I also slept with both Rhaegar and the prince. Is that enough? Or do you need the cleverly edited slideshow to convince you?”
She regards me for a long time. Long enough that I notice the ticking of the clock in her office. Long enough that I know she’s already seen the slideshow.
Then she steeples her long fingers together and releases a deep sigh. “Somehow, I think that is not what happened at all, Miss Solstice. But in this particular case, expulsion is best for everyone. Especially after what happened with your friend, Evelyn Cantrell.”
For the first time since this all happened, I let emotion slip through the carefully constructed armor around my heart. I’d forgotten about her. I knew Mack was safe because I saw her with Asher being herded by a group of shadow guardians into the gym.
“Is Evelyn okay?”
Lepidonis glances down at the papers on her desk, back to me. “I’m sorry to inform you that your friend changed into a darkling sometime last night. She escaped the Island, but not before killing two shadows trying to protect their keepers and a Dawn Court Fae. I hear she was searching for you, almost like she was sent to find you.”
I sink against the wall, too shocked to feel the pain of it all yet.
“Very few are aware that when a human is pregnant with a Fae child, that child’s magic can turn its host mother into a kind of darkling. They are more sentient than regular darklings, and they look almost human.”
“I—I didn’t know that was a risk of carrying a Fae baby.”
“But you knew she was pregnant.” The disappointment in her voice is like a slap to the face. “If we had been aware, we might have been able to give her medicine to stall the transformation until the child was born but . . .” She waves her hand, an angry gesture, and fixes her stern gaze on me. “That is why our rules are so important.”
I nod as guilt settles in my belly. I should have told someone. I should have done something.
“Do you have any things to gather before you leave?” she asks softly, and the almost kindness in her voice is enough to bring me to tears.
I shake my head. As soon as I left the dance, I rushed to the dorms for the picture of my parents. I have nothing else.
She nods as if that was expected. “Very well. I’ll have Magus prepare to transport you back home.”
It takes a moment for that last word to sink in. “Home?”
The word feels awkward in my mouth. Wrong.
Home. Until a few hours ago, I would have said that was here.
“Yes, didn’t the prince tell you? He made a special exception for you that specified if you were ever expelled, you were to be sent back to your human house in the Tainted Zone. It may not have all the luxuries you’re used to here, but I assure you the Tainted Zone is better than fighting the scourge. The prince did you a kindness.”
At the mention of Valerian, a wave of bitterness washes over me. “He did, but not in the way you think. He taught me an important lesson.”
Never love a Fae. Lesson learned.
“Indeed.” She stands, her moth-like wings unfurling behind her. It’s still dark outside, and moonlight filters in through the stained-glass window, coloring her wings green and red and blue. “Unfortunately, whatever lessons you might have learned will be glamoured away, along with any memory of what happens here. We cannot have you spilling secrets for the entire world to hear.”
I smile, my hand twitching to go to the necklace burning against my sternum. “Of course. Can’t have the things I know falling into the wrong hands.”
Her eyes narrow.
“But first, I have to do something.”
The headmistress follows me through the darkened corridors to my Faerie Courts classroom. The question is still there on the chalkboard, the third component to power.
A few hours ago I would have guessed the answer was fear.
Not now. Fear may be a component of power, but there’s something stronger and more dangerous than making people terrified of you.
Lepidonis watches with a curious expression as I take a piece of broken chalk and scrawl an answer on the board.
Love.
The third component to power is love. Trick a person into falling in love with you and you can make them do anything. Forget their morals. Their promises. Their friends. Their obligations.
Trick someone into falling in love with you and they