10
Hellebore follows me through the portal and snaps it closed before I can move. Panicked, I glance around. We’re inside what looks to be an overgrown garden. Climbing roses, clematis, and wisteria run wild over a splash of hedges. A family of centaur sculptures rise from the middle, their life-sized bodies entangled in vines.
Something about the air here, or perhaps the magic, feels wrong—twisted, even. Just beneath the sweet spring breeze lurks the stench of decay. Black moldy dust clings to sculptures and fringes the ends of the plants.
“Where are we?” I breathe as I spin around, searching for an escape.
“Welcome to the Spring Court gardens, once the most beautiful place in all the lands, before the scourge took it.”
“What? Take me back.”
He laughs. Laughs, for Shimmer’s sake. “How have you not been punished with a mouth like that?”
“Fuck. You.”
A lethal stillness overtakes him, the act so unnatural, so predatory that I’m frozen with terror. “Why did one of the most dangerous creatures in the entire academy not kill you?”
Just like the air here, there’s something in his voice that makes me recoil. Something unhinged.
I try to retreat—only I’m stuck. Too late, I feel his magic glide around my thighs, my stomach, invisible vines imprisoning me in place. The scent of tulips and lilies fill the air, their cloying sweetness causing me to choke.
“Let me go,” I snarl, but it’s hard to feel intimidating when you can’t move. I try another tactic. “They’ll notice I’m missing.”
“No, they won’t. These statues were a gift from Queen Titania herself. They have the marvelous ability to slow down time. I could hold you here for days and on the other side, an hour will have passed.”
I swallow. He takes yet another step. And another. His head cocked sideways as he examines me. I’m reminded of the animalistic way the griffin did the same, only I can’t control Prince Hellebore.
“Why did it not hurt you?” he asks again, this time softer, his voice almost melodic.
My pendant heats between my breasts; he’s trying to use compulsion to make me answer.
Frick. Gritting my teeth, I struggle against his voice, against the seductive power trying to invade my mind and override my will. The invisible vines keep wrapping tighter around me, growing thicker by the second.
“The water protected me,” I grind out, glaring murder at him.
“Someone found a way to protect you from compulsion.” He shakes his head in disappointment.
“Sorry to ruin your fun, psycho.”
Yes, keep taunting him, Summer. See how that works out for you.
The air wheezes from my throat as he cords his magic so tightly over my chest that my ribs crack. “Clever, guessing it hated water. And yet, when that selkie snuck up behind you, the beast braved its aversion and protected you. Why?”
My eyes widen with rage. “You saw the selkie about to eat me and you didn’t tell me?”
“I’m an Evermore. Did you expect me to care one way or the other if you die?”
Fury sends searing heat bubbling over my chest. “If that’s true then why did you save me this morning?”
“Save you? Is that what you think I did?”
Oh, God. When did he take another step closer? I strain harder as a sense of doom starts to set in. The magic feels just like real binds, and my body is starting to freak out.
“Do you know what we do at Whitehall to mortal shadows who break our rules?”
“Drag them to creepy time-warped gardens and bore them with questions?”
“We drop them in the middle of Ranth Forest and then watch as the predators hunt them down.”