Briar Blood (Spellwood Academy Book 2) by Kate Avery Ellison

Author:Kate Avery Ellison [Ellison, Kate Avery]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

KYRA

I PRESSED LUCIEN’S letter to my chest, wondering. I deliberated. Hannah and Lyrica’s voice echoed from the other room.

If I climbed out my window, they’d certainly notice.

He said midnight, though. It was only nine o’clock now. Plenty of time to think about what I was going to do.

I washed my face, fussed with my hair for a few minutes, and then, I slipped the note in my bra and re-emerged to find Hannah and Lyrica deep in debate about their favorite fae holiday.

“What’s your favorite holiday here in the fae lands?” Lyrica asked me.

“What are the options again?” I asked. Fae holidays were another one of those things that I was still somewhat fuzzy on. I knew Summertide, of course, although my associations with the holiday were quite negative. I knew a bit about Hollowfell because of the student council meeting—ghost caravans and riddles and such—but that was all.

Lyrica ticked them off on her fingers. “Summertide on the longest day of summer, of course, and the Feast of the Lights when there’s new frost on the ground, Hollowfell in high autumn, Wintertide near the winter solstice, Brightbloom in the spring, New Year’s Day, the Feast of Gifts right before summer…”

“The fae New Year is in the spring,” Hannah said to me as an aside. “March, specifically.”

“When else would it be?” Lyrica said. “It’s when the year is new again.”

“In the mortal world—well, in most parts of the mortal world, it’s in the winter, right after Christmas,” I said.

“What a silly time for a new year to begin,” Lyrica said, and laughed. “When the world is cold and dead, and nothing at all is new. Seems like the opposite of a new year. It’s the old, dead year at its height.”

“Can’t really argue with that,” Hannah said to me.

“And what is Christmas?” Lyrica asked.

“A Christian mortal holiday that’s gotten rather commercial, according to the complaints I hear from my dad’s side of the family,” Hannah said. “It has things like Santa Claus, reindeer, Christmas trees… I’m Jewish, though, or at least my mom’s side of the family is, so we celebrate Hanukkah, too. I get all the gifts in December. And we always had a Hanukkah bush and a Christmas tree. Win-win.”

“Santa Claus? Rain deer? Hanukkah bush?” Lyrica was mystified. “What are these things?”

Hannah started to explain the concept of Rudolph, but interrupted herself. “We’re getting off track. Kyra, what’s your favorite fae holiday?”

“I don’t know,” I said. Hollowfell? Wintertide? Brightbloom? The words were wondrously strange. I could only imagine what celebrations accompanied them.

“You’ll have to find out, I guess,” Hannah said. “My favorite is Hollowfell, which I suppose is eye-rollingly predictable since I’m from the autumnal court. Still, the costumes. The frights! The riddles. Ah, I love it. One whiff of those pumpkinseed cakes, one chime of the windchimes, and I’m taken straight back to my childhood vacations in the fae lands.”

“About this fat man who comes down the chimney,” Lyrica began. “Does he ever get burned by the

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