Chapter 27

27

Icouldn’t risk Coral seeing me transform. It was time to be smart.

Taking a moment to breathe, I called my magic, forcing my body back into normal form and bolting through the forest after her. Listening to the screams get louder and louder.

I slammed my body into the boy trying to drag the stone from her pocket and sent him sprawling. He hit hard on his tailbone, wincing, then scrambled up to face me. He stared at me angrily with his hands curled into fists at his sides.

“Tavi!” Coral didn’t sound grateful. “What the hell are you doing here?”

I growled at the boy and his eyes went wide before he took off in the opposite direction. A first-year. One I hadn’t seen much before but I recognized his face. I turned to Coral and saw her hands on her hips. Oh yeah, she definitely didn’t appreciate my intervention.

“What? I’ll take a thank you,” I told her. “He was trying to steal from you instead of doing the work himself.”

Good jobplaying it off.

Except the longer she stared at me, the more my gut began to squirm.

“And you’re the one following me.” Coral pointed a red-painted fingernail in my direction. “Why are you here? Tell me. Are you trying to copy me and get credit for passing this Trial?” She clucked her tongue. “Off of my hard work. It figures.”

I had no good excuse to offer her and frankly I doubted Coral would accept anything less than the truth.

Sighing, I adjusted my backpack. “Well, it’s a funny story. Why I’m here, I mean.”

She shook her head, her eyes squinting and her lips pinched, finding me absolutely ridiculous. “Well, hurry up and tell me. I’m a little busy here. Actually, you know what? Whatever. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing because you don’t matter. Getting to the finish line matters,” she said.

“Wait!” I reached out to grab her arm to keep her from running off. Might as well tell her. “You’re in danger.”

She stared down at my hand until I practically felt the burn and released her. “In danger of being seen associating with you.”

And there was the snooty tone. The one she always reserved for me or anyone else she saw as beneath her.

I wanted to really let her have it then. I wanted to tell her everything I’d kept inside about how hard I’d tried and none of it mattered to people like her.

Just like I knew anything I said wouldn’t matter now.

When I spoke again, it was harsh, matter of fact, and through my gritted teeth. “Listen. I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the student found during the last Trial. The one ripped apart by a shifter? Or so the authorities are saying.”

It wasn’t enough to keep her still. Coral began to walk away from me. “Get real, Tavi. I know you’re trying to distract me. What, are you trying to steal the piece of Magnasterium from me, too? If you weren’t so far up the prince’s behind, then maybe you’d be able to conjure enough magic to find a piece for yourself.”

“It’s not about the Magnasterium. And besides, I already have my piece, thank you very much. You’re in danger because the shifter has been attacking redheads.” I jogged after her and tugged at the nearest braid, listening to her outraged yelp. “Redheads like us. In fact, every single Fae girl who’s died has looked weirdly like us. Do you understand what I’m trying to tell you?”

Coral waited for me to get to the point.

“You’re in danger, Coral. You might be the next to die.”

“I’m sure if anyone is going to die, Tavi, it will be you. I don’t trust you to tie your shoes, let alone escape a madman.”

At least she wasn’t doubting the existence of said madman.

“Yes, and I’m sure I’m on his list as well,” I replied.

“Then why don’t you stay away from me? That way, I’ll be safe, and you can do…” She paused. “Whatever it is you do. I’m sure I don’t want to know.”

“Coral, stop being yourself for a second and listen. One way or another, you’re going to get hurt. The shifter won’t stop. It’s the only reason I’m here right now. Otherwise I’m sure you know I wouldn’t be.”

Part of me was positive she’d ignore the warning. But something I said must have gotten through to her. Or maybe it was the look on my face. The way she could see, clearly, that I wasn’t lying to her.

“Yeah,” I said when she began to shake. “Exactly. I’m here to make sure nothing happens to you today, because the person behind the attacks seems to be using the Trials to make his move. And I…” I swallowed. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Coral was trembling, shaking her head and refusing to look at me. “No. No, you’re wrong.”

“I’m here to keep you safe.”

“It’s ridiculous,” she argued, twin blossoms of red on her cheeks now. “Why would someone want to hurt me?”

Did she need me to count the reasons? I rolled my eyes. “I can’t speak for motives, obviously. I’m not inside his head. All I know is that this guy is dangerous and it’s likely he’ll try to come after you today. It’s the only reason I’m with you right now.”

“That’s it.” Coral threw her hands in the air. “I’m dropping out of this Trial. I’m going back to the school and then I’m going home. At least there I’ll be safe from the riffraff.”

By which she clearly meant me.

“Hey, hold on. It’s okay.”

She pressed a hand to her chest. “Do I look like a victim, Tavi? Do I look like the kind of girl murderers hunt for sport? Absolutely not. I’m taking myself out of the equation. He’d have to be insane to come into my house. Ergo, if I’m in my house, then I’m safe and away from the crazies.”

The way she said it, I knew she was lumping me into the crazies part as well.

“No,” I repeated. “You and I are going to get through this Trial. We’re going to finish what we started and we’re going to win. Together. I won’t let anything happen to you.” If she thought her bad attitude would keep me from sticking by her side, then she’d better think again. The bad attitude would make it difficult but I always saw things through to the end. Period.

Coral scoffed. “What the hell can you do about it, half-breed? You barely managed to get through the Summer Games. It’s a wonder you’ve made it this far into the Trials without having to rely on Michael to pull you through. It’s bad enough the school had to assign you a tutor just to pass your classes.”

