and Rourke moved with a speed and grace that matched the most glorious of ballets.
My sword found its mark several times, and after what felt like hours, the beast finally fell.
I whirled on my feet to face the next creature. It rose up before me, its brilliant blue eyes latching onto mine.
Blue eyes. Not black or red, but blue.
My heart shook, and I stumbled back.
No. It couldn’t be. Bree would never do such a thing.
Alwyn’s words rang in my ears. The Autumn fae were using the Redcaps, controlling them as a way to launch violent attacks on the Academy. Somehow, they’d found my friend, and they’d sent her here to kill me.
She hesitated, the deafening roar in her throat dying away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Griff charging toward her. Before I could think, I jumped in the way, holding up my hands as his sword swung toward me.
“No!” I shouted. “Stop!”
His sword froze in mid-air, only inches from slicing right into my neck. Griff frowned, stumbling back, his eyes locked on Bree’s monstrous form behind me.
“Get out of the way, Norah,” he said, voice harsh and full of furious emotion. “That’s the last Redcap here. It needs to be killed.”
“No,” I said, more quietly now. “This isn’t a Redcap. It’s Bree, my oldest friend from home. She doesn’t deserve to die.”
Griff shook his head, letting out a harsh laugh as he gestured at the carnage in the hallway. “She helped kill all those guards, Norah. I get that you think she’s still the human girl you knew back home, but she isn’t. She’s a monster now, one who is attacking us. Now, move out of the way.”
“No. She didn’t do this.” My heartbeat was so loud in my ears that I could barely hear my own voice. “The Autumn fae are controlling her, just like Alwyn said. She would never attack anyone. Not on her own.”
“You’re talking about a Redcap, Norah. A Redcap.”
With tears in my eyes, I turned my back on Griff to look up into my friend’s beastly face. Those eyes. They were so sad, so tortured. Bree was in there, somewhere deep inside the Redcap’s monstrous body. She didn’t want to be doing this, and I knew exactly how I could make this all okay.
“I’ve got a plant that can heal you, Bree,” I whispered to her, reaching up to press my shaking hands against her rough fur. “You don’t have to be like this anymore. Just...turn back into your real form so that they can see what you really are. Human.”
“Norah,” Kael said quietly as he inched up behind me. “I don’t think you’re going to get through to her, not when she’s like this.”
But I could only ignore him. “Bree? Come on, I know you can do it. I’ve seen you change back before. Remember?”
Tension filled the room as I faced off against the beast. We stood in the center of the training room, her sorrow-filled eyes locked on my face. She shuddered beneath my hand, and for a moment, I thought I’d made her realize what she needed to do.
But then her body stiffened, and she jerked her head toward a distant sound that none of us could hear but her. And then she was off, charging down the hallway. Griff let out an exclamation of surprise. He rose his sword and took off behind her.
“No!” I screamed, but it was too late. More changelings joined him in the chase. At least a dozen of them took off to hunt down my friend.
With a heavy sigh, I fell to my knees and pressed my hands flat on the cold floor. Bree was in there somewhere. I knew it. Even after everything that had happened, I couldn’t give up on her. She’d certainly never given up on me. But I didn’t know how to get through to her. Not when the Autumn fae were controlling her mind, and not when my fellow changelings were desperate to shove their swords into her throat.
There was nothing I could do now. As hard as I’d tried, I’d lost.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The thunder continued to rage outside while the changelings returned to their rooms. Several of the instructors had taken off to track down Griff and the others. They’d likely chased Bree out into the storm, and no one should be running around in the thunder and lightning, least of all right now when the threat of the Autumn Court was so fresh and so real.
And