My lips curl up. “No beat down required. It was…nice.”
“It was nice?” she repeated, her voice an octave higher than usual. “Oh, yeah, he’s going to get it.”
I nudged my shoulder against hers with a laugh. “Okay, it was really nice.”
“Rory, if that boy didn’t make you hear angels sing, he’s not doing his job.”
“Oh, my God, Lark. Keep your voice down,” I hiss, shushing her as we head into the showers. “The heavens opened up and an angelic choir shined its glory down upon me. Okay?”
She snickers as she releases my arm and plucks a bar of soap from the shelf, pointing it at me.
“Much better,” she says. “Let’s do this.”
“Wait,” I say, glancing around the room to make sure we’re alone. “Put that back.”
She drops the soap back on the shelf and I pull her into a shower stall and close the curtain. She arches a dark brow, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Rory, I love you and all, but I’m not attracted to you in that way.”
“Shut up,” I laugh. “What’s your favorite scent?”
Her expression morphs from confusion to excitement as she starts to grasp what I’m asking.
“Peppermint,” she says.
I nod and lift my hands. Focusing my magic, I conjure up a bar of white soap and a bottle of moisturizing shampoo. Lark snatches the soap from my hand and holds it under her nose, breathing in deep.
“Oh, God, I take it back. I love you and I’ll be your side chick.”
“Get out of here,” I laugh, shoving the curtain aside and shooing her out.
Closing the curtain behind her, I turn on the water and strip out of my gray prison garb before conjuring up my own rose-scented bath products.
If only they could clean away my dark thoughts along with the sweat and dirt.
“TODAY, I will be assigning everyone new partners.”
I look up from my lap, my gaze following Mollie as she walks to her desk in the front of the room. She pulls a sheet of paper from her binder and begins calling out pairs of names.
“Maisy and Acadia. Cedric and Brooke. Lark and Asher.”
I jerk to my left to stare at Lark with wide eyes. She shrugs, leaning in close enough that I can smell her new peppermint scent.
“I told you. She always pairs us together. Everyone else is either frightened or too attracted to him.” Her head tilts to the side as one corner of her mouth lifts. “I guess you fall into the latter category, now.”
I open my mouth to tell her to shut up when Mollie’s next words make me suck the words back down with a fair amount of spit.
“Rory and Angelina.”
I cough against the choking sensation, clearing the saliva from my wind pipe as my wide eyes meet Angelina’s narrowed ones. Her mouth parts into a smirk, baring her white teeth in my direction.
Oh, she’s happy about this. I bet she’s been waiting for an opportunity to rip into me. She hasn’t said much to me, lately. Not since the day I sprinkled her with a touch of Glamour after she and her buddies harassed Lark and me in the showers—or The Clash of the Fair-Haired Fae, as Lark likes to call it.
I let my eyes drift shut and count to five before heaving a resigned sigh and moving to the empty seat beside the blonde. This is going to be a true test of my restraint.
“Not too close, Zephyr-lover. I don’t want to catch whatever disease you’ve gotten from Crow.”
I have a strong feeling I’m about to fail that test.
“Her name is Lark, and you’d do well to remember it, Angie,” I reply, adding a little extra emphasis on the shortened name.
I stare at her through narrowed eyes until some of the rigidity flows from her body. She’s backing down a notch. Good. I’d hate to lose it and let my magic fly in front of all these people.
And Echo’s cameras.
Thinking of Echo, I wonder if he’s the one who arranged this little partner-swap exercise today. Maybe he wants to see how I’ll react under pressure. It’s pretty obvious how petty and malicious Angelina is, and she’d be the perfect person to make me lose my cool.
I wonder if I should. Or, at least, pretend like I have. If I show signs of having trouble controlling my temper, it will give Echo even more reason to tutor me.
Or it could give him ammunition to use against me.
I’m so lost in confused thought, I don’t even hear most of the insults Angelina is spewing in my direction. Not until I hear one name, in particular.
