Preston coached us as usual, with a different vamp teacher supervising every time, and our lessons moved on to magical gardening and music. I sucked at both, much to Peony’s delight. She took joy in snickering when I failed to produce a tune on the piano and failed to make a tomato plant grow from a seedling. Peony then waved her hands over the sprout, and it responded to her motions, uncurling and rising from the black dirt. Show-off. Oh, and obviously, she was a maestro at the piano.
When test day arrived, I had to wake up Blair because she’d forgotten to set her alarm.
“No,” she said, throwing her pillow over her head. The corner started to smoke.
“Control yourself. You can do it,” I said, grasping the pillow before the whole bed caught fire. “You’ll get through Sullivan’s class okay since that’s a written test and you’re getting better at Mr. Chad’s class, too.”
Blair looked up at me with bleary eyes. “I’m worried about Home Decor.”
“We’ll fail together,” I said, offering her a hand. I had no talents there. But Blair had it worse than I did. Setting expensive things on fire was a much bigger problem than carrying a bad tune.
Lord Sullivan’s class was, as I predicted, a written test, and Mr. Chad had us walking on beams, performing stupid circus acts and hanging off trapeze wires. When we were done, he ogled us in our leotard gymnastic wear and told us we had all passed. Whether that was because we all did all right or because he wanted more young bodies to stare at, I didn’t know.
Home Decor was last, and it was none other than Lady Cardinal supervising Preston today. I gulped as I entered the triplet room and lined up in the gardening area. Blair and I were so screwed.
Preston surveyed us all, gaze lingering on me for just a split second. Since the night in the library, we had both stayed under the radar, not daring to be seen around each other, especially after the twins had vowed revenge. They hadn’t retaliated yet, but I was certain it wasn’t because they were in a forgiving mood. When they finally struck, their vengeance would be merciless.
Preston split us up according to our talents while Lady Cardinal hovered in the background. I got waved over to the plant section with Peony while Virgie manned the piano and Blair waited near the wall. Why? Whatever potential Preston saw in me hadn’t manifested yet. I stared at a potted lilac tree for a full fifteen minutes, silently urging it to bloom while sweat gathered on my neck. When the fragrant purple blossoms started to open, one by one, a wave of tingling excitement swept through me until I realized Preston was standing off to the side, rocking on his heels and winking at me. He was giving me a hand.
Peony gasped. “No way.”
“Next,” Lady Cardinal said, waving me away in a hurry.
I stepped back while Peony finished the job. Blair still hadn’t gone. When it was her turn, Preston rolled in a polished table with a candelabra. Blair eyed the table as if it was a ticking bomb. I wanted to step next to her and tell her she could do it, but Lady Cardinal sent me back with a sharp glare.
This wasn’t good. “Preston,” I mouthed, helpless, but his gaze was focused on Lady Cardinal.
“The test,” Lady Cardinal said. “Blair. Light all five of these candles and you shall pass.”
“I’ve...I’ve been practicing.” Blair stepped forward. “Every night.”
“Good,” Preston said. “You can do it.”
Would she pass? Blair steeled her expression and eyed the candles.
After what felt like minutes, the center one lit, and a happy flame danced. Blair smiled as it reflected off her green eyes. Then the next one lit, and the next. She was gaining control, barely able to contain her excitement. Her dread at getting up this morning was unfounded. Blair moved around the table to light the final candle, and then the air moved, an awful smell hit me. The polish? The last candle had a faint line of it running down from the wick of the candle and to the table.
My heart sank. Somebody had messed with the table. Peony looked annoyed, but the twins behind her could barely contain their smiles. I balled my fists. Now I understood how they were getting back at me.
I opened my mouth to speak, but it was too late.
The last candle lit, and a trail of flame erupted down the candle, following the fresh, barely-dry oil polish to the rest of the table. The fire devoured the polish, spreading across the surface and casting acrid smoke through the class. Blair backpedaled, eyes wide in bewilderment. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She’d been set up. All around me, people cried out and moved back as Preston once again rushed to the disaster with two jugs of water in tow. He extinguished the fire, but the thick smoke that filtered up through the vents left the whole class coughing.
