“I’ll let you know if I learn anything.”
“I’ll let you know, too.” Her boots clumped on the bridge as she strode toward the steel entrance door.
“Hey,” I called out.
She paused but didn’t turn back. “What?”
“What did the Court Bespeller ask in exchange for your charm to hold back the nightlace?”
“Where did you hear I have a charm?” she snapped.
“Word leaks out fast.”
“I imagine it does.” Anger deepened her voice. “I don’t need to tell you anything further.”
I shrugged. “I guess you don’t.”
“Is that all?”
“Sure.” Not really. I did want to know what a Bespeller might charge for a spell that might mask another.
Why wouldn’t Alys face me? Maybe because anger wasn’t the only emotion in her voice. Pain. It leaked through, as well. A feeling I well understood but hadn’t associated much with her.
Her hands flexed at her sides. Wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of her punch. “We may need to work together on this but don’t expect it to go any further than that.”
Chapter 5
I expected Tria to appear the second Alys left, as if she had drawn the next number at the deli. If I knew my ferocious friend, she’d hover over me not only until they caught the Bespeller, but for thirty days after.
I stood, just in time to catch the naiad, Sirra, thrusting up out of the moat. Her scales glistened as ice-bejeweled water glided down her snakey body. Behind her, her tail rose and flicked, shooting murky droplets my way.
“How’s it going?” I asked as I cringed and wiped them off my face with my mitten. “The concealer still working well for you?”
After I sorta, accidentally, mostly-on-purpose stabbed her with my blade, she’d vowed revenge. We’d come to a truce after I purchased her a concealer from Katya. One twist of the pendant’s center stone, and her fingernails—talons, actually—shifted to a different polish color. Vain, Sirra enjoyed making her naiad siblings jealous with her nails. From what she’d told me, her permanent manicure had gone over like a triple chocolate cake at a birthday party.
We got along okay, now, but I wasn’t under any illusion that she liked me.
“Concealer workssss, yessss,” she hissed out. Her head slowly wove in the air like a cobra’s lulled by a charmer, making her dark, seaweed-encrusted hair stutter across her shoulders.
“You wouldn’t happen to know how to overcome a bespelling, would you?” I asked, thinking of my lack of flit-abilities.
She shook her head.
“Or how to neutralize Seeker’s Serum?” I held up my hand. “I accidentally touched it.”
“Cutssss off.”
“No thanks.” I scrunched my nose. Wherever I turned, everyone pushed amputation. There had to be another option. I rubbed the tiny diamond on my chest, my prankster mark. Damn thing still wouldn’t come off. “How about prankster beatleycarnes? Do you know how to make them go away?”
“Capturessss. Reburiessss.”
“It’s that simple?”
“Findssss prankster, capturessss, reburiessss.”
I’d add that to my list.
“Or killssss.”
“Stomp on it, I assume,” I said.
“Yessss.” She twisted her head coyly. “You came for ssssecret?”
That’s right. She’d promised to tell me something in exchange for the concealer. She’d said she owed me. “Sure.”
“There is one who can helpssss with Sssserum. With besssspelling.” Her gaze narrowed. “You wishes to knowssss?”
“Not much of a secret, is it? There really is only one person I can ask.” Person being a loose term for a spider sorceress.
“Wrongssss.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “I didn’t mention any names.”
“Katya is tricksssster.”
Being one herself, Sirra would know.
“I don’t have a choice,” I said.
“Ask ssssister.”
“Are you saying your sisters can help me find a cure for my hand?” Now there was a new one. I leaned forward, clutching the rail, and peered down at the inky, ice-glazed water, looking for ripples. “Can you ask them to come talk to me?” What if they—
“Not my ssssisters.” Sirra’s head whipped back and forth. “Yourssss.”
My shoulders collapsed. “I don’t have a sister.” Or a brother. Or a parent, for that matter, after Mom ditched me here. I’d never known my dad. Mom had refused to tell me who he was.