It took everything inside of me to rein in my temper. Bristling, I faced her head on. “Look,” I said through gritted teeth, “we’re wasting time. Right now, we both have the pieces we need to make a weapon. Let’s get a move on because we are wasting time.”

She heard what I didn’t say. I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me.

Coral had her hands on her hips again, staring at me, willing me to back down until she had her way. “Tavi—”

“If you say my name like that one more time, I’m going to leave you alone and let this guy have you,” I warned. “Trust me when I say I want to keep you safe.”

“I don’t understand why you care.”

“Neither do I. But through it all, you’re really…you’re really not a bad person.” I died a little inside saying it. “You don’t deserve to be murdered. I’ve seen what the killer has done to his other victims. It’s not pretty.” Yes, I’d seen firsthand what he was capable of doing.

Her finger was back in the air and waving around like a wand. “Just stay out of my way,” she insisted.

I wrestled with my conscience for a moment. Maybe she was right and I should leave her alone. It would be much easier going forward. Easier on my mind, my head, the outcome of this Trial…

No. That felt wrong.

“Gladly,” I answered her, and my voice had lost all of its charm.

As Mike had done for me, and I got a lot of personal satisfaction out of it, I pushed Coral to keep her going. She huffed angrily and sped up her steps to keep a full six feet ahead of me.

We’d never been advised where to go for the next step of the Trial. I only assumed we would face obstacles along the way. We walked along the sunlit path, new leaves on the trees and purple crocuses sprouting out of the ground.

“I’m not sure why you’re even bothering with me.” Coral twisted her neck to look back over her shoulder at me.

“Yeah, I’m not sure either.”

“Why don’t you let the authorities handle this murderer? I mean, if he’s as dangerous as you say, then what can you do?”

I kept silent, listening to the sound of our footsteps.

I didn’t need her to tell me how she felt about me. She might as well have had a sign above her head: tavi is useless.

She swept along the path like the queen herself. I took a moment of pleasure seeing her jump when the harpy bolted down through the trees and blocked the path with a screech.

Then I realized we were facing down a freakin’ harpy.

This one made the ones I’d seen in the stands during the commencement ceremony look like parakeets.

Large brown wings expanded to the point where the feathers touched the trees on either side of the path. Wicked sharp talons curved from eagle feet and dug into the earth leaving trenches behind them. In her eyes I saw nothing but fury.

“Tavi!”

I definitely didn’t expect the first word out of Coral’s mouth to be my name. And we didn’t have enough time to fashion a weapon from the Magnasterium. I dropped my backpack and drew a vial from its depths.

The Eius Repellere, a one-use concoction to repel anyone or anything from you without harm and can be used on upwards of twenty enemies at a time. Back at the Fae Academy for Halflings, the last step of our final exams to get into year two involved making the concoction using our wits to fill in missing pieces of the recipe.

I’d won.

It was just one harpy, but I wasn’t taking any chances. I tossed the vial at her and watched it explode in a cloud of sparkling green. The harpy jettisoned up and out of sight before she had a chance to attack, pulled away by the force of the spell.

Safe. Still, my heart refused to slow.

Coral turned around slowly to stare at me. Not with appreciation, no. With disgust. “I was saying your name to get you to step back and let me handle it.”

I suppressed a shudder. “You’re welcome!” I huffed with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

“I told you to stay out of my way. Seems you really do have a problem following the simplest of orders.”

If her words were claws, they’d be pressed right to my throat. I swallowed everything terrible I wanted to say and let her walk away, keeping my distance once again as I shouldered my backpack. Don’t engage, I told myself. Let her say whatever she wanted to about me. I knew what just happened.

I’d saved her life when she didn’t expect it, and it unbalanced the normal dynamic between us. She didn’t like that. Neither did I.

There were no more harpies on our walk back to the green meadow behind the palace. There were, however, spells hidden in the forest surrounding us. We traveled together and made it through whatever we faced.

There was a spell that switched our faces and we had to try and get them back to normal. There was a spell causing us to lose our hair. There was a spell turning the earth into slime and we had to reverse the process to move out of it.

There were monsters and there was fire. Coral and I met them all, and with the sun going down at our backs I turned to face her, watching her bare her teeth. Seeing the predatory light flaring in her eyes as she chuckled and unwound the tangled layers of spells keeping us in place.

The effect was chilling.

By the time midnight rolled around we’d been working together for twelve straight hours—tired, worn out, and still hating each other—with no food outside of the snacks I’d thought to bring in my backpack.

I conjured a fire for us when we both felt chilled. Then stared at Coral from across the flames.

“We should try to get some sleep. This is really a test of endurance, I think.” I rubbed my hands together near the flames.

She scoffed. “I don’t feel safe falling asleep with you.”

“After everything we’ve been through today,” I muttered.

“It’s not enough to make me trust you.”

“My line.”

I understood how she felt, though. Working through the obstacles of the tournament had me bone-tired and at the end of what I could tolerate magically and personally.

Which was the whole point, my exhausted mind argued. The point of the Trials was to test our endurance and, in this case, our bravery.

And although it pained me to admit it, I knew things would have gone much less smoothly if Coral were not here with me. Damn her.

But I watched the way her eyes fluttered. “Rest,” I said. “I’ll take the first shift and wake you up in a few hours.”

She sighed. “Whatever.”

That’s when the wolf shifter showed up.