AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hellebore doesn’t turn around. Doesn’t even take his eyes off me as he says, “I never pegged you for a human lover, E.”
Eclipsa picks her fingers with the dagger. Her casual demeanor so at odds with the tension drowning the air. “I don’t love them. She’s my prince’s property, and I’m sworn to protect what’s his. Other than that, I could care less what you do with her.”
Property? His? After everything, her words hit me harder than if she’d slapped me in the face. I stare at her as a wound opens inside me. I thought we were friends. I thought . . .
Hellebore takes in my wounded expression and laughs. “Oh, did you assume she actually cared about you? That you were anything more than her master’s prize, to be locked away and protected?”
Eclipsa smiles. “Hellebore, if you aren’t gone in say, five seconds—to match the number of inches of your favorite body part—I’m going to cut out that quivering organ you call a heart and ram it down your throat.”
“That does sound lovely, E, but I’m afraid just like the last countless times, I must rebuff your affections.” He winks at me, and if there was ever a way to make a wink say, Enjoy your upcoming murder, he just nailed it. “Now, I’m off to visit a certain female whom I know will be overjoyed to see me.”
The moment he’s gone, I sag against the wall as blood floods back into my legs. Nerium makes an obscene gesture at Ruby before zipping after his master.
Eclipsa glides down the stairs. “Summer—”
“Don’t.” I shake my head as fresh tears slick my cheeks.
“What I said, it’s all a game.”
“Not to me.” I rub the back of my hand over my eyes. “But Hellebore was right. I’m a fool for thinking the Winter Prince could love me, and I’m an even bigger fool for thinking you and I were friends. It won’t happen again.”
“Summer, wait!”
But I’m already running toward the dorms, Ruby in tow. My room is empty. After texting Mack to make sure she’s safe, I curl up on my bed—still in Hellebore’s dress—wrap myself in my sheets, and cry.
39
I wake up to Mack’s protests from above, and what sounds like . . . meowing?
“Make it stop, please,” Mack groans from above. “The sun isn’t even awake yet.”
Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I slide from bed, change out of my rumpled dress and into leggings and a T-shirt, and throw open the door to . . .
“Chatty Cat?” I squeak.
Chatty Cat sits there in all his mangy glory, yowling his head off. I reach for him but he hisses and scampers into the room, still mewling and doing his best to wake up the entire world.
Another groan comes from the upper bunk. “You made it worse.”
I drop to my knees beside the cat, who is sitting on his hindquarters, singing the song of his people. “Chatty, what are you doing here?”
Chatty hisses, his ears drawn back in annoyance. I can’t help but feel he’s growing impatient. What am I missing?
“Just take him back to your sister,” Mack pleads beneath the pillow over her head. “She was supposed to keep him in a crate.”
“Jane?”
At her name, Chatty Cat makes a bloodcurdling scream. His lime-green eyes pleading with me to . . .
“Oh my God, Jane!” Cold dread washes over me. “Is she in trouble?”
I swear, Chatty Cat nods before fleeing under my bed.
Just like that, Hellebore’s parting words replay in my mind. I’m off to visit a certain female whom I know will be overjoyed to see me.
Mack sits up, rubbing her head. “What? Why are you screeching?”
I don’t even bother putting on shoes before I rush out the door. Zinnia and Vi are already in the hallway. They’re both still in their long nightgowns.
