I head out, taking a shortcut back through Maura to the softball field. The shadowy halls close in around me. Maura’s all dark wood and brick, and gloomy, cruddy lighting.
I kind of love it.
But speaking of cruddy lightning… The lights here are flickering something wild. One second, the hallway’s like some strobey horror movie set, the next, pitch-black. It’s creepy in the extreme, shadows pooling in darkened corners.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. My footsteps are super loud, echoey.
I’m on high alert, just in case. Go ahead and try it, King Jerkwad.
The lights go out, then come up once more. I’m standing in front of a glass case. One trophy stands taller than the rest, and something pings in my brain, a memory of me and Dad. With the lights strobing, I can’t see exact details, so my brain unhelpfully makes them up.
The 8th grade MVP trophy looked a lot like that.
The trophy Becca stole from me with one pitch.
Even now, my jaw aches and throbs, the memory of the impact rushing back to me.
The lights flicker. Darkness and shadow reflect off the trophy case. Like a corpse rising from a dark lake, a face appears in the glass.
A reflection.
Platinum-blonde hair in a topknot, angular cheekbones. Black leather. Knives. Blazing red eyes, glowing circuit-runes across one cheek. Roue’s told me all about the Inimicals. She’s given me the skinny on this dark Fae assassin, too.
The Xi.
Right behind me.
In the reflection, the Xi raises one hand, and crimson claws shear from those thin fingertips. Holy--! Inimical claws. Each one flashes with circuitry sparks, and trails of fire light up the glass.
Alarms flash in my mind. Move, Syl. Now!
I barely jerk aside as those glowing claws shatter the case instead of my head. Glass peppers me. Suddenly, the air is hot, stifling from the heat of that attack.
“Whoa! What the—”
But the Xi is on me, slashing, cutting, those claws flashing hot. Sparks fly off them, hissing in the air. Embers flare. My uniform blouse is suddenly riddled with holes like cigarette burns.
Fear racing in my heart, I rattle off the first two questions that come to mind. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”
“You’ll find out.” The Xi’s voice is mild. We might be talking fashion, the latest movies, torture methods—whatever evil dark Fae talk about.
I already know anyway. King Reinghûl sent the Xi. But why? He can’t kill me or Roue until Midsummer.
“Can’t you just tell me why?” My back fetches up against the far wall. Crap. “I hate surprises.”
“Get used to disappointment.” The Xi’s whip-fast, uncoiling from a fighting stance, claws lashing in at my stomach.
Desperate, I throw up my white-flame shield.
Shiiiiiing! Trails of fire carve into my shield, and it shatters like a glass bubble. I jerk back, throwing myself into the lockers. Slam!
The Xi cuts my shirt, missing my skin by a fraction. Inimical circuits leap from those fiery claws, chittering up the fabric toward my face.
Crap, crap, crappity crap. I flame on, pulling them off the way you’d pull spiders out of your hair. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Lucky for me, my fire’s hotter than the Xi’s Inimical.
In my flaming grip, the Inimicals burn to ashes.
Score one for the sleeper-princess!
I back away. “What do you want?”
“I do the will of the king.” The Xi’s heavy-lidded eyes narrow into two slashes of fire. The crimson Inimical circuits flash and burn in the gloomy hall. “These”—they clack jagged claws—“are meant for you.”
“To control me?” My heart’s slamming against my ribs.
“Yes.” The Xi seems steadfast, except for a pale green aura. Hesitation.
“But you don’t want to.” I’m hoping the Xi can see reason. “I can tell you’re conflicted.”
The Xi’s smile is cutting. “I’ve heard of you. Syl Skye, the sleeper-princess who sees the good in dark Fae.” The Xi stalks closer, those Inimical runes burning across angular cheekbones. “You can’t help me.”
“I could tr—yikes!”
In a burst of shadow, the Xi lunges.
This time, the claws flash by my face, so close I taste ash and heat, feel the fire. But…
That’s no ordinary fire. Fear lights me up like a Christmas tree. It’s sunfire.
The Xi’s power is like mine, but it’s twisted, corrupted by the Inimical.
