“Yeah, sure,” I agreed dryly, “everyone’s fault but mine.”
“Do you want some water?” she asked brightly.
I rolled my eyes, and picked up the full glass that had been left by my bedside.
“I’m good—get on with it.”
She mumbled something under her breath that I couldn’t hear, and then started to tell me what had happened since the night I left Hellswan. She jumped off the bed, pacing up and down the small room as she spoke, gesticulating wildly and occasionally going off on rants about Trina and the ministers—even the rest of the kids in the living quarters weren’t immune to her scorn.
“Ash is king?” I interrupted when she mentioned he was at the Imperial trials.
“Oh, yeah—he’s king.”
“What about Tejus?” I asked, stunned.
She waved her arms around. “Oh, he got wounded in a trial, I think, and then decided to do the honorable thing—honestly, I think it was to impress your sister anyway.”
That made no sense whatsoever, but I chose to ignore it—I could ask Hazel about that later.
“But everyone’s safe for the time being?” I asked.
“For the time being, yeah. Everyone’s happy you’re back—though maybe you need to be careful walking around. You kind of syphoned off a lot of ministers and guards…I think they’re a bit afraid of you.”
I digested the information. It didn’t actually bother me that much…
“But you’re not, right?”
“Afraid of you?” she scoffed. “No!”
“Good,” I replied curtly.
Her face reddened a bit, and I knew that she was holding back on me. I could remember flashes of Yelena lying down on the floor, looking almost dead with her face as white as a ghost’s. Of her screaming, crying out for me to stop—and me not stopping.
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured. “I didn’t—”
“How many times do I need to tell you? I know you didn’t do it!”
She was starting to get angry now, so I kept my mouth shut, feeling sick with guilt. Maybe there would be some way I could repay her…but I doubted it. It wasn’t like I could protect her from the entity when it finally rose—I’d had the thing inside my head and still didn’t know anything about it, or what it actually wanted beyond the stones.
“Where is everyone, anyway?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I don’t know.” Yelena shrugged. “Hazel’s probably still sleeping—she’s had it rough the past couple of days.”
“What do you mean?” I asked sharply. She hadn’t mentioned my sister being in any danger.
Yelena visibly winced.
“What?” I snapped at her.
She took a deep breath, and then mumbled something under her breath, sounding like, ‘blah, blah, sentry, blah’.
“Yelena—what?”
“I said,” she yelled, “your sister’s a sentry now!”
“A what?” I replied, wondering if I’d just gone deaf, because it sounded like Yelena had just told me that my sister was a sentry.
“Oh, my God—you heard me. She’s a sentry, and she’s having a really difficult time controlling her powers…and keeps syphoning off everyone by accident. Tejus can handle it a bit, but the rest of us can’t—she is super strong.”
“Did Tejus do this to her?” I asked, still not really understanding what the hell had happened—how in the world could Hazel become one of them?
“Umm…sort of, by mistake though,” she added hurriedly.
“How?”
Yelena’s cheeks went crimson and she snickered, avoiding meeting my eyes.
“What? I don’t….oh.”
Oh.
Eugh.
It must be a stupid love thing.
“Don’t even tell me—GROSS!” I exploded.
How could she?
Yelena laughed at me, but her blush intensified.
“They’re in love, stupid. I wish a man like Tejus would love me that much,” she replied dreamily.
I snorted with derision.
Whatever.
Yelena could be such an idiot sometimes.
Rose
We emerged from the portal onto the snowy whiteness of Mount Logan. Nuriya clutched the bag of stones tightly to her chest, looking sidelong at Corrine.
“I’m not going to touch them,” the witch mumbled.
“Make sure you don’t,” the jinni replied. “None of you—until we’re doing the spell.”
“I don’t want to lose time,” I sighed, knowing that my dad needed to be told about the Shadowed. I didn’t want him putting his or anyone else’s lives in danger for the fae if they were behaving in such diabolical ways.