"Don't!"
The girl's warning was high enough and loud enough that it cut through the chaos. The tone made everyone pause to look at her, including me. There, standing in the middle of two open aisles between all these tables, she held Charlotte, one of the weakest faelings I knew of, in place with a ceramic cooking blade against her throat.
The knife was the big kind. I had no clue what they were used for, but I knew there had to be countless copies in the kitchens. Charlotte had both of her hands scraping desperately at this girl's arms, trying to either breathe or get free, yet she wasn't struggling enough. From the way her eyes had gone wide, she was too terrified to do anything but react.
"Let. Her. Go," Torian warned. "Celeste, you do not want to do this. I will destroy you!"
Celeste just smiled. "Fuck you, false prince. You're nothing more than a half-Winter usurper! We've seen you use that season. That means you're one of them!"
That cold look returned to my prince's face, and he flicked two fingers. Air rippled as his attack cut through it, needing no color to mark its path. That? It was not going to be good. The clear attacks rarely were.
But it slammed into a shield, making the entire thing ripple.
And Celeste laughed. "You can't touch me, Torian. We've already figured that out. Only the Morrigan can break this. And oh, look at that! She's out cold!"
"Keir, get her up," I growled.
He didn't bother responding. Since he was kneeling, I could only imagine he was trying to do just that, but Celeste kept going.
"We were silent!" she yelled, looking at everyone in the cafeteria. "We intended to let the weaker season die out on its own, but the man you callyour princehad to ruin it all. He's not mine, though!"
"Fuck you, Celeste!" Poppy yelled, slinging something at her.
Just like Torian's conjuration, it crashed against the shield Celeste had made, sending ripples across the surface like water in the wind. But then Celeste did the wrong thing. She turned and looked right at me.
"And you're no duke!" she sneered. "We checked. There's no record of your bloodline. You're nothing more than some mongrel peasant. Your magic isn't even green!"
I felt my eyes constricting as her gaze met mine, then her words sank in. Fear hit first, but it was quickly lost behind the need to get my hands on her. Every muscle in my body relaxed, ready to be used. Ready to strike.
"What do you want?" Torian demanded.
Yet Wilder was whispering to someone behind me. "Go get Ms. Rhodes," he said. "Run if you have to."
"No, they'll get me!" a girl replied, sounding terrified.
"Winter is over!" Celeste yelled, lifting her hand. "We, the ones who've said nothing until now, are willing to give our lives to make this happen." And a pulsing began in her palm, growing larger and brighter with each thrum of power she pumped into it.
"Everybody out!" Torian yelled.
The words were barely out of his mouth before all the doors slammed shut and vines began to weave across them. My head snapped to the source of the power, seeing one of the college guys enchanting it just as fast as he could. At the back of the room, another was doing something similar, effectively locking the entire student body in here. I marked each one in my mind.
"C'mon, Rain," Keir whispered. "We need you now."
"What. Do. You. Want?" Torian demanded of Celeste, likely trying to buy some time.
"I want to save the world," she yelled back. "If that means I die in the process, then my family will reap the rewards. Summer is here, and we don't need you for it. This?" She grinned, the look in her eyes proving she wasn't completely sane. "It will wipe Silver Oaks off the map."
"Torian, it's areucicharm!" Nevaeh called.
Reuci, the same stone Ms. Rhodes had given Rain. The one I'd sewn into a bracelet for her to enchant with Wild magic. The one thing that did not react well to seasonal magic, and which could be powered up to become the fae equivalent of a ticking bomb.
But it would do nothing to me.
"I don't fucking think so," I snarled, storming toward the fucking bitch. "Saving the world doesn't mean killing! It doesn't mean always getting your way. It means learning how to fucking adapt so you don't become one of the monsters!"
"Hawke, no!" Wilder begged.
I heard him, but didn't stop. "Do you want to know about monsters, little girl?" And I called my wings, knowing they'd make her look at me again. "I'm the one you should be scared of."
