The Hidden Court by Vivienne Savage & writing as & Dominique Kristine

Author:Vivienne Savage & writing as & Dominique Kristine
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Payne & Taylor

12

The Heartflame

My injuries had been so minor the nurse in the medical center rinsed my hands, smeared some cream on my palms, and dismissed me to the dorm with orders to rest.

Exhaustion took the place of the adrenaline that had rushed through my veins, making every step to the elevator an effort. Before I reached the room, my frantic parents called.

I spent an hour convincing Mom and Dad they shouldn’t burn their magical reserves to teleport to the closest Faerie Ring near the campus. Then Liadan coaxed me into the bath for a shower, and I passed the rest of the night huddled on the couch as she turned nosy busybodies away from our door. Word had already spread around the campus that Monica and I had been assaulted by vampires.

Eventually, Pilar cast a Mute glamour over our threshold and charmed it to create absolute silence for anyone short of campus security or administration. I envied her ease with the spell as much as I appreciated it.

Further attempts from our fellow students to contact me fell on deaf ears, although Ben texted and asked if I was okay. He promised to bring pizza if we let him hang out with us, and he brought over a movie his roommate had picked up from Redbox. Holly promised to join us but never showed, canceling later over a text message because she was too busy with some new boyfriend she met on Halloween night.

When morning came, the aroma of breakfast awakened me from a hard, nightmare-filled slumber. I couldn’t remember much of the dream, only that there were toy puppets chasing me and flocks of foul ravens gathering like storm clouds in the skies.

Stupid Jada. Stupid prankster raven friends. I blamed her bullshit and the attack for my poor night of sleep and ambled from the bedroom to peek into the cramped kitchen. Lia was cooking.

“Morning!” she called, eyes bright and chipper. “Or should I say, good afternoon.”

“Morning… Huh?” I glanced at the clock. It was half past noon.

“You were tired, and it’s Saturday, so we let you sleep in. Pilar went to fetch donuts from the food court.”

“She’s breaking her diet?”

“Sure is. I’ll be done with this in a moment.”

While Liadan made what looked like a full Irish breakfast, complete with sausages, beans, and soda bread, I woke myself up in the bathroom with a shower and slipped into fresh sweats. When I returned to my bedroom to stuff my dirty laundry into the hamper, a glint of red winked at me from the pillow.

“The hell?”

Someone had left a ruby necklace in my room. A delicate card of starlight parchment shimmered beside it. I picked up the faerie-made stationery and threw open the curtains for a look at it in the sunlight. Opalescent ink gleamed against the page in flowing script.

Keep it safe and close to your heart until it is time.

“Time? Time for what?” I scooped up the necklace and headed back to the living room. “Lia? Pilar? Which of you put this in my room?”

“Put what?” Liadan asked.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.