“Half ssssister,” Sirra said.
Wait. My belly dropped all the way to the center of the earth as a mix of shock and fear and surprise filled me.
Could my dad… “I have a half-sister?” I croaked out, my voice filled with too much hope.
“Yessss.”
My fingers tightened on the rail but I ignored the pain shooting up my arm from my injured hand. “This…sister.” No. It couldn’t be true, could it? By the fae. I’d dreamed and wished but never thought… “You said she can help me with the bespelling and the Serum?”
“Yessss.”
“She’s here, isn’t she?” The shriek in my voice flushed a bird from a nearby bush, and it squawked and zipped into the sky.
I couldn’t believe it. Excitement made my heart slam against my ribcage. I leaned forward, hoping the rail would hold this time. Although, I didn’t care if I fell into the water. I needed to know. “She’s here, at the Academy.”
“Yessss.”
My throat closing off with anticipation, I couldn’t swallow. “Who is she?” I’d get down on my knees and beg Sirra for the name if I had to. Promise her anything she asked as long as she’d tell me.
“Fleur only granted one ssssecret.” Sirra shook a talon my way. “Not twossss.”
“You can’t leave me hanging like this.” She had to tell me. Now! That wasn’t a secret, it was torture.
“Not sssso.”
“Please. It’s not fair.”
“Nothing fairssss.”
She had that right, but still. “My sister could be anyone here.” If Sirra didn’t tell me, I’d never learn who she was. I couldn’t exactly run around asking. My dream, so close, would pop and zip away like a broken balloon if I didn’t get a name.
“If I tellssss, Fleurssss owes ussss.”
There was always a catch. Did I dare owe Sirra a favor?
But a sister… Would she be happy when she found out? She might already know. Ugh. What if she did and she was keeping it from me because she didn’t want me to know?
What if she hated me?
Chances I had to take. I couldn’t spend my life watching, waiting, and wondering.
“I don’t care,” I shouted. “Tell me who she is!”
“Once knowssss, never forgotten.”
Another cryptic statement from yet another Academy creature, but I knew where she was going with this. Once she told me, I’d have to live with the truth.
It couldn’t be that bad, could it?
“Tell me,” I said. No matter what came of it. I had a sister. Someone who shared a tiny bit of me.
She must be an outling, since my dad had been one, too. Which meant…Oh, my! Other than me, there was only one surviving female outling at the Academy. Sure, her eyes were brown, not violet, but my eye color came from Mom. Per Mom, my hair was all Dad.
Dark hair. I wanted to rush to her Coven room and hug her. “Is it Carly?”
It had to be. This was awesome. I’d ping her and—
“Sister is Alyssss.”
Chapter 6
Alys?
How the fae was this possible?
“No way.” The guttural words were dragged up my throat from my belly. “You’re lying.”
“No liessss.” Sirra’s lips curled upward. “You ask. I sharessss ssssecret.”
“But…I want a sister. I just don’t want it to be her. She can’t stand me.” Our feud had only been sus
pended while we combined forces to hunt the Bespeller. Once we caught the guilty wizard, Alys and I would go back to the way we’d been before. One snarl met with another.
We had no common ground. She hated everything about me.
Crap. I could never tell her who I was. She’d rip out my hair and tell me never to speak to her again. She’d remove her charm to turn back into the nightlace and finish what she’d started—removing me permanently from her life.
Like most Elites, she’d never accept me as family.
Her father…I shook my head. The man who’d blamed Alys for her mother’s death was my father, too? That would take some getting used to.
I couldn’t decide if I was excited or horrified. Both.
Wait a minute. He was Elite, which meant I was Elite.
Slumping against the railing, I stared at the water, my gaze completely unfocused.
I’d suspected I could be Elite but never dreamed of a connection like this. Dreamed? Being related to Alys was a nightmare.
