Chapter 48. Eloise
Eloise
Grayson can’t be telling the truth. The Chancellor can’t be the one running those raids on Laborers because that would mean—it would mean my whole life has been a lie.
I stare at Grayson for a long moment, looking for a sign that he’s playing me. But in my gut, I suspect he’s not playing anything. “Why?” I ask, my voice tight in my throat. “Why would the Chancellor kill his own people?”
Grayson shakes his head. “Because keeping Laborers scared keeps them controlled. If everyone is consumed with their fear of the Lawless, then they follow him blindly, because they think they need his protection.”
His words feel like dominoes falling, the entire world crashing around me. I cover my face with my hands, momentarily blocking everything out. And when I drop them, Grayson is staring at me. I know he can scent my devastation. I’m overwhelmed. But even more than that I’m pissed off.
“How could you not tell me this?” I accuse. “Or everyone? How can you walk around day after day knowing that man is killing people and not do something about it?”
“Because who would believe me?” he asks. “I need proof. And I am doing something. I’ve been working on a plan with Sage to take him down since I was thirteen.” His voice has a strong edge to it, somewhere hinged between determination and long-awaited revenge.
“Sage?” I say, my mind pendulum swinging. “The maid in your house?”
Grayson freezes. “Maid? What maid?”
“The night of the party, when you left me in the walk-in closet, a maid named Sage came in—super pretty, really nice, maybe a couple of years older than me? She helped me with all the finishing spells for my outfit,” I say, and he sucks in a sharp breath.
“Where are the clothes? The ones Sage helped you with?” he asks quickly.
“Armoire. Top shelf,” I reply, suddenly feeling nervous. “Why?”
“We gotta go. Now,” Grayson says, and immediately starts walking.
I have to speed up to catch him.
“Grayson, you’re scaring me. Why do you want to see those clothes?” I ask.
“Because,” he says. “We don’t have a maid named Sage.”
There has never been a moment in the last four years where I wasn’t happy to see Maggie, but as we enter the main lobby and almost collide with her, I hate that she found me and not the other way around.
She spins on her heel, clocking both of us and narrowing her eyes.
“Oh? You’re alive? How nice for ye,” she says, angrier than I’ve ever seen her.
Grayson immediately tries to mediate the fallout, but I know before a word leaves his mouth that he has no chance. “My fault,” he says quickly. “I was the one who—”
“I’m not talking to ye, prince,” she says with enough authority to shut him up.
Time to stop standing still and move, the Gran spell chimes in the hallway. Dinner has been served.
Maggie gestures to the hallway; then she glares at Grayson to let him know he isn’t welcome. I make eye contact with him and he nods in the direction of our room, a silent acknowledgment that he’ll take care of things. But my heart is heavy as we leave him behind. How will Maggie ever understand?
“What in the absolute shite is going on with ye, Eloise?” Maggie asks the second we’re alone.
“Everything,” I reply, trying to reel myself back, because by this point the emotions of the day are threatening to overwhelm me.
“You’ve completely fecked off on this friendship,” she says with oomph.
“I would never,” I reply, wanting her to see the truth of it.
“Is that so?” Maggie says. “Because for four years we’ve dreamed about this—the day we get into Uni together. And now here we are and all ye have time for is Grayson Stone.”
“I need two days,” I plead with her. “Please. Just forty-eight hours and I’ll tell you everything. I promise. I’m trying to—” But that’s where I stop. If I say the words “protect you,” she’ll know something’s wrong immediately.
Maggie’s eyebrows push together. “That’s the single worst apology I’ve ever gotten in me life. And I have brothers, so I’ve had my share. What the hell are ye on about? Two days for what?”
“Mags—” I start and stop, wanting to tell her everything. Every single thing I’m not supposed to.
She pulls me to a stop in a little alcove of the wooden hallway.
“I’ve been understanding about Grayson—made jokes and gave ye opportunities.
I even let it go when you stood me up to get ready for the party.
But then you take off without so much as a word?
I left, too, did ye know that? I missed out on a crackin’ good night where I was hanging out with Sofia because I put you first. Sat by your damn door like a gobshite and waited until the last minute before curfew.
A door which is still spellworked to rearrange my face, by the way.
And I thought at the very least you’d come looking for me first thing in the morning, begging to explain. ”
Every word is a punch to the gut and my chin starts to shake. Students walk past and I hear my name. They’re probably whispering about what happened at the party. But my focus is solely on Maggie.
“You can’t imagine how sorry I am, how much I’ve wanted to tell you—” I stop short. My chin shakes again and I beg it to stop. “Listen, I know I’ve been a crappy friend. The worst. You have every right to be mad.”
A crease forms between her eyebrows. “Are ye about to cry? Ye never cry, not since your Grandad—” She scans my face. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
Crap. I look up at the ceiling, trying to get ahold of myself.
Her eyes widen. “Are you takin’ a piss? Because if not, yer starting to scare me. Is there danger I don’t know about? Tell me this isn’t about that damn Key everyone is talking about.”
