“What? Well, get it out!”
“I will. Hold still,” she said grabbing Hailey’s foot again. “It’s already burrowed pretty deep.” Giselle looked up. “You need to go to the hospital—you need a painkiller,” she said, slamming the tweezers on the desk and crossing her arms.
“I am not going to the hospital.”
“Whatever. It’s your leg.”
“Giselle,” Hailey pleaded irritably. She shoved the tweezers back into her roommate’s hand. “Just yank it out.”
Giselle studied her for a moment.
“Fine. Hold still. It’ll probably latch onto a chunk of muscle, and they usually spaz and barb when they’re threatened. This is going to hurt. Don’t pass out.”
Holding the tweezers in one hand and Hailey’s foot with the other, Giselle went to work. First, she ripped Hailey’s foot in two—at least that’s what it felt like, and Hailey let out a screech that made the whole class stare. Then Giselle plunged the tweezers through her foot until they hit her bone, whereupon she clamped onto the bone and ripped it out along with a tendon that broke loose from the back of Hailey’s heel, rolled up like a blind and dragged the arch of her foot out with it.
Holding the teeny wooden stake up triumphantly, Giselle whizzed a roll of gauze at Hailey.
“Hold pressure on your foot—I have to burn this thing.” She held a lighter to the carnivorous splinter, which screamed like a boiled lobster.
Hailey held her breath to stop the agony inside her foot. It didn’t work. And as she lost consciousness, she heard Giselle cussing her out.
“Oh no you don’t, I told you—shit!”
“…why you won’t just heal her foot…” A familiar voice trailed in and out as Hailey opened her eyes.
“She must ask for such a favor,” Asher answered sharply, and Hailey blinked, recognizing the naked bed under her as her own.
“Well, you’re a real gentleman, Asher,” Fin said in a voice dripping with sarcasm. And then he proceeded to mock the Envoy in an overly dramatic and holier-than-thou voice. “Beg for forgiveness, and I shall heal you.You’re such a romantic. Make sure you tell her she’ll be your slave for eternity.”
The next thing Hailey heard was a choking noise, and she turned her head to see Asher holding Fin up by his throat, pinning him against her closet.
“It’s nice to see you two getting along,” she mumbled.
Dropping Fin, Asher turned to face her.
Fin stood up and cleared his throat.
They both glared at her.
“I told you to go to the hospital!” they yelled in unison, one pointing at her foot, and the other in a southern direction.
Looking from one angry face to the other, Hailey scooted back from them in her bed. Then she surveyed her foot, which was still attached and nicely bandaged.
“I didn’t need the hospital,” she shrugged. “Giselle got the splinter out just fine.”
She looked at her roommate’s bed and the ceiling above it then the floor in front of it, but Giselle wasn’t home.
Asher stepped toward her, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him, his eyes pools of dark violet.
Looking up at him, Hailey frowned as she imagined his smooth voice full of scorn. But he said nothing. Instead, he simply turned and walked out, leavingHailey with all of the guilt and none of the balancing anger she would’ve had if he had chewed her out.
Fin sat on the bed, and Hailey scooted next to him.
“He’s going to lock me up,” she said objectively, “or expel me.”
Fin patted her leg. “I don’t think so.” He nodded at her desk. There, in a neat tower, sat all of her books, a box of vibrating crystals, a pair of Indispensable Magnoggles, a vial of gold dust and next to that, a stack of Bear Towne sweats. A new pair of wellies stood on the floor in front of it all.
“Did you find my books?” she asked excitedly.