I pried my hands off the rail then slapped them back in place, grimacing from the pain when my fingers connected with the wood. My body swayed, keeling forward, and I hit hard, jarring my hip. Bracing myself, I remained upright by will alone.
“No,” I hissed out.
Mission accomplished, Sirra slunk back down into the water, leaving me alone on the bridge, a floundering wreck.
Sirra was right. Some things were better not known, especially this.
Because the world kept spinning and my legs wouldn’t support me, I dropped to the ground. If I passed out, the bitter cold would freeze me solid. I leaned forward as tiny stars zipped and spun behind my eyeballs, and gulped in frigid air.
It couldn’t be true. Not Alys!
I braced my face in my hands for a long time. Years, maybe.
Finally, my teeth chattering, I struggled to my feet.
At least the world had stopped spinning.
Whirling, I ran from the Academy, not caring where I went as long as I outraced my brain. A little path meandered around the evergreens, and I bailed from it, scrambling through bushes to reach the other side, then took off across the open field, aiming for the western forest. Snow crunched beneath my shoes and the cold wind bit through my coat, stealing my heat. But I didn’t care. Nothing would ever be the same again.
Alys?
I hit the woods and, shoving aside bare branches, kept running, leaping over trees knocked down in a recent storm. The path I’d always followed called to me, and I roared down it, swiping the wetness from my eyes. I didn’t slow until I reached the meadow.
Our meadow. Mine and Donovan’s.
My voice keened out, a raspy cry of pain and sorrow. Beaten and unable to figure out what to do next, I dropped to my knees and bunched the snow, throwing it as a storm swept through me and out to sea.
A soft, shuffling sound coming from the meadow made me lift my eyes.
His head drooping, a dragon stood on the far side. He stomped his feet, and I wondered if he was cold, too. Why hang around here, when he could fly north to see his family? Or shift back into his wizard form and stay warm inside the Academy.
“Donovan,” I whispered, and his head jerked my way.
Rising, I stepped out from the shelter of the woods and into the meadow, knowing he could blast me with flames the moment I appeared.
After all, he didn’t know me.
He waited patiently as I cautiously approached. Would he reach out, snatch me up in his claws, and rip me to shreds? With the boy I knew locked too deep inside, there was no predicting how a dragon would behave.
Donovan had never threatened me while in this form but back then, he’d known me. Now I was a stranger, someone who might try to harm him.
As I drew closer to him, my steps slowed. Two steps away, I held out my hand.
He stretched his neck toward me until his nose lightly touched my mitten, and he huffed. No flames. No heat. No anger.
As if somewhere, in his soul, he still knew me.
My heart split wide open, and my overwhelming grief seeped out.
I met his gaze, not knowing what I’d find.
His eyes… They reflected the burden of sorrow I carried within me.
My eyes stung as hope burned behind them. I didn’t dare wish for this. If I was wrong, it would make my loss fresh all over again. “Donovan?”
He dipped his head.
In dragon form, he’d never been able to speak, but he’d always understood. He’d protected me. Taken me on adventures.
He’d shared everything with me.
What if…
No.
I couldn’t do this to myself. It would be wrong to believe.
“Do you know who I am?” Unable to hold them back, my words surged free.
When he nodded, I collapsed against him, wrapping my arms around his neck. I didn’t know how this was possible, but I wouldn’t question it. Magic had rules I’d never understand.
Stepping closer, he laid his chin on my shoulder. Like he’d done the first time I met him in dragon form. And like the guy had done that night at the Ball, when life seemed to hold endless possibilities for us.
I’d convinced myself he’d never do it again. Night had shifted aside the day and snuffed out our world.
He sighed and tipped his head, and when our cheeks met, I knew he felt the same ache inside I did.
I wiped away my tears and dragged up a smile, because he deserved nothing less.
“I’ve missed you,” I said.
He nodded.
Turning sideways, I leaned against his scaly skin and stroked his neck. “I’ve tried to be strong. And I’m doing all I can to become a full Unraveler. I want to free you so much.”