I dodge, breathing hard. “What are you?”
The Xi’s smile is wry. “Should I say something quaint like, I’m your worst nightmare?”
Despite my immediate peril, I consider. The Xi’s got claws, knives, and a bad attitude—and can totally wield all three.
But I’m not exactly helpless either.
“You’re pretty badass,” I admit. “But I’ve got news for you. I’m not a sleeper-princess anymore.” I summon the power inside me. Heat rushes through me, tingling as Summer comes to my call. White flames burst to my hands. “I’m Awakened.”
For a tense second, the hall burns red and white, power flashing between us, cutting up the darkness.
“So you are.”
The Xi comes on again, and I have everything I can do to play keep-away. The Inimical circuits on the Xi’s cheeks burn and blaze, which means one thing: the Xi’s being controlled.
Roue was right. Her father holds the master-key circuit, which means:
He sent the Xi here to infect me. Another of his schemes. Last time, he stole nearly all my blood. The sadistic jerk. Anger blazes up inside me, memories of being trapped in a Dark Faerie laboratory, my blood siphoned out to heal him.
I duck again, barely, as claws whoosh by.
My life’s in danger, but I hold my white flame back. I don’t want to kill one of Roue’s people. Especially when they’re being controlled.
“Can’t we talk about this?” I sidestep burning claws. The sane part of me hopes that a teacher or an administrator will come by, but I know with jolting clarity—that’d just mean their death.
Plus, the Xi’s got a Glamoury going. A powerful one, too. No one will be able to see us, even though we’re using our powers.
I’m on my own.
Sort of.
“Syl?” As if on cue, Roue’s sending touches my mind. “What’s wrong? I feel your fear.”
“Roue!”
“Come, sleeper-princess.” The Xi’s smile is wicked. The shadows in the hall darken, and through that darkness, Inimical claws glow with corrupted sunfire.
Great.
“Um, Roue…” How do I gently say, One of your people showed up and is trying to murder me? I feel Roue’s anger and fury like a cold wind down the bond. Whoops. I guess I just did.
“I’ll be right there. Stall.”
I glance at the Xi, stalking toward me like a panther, conflict in those glowing red eyes. Shadow and light flash in the hall, the lights plink, plink, plinking on and off above us.
Stall. Right. I sigh.
Just a day in the life of a sleeper-princess.
My gaze flicks to the Inimicals splicing up both Xi’s forearms, along that slender neck, cutting up both cheeks like runic tattoos. “The Inimical—what is it?”
Hey, it’s not like I can just Google “Inimical.”
Plus, Glamma’s Grimmoire was lost long ago, so…
“It’s you.” The Xi considers. “Well, the antithesis of you.” One hand comes up, claws trailing crimson fire. “And it makes you loyal to the king.”
The antithesis…of…me? It doesn’t make sense, but another truth goes off like a bomb in my head. “You’re here to infect Rouen, too.”
“Bingo.” The Xi’s look intensifies. “But you first.”
Fear hits me low in the guts. “Roue, don’t come!” I brighten my flame as I square off against the Xi, white fire wreathing my hands. The Winter in a dark Fae’s blood can’t withstand a dire
ct hit.
Even so. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I don’t want to hurt you, either.” There’s real regret in the Xi’s eyes. “But I must.”
The Xi touches the floor. Crimson circuits flash from those claws, racing like fiery veins through wood and brick. They bleed upward, shooting across the ceiling and into the lights.
Oh, just peachy.
The Xi’s a Circuit Fae, too, able to harness the killing magic in technology.
The fluorescents glow red-hot and shatter, bursting with crimson lightning.
Yikes! I throw up a white-flame shield. Burning fragments rain down, zapping off my flames. The hall goes dark, the only light from the EXIT sign. Now we’re bathed in red rain like blood falling.
I’m going to die in my high school.
“I don’t suppose we could talk this over?” Even with my shield, I feel totally exposed. “Besides, you can’t infect me.” I twiddle my fingers, letting the white flame flick over and around them.
