The crones hiss and moan. “The eternal fire never lies,” they chant. “Never. Never. She has been soulbound.”
The headmistress appears to my right. She’s walking toward me, her forehead wrinkled and mouth stern. But my attention slides to the Winter Court section, to the prince’s table . . . and the crystalline butterfly perched on one of the sharp peaks of his icy crown.
“We’re . . . mates?” I whisper.
The prince locks eyes with me. Gone is the angry, dismissive expression. The total apathy. I startle at the emotions there. The vulnerability and pain.
We’re . . . mates. Soulbonded, whatever the frack that is. Suddenly, it all makes sense. Complete, total sense. The way I feel about him. The way my body reacts when he’s around. My insane attraction to him.
I’m not falling in love with him. I’m bonded to him . . . against my will. There’s nothing between us, nothing but some stupid Fae magic that gives me no choice.
And he lied to me about it. He knew.
I feel the attention shift from me to the prince’s table. The Winter King stands. He’s tall, taller than the prince, and every bit of him exudes power. From the way he commands utter silence to the way he wields his gaze like a weapon.
Cronus flinches beneath the king’s stare, and the headmistress’s hand flutters to her face, as if she can hide behind it somehow.
“Tell me, how is this possible?” the king says. The quiet tone of his voice scrapes down every knob of my spine. “How has my son, heir to the Unseelie Courts, been soulbonded to a . . . human?”
His lips curl at the last word, human, like it’s distasteful.
“There must be some rational explanation,” the headmistress whispers. “There has to be,” she repeats, as if saying it twice will make the statement true.
The king’s penetrating gaze slides to me, and suddenly I can’t move, can’t draw enough air into my lungs. My hand goes to my throat, and I can feel my pulse hammering against my palm.
Screw this. I’ve never run from a fight. Never once fled something just because I was overwhelmed. But I’m not just scared. I feel cracked in half. Exposed. My mind drowning in a torrent of conflicting thoughts.
How could this happen? Why didn’t the prince tell me? But more than anything, I feel betrayal deep in my core.
I didn’t choose this. My parents were killed by the Fae. Aunt Vi and Aunt Zinnia’s families all died because of the Fae. How can I face them if I’m mated to the creature that ruined their lives?
How can I face myself?
So I flee. I think Eclipsa calls my name as I dart past her, both shoes tumbling free. I even think she might chase after me. But all these months of running laps and cardio training has finally paid off, and I find myself alone, sprinting barefoot through the snow.
50
“Oberon’s beard,” Mack growls as her cell phone lights up in the semi-darkness. “Can he not take a hint? You don’t want to talk to him right now.”
Ruby covers her ears with her hands. “Tell him to stop enraging that damnable device. It’s torturous.”
We’re all huddled together on the bottom bunk, under multiple layers of covers. After I fled the banquet, the weather dropped like thirty degrees. Now a full-scale blizzard pours from the sky.
Whatever the prince is feeling, it’s not good.
I ignore the phone and concentrate on the book in my lap. As soon as Ruby heard what happened, she disappeared. Ten minutes later, she reappeared with a textbook she swiped from a third year student.
I found what I needed on chapter twenty-seven, The Soulbonded. When a Fae is reborn, they take their powers with them. But sometimes, their connection to another Fae in their previous life is so strong that a magical bond transfers over.
That bond is sacred to the courts because it allows mates to share their powers through the bond. Soulbonded Fae mates usually end up in very important positions in each court because their combined magic is so strong. They’ve even been known to challenge kings.
But there’s only one problem with all of this.
I’m not a Fae.
And I have no magic. Zilch. Not even a smidge. Nor can I use the prince’s magic. I mean, I think I’d notice the ability to freeze people. In fact, that would really come in handy.
A loud smack against the windowpane draws my attention to a tiny form just outside. Eclipsa has been trying to reach me for hours. Her messenger, an obscenely happy sprite with teal wings and a rainbow mohawk, was chased away by Ruby.