Princes with dark pasts, girls out for vengeance, and creatures with a thirst for blood. These trials may live up to their name: they just might cause Belline's death.
That'll put a damper on her summer plans.
⚘
[highest rank: #7 in bodyimage]
[...
I found the note Prince Rune had written, scrounging about for both halves. Once I had both, I lined up the edges and taped them together. I sat on my bed, staring at it.
A wish on a flower. A whisper into the velvety petals was all it took to return to Eternity. It seemed so simple, so easy, yet impossible. It was the sort of magic of which only Eternity was capable.
With Annalyse, I had resolved to go to Eternity. I knew nothing there. It was far beyond my comfort zone. I was going to leave my family, my friends, the ballet studio — I would leave everything behind.
And while it was terrifying, I knew I would regret not leaving more. Even before I'd left Eternity, I'd regretted it. That little voice in the back of my head knew, but I had ignored it. I was done ignoring it.
Knowing that friends and family (although not blood-related) waited for me in Eternity was a reassuring thought. Unlike the last time I'd first arrived in Eternity, I would have a place to stay and people to care for. I also had a new goal: to affect change. I could make a difference, fight to abolish the Bride Competition. And I couldn't do that from Portland.
Seeing Eika, Kit, and Jack again sent me into an excited frenzy. I pulled my duffle bag from my closet and filled it with clothes and ballet outfits. Serla's red gown winked at me, as though it had been waiting for this. After I threw my ballet shoes into my bag, I froze.
As much as I wanted to pack and leave, as easy as that, I couldn't. I had to tell my parents about my plans — that didn't include college. I had to tell my friends goodbye. Those things took time.
And time was running out.
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There was one week left before everything had to be packed up and ready for transport. And I was panicking.
I had been wracking my brain with the best way to phrase my intentions. But it turned out that coming up with a gentle way of saying, "I choose a boy that I'm only starting to have feelings for over going to college," didn't exist.
I even considered telling the full truth: that the summer camp had been a ruse for a deadly competition in a faraway galaxy. That I had not only survived, but that I had come to care for the planet and her inhabitants. That winning the competition came with a Prince and a kingdom and I was ready to collect my reward.
It sounded farfetched even to my ears, an elaborate lie fabricated to get out of college — even though every word was true.
Annalyse supported me whole-heartedly, agreeing to stay up late with me to play with wording. But she was sixteen-going-on-seventeen and my decision to follow a boy into the unknown sounded romantic and rebellious.
Such a plan to my parents would undoubtedly come across as reckless and short-sighted and the bad kind of rebellious. Convincing them would take more than appealing to a teenager's sense of adventure.
