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You’re an asshole.
But you adore this asshole. A pause. Those annoying three dots flash and then . . . Still coming tonight?
I almost respond with something jerkish about checking my schedule before reining in my inner shrew. Even in text, I can feel the vulnerability behind those three words.
Every year before the Yule holiday, Valerian, Eclipsa, and Asher attend a fancy private dinner at a resort lodge owned by Valerian’s family. It’s tradition, one that Eclipsa informed me his mother started. Given the meticulous way the other folders are named, that seems odd. Curiosity piqued, I yank the folder from the drawer and quickly spread it across the dusty, faded emerald rug. Evelyn’s picture is the first one on the top, affixed to her file by a paperclip.
I don’t even check the rest. I don’t have time. With the blank file’s contents spread out on the floor, I snap pictures of each one as fast as humanly possible. First the photo and then the actual paperwork.
There are so, so many. Enough that I start to worry this is a dead end because no way could this many students become pregnant without mortals noticing and raising the alarm. Right?
I’m just finishing with the last file of a beaming girl with bright, hopeful eyes—eyes so sure this academy will change her life and fulfill her dreams—when I hear Ruby belt out Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy.
A scream follows.
Oh, boy. That man has some major issues. Cramming the papers and photos back into the file, I manage to get it back into the drawer and dart to my chair before the interviewer practically falls into the office to get away from Ruby.
The man spins around, his face so red I’m worried he’s having a heart attack. I watch in disappointment as all the coffee he brought me flies out of the cup and onto the floor.
He points a shaking finger at me. “You—this . . . you!”
I get to my feet, ignoring Ruby in the open door frame, who’s alternating between giving me the thumbs up and high-fiving herself. “Are you okay?”
“Get out,” he pants. “This interview is over.”
Relieved and a little high on getting away with such a risky and impulsive act, I dart out the door, taking the stairs two at a time. Ruby settles happily on my shoulder. She laughs, the tinkling sound like music to my heart.
“Don’t ever say I don’t need you, Ruby.”
“But you—”
“No.” I halt on the stairs and look her in the eyes. “You’re my friend. My family. You’re not perfect, but neither am I, and the only way we’ll survive this academy is together. Do you understand?”
“Family?” She hugs my neck. “You’re my human, Kid. The filling to my Oreo. The frosting to my red velvet cake. The cream to my Twinkie.”
“Ruby, when did you last eat any real food?”
“Before my hunger strike to highlight the injustice of this world.”
Yikes. I veer down the closest hall. “We’re going to the comm to get you a whole bag of chips.”
“Cheetos?”
“Sun Chips. Remember the Cheetos have that red dye we talked about? The kind that makes you hump things and basically lose your mind?”
“Oh, yeah.” She throws a look in the direction of the office. “That man really hates the human Fall Out Boy Court. If I had realized he was from an opposing human court, I would have sang something else.”
I grin at Ruby’s confusion over bands and courts. And I grin all the way to the comm. Even if the photos I snapped turn out to be a waste of time, they did something even better than uncover Evelyn’s master.
They brought back my friend.
And something that precious is worth a thousand expulsions.
32
The Larkspur and Associates law firm takes up the top four floors of the infamous Magnolia skyscraper, the only office building in the city that caters strictly to Fae businesses. The giant steel and glass high-rise on Madison Ave dominates the Upper East Side, with floor-to-ceiling windows to ensure everyone knows they have the best view of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir in Central Park. When the surprise field trip was announced today in our Faerie Law and Practices class, I expected to be wowed and probably intimidated by the building my mother owns.
But this place takes wow, changes it to screamy all caps, adds a million exclamation marks, and puts it into gif form with fireworks shooting out of the letters.