“What did you say?” I ask, holding up a hand to halt her stream of jibes.
“I said, Asher thinks you’re ugly, too. He told me so while we were in bed. Together.”
I cocked my head, peering at her with curious eyes. “When was this?”
“Yesterday, after lunch,” she hisses.
Asher was in my bed yesterday at that time, not that I would have believed her even if he weren’t. He hates these girls, so her claim is ludicrous. And meant to hurt me.
Was my attraction to him so obvious?
“So, what you’re saying is,” I ask, kicking up the volume of my voice so the rest of the class can hear me, “you had Asher York in your bed, and you were talking about me? Wow.”
My eyes chase across the room and catch Asher’s gaze as he watches me from beneath hooded eyes. I shoot him a quick wink, and his mouth twitches with a suppressed smile as he looks back down at whatever image he’s drawing today.
I look back at Angelina with wide, innocent eyes.
A growl vibrates in her throat, and I know I have her. This is way easier than I thought it would be. She can’t affect me. I care too little about what she thinks or says. She, on the other hand, cannot claim the same.
“Maybe if you were the tiniest bit more likeable, your supposed lovers wouldn’t feel the need to talk about other girls while they’re in bed with you.”
Not to mention the fact that she hates Zephyrs, hates anyone who has a relationship with them, yet claims to be intimate with a hybrid. The ultimate product of a Sylph-Zephyr relationship.
I must have struck a nerve, because Angelina flies from her seat and leaps toward me, her fingers curled into claws. I suck a sharp breath through my teeth as panic sears through me.
I can defend myself readily with magic, but the physical stuff? I really suck at it. My instructors at the academy refused to let the princess participate in the training classes where young Fae learn to fight. And since I can’t use my magic in front of all these people, I throw my hands up to protect my face from Angelina’s inevitable attack.
When I feel no blows, no scratches, no pain, I lower my arms to see Angelina fighting against Asher’s embrace. He’s behind her, his arms wrapped around her middle to keep her from pouncing on me. I look around the room to see every set of eyes in the place on us.
God, that’s embarrassing.
I let a little Glamour slip out toward Angelina, reinforcing the fear I instilled in her brain that day in the showers. She stops struggling, and Asher lets her go, heading back to his seat next to Lark without a word.
“Well, that was a complete failure,” Mollie says. “Angelina, go take a walk to cool off and think about what techniques you could use in the future to restrain your emotional and violent responses. Rory, you can rejoin Lark and Asher.”
“That. Was. Awesome,” Lark announces as I slide back into my regular chair and scoot it in close to them.
“Yeah, until I almost got my butt kicked.” I look at Asher. “Thanks.”
“Why don’t you have any fighting skills?” he asks in a whisper, brushing off my thanks. “I thought they taught all Fae to battle at Oberon Academy.”
“They do,” I reply. “But you know who I am.”
I say that last bit quietly, through gritted teeth. I check for cameras and see one pointed at Acadia and Maisy. I’m sure it was focused on me until my altercation with Angelina ended.
“They wouldn’t let me train with the others,” I
whisper, and they both look at me strangely.
Like they can’t believe I was excluded because I am a princess. It should have opened every door for me, right? Wrong.
Can’t have Princess Aurora getting hurt on our watch.
My lip curls at the thought, then smooths out as I have another one. I turn pleading eyes to Asher.
“Can you teach me?”
“To fight?”
I nod eagerly, and one corner of his mouth tilts upward.
“Of course,” he says, and it’s all I can do not to bounce in my seat with excitement.
I can’t wait.
Chapter Five
“Why are you doing this to me? It’s because you hate me, right?”
Asher chuckles, but otherwise ignores my complaints. After lunch, he’d asked me if I wanted to start my training and I’d jumped at the chance. Now, though? Now, I regret ever asking.
Asher has me performing all kinds of exhausting, non-combative exercises he claims will build up my strength and stamina. Running. Jumping. Weightlifting.