Lady Cardinal turned to Blair, her lips arranged in a grotesque half-smile, half-scowl. “I see you still have no control. Meet me in my office.”
The twins were nowhere to be found as I searched the castle. Their dirty work was done. My blood boiled as I thought of what Blair must be going through in the headmistress’s office. Blair didn’t show up to dinner, but Peony did, sitting with Virgie. The twins were missing as usual, and for once, I wished they were there so that I could wrap my hands around their throats.
I ate my food quickly, barely able to swallow the few bites of rice and grilled chicken, then hurried upstairs. I found Blair flopped over her bunk, sobbing into her pillow.
“Blair.” Sickness spread through my insides as she lifted her tear-stained face, pure despair in her green eyes. “It wasn’t your fault. The twins set you up.” And that was my fault, I added silently.
“They’re selling me,” she choked out.
“What?” Certainly, I must’ve misheard.
“After summer prep ends, I’m going to Gregory Vulthus, a real estate mogul who sucks blood and money from people. Lady Cardinal said he’ll teach me how to control my fire. He likes to punish his fae servants if they mess up. She said that I’ll either finally learn discipline or he’ll break me.”
Stomach acid rose into my throat. This couldn’t be happening. Lady Cardinal couldn’t send Blair to a sadist. “But you’re getting better at controlling your fire,” I said, as if I could argue away her fate. “They can’t sell you to some sicko. It wasn’t your fault. If it weren’t for the twins, you would have passed the test.”
Blair sat up and threw her sheets across the room. “I could barely do what I did. Rumor has it, Gregory owns a torture chamber in his basement. Onyx, I can’t stay here another minute. We have to get out.”
“The full moon is in four days,” I blurted. “Preston will help us.”
Now it was Blair’s turn to look confused. I sighed, and told her all about Preston’s plan. I hadn’t told her until now since I had promised Preston I'd keep quiet and I didn’t want to get her hopes up, but right now, she needed to see that she wasn’t alone and that there was a way out of her misery. I finished with, “He can only take one of us at a time, and I was supposed to go first, but I’ll ask him to take you first.”
Blair snorted. “He’ll never agree to it.”
“Why?”
She jumped off her bed and paced. “Because, in case you hadn’t noticed, he only has eyes for you. He helps you!” She pointed an accusing finger at me. “He doesn’t care about me. The escape he has planned is for you. I doubt he ever planned to come back for me.”
“But he promised and he can't lie.”
She let out a mirthless laugh. “No, he promised to return here eventually, not specifying if it would be in a year or decade."
I swallowed hard. Even though I was certain Preston would return for Blair if I asked him to, she had a point. She didn’t have time to wait until the next full moon, and I doubted I could convince him to take her first.
Desperately, I tried to come up with a solution when Blair said, “There might be another way.”
I straightened, all ears.
“There’s a window in Mr. Chad’s gym that looks down on the mountain. I managed to open it a little bit
the other day. There’s a wildlife trail. It’s steep, but if I’m careful, there’s a chance I’ll make it.” Blair’s chin wobbled. She couldn’t do this on her own. She needed me. How could I let her go through this alone when she had gotten into trouble because of me and when her staying meant being sold to a sadist?
Going down that trail meant that I would never see the fae realm, but I knew that I could never live with myself if I let Blair be hauled off to a life not worth living.
I nodded. “Then we go. Tonight.”
Chapter Eleven
Blair and I waited until it was one in the morning, and no sounds filtered through our door. Dressed in black leggings, long-sleeved shirts, and sneakers, we slipped out of our dorm. Since we didn’t dare do anything that would draw attention, we only packed a light stringback, holding a few energy bars and two bottles of water. I tried not to think of how long we would brave the wilderness and how long our meager supply would last.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have any weapons besides a small pocket knife Blair had found in the dining hall.
The corridors were empty, amplifying our breathing. I kept waiting for a vampire to jump out of an alcove, but nobody stopped us. The gym was open just as Blair had said.
