Page 57 of Faerie Trials

I uttered the words for the spell to raise the magical alarm and hovered near the body for a second until I was sure the message was out. Too close, my mind said immediately. Although I wasn’t sure it would matter now. It was another crime scene where I was the first one there. It meant yet another knife pointed directly at my heart and all eyes on me, determined to rip me down to the bone and examine every piece for answers.

Did I have any choice? No. Now the pure-blood Fae/half-shifter murders were going to be public knowledge, because there was no way for this to be pushed aside. No way for the king and his cronies to keep this private. It was going to be all over the news.

The worst part? I was sure the student had been killed by the same half-shifter. The same one who murdered the other three girls and attacked Juno. It seemed to be his same MO. Both arms had been wrenched from their sockets, with the legs twisted off in different directions, and three deep horizontal slashes—claw marks—across the midsection.

This one, though…she didn’t have the red hair. Juno didn’t have red hair either, but her connection to me stood out in terms of why she was targeted. This girl on the ground was on the periphery of the group of Mike’s shitty friends. I mostly saw her hanging around Lane and Arlyss, hoping for some scrap of their attention. They’d never given it but she’d persisted anyway.

That didn’t mean she deserved to die.

The moment I saw someone,anyone, arriving on the scene, I took off. Let the cavalry figure things out. They already knew who sounded the alarm and they’d come to talk to me later. I ran as fast as I could through the forest, all the way to the beginning.

I got back to the starting point only to have Mike run over and wrap me in his arms almost violently.

He let out a ragged breath. “I thought it was you.” His mouth pressed against the side of my head. “I was terrified when I heard someone was hurt. I didn’t know what happened.”

News traveled fast in Faerie, no doubt about it. “Not hurt.Dead.” I shuddered. I returned the hug, drawing strength from him. He had no idea how badly I needed the connection.

“Are you okay?” Mike’s hands traced soothing spirals along my shoulders and back.

“Nothing is hurt but my pride. I’m afraid I failed the Trial.” I swallowed hard. “Things became a little difficult for me.”

“Shh.” Mike stroked a hand down my hair and gathered me closer. “It’s okay.”

Didn’t he understand? It wasn’t okay at all. I’d failed utterly.

“Extenuating circumstances,” Mike insisted. “No one is going to blame you for not finishing when you found…what you found.”

I had a feeling the school, and the Council of Elders, wouldn’t see it his way.

“How about you? Did you use the spell you found?” I asked him.

He nodded against me before resting his chin on the top of my head. “I did, but the warning buzzer sounded before I could complete the transformation. My seed is still in the ground. Actually, I’m not sure anyone finished.”

I scoffed. “I’m sure Arlyss did.”

“Don’t worry. I’m going to talk to the school and Headmaster Cyrus. No one would expect you to keep going after stumbling on something like you did,” Mike continued. “You must be absolutely terrified, Tavi.”

I glanced over his shoulder to see Cyrus deep in conversation with the rest of the judges, those chosen professors from Elite in charge of determining the winner of each Trial. They clustered together and none of them looked particularly pleased with this disruption.

“I don’t think it will do any good. The rules are pretty explicit.”Compete or else. I’d barely even begun the spell to make the tree grow. Also, if these were the tests for the Seven High Values, by stopping when I found the body, I’d displayed the exact opposite. Fear. Panic. DefinitelynotBravery.

“Miss Alderidge?”

I wasn’t exactly surprised to glance up from my Mike hug and see Rooker and Claribel from the bureau staring at me. Although Claribel looking at me with a smile like the cat who ate the canary was a bit startling.

Wow, they’d gotten here fast. I hadn’t even had time to catch my breath.

“I sincerely hope you are ready to talk about this latest discovery, Tavi,” Claribel said. “It’s important enough to have the rest of the Trials put on pause until the scene is secured. You must understand this is unprecedented. The king is quite concerned.”

Snapping back at her was likely one of the stupidest things I’d done in my life, but I couldn’t help myself. “Are you ready to finally catch this killer, or are you going to continue to waste time interrogating me? Because the more time you waste with this baseless suspicion the more the real killer grows in confidence to commit his next crime.”

There was a tiny pause before she finally answered. “You’re full of fire. Good to see this first Trial hasn’t sapped it out of you. You can use some of it to answer our questions.”

Mike reached down and took my hand when I made to step back. “I’m coming with you this time,” he said.

“I’m afraid not, Prince Michael,” Claribel said immediately. “We’ve been tasked with taking Miss Alderidge in for questioning about the corpse she found today. It wouldn’t do to have you subjected to the interrogation too.”

“Or having your presence influence her answers,” Rooker added with a deep rumble of sound.

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