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I check my phone, scrolling down to my last message with Valerian. I sent him a picture of me holding up a falafel plate that I had Ruby fly over. I’ve been ordering new foods for him to try, and, so far, he hasn’t loved a single one.
His reply: Delicious. I can’t wait to devour it.
Me: Really? So I’ve finally won?
Him: Oh, did you think I was talking about the food?
Me: You’re the worst.
Ruby took him the food hours ago, and I haven’t heard anything since. Not that I’m surprised. Samhain is the one night a year the Evermore’s primal instincts turn them half-wild, unable to control their animalistic impulses.
And Ruby probably ate most of it before she arrived anyway.
Mack elbows me, nearly waking the sprite, who’s nestled in the front pouch of the onesie Mack insisted I wear. I’m pretending there aren’t cats riding burritos on the front. “Stop checking your phone every five minutes.”
I tuck my phone into my pocket. “Says the girl who just sent lizard breath ten dragon gifs in a row.”
“That was funny,” she insists. “And there are so many dragon gifs to choose from.”
I glance over at my bestie. She’s taken this whole slumber party thing just a bit too far. Her pink-streaked chocolate hair is pulled into pigtails, and she wears a unicorn onesie with a horned hood.
“I’m sorry, what?” I tease. “I can’t hear you over the unicorns farting rainbows on your outfit.”
“Hey, can I sit with you guys?”
We both look up to see Kyler standing by our row of chairs. She wears a fuzzy green robe over a nightgown, and she’s clutching a bag of burnt popcorn.
Mack goes full-fledged protective mode before I can say a word. “Um, do you plan on planting orc bait on us?”
Kyler flinches, her eyes staring down at her cow slippers. “I didn’t have a choice. My Keeper said if I didn’t—”
“Shh,” Reina hisses from two rows ahead. “Shut up or I’ll make you, first year.”
Immediate, blinding rage pours through me, and I shoot Reina a murderous look until she reluctantly turns around.
I was hurt when I figured out it was Kyler who planted the orc bait on me, but after a few days I had calmed down enough to realize she didn’t have a choice. That day, Rhaegar had somehow forced her Keeper to trade her to him, no doubt for that very reason.
Kyler is an easy target. Soft spoken, way out of her depth here, and kind. No way can she stand up to cunning Evermore like Rhaegar and Hellebore.
But Mack hasn’t forgiven her, and she tells Kyler exactly where to stick it.
My heart clenches as I watch Kyler try to find a place to sit on the crowded rooftop before slinking back down the stairs.
Mack takes a look at my crestfallen expression and shakes her head. “No. You will not feel sorry for her. I don’t care what Rhaegar threatened her with, she still had a choice.”
I nod, trying to focus on the movie, but all I can see is her crestfallen expression. The desperation in her face.
Without friends, no one survives this academy. And I won’t be responsible for hurting someone, even if they hurt me first.
“I know that look, Summer,” Mack groans. “Kyler isn’t a wounded puppy, she’s a grown-ass adult who chose to almost get you killed.”
“I know,” I whisper as two Fall Court shadows shush us. “I’ll be back. Hold our seats?”
Pouting, Mack pulls her unicorn hood down low over her narrowed eyes and slumps into the metal chair. “Fine. But I’m not sharing my Sour Patch Kids with her.”
As I wave goodbye, I smartly decide that now isn’t the time to inform Mack that Ruby already demolished her candy.
Once I’m down the stairs and inside the academy, I realize I have no idea where Kyler would have gone. Back to her assigned cot, maybe? Most first years are located in the basement, near the anatomy labs.
