“In the courtyard, too.”
“She’s unstable.”
“A monster.”
Energy crawled over my skin, foreign and cold, and began to spiral into a voracious ball of energy.
“River…” I searched for him, finding him too far for comfort.
The mean girl brigade began to approach their team captain, their expressions alarmed, but a sheet of ice blocked their path. Ignis leapt sideways on a yelp, her terrified gaze flickering over her shoulder at me. I did nothing but watch as frozen blades appeared around the room, spiking up from the floor.
Fae screamed.
The instructor—whose name I didn’t even remember—shouted.
My name rent the air.
Accusations flew with a fervor.
Stay calm, I told myself. Exos and Titus are here. It’s fine. I stole a deep breath from within and willed my body to remain warm despite the arctic drop in temperature flooding the room.
Vox was suddenly at my side, his palm on my shoulder. “Do you feel it?” he asked softly. “The negative presence?”
I swallowed, trying to search for whatever he meant and shook my head. “I can’t feel anything.”
He glanced down at the metal bracelet clamped around my wrist and nodded. “Then the cuff is working.”
“Is that a good thing?” I asked, shiver
ing as a frozen sheet blanketed the ceiling of the gym.
“Yes.” He nodded toward Elana standing just inside the door beside a man with shockingly white hair. “Looks like Exos invited some of the Council members to the show—Elana and Vape.”
Vape. That must be the lanky male with the long, stark strands. Power seemed to emanate from the male’s gaze as he studied the room with a serene expression. He said something to Elana before glancing at Exos and giving him a nod.
Something seemed to pass between them. An understanding. Unspoken words. I opened my mouth, ready to ask Vox if he knew what was happening, when an ominous crack sounded through the air.
Golf ball–sized hail fell from the ceiling, crashing into the ground around me. I screamed, falling to my knees, and covered my head just as a lethal ice pick sliced through the air toward Exos’s head.
“No!” I made to move, but a wave of fire went up in a flash, incinerating the approaching weapon and leaving a very livid Royal Fae in its wake. He sent waves of power through the gym in a show of dominance unlike any I’d ever seen or felt.
Fire mingling with spirit—the royal declaring his right to the throne.
Everyone froze.
Then several fae fell to their knees on a whisper of sound, his name a chant on the wind.
Claire
I stood gaping at Exos, unable to speak, unsure of what to do.
“Who dares to threaten me?” he demanded, his blue eyes scanning the gym. “The last of the Spirit Fae line. A royal.”
Several heads turned in my direction, causing him to scoff.
“You all discredit my ability to sense my own mate’s power? You think I wouldn’t be able to feel any malevolence coming from the future Princess of the Spirit Kingdom?” He tsked. “Such an insult requires punishment, perhaps in the form of a reminder of what a Spirit Fae can truly do.”
Shudders rolled through the room, palpable and fear-driven.