“When do I get to actually fight?” I ask, then mumble under my breath, “Because I really want to hit you right now.”
“You don’t want to mess up my pretty face, do you?” he asks, giving me a big, toothy smile.
“Yes. Yes, I do,” I huff out between heavy, exhausted pants.
“Seriously, Rory,” he says, stepping close enough for me to hear his whisper, “you need to be able to defend yourself if you’re in a situation where you can’t use your powers. I know it doesn’t seem like that situation exists,”—he fingers the gold bracelet on my wrist—“but if it were to happen, I need to know you’ll be safe.”
There’s a slight hitch in his voice, and I see a flash of worry in his gaze before he covers it up. I swallow against the knot in my throat, wondering for the umpteenth time if I’m doing the right thing. Putting myself in constant, direct contact with Echo Oberon is a huge risk. Not only could he discover my true identity, he could use my friends against me to make me comply if I don’t fall into line like he wants me to.
“Come on,” Asher says. “Let’s run some more.”
With a groan, I fall into step beside him as we jog around the gym. At least he’s doing all the work with me, and not just giving instructions while watching. If he did that, I probably would’ve already hit him. Hard.
A half an hour later, we finally face off in sparring positions in the padded section of the gym. Asher is a patient teacher, showing me how to hold my arms and where to place my feet.
“The key to making this second nature is repetition. Right now, you need to focus on positioning, but eventually you’ll fall into the correct stance without thinking about it.”
I widen my stance and lift my arms like he showed me, and he nods in approval. Then, dropping low to the floor, he swings a leg out and kicks my feet out from under me. I land on my back with a huff, the impact knocking the wind out of me.
As I gasp to refill my lungs, Asher steps close and nudges my foot with his, asking, “You okay?”
Am I okay? I’m pissed he got the better of me, again. But I’m happy he’s not fawning over me or treating me like a breakable doll, as the instructors at the academy would have done.
I’m also glad that because there are no scheduled classes in here right now, there are no cameras.
I pull water toward me as Asher stares down at me with a confused expression. As his eyes start to widen with understanding, I jerk the strands of my magic, forming a big water funnel that I send right for him. He lets out a yelp as the cyclone picks him up and carries him toward the ceiling.
I climb to my feet with a laugh, releasing the water slowly so it gently lowers him to the floor. Then, calling wind, I warm it with fire and dry the room, as well as Asher. He shakes his head at me with pinched lips.
“That was a dirty trick,” he accuses.
“It was totally deserved,” I shoot back.
“And totally awesome,” a voice calls from the gym doors.
We both swing around to face Lark, whose watching us with a big smile. A shock of fear ripples through me at the sight of her. What if it had been someone else? Anyone could have walked in on us and seen me using magic.
“Crap. I’m sorry, Asher. I knew there weren’t any cameras, but I didn’t think about the doors being unlocked.”
“Hey,” he says, moving closer to take my hand, “don’t beat yourself up. Your first instinct is to use magic because that’s what you’ve been trained to do your whole life. That’s why we’re working on this, so you have other options. I don’t expect that change to happen on the first day.”
As I stare into his eyes, I see the honesty there. The belief that I will succeed. That I can do anything I set my mind to. I lean into him, my lips seeking his.
“Are you guys ready for dinner?” Lark calls out, reminding us of her presence as we break apart quickly.
With a loud bark of laughter, she pushes through the swinging doors, leaving us alone once more. I meet Asher’s eyes and we both chuckle. Lacing his fingers through mine, he pulls me toward the exit.
“Let’s go eat,” he says, opening the door and motioning for me to pass through ahead of him. “You need to refuel.”
“Yes, sir,” I say, giving him a little mock salute.
“You laugh, but when you don’t eat enough, you run out of energy and your muscles turn to jelly.”
My muscles feel like jelly right now, but I don’t tell him so. I want to be strong and confident, and I want Asher and Lark and the others to be proud of me. To be proud to be my friends.
