Spring

He begrudgingly falls into place behind me, although I know he’ll make me pay for that comment later during training. Staying true to my word, I throw him a few darklings to finish, enough to hopefully sate his bloated ego.

To my right, Mack does the same. Cutting through the straggler darklings like a pro. She’s chosen twin katanas, and they sing through the night as she strikes, never missing her mark.

Snarling shapes streak between the trees toward us. The scent of the Evermore has driven them into a frenzy; their black eyes are nearly rolled back in their head with an all-consuming hunger; their inhumanly sharp teeth gnash the air.

Mack and I make sure they never get close enough to endanger our Keepers. I release bolt after bolt of my crossbow, surprised by how different—how amazing—it feels to use the weapon against real darklings.

Even Ruby makes herself useful, bringing me back the used bolts. She’s convinced herself we made a bargain and I’ll be giving her an apple Jolly Rancher for each one.

The landscape slopes slightly upward as we near the end of the pool. My heart sings with pride as Valerian and I fall into a lethal rhythm, our movements synced almost like they’re choreographed.

Mr. Willis once said some Keepers and shadows form such tight bonds that, during battle, they become of one mind, an unstoppable force.

At this moment, I feel like Valerian and I could take down the entire world.

The obelisk looms close, the protective golden shield’s glow a beacon of hope that cuts through the darkness around us.

“Almost there!” I call, driving the group forward.

We’re past the reflecting pool and racing across open ground. More darklings begin bleeding from my periphery, but we’re so close that I push aside the whisper of panic tingling between my shoulder blades.

Across the lawn, figures move toward the monument. I make out a few other shadows I recognize and their Evermore Keepers fighting their way toward safety.

In the distance, the first tendrils of silver hint at dawn’s approach.

But it doesn’t matter because we’re nearly there. Twenty feet separate us from victory. We’re so close to the structure that I can see the Spring Court flags whipping from their posts circling the monument.

Ten feet.

Five.

Yes! The golden shield undulates so close I can touch it. Pivoting so my back is to the shield, I catch Valerian’s eye and jerk my chin at the safety zone. “Go!”

He hesitates, torn between keeping me safe and letting me do my job. But he must know how important this moment is, with everyone watching us, and he leaps into the protective circle. Asher does the same.

“Summer, get your beautiful ass inside this circle!” Mack orders.

I wink. “After you.”

I watch her barrel through the translucent shield, ready to leap after her—

Where’s Ruby?

Heart racing, I scour the darkness. There. She’s standing on top of a dead darkling, struggling to reclaim the bolt and completely oblivious to the two darklings scuttling on all fours toward her.

My first bolt takes out the closest creature. I wound the second, but my aim is off and my bolt hits its shoulder, hardly making a dent.

Crap. I lunge for the creature, sword drawn, and take it out with a downward strike seconds before it reaches Ruby.

Blood splatters my face, oddly cool and sticky. Fighting the urge to retch, I grab Ruby and toss her onto my back.

Singing and completely oblivious to the danger around us, she dives to add another bolt to the quiver resting on my waist as I rush to the safety zone.

“Ooh, what’s this?” she coos, like when she discovers a piece of half-eaten candy she hid and forgot about. “So pretty.”

A foul stench reaches my nose.

I turn to go, but Ruby flutters in front of me, dangling a silver, bell shaped device. Rotten air reeks from the tiny holes in the side.

“Why is there orc bait attached to your belt?” Ruby asks.

“Orc what?” I hiss as I snatch her mid-air and begin to run toward the others. Mack, Asher, and Valerian are pressed against the magical curtain . . .

Why are they yelling?

The shield must cut off sound because I can’t hear them. I can, however, feel the ground trembling, as if something impossibly large is running straight for me.

Crap.

The second I whip around and take in the huge creature lumbering toward me, my heart slams into my throat. Pale green skin. Boulder-sized muscles and giant hands capable of crushing my skull. Two thick yellow tusk-like teeth rise from an underbite . . .

Orc.

Oblivious to the oncoming mountain of death rushing toward us, Ruby wiggles from my hand and begins tossing the ball of stench into the air.

Orc.

Orc bait.

Orc. Bait.

That was tied to my waist.

“Ruby!” I scream before throwing a desperate look back at the safety zone. Everyone inside the protected zone is watching. Mrs. Richter is waving her hands at me while Professor Crayburn works what looks like some type of spell on the shield, possibly one that allows them to cross back over into this world.

