Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,137

how many times I redecorate it or move furniture around, it still has her written all over it.

After my mother’s death, I inherited everything. The penthouse apartment, her properties all over the world, her vast fortune, and her law firm.

Sebastian is showing me the ropes and basically holds my hand through everything. When my internship period is over, I will begin my night courses at the Faerie college down the street. Two years, plus what I’ve learned during my internship, and I can sit for the Faerie law exam.

When I’m not working or studying, I’ve started volunteering at the clinics my mother sponsored.

I can’t help but think, in her way, my mother would have been proud.

My heels click over the marble tiles as I stroll to my desk and pick up the one photo she kept in her office, framed in gold.

It was actually a portrait print from our life together before. We were smiling, arms around one another, mother and daughter against the world.

I’ve tried for so long to hate her for what she did, but in the end, I know she only did what she thought was best for me. Just like Inara and Hellebore, she was a product of her world. Hardened by years of injustice and pain.

And, just like them, she let her own hatred turn her into the very thing she was fighting against.

Only nine months have passed, yet it feels like a century since we buried my mother and scattered the dust from the Darken’s axe. What no one knew at the time was that, once the axe was destroyed, the magic polluting the land would dissipate. The darklings changed back to humans immediately, although only about thirty-percent or so survived the change.

The world calls it a miracle. No one knows what happened at my wedding, or who’s responsible.

Camps have been set up to host the darklings that changed back while they’re connected with their families. News crews have been allowed inside the Everwilde to follow the progress.

It’s all anyone can talk about.

As for me, I’ve moved past that part of my life. The Darken may finally be gone, but the Fae will always find a way to exploit humans—and I’ll spend my life making sure they don’t.

I set the frame down just as the phone rings. My receptionist, a pixie female I swear is on drugs ninety-percent of the time, drawls over the speaker, “A Mackenzie Fairchild and Eclipsa Skywell are here to see you? Do you want them to like, come up, or . . . ?”

“Yes. Send them up.”

A few moments later, my friends burst in. Mack rushes over for a hug while Eclipsa acts too good—that is, until we forcibly drag her into the mix.

“Why aren’t you ready?” Mack loosens her scarf. “We were supposed to meet Asher five minutes ago, and I only have like, half-an-hour before Lyrican wants me back. You’ll never guess who we’re dressing. Inara. She’s throwing another ball at her palace in the Everwilde. Anyway, we dressed her in a pure gossamer gown embellished with dew drops.”

I smile, enjoying my bestie’s enthusiasm. She never got this excited about law, which is what her dads wanted her to major in. But after everything that happened, the school was more than happy to let her, and every single shadow at the academy, out of their contracts.

Some returned voluntarily for their fourth year, but Mack chose to follow her dream of working in Fae fashion, and she now interns a few blocks away at Lunar Fae designer Lyrican Starwick’s fashion house.

Eclipsa glances at the Apple watch on her wrist. “Yeah, I only have a few minutes, as well. If we hurry, we can make it to the tea house.”

“I want to go!” Ruby screeches as she flutters inside the office, an overworked page in tow carrying Ruby’s current obsession—Fae tabloids. I’m okay with it. As long as she’s busy, she’s not trying to boss around the staff.

She snatches a magazine from the top of the stack and drops it on the desk in front of us. Hellebore’s handsome face stares from the front page, along with the title, Who is this new Spring Court King?

Eclipsa takes the magazine and flips it over. “I think we’d all like to know the answer to that.”

The day after the wedding, the Bloodstar antidote was delivered to Valerian, Eclipsa, and Asher, who had just recovered from Rhaegar’s poison. A week later, Rhaegar was killed inside his gated home. Even though the murder