He sighed and curled his neck to wrap his head around me.
Holding his dragon face, I dropped my forehead down to meet his.
Here, in this one moment in time, we knew each other.
It wasn’t the same. We may never be the same again.
But for now, it was enough.
Chapter 7
The sun dropped, and cold air sunk tethers into my bones.
“I have to go,” I said. “But I’ll come back.”
He nodded, but nudged me toward the Academy. My shivers must’ve given me away.
“Tomorrow?” I said.
He shook his head.
“The day after that, I’m going to the mall.” And I had to go to put my plan into place. “How about on Sunday?”
He dipped his head in agreement.
“I’ll see you then.” I started across the meadow, my steps lighter than they’d been in what felt like years. Too many times, I’d told myself he was still there, buried deep inside the shell of the boy I once knew. Yet doubts had crowded in, slicing away at my confidence.
Today, I’d found the strength to keep trying. It would happen. I didn’t know how or when, but I’d see this through. Donovan deserved nothing less.
A light sound made me turn, and I watched as he lifted up into the sky. He encircled the meadow, and his wing dipped my way. I reached up.
Silly to think we could touch.
Except, we could.
On the inside, where it mattered most.
* * *
Tria flitted into view as I strode up onto the western bridge.
“Where have you been?” Her face florid, she smacked her hands on her hips. “Don’t even think you can hide from me,” she belted out, shaking her finger at me like a demented teacher. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. You think I’m good at finding people?” While her tone might be fierce, her voice shook.
“You found me last time.” Saved me and Jenny from bespelled nightlace, then flitted us back to the Academy before we were dragged by the plant clusters to our death.
“You can’t keep taking off like this,” she sputtered. “You put yourself at risk.”
That’s right, a Bespeller remained hidden among us, one who’d turned hunting outlings�
��me—into a game.
Except I wasn’t a full outling. My cackle slipped out, cutting through the silence.
Whoever was after me would have to take a ticket and get in line because I was dealing with more than a murderer. If I wasn’t careful, I’d soon lose my hand. Or die.
Spine drooping, Tria collapsed against the rail. Her eyes shimmered. “I’ve been pinging you. Looking everywhere. I was worried sick about you. Sure, I’m training to be a Seeker but the last time, when I found you in the cave, it was pure luck. I’m not a Level Five but worry for you let me create a Seeker spell I haven’t been able to replicate since.”
Damn fluid skapti Levels.
She sniffed. “I put on a solid front for Cloven, pretending I was good at this but you know what? I’m not.” Her voice rose, and I cringed because she was right. I should’ve told her I was okay. I could’ve pinged her, reassured her.
“I was scared shitless,” she said. “Afraid I wouldn’t get to you before something horrible happened.” Raking her fingers down her face, she blanched the pink from her cold cheeks. “You’ve got a Bespeller after you. A prankster. Anything could’ve happened! I didn’t know what to do.” A crack widened in her voice. “I didn’t know how to find you.”
“I’m sorry.” To say I felt awful was an understatement. “I didn’t hear your pings.” I’d been too distracted by Alys, Sirra and her revelation, and then Donovan.
Tria’s breath whooshed from her lungs along with the tension in her shoulders, relaxing them. “S’okay. I’m just glad I found you. But you can’t keep running around as if it’s safe here, because it isn’t. Bad things could happen.”
She had that right. A bad thing already had happened.
How in the fae could Alys be my sister?
“I’m going to die in a week or so,” I said. Wow, didn’t that sound final? “Who cares if I’m attacked by a plant or a creature or even the Bespeller? It’s not like they or the beatleycarne can do more than send me to the grave early.”
Crap, Cupid was the Grim Reaper now that Grim worked as a teacher on campus. I never would’ve dreamed a cute, round, cherub dude would someday haul my soul to wherever it needed to go next.
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