I make it maybe two feet when a shadow passes over us. Before I can look up, something slams into me from above, knocking every bit of air from my chest.
The impact yanks the girl from my grasp and sends me tumbling end over end into the sand. I fling my arms straight out and wave them for stability as I try to get my bearings. Dirt and silt cloud the water, camouflaging whatever hit me.
But I already know what it is. Selkie.
The word shoots straight terror into my veins. A flash of silver and red to my right. One glance and my heart stops, a scream dying in my throat.
The creature is hideous, a strange blend of fish and human. Overly large inhuman onyx eyes are set inside a white face with two holes where the nose should be and gills under the jaw. Reddish-translucent fins stick straight out over her ears, her thick tail covered in silver and blue scales and ending in blood-red plumage.
But I’m focused on the huge gaping mouth set with rows and rows of serrated teeth.
Grinning, the selkie shoots straight for me. I try to punch her but underwater I can’t get any real force, and my fists glance harmlessly over her slick flesh. Her mouth yawns wide as she plunges her teeth straight for my throat—
Suddenly bright red light blooms between us. The selkie halts, peering with those big oily-black eyes at something on my chest. I glance down, shocked to see my pendant emanating radiant red light.
The selkie drags her gaze from the pendant to my face. I take advantage of her pause and strike out, the heel of my bare foot glancing off her tail. The action startles her and she darts into the maze of grasses before disappearing.
My lungs are on fire as I shove off the ground toward the surface, kicking as hard and fast as I can. I find Lavender haired girl floating ten feet from the surface, and my heart clenches. She’s motionless. Eyes closed. Shafts of light from above highlight the vibrancy of her hair swirling around her slack face.
Using every bit of energy I have left, I grab her arm and drag her to the surface. She doesn’t move, doesn’t kick or struggle or anything.
Not good.
Cold air stings my face, steam from the warm water curling around my head. Clutching the girl to my chest, I struggle to keep her head above water, but it flops lifelessly side to side.
Crap. I need to help her.
Someone calls out, and I manage to yell back, taking deep lungfuls of frigid air. Every exhalation sends a milky cloud shooting from my shivering lips.
A wooden rowboat with peeling brown paint drifts over and someone tugs us over the side. As soon as we’re both in the boat, I turn the girl on her side to get any water out of her lungs. I feel for her pulse, but my fingers are too numb to be of much help.
Is she breathing? Her chest isn’t moving.
Head spinning, I position her on her back and start compressing her chest like I’ve seen on TV.
After a few minutes, I stop, unsure if what I’m doing is even helping.
Oh, God. I stare up at the stars and try to catch my breath as we near the shore, pieces of ice smacking the hull.
It’s not exactly light outside, but a strange mixture of dusk and moonlight reflects off the snow and brightens the land.
The person rowing—a huge, muscular faun with goat legs covered in white fur and large ram horns protruding from short red hair—hands me a blanket. Wrapping the scratchy wool around my body like a burrito, I sit up in time to see Mack sprinting toward our boat, followed closely by the blond Evermore I nearly brained earlier with my shoes. He’s holding my boots and grinning.
My sprite, on the other hand, is not grinning as she flutters through the air clutching my sweatshirt. It’s too heavy for her tiny wings, and she keeps dipping and weaving in the air, dragging my poor sweatshirt through the snow.
The curses spewing from her lips could fill ten swear jars.
A crowd gathers on the snowy lawn a little way ahead. Beyond that, the academy rises impossibly high, the most beautiful building I’ve ever seen. Carved from white marble, the spires and towers glimmer faintly under the moonlight. Blue and gold orbs of magic pulse from thousands of lanterns that sparkle like the stars above. A flag flies from the middle tower, the silver and blue colors definitely from the Winter Court.
For a moment, a breath, I have the odd feeling that I’ve been here before. Or dreamed about this place. Or read about it, even. In much more detail than that tiny Wikipedia article.
Then the bottom of the boat scrapes on the shore, and I’m dodging the sweatshirt being thrown at my face.
After I slip my sweatshirt and boots on, the blond male Evermore who carried my boots helps me off the boat. I accept his hand, startled by the warmth of his fingers. He grins and I suddenly realize how strikingly handsome he is.
I mean, all the Evermore are unbelievably gorgeous, but he surpasses even the normal Fae standard. In our world, he would be a movie star or a model . . . or both.
He wears the green and gold of the Summer Court, the colors matching his gold-flecked green eyes. His hair, too, is gold, and pulled back in a half-knot that would make any other man look ridiculous. Golden cuffs shaped like ivy wind up his pointed ears, capping the tips.
“Are you okay?” he asks, flashing perfect teeth.
He’s running his hands over my body, an orange-gold light flickering out from his palms and seeping into my flesh. Each pass fills me with delicious heat and dries my clothes. Once he’s done with that, he waves his fingers and creates a bubble of warmth that covers my entire body.
“Yes, I’m fine.” I nod and glance back at the girl I saved. “But she needs—”
My words trail away into silence. The girl hasn’t moved from where I positioned her.
The Summer Evermore’s expression goes dark, and he looks to the Faun. “Basil, is she alive?”
The Faun shakes his head, and I can’t help but notice how he genuinely seems sad about her death.
Tears spring to my eyes before I can help it. I try to blink them away, but then I remember that I’m now disqualified from staying at this cursed school, which means I don’t have to pretend to be strong. So I let the tears fall.
And with them, my anger grows.
“A selkie attacked us,” I say to no one in particular.
The Summer Evermore frowns. “No, they were all fed and sedated.”
“Well someone forgot this selkie. She almost killed me but . . .” My hand goes to where my necklace rests, hidden beneath my shirt. “I scared her away.”
Basil steps from the boat, carrying the drowned girl in his arms. “If the selkie wasn’t drugged, you would be dead. I promise.”
Mack wraps her arms around me. “I didn’t know you’d gone back for her until I was in the boat . . . and then . . .”
“It’s okay.” I rub the last tear away with the heel of my hand and glance at the crowd in the distance. As my gaze falls on first Inara, then Reina, and finally my tormentor, I feel a potent rage spark inside my chest.
They’re to blame. Not Mack. Not the poor drowned girl. Them.
We walk toward the crowd, the bubble of warm magic the Summer Evermore gave me melting the snow at my bare feet. They’re grouped into two sides: Seelie and Unseelie.
A shrill voice I immediately recognize as Inara’s calls out, “How did you like the selkies? Guess they thought you were too ugly to eat.”
A thought comes to mind that I can’t shake. She’s responsible. She somehow made sure that one selkie wasn’t drugged.