Page 15 of Kingdom of Shadows and Wings

My limbs tingle, as if thousands of tiny needles are prickling my skin. I move my fingers and wiggle my toes, taking more deep, slow breaths until the awful sensation fades. “Does this happen often?”

She sighs. “Having some kind of toxin put in your food? Or hazing in general?”

“Both, I guess.”

“The food toxin is a new one for me.” She gestures toward my barely touched dessert. “And usually, it’s the commoners who do the most hazing. Nobles typically don’t haze other nobles, but at Flighthaven, you just never know.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Aren’t there rules against this sort of thing?”

She grimaces. “There are rules, but they only apply if you get caught…or rat someone out. And trust me, you don’t want to do that.”

Her shudder tells me what her words don’t. “No ratting. Got it.”

A quick scan of the mess hall forces Olive’s request home. So many unfriendly faces in the crowd. Could one of them be responsible for Leesa’s disappearance?

I rub the back of my neck. “Please tell me Helene’s room’s on the opposite side of the dorms from ours.”

Olive grimaces. “About that…”

I groan. “By the gods, tell me she’s not our other roommate.”

“Okay. I won’t tell you that.”

I sigh. Unbelievable. What are the odds that the person who attacked me within my first hour at Flighthaven is one of my two roommates?

Olive squirms, her displeasure at being the bearer of bad news written across her delicate face. Not wanting her to fret on my account, I manage a weak joke. “If you tell me she snores, too, that’s it. I’m running away.”

Her expression lightens, making my effort worthwhile. “The snoring isn’t terrible. Promise.”

After reassuring Olive that I’m fine, I tell her I need a little alone time to settle in before trudging toward the dormitory alone.

Students mill about and converse. As I approach, several cast furtive glances at me and start whispering.

A freckled fledgling with a boyish face elbows his buddy. “Who comes to Flighthaven in adress?”

His tall, wiry friend snorts. “What do you expect from a noble? Probably thought she was going to a party.”

Great. Apparently, more people than I thought witnessed my humiliating arrival.

While the whispers and heckles go on and on, I do my best to tune them out.

Once in the dorm room, I glance around to make sure I’m alone. Then I flop onto my bed. After the day I’ve had, I don’t even care that the mattress is thin and uncomfortable. Fatigue and helplessness threaten to overwhelm me, and I push back against both.

Maybe Olive was right, and Helene’s prank was just hazing. Even so, I’m not sure I’m up for a rematch in our room tonight. If I’m lucky, she has after-dinner plans elsewhere and I’ll be fast asleep by the time she returns.

Welcome to Flighthaven, newbie.

Helene’s venomous words ricochet through my head, sparking an image of her malicious, onyx eyes.

But why? Why do that when I’d done nothing to her? Does she get off on cruelty, or is it because I sat with Olive? Or did it have something to do with Helene’s remark about Leesa sneaking around…about secrets? Does Helene know more than she’s letting on about my sister? Someone in my fledgling class must. I refuse to believe that Leesa vanished without a trace and not a single person at Flighthaven has an inkling of what happened.

To find Leesa, I need to survive this place. Too bad that every minute I’m here makes survival seem like more of an insurmountable challenge.

Dread crawls down my spine as my eyelids droop and drift shut.

Chapter Seven

After a long night tossing and turning, I rise before the sun, careful not to wake Olive, who’s sleeping closest to me, or Helene, who snores softly from the other side of the room. The last thing I want to do is explain myself.

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