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But now . . . I think it’s best Jane doesn’t see me. Not for the next few hours.
After they’re gone, I begin packing my things. Mack apparently left to check the courtyard for Jane, just in case she’d snuck back to the party, and she hasn’t returned. I finish packing in less than an hour—it’s easy to gather your belongings when they literally fit in a small carry-on—and then decide to shower. On the way back from the communal bathrooms, I pass by Kyler’s room.
The door is unlocked. Someone’s already cleaned out Kyler’s stuff. The bed is made. The bathroom’s tidy. It’s like she and Evelyn never existed. Dropping to my knees, I check beneath the bathroom sink, surprised by the pink crate labeled, “Old Roommate’s Stuff.”
Kyler must have gathered it up and kept it, perhaps to give to Evelyn’s parents. After deliberating on giving it to the school, I take the crate back to my room. I’ll take it home and find a way to mail it to them.
By the time Mack returns, my rolling suitcase and Puma gym back sit by the door, packed and ready. My hair is nearly dried, pulled back into a clip. I want to crumple into a ball and sleep away the last twelve hours, but this is the last time I’ll see Mack for months, so I hop up to make us one final cup of coffee instead.
Behind me, Mack is unusually silent, but I chalk it up to her hangover. “Rough night?” I tease as I turn, coffee mugs in hand.
When I see the tears in her eyes, I freeze mid-step, steamy coffee spilling onto my fingers and dripping onto the faded green rug. “Mack?” I rush to set down the cups on the coffee table and settle beside her on the loveseat. “What happened? Who do I need to murder?”
Her eyes are rimmed red, like she’s been crying for a while. “I got my final grade back.” She drags the back of her hand over her nose. “I failed.”
“What?” I blurt, positive I’ve misheard her. “How is that possible?”
“Remember the first Potions and Poisons test? When you were afflicted by the tormentor spell and got to redo the exam?”
I nod, a ball of dread forming in my belly.
“I was so worried about you that I left midway through the test. After that grade, I was struggling to catch up, and then everything kept happening to you and I couldn’t concentrate. I was trying to prove I deserved to be here, so I refused the tutors my parents offered. I thought the final would make up for everything, but—” Tears pour freely down her swollen cheeks. “ My dads are going to kill me.”
I grab her hands. “Isn’t there something we can do? Appeal? Extra credit.”
She tugs her hands away, her eyes puffy as they meet mine. “The only way to pass now is to win the final gauntlet.”
My eyebrows jerk up in surprise. “No. You can’t, Mack.”
“I already entered. That’s where I was just now.”
There’s a cold finality in her words. Crap. I replay my bargain with Hellebore in my mind. “Mack, please. I’m begging you to rescind your name. We’ll find a way. I’ll talk to the Winter Prince. Maybe he can do something.”
“I know you guys broke up, Summer. The whole school does.” Swiping at her eyes, she stands. “It doesn’t matter. If you can’t be happy that I have one final chance to stay at the academy—”
“You know it’s not that. You’re my best friend. If anything happens to you, I would die.”
“I supported you when you decided to hook up with the Winter Prince, even though I knew he would break your heart. I supported you when you entered the gauntlet on some crazy mission that’s probably going to get you killed. Now, all I’m asking is that you do the same for me.” She shakes her head. “Never mind. I have to go. My dads are waiting for me, and I haven’t told them yet, so . . .”
As soon as the door shuts behind her, my face crumples, tears streaming freely.
How did everything spiral so out of control so fast? In less than a day, I’ve lost nearly everyone I ever cared about.
Only Ruby is left, and even she should despise me for offering her up to a sociopath—even if she would have thoroughly enjoyed it, the sicko.
The ache in my chest grows as I open my nightstand drawer. She’s made a nest of stolen underwear and socks inside. I kiss my fingertip and press it to her sleeping form. Her little shimmery wings stir, but she doesn’t awaken.
“Stay out of trouble, sprite.”
But I’m starting to think with me gone, Ruby will be the safest she’s been since school started.
I ruined Valerian’s standing in court. Endangered Eclipsa just by association. Nearly let Jane be sold into a lifetime of slavery. And now Mack is flunking school, her childhood dream of graduating as a Shadow Guardian shredded, because of me.
Maybe love’s not the poison—maybe I am.
41
I stare at the crack in my ceiling above my bed. I haven’t left my room in days other than to use the restroom. The tantalizing smell of banana bread fills the air, a pang of hunger twinging my middle, reminding me I should eat. Should keep my strength up for the final gauntlet in two days.
