“I was trying to get through to you. You kept calling me Cressida.”
“As in Cressida Clearwater?” Stephens butted in. “The founder of the academy? She died back in the 1600s.”
Telling them I could see her, talk to her, and confided in her on a regular basis would only make me seem even crazier, so I remained silent.
“Do you see her now?” Sammie—I’d never refer to her as my mom again after today—asked gently, like the question itself needed special handling.
I narrowed my glare with burning precision and pushed out of Rob’s arms. My knees wobbled but held me. “Don’t patronize me. You and I both know what really happened. I didn’t attack you. I defended myself.”
“You kept saying that,” she said through a sob and covered her mouth with her hand as her eyes swelled with tears. “That you just wanted your title back and would stop at nothing to get it.”
“I never said that!”
“You’re just so angry.”
Oh, she had no idea. “When someone’s trying to kill me, yeah. I tend to get a little pissed off. It was you who attacked me down at the jetty, wasn’t it? Didn’t kill me there, so you thought you’d come to the ruins to finish the job?”
“Would you listen to yourself? You’re being paranoid. No one is trying to kill you. We’re trying to help you.”
“I’m sure a few years in Carcerem will calm her down,” Unibrow offered. If I didn’t have this weird metal ring around my neck emitting a light that drained me, I would have already set her on fire.
“No,” Sammie and I said at the same time. She went on. “She just needs some help. The attacks on the students. The attack on me. The counter ward.” She fake sobbed into her hand.
Wait. So, the counter ward…really was a counter ward? Hell to the fuck no would she pin that on me. “You mean the ward you created by my hand while I had my eyes closed?”
“You’re just confused.”
“I’m not confused. I’m pissed off. There’s a difference.”
“It’s a cry for help. Please, baby. Please let us help you.” She extended her arm. I backed into Rob.
“Accept the help,” he whispered in my ear, keeping his lips immobile. “We’ll get this figured out, Reed. I promise. Just let them think you’re accepting their help.”
Sammie eyed the way Rob had his arm around my midsection and hardened her expression. There was something about him she definitely didn’t like. Maybe it was the way he’d protect me to the death instead of try and cause it, unlike her. I had to trust he and the other guys had a plan to get me out of this shithole I’d dug for myself.
“My brain is all fuzzy.” At least that wasn’t a total lie. I was sure the contraption around my freakin’ neck didn’t help.
“I was afraid the pressure of being the prophecy would be too much to put on a child,” Stephens stated.
Who was he calling a child? I was almost twenty-two, for Christ’s sake. I drew in a breath to tell him where to stick his comment when Rob tightened his hold around my waist.
“Now that our rightful prophecy has hunted down and destroyed the counter ward, the professors can create new wards and return the barrier to full strength.”
Rightful prophecy? Was he kidding with that statement? The only rightful thing I’d seen her do was beat the snot out of herself to really sell her lie.
Sammie approached. I stepped out of Rob’s hold and met her halfway. We were close to the same height, her only being an inch or so taller, and locked gazes. She went first. “This is the only way.”
“I agree.”
Her smile faltered. Mine didn’t.
“Katy, please understand. Sometimes you have to make tough choices when you’re in a position of power.”
I continued to stare.
“Well, Sammie?” Stephens said. “What do you suggest?”
She returned her attention to me and studied me for an uncomfortable pause. I kept my glare nailed to her. No way was I letting her win this staring contest. “Let’s have the healer look at her. Maybe muting her powers will help stabilize her mind. Once we determine the right medication, we’ll remove the elemutus.”
Wait. She wanted to put me back on medication? Because that had worked out so well the last time when she’d convinced me I had some rare disease and kept me stoned for a decade.
“I’ll take her to the infirmary,” Rob offered and took my arm.
Sammie took my other arm. “I’ll go with you. We can’t have one of her boyfriends letting her go, now can we?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He forced a hard grin and popped us out. We landed in the waiting room of the infirmary, where Syd was already waiting with Stace.
As soon as the two women spotted each other, I swear I heard the hissing and low growls announcing the beginning of a cat fight. Sammie released my arm and retreated several feet as Stace stepped forward, her arm outstretched.
“This way.” She went for Sammie, who shuffled out of her reach.
“I, uh… I need to confirm the barrier has been restored.”
“You need to be examined,” Stace countered. “Those are some nasty bruises. How did you get them, exactly?”
She eyed me. I dropped my jaw and drew in a breath to deny her silent accusation, but Stace beat me to it.
“Katy did that to you? She beat you with her bare hands?” She grasped my wrists and held up my hands, examining them, paying extra attention to my right palm. She then moved my arms this way and that. “How’d you get all these scratches?”
I glared at Sammie, who shrugged as if to say go ahead. Telling them what happened would only confirm we’d battled, which wouldn’t help my situation. “I fell.” A couple hundred feet.
“Into a thornbush?”
“I’m fine,” I grumbled and took my hands back.
“It’s interesting,” Stace went on as she brought her attention back to Sammie.
