lull me to sleep if I wasn’t careful. Maybe I really was part of the Summer Court. At the thought, I almost laughed out loud. How quickly the strangeness of this world and these people had begun to fade. Already I was beginning to feel as if I’d stepped out of a dream and into the true reality of my world.
And it gave me a sudden burst of bravery.
“So about that whole ‘stand by my side’ thing,” I started to say just as Finn came to an abrupt stop and deftly lowered me to my feet. The second my toes touched dirt, I stumbled away from him, glaring at his stupid sparkling eyes.
“Ah, here we are.” He dusted off his hands and grinned. “It’s probably best if the other students aren’t introduced to you by me carting you inside the Academy on my shoulder. Start off with a good impression, if you know what I mean.”
My heart began to thunder in my chest. The whole training to fight monsters thing had drawn me here, but I hadn’t really considered that I’d be training with other people. High school had never really been a pleasant experience for me. I’d been the weird girl, the one no one really liked. Sometimes, I’d made friends, but they’d only stuck around until they realized that I just wasn’t like other people.
The thought of going straight back into a school atmosphere? Well, it wasn’t making me excited, to say the least. I’d never planned on going to college. I thought school was in my past. Not in my future.
“I know what you’re thinking. Want to know how?” He grinned. “Because every single changeling who has come here has thought the same thing. You didn’t enjoy school. You didn’t have many friends. You got bullied, made fun of. Don’t worry. Everyone here has been through the same as you. You’ll fit right in.”
“If I try not to go inside, you’ll just sling me over your shoulder again,” I said. “Won’t you?”
He cracked a grin. “See, you’re catching on already.”
Chapter Nine
The actual Academy itself was something out of a gothic horror movie, minus the dark and rolling clouds lurking in the background. The ancient stone castle was the color of the steel Manhattan buildings, but a tapestry of thick green moss covered the bottom half. Spires rose up from every corner, and a large archway commanded the entrance. Through one of the thin rounded windows on the third floor, I spotted a hazy figure staring down at us. I shivered but kept my chin high as I strode through the archway behind Finn, who I could have sworn was chuckling under his breath.
Inside, we climbed a curving staircase that was carpeted in a deep red that reminded me of the color of Liam’s hair. Framed painted portraits lined the wall. Fae, I was guessing. They sat on thrones with various crowns decorating their heads. Twisting branches of bright and vivid flowers sat on one while another crown was nothing more than the deep gold of autumn leaves.
“Our Royals,” Finn said with a flick of his wrist at the paintings. “There’s the Spring King and Queen, and there’s Autumn.” We passed two more. This one had a crown of roses, and the thorns had remained intact, something that seemed a bit like a hazard to me. “And that’s Summer.”
“Right,” I said with a nod. “Makes sense. I guess. Actually, none of this makes sense. You have royalty?”
Finn grinned and pointed to the next painting. “And this here’s our Winter Royals.” Their crowns had no leaves, no flowers. Only knotted brambles twisted tightly together.
The expressions on their faces were cold and uncompromising. Was I really like them? I’d never thought of myself as unfeeling, as calculating, or as cruel, but maybe I didn’t know myself that well. After all, it turned out I was a fae, something I’d never known about myself until now. Maybe there was more about me I didn’t know. Maybe I really wasn’t the kind of person I thought I was.
Maybe I wasn’t as weak and as helpless as I’d always thought.
“Who’s that?” I asked when we passed the last portrait on the wall.
For the first time since we’d met, Finn’s face crumpled, and the lighthearted expression fell away. He clenched his jaw and kept moving up the stairs, his eyes turned away from the portrait.
I jogged to keep up. “Wait, who is that, Finn?”
His voice was hard when he spoke. “Marin. She was our