My heart begins to race and I know she reads me too well.
“Bloody hell, I’m right?” she whisper-yells at me. “Eloise Elizabeth Belrose, do you know how dangerous trying to call that thing is? The people who might try to—” Her eyes widen. “Feck, the prince is in on this, isn’t he?” She looks around. “I’m going to kill him. I’m going to—”
“No,” I say quickly, grabbing her arm. “He’s the only one I’m not scared of right now. And I am scared, Maggie. I’m terrified I—”
Which is when Adrien appears. “Headed to dinner, ladies?”
“I don’t want to talk,” I say quickly, wiping at my face and turning away from him. I pull Maggie toward the dining room, wanting to get away.
“About the party Friday night,” Adrien says, keeping pace with us and not taking the hint. “I found this on my balcony railing. You must have forgotten it.” He pulls out the flower ring and offers it to me.
I have way bigger problems than Adrien right now, but this hits me in exactly the wrong way—one more person who’s screwed with me for no reason. And I get big mad.
“That’s because I don’t want it,” I say bluntly, and push through the dining room doors.
Maggie raises an eyebrow.
Adrien exhales. “Listen, I wanted to apologize to you. I never meant to cause a scene and run you out of there.”
I stop by our table near the windows. “No, you meant to cause a scene and run Grayson out of there. With lies. You told people Grayson was reeling me in just to break my heart.”
Maggie whistles. “Ye did what?”
“I was looking out for you,” Adrien says.
“You made me think he was hooking up with Naomi when he wasn’t,” I say, aghast. “With absolutely no regard for how I might feel about it.”
“Can ye not read the room and piss off, Frenchie?” Maggie says.
But Adrien doesn’t even look at her. “Which is why you were hyped up enough to call the Key?” he asks, and my heart nearly stops. “I mean, if the rumors are true.”
I see red, and my magic tingles in my fingertips.
But before I can open my mouth, Maggie grabs him by the shirt and gives him a shove. “Ye conniving little gobshite. You’re going to walk away and do it now before I blast you into yer next life.”
The jackass has the nerve to smile as he straightens his shirt. He looks me directly in the eyes as he backs away. “Come find me when you realize I’m right. I look forward to the apology.”
Maggie raises her hand to cast, but I pull it down. Because we’ve already caused one hell of a scene. Everyone is staring.
I’m about to ask her to go someplace less public, but before I can even open my mouth I’m cut off by a loud thud on the glass behind us.
Maggie and I turn around in a flash, and there, embedded in the glass, not two feet from where we are about to sit, is a dagger.
For a split second, I can’t make sense of it or the splintering lines in the glass from the impact.
Then all at once, ten more daggers hit the surrounding windows, turning the translucent glass wall into a milky spiderweb.
We jump back just as Naomi yells, “Watch out!” She flings a spell from the other side of the room and everyone ducks. Her spell hits the glass with a thick layer of ice.
For a second it seems to hold, but the magic is unstable, or maybe it was the wrong counter spell. Because all of a sudden, there is a series of loud popping noises and the entire window, along with her ice, explodes—throwing vicious shards directly at us.
Students jump backward into tables, knocking over pitchers and toppling chairs.
Maggie throws up a shield to protect us and there’s a sickening crunch as glass and ice bounces off it.
But as I look around, I realize not everyone got their spells woven fast enough.
Because three chairs away a guy stares at a sharp piece of glass piercing his chest that goes straight through to his back.
Utter chaos erupts.
“Lawless!” a girl screams, and I peer into the distance, spotting a handful of figures dressed all in copper on the wall surrounding the University.
Next to me Maggie stumbles and as I turn, I scream.
Because she didn’t make her shield wide enough. Maggie protected me, but—she didn’t shield herself. Horror washes over me as she grips the table behind us. We both stare at the shard of glass that pierces her shoulder under her collarbone.
“No, no, no,” I plead. Not Maggie. Not my Maggie. I step toward her.
She looks at me with wide eyes, her face turning ghostly pale and her balance faltering.
I reach out to catch her, but before my fingers can grab hold, a thin metal rope loops around my wrist. I turn toward the shattered window, following the rope to a girl. Disbelief hits me so hard I see spots—Sage. Only now she’s dressed all in copper.
“Time to fly,” Sage says, and yanks the metal rope.
I jolt toward her, unable to stop the sudden motion. I dig my feet into the ground, trying to counteract the spell. But whatever magic is on the rope, it’s incredibly strong.
The dining room door blasts open and the shouts of Guardians fill the room.
“Shit,” Sage curses as I lift my hand to cast, but before I even get the spell started, she jumps out the window, pulling me along with her.
The last thing I do is turn to Maggie. “Nothing less!” I yell to her, knowing she’ll know what it means—a promise that I’ll come back for her, a demand that she not die. And then I’m falling through the air with no idea how to stop.