Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,5

assumption that you’re weak, magicless. But you’re not, are you?”

My hands clench over the table. “Hell, no.”

“There’s my girl. Unmask Hellebore and he could lead us to the axe fragments.”

“If he’s given them to someone else?” Mack asks.

Eclipsa taps her tea glass as she thinks. “Not ideal, but taking away the Darken’s most powerful ally will give us more time to stop him.”

“That all sounds amazing,” I begin, picking at a sticky bit of linoleum with my fingernail, “but how am I supposed to get close to Hellebore when he keeps me locked away?”

Mack perks up. “What if we spread rumors about how Summer is never seen with Hellebore?”

An impressed grin overtakes Eclipsa’s face, and Mack practically beams as Eclipsa nods. “I have contacts inside all the courts.” Eclipsa winks at me. “Expect an invitation from your betrothed in, oh, twenty-four hours.”

We finish our tea. Just before we stand to leave, I ask the question that’s been on the tip of my tongue since I saw Eclipsa. “How is he?”

I can tell by the way her mouth tightens at the corners that she knows immediately who I’m referring to.

For a moment, the aloof Lunar Court assassin drops her mask, allowing me to glimpse the worry in her eyes. I’m surprised by the intensity of her concern.

Her focus shifts just behind me to the door, and she resumes her impenetrable armor. “Hellebore struck a mortal blow when he claimed you, and the poison lurking in our bodies gives us all agonizingly vivid nightmares.”

“I know. I experience them every night.”

Her throat bobs in a ragged swallow, and I wonder what terrible visions the Bloodstar poison inflicts upon her own dreams. “You have to know, Summer, the only reason he doesn’t start a war over you at this point is because he won’t sacrifice his friends.”

A chill inches down my spine. “He would die to save me?”

“You really have no idea the lengths he will go to protect you, do you? Summer, you are his mate, the future wife of the Winter Court King and rightful queen to two of the biggest Fae courts in existence. He would give his life for you in a heartbeat, as would I.”

“I don’t want that. I can’t lose either of you.” My heart is racing. “Just tell me he’s going to be okay.”

She exhales, sending errant strands of her silver-white hair blowing back. “The Winter Prince survived the Darken. He survived his father’s callousness and his mother’s betrayal.” Her eyes sharpen as they focus on me. “And he survived losing you once before. He is the Winter Court Prince and heir and he will get through this, Summer. You both will.”

Her gaze is steady, but something in her voice sends my stomach into free fall.

My mate is not okay. If our plan doesn’t work out, if I can’t stop Hellebore and the Darken, I’ll lose him forever.

3

Eclipsa was wrong. The invitation to Hellebore Narcissus’s back-to-school party arrives in the evening. Seven hours later, to be exact, dramatically delivered on the silent wings of dragonflies. The jewel-toned insects flit in from an open window, a glittery cloud of metallic green and deep purplish-red. Their fragile wings move so fast they’re a blur as they deposit the salmon-pink envelope on the pillow of my unmade queen-size platform bed.

For a moment, I can’t reconcile the delicate creatures with the city just outside my window—blaring honks and screeching tires, the scent of garbage, exhaust, and sweet mini cakes from the vendor below. I can’t recall the last time I saw an insect in this bustling world of metal and concrete and chaos.

Miraculously, Ruby senses the creatures despite being in a dead sleep. Her head snaps up beside the stuffed giraffe she sleeps with, Tall Goat.

Tall Goat hails from the Bronx Zoo. He was purchased after Ruby had a tantrum in front of the giraffe enclosure because she wanted to ride the “tall goats.”

Now, Tall Goat tumbles unceremoniously from the bed as Ruby erupts into the air prepared for battle. My would-be savior dives after the silent messengers, smacks headfirst into a polished bedpost, and drops to the ivory and gold shag rug, out cold.

The dragonflies disappear into the New York City sky. After ensuring Ruby is only stunned and not, in fact, dead, I face off with the object I’ve been dreading all summer.

My first summons from my sadistic Fae fiancé. I know this is part of the plan but it feels more like a summons from my executioner than