Page 31 of Elemental Fae Academy: Book Three

I narrowed my gaze on the exit and marched toward the door, fully expecting to find some asshole in the hallway. But it was as empty as the bathroom.

“Claire…”

I blinked to my left, toward the source of the murmur. “Where are you?”

No answer.

Fine. Someone wanted to play with me? They’d deal with the full weight of my elements.

The door closed behind me as I wandered down the stone-walled corridor toward what appeared to be an open terrace. Earth and fire swirled around me, ready to engage my command on a second’s notice.

But as I stepped out onto the cobblestone patio, I found a myriad of unoccupied benches and a garden beyond them. The floral scents called to me, hypnotizing my senses and shrouding me in the comfort of home.

I remember this, I thought, delirious and lost in a memory of my grandmother’s garden. She loved Oriental lilies, would tend to them every summer and fill the house with the ones she pruned.

Who knew the same flowers grew here? I meandered toward them, curious. Because I hadn’t seen these anywhere on campus.

“Claire,” a feminine voice said, clear now.

A chill skated down my spine. I knew that voice. Had heard it in my dreams.

I spun around, a scream lodged in my throat as a ghostly image of my mother appeared with her hands raised in the air. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she said urgently. “Please, just hear me out.”

“Hear you out?” I repeated, my voice squeaking at the end.

I needed to run.

To fight.

To do something other than stand here and gape at her.

Yet my feet refused to move because, holy shit, my mother had appeared in spirit form. I tried to engage my own element, to battle her in whatever way a Spirit Fae fought, but my heart refused me.

Exos!

“Please, Claire,” my mother whispered. “Everything you know is a lie. You can’t trust Elana. She’s the one who—” Her essence flickered, disappearing into the night, and with her the scent of my grandmother’s favorite flowers.

I spun around, searching for whatever trick she’d set up for me, only to find myself alone beneath the moon.

“Claire!” Exos’s voice thundered through the night as he pushed through the doors I’d touched only moments ago. I collapsed at the sight of him, my knees hitting the ground as if whatever spell I’d fallen under had been lifted.

And cried out in surprise.

Not because of the impact of my legs against the cobblestone, but because of the very real memories assaulting me. My grandmother. Her flowers. And the sense of dread and loss piercing my heart.

My mother was alive. And she appeared to be trying to communicate with me in spirit form. Her words reverberated in my head as all my mates were suddenly there, surrounding me with questions, but their voices were lost to the wind of my thoughts.

You can’t trust Elana.

That statement resonated the loudest. Because I felt the truth of that claim all the way to my very soul. Something wasn’t right with that woman. I sensed it when she called upon the dead. An eerie, violent energy that no one should possess or use.

I didn’t sense that from my mother. Her features and tone and words resembled concern and fear, not anger and harshness.

Everything you know is a lie.

Not everything, I thought back at her, taking in the horrified expressions of my mates. I know them. I know their love.

But something told me that wasn’t what my mother meant.

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