Year Two: Rebels - Cara Wylde Page 0,17
at Adrian. “What exactly happened to my things? I was brought here and…”
“We didn’t bring you to the Karmic Asylum right away. Seth and Davien helped me carry you to your dorm-room. You’d passed out, so it was easy. Once there, I called Headmaster Colin, and we all agreed we should wait and see how you felt when you woke up. The Karmic Asylum was never in our plan. Not at first.”
“What happened when I woke up?”
“Why did you pass out?!” Corri’s wings flapped incessantly as she moved from me to Adrian, ambushing him. “Why did she pass out? What happened?”
“Calm down.”
Telling Corri to calm down when she was almost hysterical was always a bad idea. She didn’t care who he was. She didn’t care that he was an Unseelie warrior and my PE professor. She went full mental on him.
“Calm down?! Are you insane?! How long has she been here? Did you bring her here? Why? And why didn’t you get her out?” She was all up in his face now. “I know who you are, mister. You took advantage of her. She’s too good for you, do you hear me? You don’t deserve her. I saw you at the Yule Ball, I saw how you were looking at her.” She started gesturing with her tiny hands. “So dark and broody, so macho… You think that act impresses anyone? She might have given you the time of day when she didn’t know what kind of person you are, but not anymore. Because she knows now. She knows.” She poked him in the nose with her toothpick of a finger, and I almost lost it. I covered my mouth with both hands to stop from laughing too loud. She ignored me. “You let her rot in here!”
Adrian took a couple of steps back. He must have been in shock, because I couldn’t understand how he would’ve allowed a pixie to treat him like that otherwise. A few more steps, and he’d be out the door.
“Corri, come on,” I laughed.
“You got it all wrong, creature,” Adrian finally managed in a serious voice.
“I got it all wrong?” Corri faked surprise. “Do enlighten me, then. How long has my Mistress been here?”
He cleared his throat, and I could tell he didn’t appreciate being put on the spot. “Half a year.”
“Half a year?!” Corri squealed. “Do you know what they’re doing to their patients in this horrible, horrible place? Do you have any idea?”
He shook his head. “Yolanda was not okay. We didn’t have a choice.”
“You didn’t have…”
“Let me finish, will you?”
His booming voice made Corri snap to attention. She huffed, but eventually flew back to me and settled on my shoulder, both legs and arms crossed to show she had no intention of being lenient toward him.
“As I was saying,” Adrian looked me in the eyes. “We waited for you to recover. But you were not okay, Yolanda. You were violent, you tried to run, you kicked everyone and everything in your path… You even slapped Headmaster Colin across the face when he tried to reason with you.”
I gasped. “I did not…”
“You did. I’m sorry. I’m telling you the truth, and I know it’s hard to take it in. We had to restrain you. We waited until the next day to make a final decision. You were not better in the morning. Headmaster Colin was the one who suggested the Karmic Asylum, since neither of us had any idea how to help you. But we never intended it to be permanent. We thought you’d get better in a few weeks.”
“How could I get better when they’ve had me on those awful potions since day one?”
“I’m sorry.” We were all silent for a minute, then Adrian tried again: “At least you haven’t dream jumped since then.”
I shook my head in disappointment. “This was not the way.”
“I know that now. But I wanted you to be safe.”
“Did you tell anyone about the well? About Yig and that I’m trying to banish it?”
“No. Headmaster Colin knows something, of course. I don’t know how much. But Seth and Davien are entirely clueless. I made sure of that.”
“Good.”
Corri was finally starting to put two and two together. She’d known all along that I was trying to find the universe of the cosmic beings, but she’d probably never thought I was going to succeed.
“You went there, Mistress?”
“Yes. A few times. It didn’t… go well…”
“They hurt you…”
“No, I didn’t even see them.”
“But their world hurt you. The air, their presence…