Shadowborn Academy_ Year One (Dark Fae Academy #1) - G. Bailey Page 0,76
Ronan…?”
Pitch blasts out of my soul and grabs me around the waist, yet I can’t feel a thing.
Ronan shrugs at me. “Because I had to. Now die, little shadowborn, and make it quick.”
Zander reaches Ronan’s side and punches him in the face. Jonah joins him, calling Ronan every name under the sun, but everything starts to darken and my body turns cold.
“Vina!” Gage shouts first, but I’m too hazy to hear the rest as I think I black out for a moment. I just catch snatches of their conversation while the poison in my blood intensifies, yet instead of feeling excruciating pain, I just feel numb all over.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Pitch and all you need to know is that Corvina is all I care about. We have to get her to the Faery Pools. They can heal her.”
Someone picks me up and it is then when I start to feel the pain.
“Zander, leave the fucking idiot! We will come back for him later!” Gage shouts.
“Sage is gone, I can’t find her,” Jonah whispers.
“We have to save Corvina first and then we will figure out where she is,” Jonah adds, and I want to argue with them, tell them no, that Sage can’t be missing, she has to come to the Faery Pools with me. She has to be healed. Even Pitch said so. I want to plead with them, but no words come out when I part my lips. There is nothing but agony writhing inside my body, clawing at my insides, infecting my veins.
“What about Jane?” Gage asks.
“Corvina first!” Jonah bellows, and I want to tell him that I’ll be okay. Go find your sister. But nothing comes out, just a silent agony consuming me from within.
More darkness, more writhing pain, and every second feels like an hour.
“Hold on. I can take us all there,” Zander says, and something cold brushes my cheek.
I feel like I’m floating on a bed of nails, delirious with pain.
Shadows cover me—blissful, dark, soothing shadows—and then we’re out in the forest again, the familiar scents easy to remember now. They almost give me a comfort I never thought I’d feel here. I have hated this forest since the moment I died in it.
And now I’m about to die in it again.
“Put her in the water,” Pitch demands, and I hear splashing footsteps only moments before freezing cold water covers my legs and stomach. A bright, soothing light blasts in front of my eyes, and despite the turmoil tearing me asunder within, I relax for the first time in the comfort of the pool.
Ahhh, this feels much better. What was I worried about again?
“The Faery Pools is opening a portal!” Gage shouts in a panicked voice. What the hell is he frightened about? This place is so nice and warm and… “But that’s impossible.”
“Not for a true-blooded fae, it’s not,” Pitch whispers, but his eyes are looking down only at me, burning like molten gold. “Corvina Charles is fae and she is taking us to her home.”
It’s so cold. So dark. I don’t think I’m going to make it.
The world is spinning around me. Blood gushes out from wounds, my head pulses, and my heart feels like it’s going to explode under all the pressure. The sky is nothing but an endless sea of stars skidding over my field of sight. I thought the guys were going to kill me back there. I think they only kept me alive so I could die slower and on my own, but I’ll be doing no such thing. I earned my prize by doing what Princess Eva commanded, and I plan on claiming it.
I grab hold of the trees for aid and stumble my way through the forest, leaving a bloody trail behind me. I just manage to reach the Fountain of Mene before I collapse onto my knees.
“Eva, I did it…” I whisper, barely able to choke the words out. More blood spurts from my mouth and I hunch over, coughing out the copper residue. “I held my end of the bargain… You promised me, Eva… Eva!”
The earth below me steadily freezes, wilting all of the flowers and trees in the clearing.
Unable to keep my eyes open, I close them, my teeth chattering from her coldness. I feel her icy hand on my face.
“You did not uphold your end of the bargain, my love. Next time you call me, you call me by my official name. Princess Evangelina of the Light Fae Court and heir