“You’re right.” Crossing my arms, I glance up at her and then to the others. “But when this is over, if we survive, I need to know the truth. All of it.”
Valerian goes very still. He looks to Eclipsa then back to me. “Fair enough. Now, why are you here?”
57
The darklings arrive with the rain. I’ve told the others everything I learned, along with the changeling glamouring me into revealing Valerian’s name. Eclipsa raised an eyebrow at that but didn’t say a word.
I glance at the dark shapes flickering through the dead trees like shadows. Their hisses mix with the soft pattering of rain to form an eerie chorus. The thought that they were once humans weighs heavy on my mind.
Could Aunt Zinnia’s daughter be here? Aunt Vi’s family?
There are so many missing humans, any one of which could be the deranged creatures lurking in the trees beyond.
We’re spread out in a circle, Ruby above. Only the prince’s magic has been bound, but you’d never know it by the confident way he holds his broadsword.
Mack is to my right. I’ve never been more proud of my friend as she grips her rapier with unshaking hands. Ready to die to protect her keeper and her friends. But my bow has to be the coolest weapon of all. The wood is baby-smooth inside my palms as I retrieve an arrow from my quiver, pinch the shaft between my thumb and pointer finger, and pull the string taut.
Through the crashing roar of my heart, I swear distant whispers pulse from the weapon.
The darklings descend all at once. Almost as if on a command. They streak across the meadow so fast they’re mere flickers. I release an arrow. Nerves throw off my aim, but the magic inside the arrow veers it into my target. Grinning, I release another. Then another. My movements impossibly fast.
Each arrow hits its mark effortlessly.
The other’s fight just as hard. Mack’s rapier cleaves the air as she pushes back the attack. Despite the darkling’s speed, Mack makes contact again and again. But her sword is steel, not iron, and the darklings she hits rise over and over.
It’s like some horrible dream where the bad guy doesn’t die, just grows stronger.
Ruby uses some sort of confusion spell to make the darklings spin in circles like dogs chasing their tails. But that spell doesn’t last long. Next, she sends a swarm of magical butterflies into the group. The darklings hiss and swat at the insects before refocusing on us. o;Don’t promise me, this time,” she says, her eyes harder than any fourteen-year-old’s should be. “Don’t promise you’ll come back. Not unless you will.”
I squeeze my arms around her one last time, my throat clenched. “I’ll see you again, Jane. Who else can keep you from running wild?”
Then I rush down the stairs toward the Shimmer before she can see the hesitation in my eyes.
56
Magus balks when I ask him to open the forbidden vault. He didn’t hesitate when I stood in the Faerie ring and called him over using the Gaelic words he gave me two months ago, after he returned me home. Words only to be used in an emergency. And he didn’t so much as blink when I demanded transport to the academy. But now, he finally seems to realize what I plan to do, and his large mossy eyes go wide.
Turns out stealing a forbidden weapon imbued with a hundred Fae souls using dark magic is where he draws the line.
He tries to talk me out of it. Tries to make me go to the headmistress instead. But by the time I find her, it might be too late for my friends. And even then, she might not believe me. Not with our history.
After a heated argument, I finally win him over. As the vault door grates open with a whoosh and the tang of dark magic washes over me, I nearly hesitate, everything becoming real.
But then I remember the video of the darkling attack inside the restaurant. An army of darklings will decimate everyone in the forest today. Everyone.
And I cannot let that happen.
Magus grunts behind me, his hooves stamping the damp stone floor. “Hurry and choose your weapon, human. And let’s hope it does not kill you.”
“Not necessary,” I say, pressing into the shadows. “It’s already chosen me.”
I find Ruby asleep in Mack’s dorm room, surrounded by Kit Kat wrappers. She screeches when she wakes, and immediately pledges her services to me. Outside, we discover the portals the first years used near the Lake of Sorrows.
I send Magus off to alert Mr. Willis and then Ruby sniffs each portal before pointing at the farthest one down the line. “The prince and your friend went through that one.”
“Are you sure?” I ask. We only get one chance at this.
She flashes an impish grin. “Kid, I’d know that Fae hunk of meat’s scent anywhere.”