Page 50 of Lethal

“I know.”

It’s the first time I’ve seen her smile, and I like it. It lights up her face. Then she sees something behind us, and the smile fades instantly.

I turn. Coming around the corner are Gabrielle and her friends.

Thirty

Gabrielle’s ice-coldeyes zero in on me, and an invisible force shoves me back. My arms flail as I’m thrown down to the ground. My back hits a stone, and there’s acrunchas pain explodes from my spine.

Gabrielle runs towards me, her heels tapping the granite.

“Gabrielle, stop this!” Laila demands.

I try to push myself back onto my feet, but that same invisible force holds me down.

Gabrielle’s statuesque figure comes into view near my shoulders. She glares down at me. “Jenny died the day after you arrived, and I found you in our room. Iknowyou had something to do with this.”

“I didn’t.”

She raises a palm, and I no longer have any control over my body. Gabrielle uses her magic to drag me along the ground. My skirt bunches up beneath me as sharp stones and gravel scrape my thighs. My eyes water from the pain.

When I finally come to a halt, I land on damp grass close to the edge of the cliff.

Gabrielle charges at me. “Liar!” she screams. “Jenny was my best friend. She helped me! And you, you’re nothing. Your family are the worst of all the royals. Belvederes are murderers. Everyone knows that. It’s in your blood.”

She shoves me back again, and I can feel the cliff edge behind me. The sea is loud here, crashing against the rocks below.

“Gabrielle, stop!” Laila screams. “Don’t! Someone get Octavia!”

Listen to me, Kira, Cyrus says, back in my mind again, just when I need him.Say these words.Vis impetus!

Gabrielle keeps pushing me back, her face fixed in rage.

I lift a hand and raise my head slightly. “Vis impetus!” I cry.

A crack shatters across the sky, the clouds darkening, as Gabrielle is knocked clean off her feet. She flies back at least twenty feet, landing hard on the same stones that made my spine crunch.

Someone else screams as I clamber to my feet. Laila runs to Gabrielle, and I follow. Her friends are already crowded around her.

Cyrus, what did you do?I can’t keep the shock from my tone.

It… it was simply to get her away from you. I didn’t expect you to have so much power.

In the distance, I see Octavia running towards us.

“Is she okay?” I ask Laila.

“She’s unconscious,” Laila says. She turns to me, her eyes dark. “How did you know that spell?”

“I… I think I read it in a book.”

She frowns, a line forming between her eyebrows. I cantell she doesn’t believe me. But there’s too much going on for her to ask any more questions.

I step back, allowing Octavia to examine Gabrielle. Not long after, a healer arrives and gets to work.

Octavia walks up to me. “You did this?”

I nod. “It was self-defence. Gabrielle was pushing me towards the cliff. I didn’t mean to hurt her—I really didn’t.”

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