The Xi gives a rueful head shake. “You can purify the individual circuits with your white flame, but these Inimical are different from normal Moribund. Once they’re inside you, you won’t have a chance.”
More good news.
A flash of black. I dodge, but the Xi cuts me off. Wham! I hit the brick wall, those glowing claws spearing in…
No choice.
With a flick of my wrist, I throw a sheet of flame, slamming into the Xi dead center. I cringe, waiting for the shrieking, the dying, the burning of skin like paper. The Xi should go up in flames in three, two…
Nothing.
What the—?
The Xi’s arm flashes out, and bam! The strike blasts me off my feet. The world tilts sideways, and my stomach drops.
Slam! I wham into a locker, crunking it into a Syl-shaped indent.
I fall to my knees, gasping.
The Xi brushes my flames off like taking off a fiery jacket. “This would go easier on you if you didn’t struggle.”
Goodbye, frying pan. Hello, fire.
“Oh yeah?” I get to my feet. “Where would the fun be in that?”
The Xi charges me, but I windwarp to the other end of the hall.
“Oh, yoo-hoo!” I give a jaunty wave, my inner killjoy screaming, Are you insane? Yeah, maybe I am. I flame on again.
There are other ways I can use my power.
“Syl, I’m almost there!” Roue’s sending is filled with fear.
“Don’t worry, I got this.” I hope. Eying the Xi, I hold my burning hand up toward the sprinkler system. “Get ready to step into the twenty-first century, assassin.”
The heat rises in the hallway, and snap! The sprinklers explode with gushing water. In a hot second, the entire hall is raining and flooded. Alarms blare through the entire school, and the alarm light pulses in time, casting the hallway in stark white flashes.
My clothes are soaked through. Steam rises as the rain hisses off white and crimson flames. Xi’s Glamoury flickers as kids pour out of classrooms on either side of us.
I wink. “Think your Glamoury is up to hiding us from a gajillion students?”
But the Xi only smirks, Glamoury spreading out in a cresting wave, covering the hallway, masking us. Illusions can’t stop the alarms or the water, or the throng of kids bolting for the exits.
But the Xi can hide us, our fight, our powers.
The students stream around us like waves breaking around rocks. Alarms are burning in my ears, the stench of corrupted sunfire and steam choking me.
Crap. Never taunt a dark Fae, Syl.
The Xi comes on now, like a whirlwind, slashing, kicking, punching. I can’t dodge everything. A fist slams into my stomach, then a kick knocks me to my hands and knees. I’m down, gasping.
Leather boots cross my field of vision.
The Xi grabs my hair, pulls my head back. “Goodbye, Syl Skye.”
My world lights up in corrupted sunfire and burning Inimical claws.
14
ROUEN
Bound to you
I feel so much
Too much
Everything
“Bound,” Euphoria
* * *
“Syl!” I shove and push my way through the tide of panicked students, alarms blaring, lights strobing. Water’s downpouring from the sprinkler systems. My boots slosh through puddles as I pound down the halls.
Syl’s fear is a bright pulse driving me.
I push myself as fast as I dare.
Once around the corner, I’m alone and in the clear. In a flash, I call upon the Winter in my blood. Icy shivers tingle across my skin. In a flood of chill winds, fwoosh! Ice crackles across the floor as I vanish in one spot to reappear down the hall in a spray of freezing mist.
Syl’s fear rockets down our soul-bond, amped up to the edge of panic. She sees her own death in that one spinning moment. I push myself faster.
“I’m coming, Syl! Hold on!”
The doors to Maura Hall are shut. They stand between me and my girl.
I don’t stop. I don’t even slow down.
I smash through the heavy oak, a dark Fae wrecking ball. Splinters fly, supports creak. I tear what’s left of the broken doors off their hinges and skid, letting the water on the floor take me.
In a gliding rush, I sail down the hall.
A spray of water kicks up beneath my boots. When it clears, I see her.
“Syl!”
She’s on her knees. Standing over her is… Oh, no. No.
I slam into the Xi with the force of a battering ram. Water crashes around us as we hit the floor and slide. Wrestling the Xi’s like taking on an adamantine wall crossed with a spitting tiger—all immovable strength and sinew, threshing knives, and—
Crimson fire carves the air. Inimical circuits! I let go, roll away, and get to my feet.
