Evermore Academy (Evermore Academy #3) - Audrey Grey Page 0,76
tiny friend’s head. It was her idea to use the moonsprite wing. When imbued with magic, the rare item turns a spellcaster’s magic back on them.
The fire ends just how it started—all at once. The skirt hangs in short, smoldering tatters around my thighs. A few embers pulse along my bodice like angry fireflies. The soft breeze wraps me in delicate layers of smoke and sends sparks high into the night sky.
Silence reigns.
I drag in a lungful of singed air and wait to see if Ruby’s spell worked or if I’m about to face down Inara’s murderous wrath.
31
“You idiot,” Inara snarls, her sharp heels chipping divots in the ice as she rushes me. She’s half shifted, her eyes glowing yellow and fangs lowered. I’ve never seen her so furious. “You’re going to—”
All at once she jerks to a halt as if an invisible leash tugs her back. A strange look overtakes her cruel expression. Her aquamarine locks tumble around her shoulders as she shakes her head, as if trying to dislodge something.
Her long pale arms go lax, hands loose at her sides. Her claws melt into her fingertips. Wrinkles furrow her forehead as she fights the spell, but Inara used powerful magic that even she can’t undo.
Her eyes lock on Bane and then she’s rushing toward her brother. He shoots her a WTF look as she falls to her knees—her knees—in front of him.
His confusion turns to distress as she grabs his pant leg, face pleading, and says, “I’m the one who told Mom and Dad what you did to your nanny.”
Whatever he did to the poor nanny—and I’m not sure I want to know—it must have been bad enough to get him in major trouble, because the dark look he gives his sister could kill a full grown orc.
“When you did your first magic trial, I sabotaged you so your magic came off weak. When we were home over the summer, I was jealous because Mom and Dad were giving you more attention so I gave you oleander poison.”
“That’s why I couldn’t go on the skiing trip with them?” he seethes, the muscles in his jaw feathering. “That nearly killed me.”
“I’ve scared away every girlfriend you ever had with lies because I didn’t want you to be happier than me,” she continues, eyes jerking wildly.
All emotion has drained from Bane’s face, replaced by something dark and furious.
Inara’s mouth twists as she desperately tries to close it, tries to keep the secrets from spilling. But the spell she administered was too strong and the dark confessions spill out of her. She killed Bane’s familiar one night after they had a fight. She blackmailed their professors, forbidding Bane from receiving higher grades than her.
After a while the inventory of her misdeeds starts to weigh on me and I want her to stop.
But she can’t. The spell has to run its course.
She moves on to her friends. Admitting to doing horrible things to each one in bouts of jealousy or pettiness.
She once locked Kimber outside before sunrise because Kimber dared mention that Valerian was cute. She tricked Lyra into being around another lycan shifter during a full moon and taped the tryst to show to Lyra’s boyfriend, Bane.
The list of Inara’s sins keep coming. By now every Evermore with a cell phone is recording the event. Inara crawls from one person to the next, vomiting stories of cruelty that make the Darken seem tame.
Even her shadow, Reina, can’t escape Inara’s wickedness. As Inara vomits every terrible thing she’s ever done to her shadow—which is a lot—Reina retreats from her mentor, disgust and betrayal warping her pretty face.
It doesn’t stop there. It seems every Evermore at the academy has been a victim of Inara’s cruelty. Every time she falls to her knees, the knot of dread in my belly tightens a little more. Pity creeps in, eclipsing my rage.
How sad and lonely must someone be to do those things to their friends? I fight the urge to stop the spell, to pick her up off her knees and comfort her.
I know that’s the human side of me, the side that makes me weak in their eyes, but this is awful. She may be a terrible person who’s going to Hell, but the anguish in her eyes as she spews her darkest secrets is real.
Scrabbling on her hands and knees like a dog, she approaches Valerian. Her head hangs low in shame, her beautiful birthday dress singed and tattered.