Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,23

my sweaty palm, I jog down the winding path toward school, surprised by how well my heels navigate the dirt path. Mist curls around my thighs and ripples outward.

Today has awesome written all over it.

Hey, universe. Someone actually thinks I deserve to be here.

My brain does that thing where it jumps ahead, and I immediately start planning all the ways I’m going to change this school now that I’m the head student for the Summer season. As long as even a fraction of the students stand behind me, I can really make a difference here.

Maybe, just maybe, mortal shadows won’t have to die while I’m in charge.

The forest buffers my house from the conservatory, a verdant, overgrown garden brimming with wildlife. If I sprint I can make it to breakfast in exactly four minutes.

“Today is going to be the best freaking day ever,” I declare to a snoring Ruby.

Shifting my backpack to my left shoulder, I barrel toward the domed-glass building in the distance. “Get ready for—”

Something snags my ankle, jerking my leg back even as the movement propels me forward. Time slows as I fall fall fall . . .

Straight onto my face.

11

Groaning, I push off my palms while looking behind me—

My head snaps down so hard my chin smacks my chest as I’m ripped backward by my ankle. I claw at the path, at anything I can reach, fingers digging into the soft dirt, the thick grass, anything to stop from being dragged into the forest.

The very dark, very creepy forest.

But the thing around my leg is too strong. Flipping onto my back, I kick my heel at what looks like a ropy vine of some sort. It tightens as I make contact, pain biting into my shin. Any harder and my bone will snap.

Trees race by on either side. I try to grab them but my fingers slip from the soft barkless trunks, wet from the morning dew.

All at once, we stop. The mist curls above my face, obscuring the stars peeking through the treetops. Quiet descends. A terrifying, omniscient silence that makes it hard to breathe.

Where are the birds? The insects?

Dazed, I lift onto my elbows. Wet leaves and damp moss seep through the back of my blouse and into my skin. What the hell is happening?

Something slithers over my hair. Panic shoots through me and I claw at the thing until—

“Ruby?” I peel her from my tangled hair, wincing at the pale blonde strands she rips out.

She rubs her eyes. “Why are we sleeping in a forest?”

“We’re not. Ruby—”

My breath hitches as vines snap around my wrists. My arms wrench behind me. Only my leg is free, but as soon as I slam my sandal heel into the vine circling my ankle, another one slithers up my free leg, spiraling to my knee.

“Why is it so angry?”

“I don’t know,” I grunt, trying to wiggle as my binds tighten. “But I’m not staying long enough to find out.” My knife. I twist my head sideways, dirt and dewy ferns smashing into my cheek. “Ruby, there’s a dagger in my backpack. Side pocket.”

The pack is wedged behind me. I can feel it wiggling as it tries to free itself. Ruby disappears to my side. A moment later, she’s circling above, the soft trickle of dawn glinting on the knife’s blade.

Hope blooms inside my chest, dangerously sweet. My little sprite’s teeth flash. With a wild cry, she dives for the vine around my ankle. I flinch. The odds that she’ll impale my flesh instead of the vine are much higher than I’d like, but it’s better than whatever this thing has in store for me.

Before she makes contact another vine shoots from the forest floor. A helpless panic clenches my insides as the twisted vine wraps around her, entangling my only weapon and last chance at rescue.

Rescue? a proud voice inside me barks. Only victims talk that way and you are not a victim. You are part mortal, part Fae, and one hundred percent badass. You have magic waiting at your fingertips. Use it!

I search for the energy I usually feel thrumming just outside my senses, awaiting my command. But my heart is pounding inside my head and my focus is all over the place. I clench my jaw and try to remember the steps.

Normally the magic just leaps into my reach.

Controlling that wild surge of energy is normally the problem, not finding it.

A growl of frustration bubbles up my throat. I can feel that undulating power waiting