Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,74

do just what Hellebore promised.

We need to be ready.

30

Inara is nothing if not predictable. A few minutes after Hellebore left, Bane, Rhaegar, and Lyra approach our group, their sadistic gazes locked on me. Bane wears a ridiculous cobalt and silver brocade jacket fringed in creamy fur, diamonds snaking up both slanted ears. The malice in his eyes chills me to the marrow.

I’d bet anything Bane has a secret cabin filled with trophies of the animals he kills and a signed poster of Jeffry Dahmer.

Rhaegar and Lyra stand just behind him, as if they don’t quite feel comfortable around Bane either. Rhaegar wears the emerald and gold colors of the Summer Court, but the green is unnaturally dark to match his black eyes.

Bane curls a long-nailed finger. “Let’s go, Trailer Trash.”

Heat singes my back. Even though this is the plan, Asher releases a spine tingling growl that sends smoke billowing into the air and causes the hairs on my neck to bristle.

“Does the itty bitty dragon want to play?” Bane twirls a silver swirl of ice magic between his fingers, hardly bothering to glance at Asher.

Lyra at least has the good sense to look fearful as she watches Eclipsa. But Rhaegar only has eyes for me though. And something about the way the outcast Summer Court Fae watches me, the festering hatred putrefying his gaze, tightens my chest.

“It’s okay.” I lock eyes with first Asher, then Mack and Eclipsa before lifting my chin and striding toward Bane. “There’s nothing they can do to hurt me.”

Bane gives a cruel laugh. “This is going to be too easy.”

I don’t know what this is—and in a perfect world, I would never have to find out. But in the Everwilde torture is a rite of passage.

I can handle this. I can handle this. I can handle this.

If you say something enough then it feels true, and I manage to keep my anxiety at bay during the long march across the rooftop, even as the very drunk crowd starts to follow us. I manage to hold it off as Rhaegar grabs my arm, hard enough to bruise, and drags me through to the rooftop pool.

But when I see Inara waiting on the frozen water, her eyes bright and malicious, fear floods my veins.

My heart hammers against my breastbone hard enough I worry it will bruise.

Rhaegar leans down, his shaggy reddish-gold locks brushing my cheek. “Not so brave now, are you, Princess?”

I glare up at him. “Careful or I’ll embarrass you in front of your new friends. Again. Or should I say your new masters?”

A soft, terrifying growl comes from deep within his barrel chest. “You have no idea what I’m capable of, or the connections I have.”

Ignoring his warning, I focus on the immediate threat—just in time to see Inara lift her hand and release a string of winter magic. The air crackles as fingers of ice shoot outward forming a frosted cage.

I suck in a nervous breath. I’m locked in with the Six. Crap just got real.

Throwing out a hand, Inara sends snakes of ice slithering toward me. Before I can so much as yelp, they’re wrapping around my ankles, my thighs, my arms. Frigid cold burns my bare flesh. I’m jerked forward so violently that I fall onto my knees, scraping the flesh raw. Adrenaline sears my veins as I struggle to my feet. She throws her head back in a laugh as she yanks me toward her. I told myself I wasn’t going to fight, but my survival instincts take over and I buck and flail, panic shrinking my vision.

I’m an orphan again. Fighting against the bars of my tiny cage as they try to close it. Overtaken by wild, raw desperation.

“It’s okay.” The tiny voice breaks through my shell of panic. Ruby nestles on my shoulder, partially hidden in my hair. She’s stroking my neck and patting my cheek the way a mother would calm a child. “It’s okay, Kid. I’m here. You’re not alone. I’ll never let you hurt alone. You’re my person.”

She keeps whispering those words of comfort until the darkness circling my eyes fades and my heart slows to a manageable pace. I stop struggling. Let Inara’s cold binds force me onto the ice. My heels slip over the smooth, glassy surface, but I manage to stay upright.

Once I’m a few feet away, she twirls her fingers and the snakes of ice melt.

“You don’t have to do this,” I say, but I already know I can’t pierce the all-consuming