Page 55 of Every Shade of Shadow

And then bumping into that stupid boy.

Fuck my life. I’ll be the talk of the Academy.

But chatter is noticeably absent when I enter the dining hall for breakfast. No one is watching me—well, more than usual—or whispering while I walk. Even Lily is oblivious to any midnight nudie runs.

She’s holding up a croissant to her face, inspecting it. “What’s the spell to make things taste better again?”

“There’s a spell for that?” I ask, curious. “Like, a salt bae spell?”

Both Lily and Ava laugh—quite rare for the latter, whose face always seems to be stuck in RBF mode.

Lily drops her croissant. “A salt bae spell. That’s fucking gold. It’s possible. There are all kinds of weird spells if you know where to look.”

You can say that again.

I think back to Darkwood, crossing my legs under the table. I look to my plate—a single slice of buttered toast. Hardly the breakfast of champions, but I’ve never been big on eating in general. Didn’t stop Gran filling my plate every meal.

“What do you have first?” Lily asks.

I picture my timetable. “Ah, Metamagic, or was it Temporal Magic?”

Lily yawns. “Both bullshit, airy-fairy subjects. Like Metamagic? Seriously. That ain’t fundamental.”

“It’s a growing discipline,” Ava adds. “I find it beneficial.”

“The only thing you need to find,” Lily goes on, “is a nice hard dick to get you out of this constant doom and gloom. Like, seriously, when was the last time you had a good dicking?”

I almost eject my OJ over the table. “What?”

Ava rolls her eyes. “Please, who says I don’t get any?”

“Ah, maybe that cobweb factory called your vagina,” Lily goes on.

And for the first time I see Ava actually smile. “Touché.”

Someone slams into my shoulder, shoving me forward against the table and almost knocking the OJ clear from my hand.

“Shit, watch where you’re going, Cassandra.” Lily drawls.

I turn and find a tall, elegant girl standing there with silver-blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. “So sorry,” she says, smiling at me. “I can be so clumsy.” She drifts away.

Not this shit again.

“Who was that?” I ask.

“Cassandra Thornwood,” Ava informs. “She comes from a fairly well-known Society family, read: filthy rich. Loved by all, but mostly the guys—"

“She’s fucking Glinda the Good,” Lily finishes, “though swap the ‘good’ for ‘fucking bitch,’ and you’d be closer.”

I reach up to my hair. “Does that make me Elphaba?”

Lily raises an eyebrow. “Answer me this, are you green, Ana? Like, are you actually Shrek?”

“Not last time I checked.”

“Then no,” Lily smiles, “you are not, but you are in her crosshairs for whatever reason, and trust me, that’s not a good place to be.”

*

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