“Be careful.” Syl’s voice is shaky, afraid. “She’s got Inimical claws.”
“They,” I correct her gently. “Most of the Xi go by ‘they.’” But I see them, too. Crimson claws glowing red-hot. They print trails of fire and shimmery heat in the air, and they smell…
What in the unholy hells?
They smell like Syl’s power, only bitter and burnt, corrupted.
Not to mention, beneath that come the scents of brilliant sunshine and vanilla musk. Syl’s used her white-flame power, and the Xi is still standing.
Unscorched. Untouched.
You know what else I smell? My father. All over this.
“Roue, my power didn’t work.” Syl’s sending pulses with fear.
“All righty then.” I clench my fist. “We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way—taking out the Xi’s master-key circuit.” The master-key is what ties the Xi’s Inimical to my father’s and gives him control. If we take it out, theoretically, the Xi’d be free.
Easier said than done, though. If Syl’s white flame isn’t working…
“Roue, maybe I can target it directly.”
I nod. “Good idea, princess.”
The alarms click off, but the lights are still flashing, and it’s still raining as I square off against the most powerful of all the Xi, my father’s Inimical-infected assassin.
This Xi’s also the best harpist I’ve ever heard. Mother loved their crystal harp.
So did I.
Sorrow and fury roil inside me. I’ll free the Xi, but first, I need to get close.
I take a step, hoping to distract the troll assassin. “What are you doing here?” Agravaine and I worked with a different Xi once. There wasn’t much left of that sleeper-princess when that particular Xi was done with her.
Determination crests like icy winds inside me. I won’t let that happen to my sleeper-princess. “Get ready, Syl.”
“Born ready,” Syl sends back.
The Xi’s eyes glow a furnacing orange. “Your father sent me to infect you.”
Syl’s injustice flares down the bond. “Your dad agreed not to attack you until Midsummer, and
now this!”
“He lied.”
“I thought fairies couldn’t lie.”
“That’s just what a lying Fae would say.”
The Xi edges closer. “He wants to ensure your loyalty to the crown.”
“Yah. I’ve heard this one before.” I flex my fists. “Not much use in talking, then.”
“I suppose not.” The Xi’s honeyed tenor is filled with regret. “But how will you fight me without your violet lightning, Your Highness?”
Blast and bane! The Xi’s right.
With the sprinklers going off, I can’t use my lightning without frying us all.
The moment hangs, lights flashing, water pounding down, all of us soaked and steeped in our power. Well, all except me.
But I’ve got other tricks up my sleeve.
In UnderHollow, I tapped into my true potential. All right, that awoke my dark self, but if I can control it this time…
Yes, I just need to control it.
I dig deep, tapping the depths of my soul, and the Winter in my blood leaps at my call, tingling across my skin. I clench my fist and the rain freezes to glittering daggers of ice.
That’s it!
With the flick of my wrist, I fire them at the Xi. Shik! Shik, shik, shik! They fly through the air, glittering, deadly ice.
Whoosh! In a burst of shadow, the Xi windwarps, slashing through my ice with soot and fire. Razor-sharp claws flash by my cheek, bitter and burnt, not at all like the bright sunshine of my Summer girl.
I duck, sliding back in the water, and turn to face my enemy.
Inimical claws scorch the air.
Fear shoots a bright pulse through me. Kill them! my dark self cries, and suddenly in a flash of ice, glimmering blades coalesce in my hands.
Barely, I get them up in time.
Crash, clash!
We lock up, my knives, the Xi’s claws. Heat and soot, ice and frost fly. The Xi looks more demon than troll, eyes swallowed by fire. In my soul, my dark self is screaming for blood and murder.
My head pounds with the force of Dark-Rouen’s will, but I fight her off. I won’t kill one of my people!
She chuckles darkly. You may not have a choice.
Xi pushes in, and I sliiiiiide back in the water, those claws inches from my face.
Two inches, one—
Inimical Page 12