We slipped through the door into the dark room and headed toward the window next to the tumbling mats. Even though Blair could reach the window on her tiptoes, it soon became clear that she needed help climbing out. I interlaced my fingers to lift her up, but she shook her head.
“We can’t afford to waste our energy. Plus, how will you get out?”
She had a point, so I surveyed the room, deciding on the pommel horse. Together, we lifted it and carried it toward the window. There was enough room for both of us, so we climbed onto it. Since Blair had opened the window before, I let her work with her bobby pin on the lock while keeping my ears and eyes trained for any sounds and movement.
After a few minutes of twisting and grunting, Blair shoved open the window and pushed open the wooden shutters that kept the sun out. A cold gust of wind hit us, and I tried to be grateful that we weren’t attempting the escape in the winter. Stars winked outside. Freedom. Warmth bloomed in my chest.
“I’ll go first,” Blair said.
I nodded, hoping I would manage to close the window behind me. She turned, facing me, and pushed her legs out of the window, holding on to the ledge with her hands. “I can’t reach the ground,” she said, and then let go.
Everything inside of me contracted, and I shut my eyes only to open them when there was a dull thump just outside. Blair had landed on what must be grass and was grinning up at me and waving for me to follow. She stood on a narrow outcrop of rock and soil. Just below her, a steep drop led right to the lake and jagged rocks. Dizziness stole over me and the world spun.
Right, here goes nothing. Maybe Mr. Chad’s gymnastics classes were useful after all.
I shoved my legs through the window, my heart pounding, my hands clammy.
“I’ll catch you,” Blair said when I hesitated. The longer I hung there, the worse my fear would get. I let go. My feet hit the outcrop, the impact crushing my knees. A moment later, the pain was already fading. I glanced up. The window hung eight feet above. No going back now.
“I’m fine,” I mumbled, disoriented, even though I didn’t believe it. Only then did I realize that in my distress I had forgotten to close the window. “Shit!”
“It’s fine,” Blair said. “No one will enter the gym before morning. We’ll be long gone by then.”
I hoped she was right. She stepped aside, and I got a proper view of what was awaiting us. Fuck, the descent was steep, definitely a double black diamond trail. Then we’d have to navigate the jagged rocks on the bottom. A part of me wished it was winter and snow could dampen the impact when I slipped and rolled down the mountain.
“We got this.” Facing the mountain, Blair began to descend, and I followed, gripping every stable surface I could find. Bits of loose stone slid around us. The trail, really just a narrow opening between boulders, was so steep that Blair and I had to slide down in a sitting position at times. I didn’t dare look at the castle behind me. Blair and I stopped every few minutes on outcrops to rest our shaking limbs. Why couldn’t we have trees to hide us from anyone looking out the dark windows? Sure, the vamps were mostly gone to mingle in the greater world, but if Peony spotted us, she’d turn us in in a heartbeat.
“How are you doing?” Blair asked beside me, doing the crab walk down a small clearing of stone. She grabbed onto a cracked boulder with a pine sapling struggling out of it, but the giant stone cracked, and Blair lurched forward, crying out.
I grabbed her hand, stabilizing her as she dug her sneakers into a dip. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” She inhaled deeply, eyeing me with shining eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re fine.” I waited until she was ready to let go of my hand, and we continued downwards. “We’re going to have scary moments.”
My hands soon became chaffed, my knees ached, and my vision swam every time I looked down at the ground that was still too far away. It would take hours to reach the bottom. The stony landscape finally gave way to scraggly, twisting trees and dry soil. Blair and I stood, holding on to their rough trunks, hoping they could support us. Somehow, they did, and my confidence grew. “We’re getting close.”
“I think we are, too. I smell the lake,” Blair said.
My foot struck something sticking from the ground—a root—and I lost my grip. Grasping air, I tumbled downward. I kicked my legs as instinct took over and panic swirled in my chest. Pine needles and rough bark opened to swallow me, and my face crashed into another rough trunk as I stopped. Explosions of pain in my knees, jaw, and back followed, stealing my breath. Rocks slid around me and branches crashed, and then Blair kneeled over me, grasping a heavy branch.
