“Yes, but once you love someone the way I did her—let’s just say, if she didn’t return my love, I would have preferred death.”
“But she did. Love you, I mean.”
“Yes. We were soul bound.”
I blink, wrestling with my emotions. Part of me hates her.
No, all of me hates her.
“When her father found out we were mates, he locked her up. You see, they had been hiding her rare magic from the world. It was stronger than even my own. With us soulbound, my own magic would have been limitless. But her father couldn’t stand the thought of all that power going to the Winter Court. He was afraid my grandfather, Oberon, would use it to finally destroy the Seelie Courts.”
I take a breath. Why does this sound so familiar?