Mack is yelling her head off. Beside her, Asher is gesturing for me to run and Valerian is slamming against the magic wall trying to get to me.

But he can’t.

Run.

God, I want to, every inch of me consumed by fear. But that’s not going to happen. Not without Ruby.

The world slows to a crawl. The orc’s beady black eyes, hooded by an enormous overhanging brow, fixate on the bait Ruby dangles back and forth. A bellow shatters the night as three darklings attack his thick legs, but they might as well be flies for all the orc notices.

His platter-sized hand closes around Ruby, who’s still holding the bait, the idiot. Her eyes widen as she finally breaks out of her drunken stupor, and the squeal of fear she emits as he shoves her toward his hideous mouth—

A blast of bone-shattering cold ripples through the air, blowing my pale hair forward and turning my breath cloudy white. The grass around us has crystallized, everything in a hundred foot radius transformed from Spring to Winter. Like statues after a blizzard, darklings and the orc are frozen, covered in a deep layer of ice.

The world seems to still, as if time has stopped. But then I hear Ruby’s curses and realize what’s happened.

Valerian—he broke the rule and saved me. Saved us. Ruby would have died, but still, disappointment fills me as I realize what this means.

I’m going to be expelled.

But I’d ask him to do it again in a heartbeat to save Ruby.

Ruby!

My boots crunch the frosted grass as I rush to her side. Only her feet are visible, and they kick and flail as she works to break free. I reach onto my tiptoes, wrap my fingers around each tiny leg, and tug.

She pops free from the orc’s thick icy fingers and dives straight into my vest, trembling. “Thank you,” she whispers.

“Don’t thank me,” I protest as I stumble toward the safety zone, nearly colliding with a darkling frozen in a crouch. “That was compliments of the Winter Prince.”

Ruby peeks her head from my shirt. “Kid, I don’t know how you did it, but I know magic. And that savage display of power came from you.”

Me? Crap. I must have stolen the magic from Valerian. Did anyone else see?

“This is bad, Ruby,” I mutter as I approach the waiting circle of shadows and Evermore.

Fingers of orange reach across the sky. Sunrise. If I’m not inside that protective shield when the sun rises—

I lunge to where Valerian and the others are waiting, ignoring the tense looks on their faces. I’m trying to think up a way to explain the display when I spot the figure in front of me, blocking my way to safety.

As I see Prince Hellebore’s smarmy visage, my frustration overrides my survival instincts. I’ve been chased by flesh-eating humans turned zombie, covered in their bloody gore, faced down an orc, and now this giant douche face isn’t going to stand in my way.

“Move,” I growl, my hand going for my sword hilt, “or you’ll lose your favorite tiny appendage.”

I ignore Ruby’s gasp from inside my vest.

He laughs. “Why is it with humans, the weakest ones have the loudest bark?”

Screw this pointy-eared dickwad. I move to brush past him into the safety zone—

A sudden gust of wind slams into me, smashing me flat against the shield—which is now as hard as a pane of glass. He’s careful not to touch me—Mack said something about him asking for permission.

But the force of the wind is so strong that I can’t move.

And I know—I just know that none of the dangers I survived in the night compare to the situation I’m in now.

24

The shield smells like lilies. I’m not sure why that’s the first thing I think when my face is flattened against the magical wall, probably looking as smooshed as when the twins do the same to our screen door back home.

The only difference is they have a choice. I do not.

Valerian roars as he batters the shield trying to get to me, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent. Burst after burst of his magic slams against the thin partition separating him from me, but the shield’s power feeds from the entire academy, and it refuses to break.

Asher joins him, their combined magic rolling outward in waves of pale blue and orange, one frosting the shield and the other scorching it.

But I already know the divide between us cannot be breached, and I might as well be in another realm entirely. Unreachable and . . . alone.

With a psychopath.

“What are you . . . doing?” I demand.

Ruby is freaking out, squirming where she’s trapped inside my vest. I can’t even reach my hand in to protect her because the force of the wind has them pinned against the magical wall.

Hellebore chuckles, an arrogant, lazy laugh that’s much closer than I anticipated. Adrenaline floods my veins as I feel his breath warm against my ear.

He still has yet to touch me. Yet to do anything but taunt me with this stupid, impossible wind.

“One touch,” he murmurs. “That’s all it would take and you would beg me in front of your Winter Prince and the entire school to take you.”