Before the two can get into an all-out brawl in front of Mack’s dads, I take the present Vi is holding. “What’s this?”
“I thought, since we can’t be at the academy to protect you . . .”
“She got you a knife,” Zinnia clarifies, clicking her tongue.
My mouth hangs open as I rip off the red wrapping paper to reveal the wood-handled hunting knife inside.
“It’s made with iron,” Vi clarifies, throwing a not-so-subtle glance at Eclipsa, who’s posted up near the french doors leading to the balcony, watching everything with mild curiosity.
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Oh, God. This must have cost them a fortune.
Sebastian frowns at the blade while Nick rushes over. “The academy is perfectly safe. We both attended and survived.”
Aunt Vi doesn’t argue, at least, not with words. But her mouth goes hard, and her hands, weathered by years of gardening in the Texas sun, flutter over her chest.
That’s when I notice the four dark red furrows ridging her collarbone. “What is that?”
Vi and Zinnia exchange glances, and then Zinnia says, “There was an attack recently.”
My stomach hollows out. “Darkling?”
Zinnia nods. “They reopened the farmer’s market near Willowbark Lake, and Vi convinced me to help her sell her canned jams and homemade soaps. The darklings . . . there were so many of them.”
My chest pinches with fear. Normal darkling incidents in the Tainted Zone involve one darkling, usually newly transformed. But a pack of darklings?
I try to hide my growing panic. If they know I’m worried, they’ll try to conceal the true extent of the danger. “Are the attacks getting worse?”
The grooves etched into Vi’s forehead deepen, and she and Zinnia share a glance.
“You don’t need to worry over such things, sweet child,” Zinnia says.
Oberon’s beard. It’s worse than I thought. “How did you get away?”
“Nothing old Betsy and some iron buckshot couldn’t handle,” Vi remarks, using her nickname for the 12-gauge shotgun she keeps near the door. She waves her hand as if the entire ordeal is unimportant. “Enough crass talk. We might be from the country, but we have manners, after all.”
Mack’s dads look horrified at the prospect of a darkling attack. I remind myself that here, in the Untouched Zone, they don’t have to worry about such things.
Nick scrambles to redirect the conversation. He takes my aunts on a quick tour of the penthouse. Unfortunately, his efforts backfire. The more Aunt Vi takes in this new world, the more agitated she becomes. /> “Summer Solstice, I need to see you running so hard your heels are tapping your mortal ass!” Eclipsa orders from her purple and yellow leopard printed hammock chair, where she’s been overseeing my run around the Lake of Sorrows for the last forty minutes.
“Yeah, tap that ass!” Ruby cheers from her perch on my shoulder. “Tap it so hard the prince will have to ice it down later.”
Oh. My. God. My friends have no idea how dirty they sound.
I would laugh—would, if I wasn’t getting my butt kicked five ways from Sunday. Pumping my arms, I burst through a patch of dandelions, my legs disturbing the wispy white seeds into the air.
“I’m . . . trying,” I pant, glaring at the Lunar Court assassin turned sadistic torturer. Her moon-white hair is pulled back in a high ponytail, her lithe body poured into metallic silver-blue yoga pants and a sports bra, showing off the lunar tattoos cresting her ripped abdomen. The half-moon jewels over her brow glimmer beneath the afternoon sun.
I’m pretty sure she added a couple jewels, which means the Fae assassin killed again.
Eclipsa summoned me to the Everwilde a week early to train. I think she thinks I should be appreciative—and I am, I suppose—but that’s in between my near constant pity party.
When I round the final leg of the run, I sprint across the meadowscape, the bright pink Nike trainers Eclipsa loaned me skipping over hyacinth flowers and daisies, and collapse at the finish line in front of her.
Six freaking miles. And I just sprinted every single one of them like a boss. Thank Queen Titania I kept up my training during the summer. My routine was grueling. Mornings I ran the paths around our land. Afternoons I practiced my yoga regimen. And nights were spent squatting, deadlifting, and planking my way into the best shape of my life.
This was going to be my year. Winter could suck it.
Yet, none of it prepared me for Eclipsa’s brutal punishment.