That’s when it hits me. All these doubts I’ve been having—doubting myself, doubting this whole plan—I have to let them go. I have to believe in what we’re doing. Believe in my friends and believe in myself.
Because otherwise, nothing is going to change. Innocent Fae will continue to be sent to Oberon Reformatory, no one will ever return to their families, and Echo will succeed in whatever dastardly plan he’s set into motion.
I also don’t want to let Puck down. My great-grandfather has faith in me and in my abilities. If I do this, if I bring Echo down and exonerate all these innocent Fae, we can all return to our families. I’ll see Great-grandpa Robin, my parents, my little sister, and everyone else in the family.
Plus, coming home a hero might encourage my mom and dad to go easy on me for deceiving them. Maybe.
As we walk into the mess hall, I see our friends gathered around our usual table. They’re laughing, talking, pushing at each other’s shoulders. Acting like real friends do. Like friends that I’ve always dreamed of having.
And now that I do, I refuse to let them down. I have the opportunity to fix things for us all, and I’m not going to waste it.
Bring it on, Echo Oberon. I’m ready.
Chapter Six
“I asked someone to meet us here, today. The guard, Officer Woodrow.”
Cedric, Acadia, and Jolene look up at me from their seated positions on my cell floor with matching anxious expressions. When I told them of my plan to trick Echo and discover his secrets, I left out the part about Jax being undercover. Lark and Asher know, but I wanted to get his permission before telling the others.
“Why are you bringing a guard here, Rory?” Cedric asks.
“It’s okay,” I reply, my voice soft and cajoling, “he’s—”
A knock on the door cuts off what I was about to say. I give Cedric a reassuring smile and move to open it, letting Jax inside.
“Hello, everyone,” he says, then nods toward the door. “Is it safe to speak?”
“Yes,” I tell him. “The privacy shield is strong.”
He meets the eyes of every Fae in the room, before speaking.
“I’m Jax Woodrow, and I have been a guard at Oberon Reformatory for ten years. But my employment here is just a means to an end. My true job is to uncover the reasons behind why this place exists and what Echo Oberon is doing with all the inmates th
at pass through here. So far, I’ve been unsuccessful in finding any concrete evidence of his actions or his motives.”
“My great-grandfather Robin Goodman sent him here,” I add. “He knows I’m here and has tasked Jax to look out for me while I try to get close enough to Echo to discover the truth.”
“Ten years?” Acadia asks, her eyes wide. “You’ve been trying for ten years with no results, so now you’re sending in a teenage girl to do your job?”
While her words might seem caustic, her tone is full of nothing but fear. Fear for me. I open my mouth to defend Jax, but he waves me off and gives Acadia and the others a sad smile.
“It is Puck’s plan to use the princess. If it were up to me, I would call her parents and get her out of here before my next breath. But she is up for the challenge. She may be the only one who can get him to reveal his true agenda.”
The room falls into silence as everyone digests his words. I meet Asher’s eyes, which are bright with conviction. He believes in this plan. He believes in me.
“I can do this,” I say, looking back at the three on the floor.
“Yeah, she can,” Lark calls out. “Echo Oberon is going down.”
She punctuates her words with a fist pump and a snarl on her lips.
“We can do it, together,” Jolene adds, speaking for the first time.
Cedric rolls his eyes toward the ceiling. “It seems like Rory is taking all the risk. What is it, exactly, that we’re doing to help?”
“You’re offering your support,” Jax answers. “That goes farther than you think. You should keep your eyes and ears open and report anything that seems off. No matter how insignificant you think it is, it could be a clue. Rory needs all of us backing her up in this.”
“And we need to figure out why each of us was sent here—the real reason, not the so-called crimes we committed.”
Asher says the words with a strong voice, but there’s a slight catch when he says the word crimes. I know he still feels guilty for unintentionally killing the Sylph with a stray lightning bolt at that awful party. I know because I still feel guilt when I think of the human I accidentally murdered. It’s something we’ll both have to live with…and atone for.
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