“Onyx! Your cheek is bleeding.”
“I’ll be fine.” Nope. I ached all over. I wanted to cry. I wanted everything to turn out to be a bad nightmare. But I didn’t have the luxury to be weak. I pushed myself upright, thanking my lucky stars that I hadn’t broken anything. Yet.
“I’m sorry,” Blair said again.
I gave her a weak smile. “For what, getting me out of this hellhole? Stop apologizing.”
She tried and failed to smile.
“Let’s continue.”
The trees were coming to an end, and just as I stepped out, hoping we’d reached the lake, another sheer cliff greeted us. The water sparkled below, teasing.
I tried to get rid of the vertigo from looking downward. “We need a different path.”
“I’ll check out the left side of the cliff. Have a look at the right. This cliff is only a few hundred feet wide. Meet back here.” Blair started walking with the popping of joints, not waiting for my response. I didn’t like the idea of us separating, but I also knew that the longer we stayed here, the higher the chances we would be discovered. So, I did as she asked, walking along mercifully flat ground for several minutes until I came to yet another drop. Water gurgled far below, echoing up at me, and I knew I’d found the river that fed the lake. Vertical drops all along its banks, too. There was no way we were getting down that way. I swallowed hard, and turned around, praying Blair would have more luck. But as I approached our meeting point near the trail, a voice rang out from ahead.
“Don’t move! Hands up in the air where I can see them!”
A blinding flashlight came on, and I instinctively crawled up the trail on all fours and back into the trees. Holding my breath, I settled behind a large trunk with thick needles, parting a branch to look through. Blair’s carrot-red hair shone under a flashlight as she backed away, hands up.
Three vamps ran out of the darkness, wearing Security Department uniforms. Guards, probably out on patrol. One readied a heavy-looking set of cuffs and snapped them around her wrists in an eye blink. Blair seethed and pulled against them.
My mouth dried out. I searched
the ground for any fallen branch I could use as a weapon. Nothing. Even the boulders here were too big to throw. One of the guards seized Blair’s arm, pulling her into the dark and onto whatever trail they used to patrol. Shit, I had to stop them, do something. Anything. I scrambled over rocks and pine needles, which muffled my movements, toward them. They walked uphill, up another trail just as bad as our failed escape route. Blair could barely keep up with the vamps' grace. She stumbled as anger pumped through me. Why couldn't she light her captors on fire? What had they done to her?
One of the vamps, the guard in the back, slid and banged his knee, cursing. He didn’t get back up but remained, seething and staring at the ground. I couldn't believe my luck. Maybe we could both still escape. I picked up my speed, staying in the tree cover, grabbing branches and hauling myself upward. Time seemed to slow as I gasped for breath after breath, staying level with them. The flashlight beam swung and swept around, missing me by inches.
Blair’s gaze met mine, and she gave a tiny shake of her head. I froze. The vamp who had her arm followed her gaze.
I ducked behind the tree trunk, heart hammering. The vamp said something to his partner, and the third vamp, the one who had fallen, caught up with the others, shaking his head.
“Ice patches before September. Unbelievable.” He cursed before the three of them dragged Blair toward the mountain and disappeared into a cave opening, likely one of the vamp tunnels.
All the time, Blair said nothing.
The full extent of the situation hit me. Blair had been captured, and I was locked outside, unable to help her. I needed to get back to the academy. I ran toward where the vamps had disappeared with Blair, staring into the cave, but a large, round wooden door had closed. When I pulled, it refused to budge. My hands trembled and my head spun. Maybe it was for the best, I tried to tell myself. If I went into the tunnel now, the chances of running into vamps were disproportionately high. Blair had protected me. I couldn’t allow myself to get captured. If I did, there would be no hope of breaking her out. I looked back at the drop and the lake below. We would’ve never made it. Any passable trails would of course be guarded by vamps at night and maybe humans in the day. Our plan had been stupid, fueled by desperation.
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