constantly being on the brink of losing it wasn’t just annoying, it was exhausting to deal with.
“Emma, you need to take this.” Kiara procured a healing potion from her bag. She gave it to me, and I drank it in two gulps. It made my eyes water, but I felt the soreness from the bruises slowly ebb away as the magical herbs began to restore my injuries.
Delmare was looking at the translation notes. “Emma, the grimoire specifically says this spell is for advanced sorceresses only,” she said. “That’s past graduation. You’re barely at Second Year level.”
“I had to try!” I flung the glass vial of the healing potion down, and it shattered on the floor. “We have two years to find the Crystals of Harmony before everything goes up in smoke. If we don’t find those stones and open up the portal to Edinmyre before then, all the fae turn to dust. We don’t have time to waste!”
“It’s going to be for nothing if you kill yourself before then,” Delmare said scathingly. “Be a little patient. We’ll find them.”
I crossed my arms and simmered. Patience was never one of my strong suits, and this was a major problem. We had the wolven stone and the dragon stone already, but there were four more stones to locate. Time wasn’t on our side, and I feared I wouldn’t be powerful enough in two years’ time to stop the portal from closing once the hourglass ran out.
“That spell is just too strong, Emma. You’re going to have to try again when you become a more advanced sorceress,” Kiara said. “We’ll find the stones a different way.”
Rage flared within me. I didn’t have time to wait to be a better sorceress. I needed to find the stones now.
I just wanted a break. From this world. From everyone. I worried that if I stayed here, I’d yell at my friends out of frustration, and they didn’t deserve that. I couldn’t treat them badly just because I had a bad day. It wasn’t their fault we were on a deadline and Ethan was being a prick. If I wasn’t in control of my emotions, I shouldn’t be around them.
I grabbed the grimoire from Kiara, and the journal from Delmare. “Just give me some space, guys. I’ve gotta chill out.” I flung my bag over my shoulder and ran out of the alchemy lab, before they could stop me.
I wasn’t sure where I was going, only that I wanted to be alone. I wandered around campus by myself. It only made my mood worse, and I wasn’t sure why— until the answer hit me like a dump truck as I was walking through the campus gardens.
There were couples everywhere. People were making out in corners of the castle and messing around behind the sculptures in the gardens. Wherever I looked, fae were either hooking up or going on dates. I knew the whole point of being a fae was to find your soulmate, but it was more than a little ridiculous.
I felt a wave of nausea as I watched an alicorn couple suck face by the gates. Gods, wasn’t there a damn person at this university who wasn’t blissfully in love? It was like everyone was rubbing my breakup in my face. I couldn’t remember this many couples last year on campus. Was I just noticing now because they cherished what I had lost?
School was obviously the wrong place to change my mindset. I didn’t know where else to go. The forest wasn’t safe, as it was full of monsters. I could go into Dolinska, but I’d more or less face the same problem with all the old people, and that’d be even grosser.
“Excuse me, do you have a minute?”
A stranger’s voice behind me caused me to turn. I was face to face with a sheepish boy with a mane of messy red hair. He had large glasses, which hid his green eyes, and he was taller than me by a few inches. He spoke with a slight Irish accent— unusual for an Arcanea.
Behind him was a beautiful girl, with silver hair and crystalline eyes. She was so gorgeous to look at that a shudder ran through me at her appearance. I saw the wolven mark on her hand. She and the redhead had to be a part of my Faction.
“My mate and I were playing a game with our friends,” he began. “We have an uneven number, and are looking for someone to sub in.”