Page 11 of House of Mages and Raven

Cami glanced at me from her table alongside the top candidates from the House of Chaos, then went back to eating and listening to her friends. She might’ve defended me when I was in mortal danger, but in a social setting, she kept her distance.

I was more than happy to stick to my own crowd. I jogged toward Bea and the other geeks at the corner tables with a big smile on my face as they cheered me on. As I sat beside Bea, the group immediately picked up the discussion that I’d temporarily interrupted.

“The entire school has been talking about Prince Killian and Queen Lilith,” Bea told me. “There’s comprehensive coverage of their engagement on Spinchat.”

I should’ve expected it, yet a sharp pain still erupted in my chest.

“What else is new,” I said flatly, and fought to keep up my game face.

Sy’s superior hearing picked up the conversations all around. She loved gossip. And Bea was right. Chatter from every table was centered on Queen Lilith and her romance with the heir of the House of Chaos, the hottest prince in the realm.

“Can you believe that Queen Lilith is here in the flesh?” a girl from chaos house swooned. “Queen Lilith is a great beauty, and her power is incomparable, except for our prince’s.”

“I saw them walking on campus, holding hands,” another girl said from a table not far from ours. “It’s so romantic!”

A sudden rage shot through me, making me want to punch a few throats.

Or tear them out,Sy said viciously.Let me do it!

A sharp pain followed my rage, piercing my chest like a cold iron arrow. I took a swig of the coffee Bea had brought for me to calm myself down. It had a lot of cream and sugar in it, just the way I liked, but it tasted like cough syrup.

The flow of conversation from every table bombarded me. Everyone was obsessed with Killian and his betrothed. Not a soul mentioned the battle against the druid and his Legion of the Brotherhood that had happened two days ago. No one grieved for the students and the sentinels who had perished during the first trial.

The underdogs’ campaign was forgotten. I’d once wondered about humans’ short-term memories of tragic events and their speed at moving on with their lives. Now I stared at the room full of supernaturals and puzzled if I’d come to the wrong place.

I barely recognized this new world since I’d left Killian’s bed. What had gone wrong?

We can right the wrong,Sy said.Let’s take down the queen bitch and show the world who’s superior. And we’ll take back our man.

“Barbie, you’re an insider,” Mila called in a shrill voice. The reindeer shifter had jumped onto the desk in the study room and stood with Jinx, Bea, Drusilla, Wyatt, and Charlie to back me up when I went toe-to-toe against Medea and her demon pals. “You now hang out with Prince Killian’s circle. You must have firsthand knowledge about his romance. Please tell us if it’s true that Prince Killian and Queen Lilith will get married right after his graduation? I wonder who will get invited to the ceremony. It’ll be the event of the century.”

All heads whipped to face me, eager to hear every drop of my supposed inside anecdotes. So far, no one had asked me how I was doing, considering I’d almost died at the druid’s hands.

“Maybe later,” I said, shoving my rage down, and shot to my feet. If I kept listening to their BS, I’d lose my shit. “I’m going to grab something to eat.”

They nodded, looking disappointed yet still hopeful that I’d share inside news on Killian and the popular queen’s romance when I returned with my food.

Bea got to her feet. “I’ll go with you.”

“You don’t have to,” I said.

“I want to,” she insisted.

She was the only one who hadn’t been babbling about Killian and Lilith. She tried not to look at me, as if she knew something had happened between Killian and me, even though I hadn’t exactly talked about him ever since I got into his house.

“How are you holding up, Barbie?” my friend asked as she sidled up to me. “I tried to reach out to you after the battle, but no one was allowed to see you. The guards from the House of Chaos said you were fine and that you needed to rest. They sent me away. Prince Killian’s guards are all terrifying, though not as terrifying as their prince.”

My bottom lip quivered at the concern in my friend’s voice, but I fought the sudden urge to cry. I couldn’t lose my shit despite sadness, emptiness, and anger having gathered in me since Killian’s departure without a goodbye.

We strode toward the breakfast buffet table. For the first time, no one paid me any attention. No foes bothered to trip me, partly because they now feared me, but mostly, everyone was busy with the feeding frenzy on the epic romance between Killian and Queen Lilith.

Bellona sat with her demon pals from the sixth house, talking animatedly to a big crowd, who hung on her every word about Killian’s courtship with Queen Lilith. She’d forgotten that Killian had kicked her out of his house.

I bit my lip. “Am I waking up to an alternate universe?”

There was a tightness around Bea’s eyes. “Something shifted,” she whispered. “I don’t know what, but it’s in the air, almost like spells at work.” She shook her head. “I can’t pinpoint it, as the power is above my paygrade.”

She wasn’t alone.

---