“Better how? We all agreed to make a plan to take down Gabby and Elijah,together,” Stefan said. “Are you going to turn your back on that now?”
“No. But you don’t understand. I work by myself.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Stefan said forcefully. “This is too big for you to handle on your own. If you take them and the Black Claw on by yourself as the Phantom, you’re going to get hurt. This is too tough a job for one man. Let us help.”
I know Stefan had the right intentions. His heart was in the right place. But he didn’t get it. The closer people got to the Phantom, the more danger they were in.
And after the King’s Contest ended, I didn’t know how to let people in anymore.
“Just let me do my job.” My voice hardened, to indicate this was a final note. “I need to do this alone.”
Stefan scoffed. “You’re never alone, Ethan. You’ve got friends. And once you pull your head out of your ass and realize that, come find me.”
Stefan left. The door snapped shut behind him, echoing the strained intensity between us.
As I removed the cloak, it crumpled on the floor in a heap. Looking at it now, there was more blood on it than I realized.
Stefan could be right. I needed help— I knew that. Doing this by myself was impossible. I’d gotten caught how many times... nearly died just as often.
But I wouldn’t put my friends in the same situation I was in. I couldn’t ask them to risk their lives for me. There was more at stake than my freedom. I refused to put theirs on the line.
And I’d been wounded too deeply to let anyone get too close.
Chapter Two
Emma
There was something about the magic of Arcanea University that seemed to make everything all right again... even when it wasn’t.
I hugged my books to my chest as I walked the snowy path to the university gates. It was cold for the first day of Winter semester classes, and I was bundled up from head to toe. A heavy snowfall coated the gardens. Shifters were everywhere, romping in the snow and causing a scene, while sorceresses flung snowballs at each other with their illusion magic. The university’s tall towers and beautiful architecture was glorious in the winter. Golden windows and illustrious sculptures appeared even more regal than usual in the delicate snowfall.
A dragon shifter flew overhead and dropped a large snowball on a griffin. It exploded, sending snow everywhere. The griffin shook his feathers of snowflakes and told the dragon to piss off, but the shifter only hissed with laughter.
I smiled wistfully as I watched a wolven shifter chase a sorceress around playfully, but it faded in a matter of moments. Things had changed since the King’s Contest. Would anyone evenwantto be my friend anymore?
The King’s Contest was over— but I hadn’t put it behind me. Ethan would be preparing to take the throne right now if it wasn’t for me. I’d been the reason we’d lost first place, and the reason Gabby and Elijah won the crown. I’d used Unseelie magic, and harnessed the power of the dark necklace to cheat during the Contest to save my mate. I was the one who’d made us lose.
My greatest fear was Ethan would never forgive me for it. That he’d always resent me. But in the back of my mind I worried, too, that my friends wouldn’t either.
Yet there’d been no choice. Milonna, my goddess... the one I’d sworn myself to... had sent the hag to me to tell me Ethan wouldn’t survive the Contest if I didn’t use the necklace. I wouldn’t risk Ethan’s death for anything, and the hag had promised that Ethan would be king in the end.
I guess she must’ve lied, because the kingship was out of Ethan’s reach forever.
There was also the prophecy the hag had given. She told me I was the Worldweaver, and it would be me who would lead the Arcanea into a new age before my untimely death four winters from now.
Three, once this winter ended. I still didn’t know what all that meant.
All these rationalizations did me no good. No matter how many sleepless nights I’d spent contemplating if I’d made a mistake, I never got an answer.
And I couldn’t get past the guilt.
Everything in my life had upended in a few months. Less than half a year ago, I didn’t know magic was real, or that shifters existed, and I was descended from a group of noble fae. I didn’t know anything, had struggled in all my classes and barely harnessed my powers. Then I’d been forced into a deadly contest where I’d almost lost my life.
And almost lost the man I loved.
My stomach clenched. I couldn’t think about that. It was out-of-bounds.Remember your deal with Gabby.If I wanted Ethan alive, I had to keep my distance.
I coughed a few times and let out a sniffling noise. I’d had trouble breathing for three days. The air felt thick and heavy in my lungs, and I had a cough that wouldn’t go away. Though I didn’t have a cold or the flu, my body felt hot, and chills ran up and down my skin every so often. Every step felt like walking a mile.
