“So you don’t care what people think?”
She pushed aside the niggling doubt at the back of her mind, the part of her that wanted to avoid the whispers and judgement and keep this special thing just between the two of them. “No. I don’t care.”
“Then I stand by what I said just now.” He took her hands and held them both, squeezing them briefly. “We need to tell your parents. Perhaps not today or this week, but very soon.”
“After graduation on Saturday,” she said. “I’ll know by then if I’ve won the internship. My parents’ moods will greatly depend on whether I get it or not, but we’ll tell them either way. Okay?”
Flint nodded, looking happier. “Okay.”
They walked out of the faerie paths into the entrance hall at home and parted ways on the stairs.
“Stop.”
Raven looked back at the sound of her mother’s voice. Zalea walked out of the dining room and stood in the center of the entrance hall. She folded her arms across her chest and looked first at Raven, then at Flint.
Raven stepped back down and stood beside him. “Yes? Is something wrong?”
“Something is most definitely wrong.” Zalea’s jaw tensed before she continued. “I am shocked, utterly appalled, and extremely disappointed, Raven.”
“Mom, what are you—”
“I know about the two of you,” she shouted. Her eyes flashed back and forth between Raven and Flint. “Someone in the garden looked up and saw you together on your balcony this morning in an embrace far more intimate than should ever be appropriate between a lady and her guard.”
Raven raised her hands in an attempt to placate her mother. “I was planning to tell you about us—”
“That doesn’t make it any better!” her mother fumed.
“I think I should probably leave,” Flint said quietly.
“You most certainly will leave. And don’t even think about coming back. Consider yourself fired.”
“Mom—”
“Stop talking.” Zalea looked at Flint. “I will make certain you never get a job anywhere else after you’ve broken our trust and behaved so improperly. Now get out.” Flint exchanged a brief look with Raven before turning and leaving through the front door. Zalea focused on her daughter. “How could you do something like this?”
“Me?” Raven blinked back angry tears. “How could you speak to Flint like that?”
“I will speak to him however I choose after what he’s done.” She shook her bangles and began pacing. “And you had the nerve to tell me Orson is the one trying to seduce young ladies.”
“OH MY GOODNESS. Flint is a hundred times the man Orson is. He’s been nothing but decent since the day I met him a year ago. We’ve been friends ever since—which you knew nothing about, of course—and he’s never done anything inappropriate. We couldn’t help falling for one another, and guess what? He was the one who wanted to tell you and Dad about us. Not me. Because I knew you’d react like this.”
“Of course I’m reacting this way.” Zalea sighed and ceased her pacing. “Raven, you need to think. Just think. Where can this possibly go? You can’t form a union with someone like him.”
“No one said anything about getting married!” Raven yelled. “You have heard of dating, right?”
“And what is the point of dating if not with a consideration for a potential union? And if you don’t see him as potential union material, then what are you getting so upset about?”
“I do see him as union material, I’m just saying that no one’s talking about getting married now.”
“I’m afraid you won’t ever be marrying someone like him.”
Raven groaned and turned for the stairs. “This is pointless. Absolutely pointless. If you can’t accept him, then you can’t accept me. At the end of the week, when graduation is done, I’m leaving.”
“Raven!” Her mother shouted after her. “You’re really going to give up all of this—everything this family can offer you—for a boy?”
“I’m not giving this up for a boy! I’m giving it up for a principle.”
Zalea slowly shook her head. “No. This isn’t about principles. Do you really think we’d be in this position, with you threatening to run away, if you hadn’t fallen in love with someone completely inappropriate?”
“Probably not. But it would have happened at some stage. There’s so much about the way we live that I don’t agree with. If we didn’t clash over my choice of boyfriend or husband, we’d soon be clashing over something else. So yes, this is about principles.” k`1'2
“Fine then.” Zalea lifted her chin. “If these principles are so important to you, then you’ll leave right now.”
“What?”
“No need to wait until after graduation. You might as well get out of the house now. And since you’re so unhappy with our way of life, I assume you won’t need to take any of the many things we’ve bought you.”
“What do you—”
“You can take the bag you’re carrying. That’s it.”
Raven ground her teeth together. “But there are things upstairs that I need for the final show. Items I stored at home instead of at Delph.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate.”
Raven swiped at a tear that managed to escape. “Why don’t you just come out and say it, Mom: Flint or my career.”
“Fine. Flint or your career. It’s your choice.”
More tears burned their way down her cheeks as she attempted to stare her mother down. Then, hating herself for not being brave enough to walk out the front door and slam it behind her, she stomped up the stairs.
Chapter Fourteen
Three agonizing days later, in the midst of all the preparations for the final show, Raven convinced Flint to meet her outside Delphinium College during her lunch break.
“She made you choose?” he asked.
“Yes. Although I didn’t actually choose, of course, since I’m seeing you now and I don’t plan to give you up. It’s so silly. Once graduation is done, I can leave then. Didn’t she consider that?”
“I’m sure she did. She’s probably hoping she’ll convince you otherwise between now and then.”
“Well she won’t. If I get the internship, I’ll be able to support myself. And if I don’t … well, I’ll figure something out.”
They stood next to each other, leaning against one of the trees, Flint’s hand clasped around Raven’s.
“I went to the Guild,” he said.
“Oh yeah?”
“They happy for me to work there again.”
“That’s great. I’m so glad to hear that my mother hasn’t completely ruined your career for you.”
“She tried,” Flint said with a grim smile, “but I explained my side of the story, and fortunately there are people at the Guild who are sensible enough to see that what happened with you and me isn’t something that will affect the work I do for the Guild.”
“Good. So I just need to get through the final show tomorrow, and everything should be okay after that.”
Flint let go of her hand and moved to stand in front of her. He didn’t smile, and he hesitated for far too long, and suddenly she knew exactly where this was going.
“Don’t,” she said before he could speak. “Don’t end this. My parents are an obstacle we can get past.”
He shook his head. “They’re not. And they shouldn’t have to be.”
“Then I’ll make them see what I see. That you’re amazing, and worth far more than any spoiled rich boy they want to pair me with.”
“Raven.” He sighed. “I care a great deal about you. Probably far more than you know. And I want you to fight for me, but I don’t want you to have to fight your parents.”
“But I—”
“I won’t let you choose between me and your family. It isn’t right, and you’ll end up hating me for it.”
“What about what I want? What if I’m happy to choose? I know I could never hate you.”
She w
rapped her arms around her chest and stared through a sheen of tears at the ground. “Does it matter at all to you that you’re breaking my heart?”
“Raven …”
“I hope you know that you aren’t just ending a brief romance that started a few days ago. You’re ending something so much deeper. Every conversation, every laugh, every dream. All the day-to-day things we shared. Why does that have to be less important than the rocky relationship I have with my parents? Why don’t you believe me when I say I’d rather choose you?”
“Because … because I think you’ll grow to regret it.”
She pressed her lips together, swallowed her tears, and looked past him. “Then you don’t know me at all.”
“Raven, I … I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen the day before your big show.”
“Just go. Actually, I’ll go. Lunch is almost over anyway.”
“Raven—”
“Goodbye.”
Chapter Fifteen
It hurt more than Raven thought possible. She almost didn’t get out of bed the next morning. Then she reminded herself that maybe, possibly, somehow she wouldn’t always have a broken heart, and when that day came, she would want to know she’d done everything possible to win the House of Cascata internship. Besides, she was proud of her collection; she wanted everyone to see it.
She lost herself in the flurry of activity surrounding the show. Models, makeup, hair stylists, clothes hovering all over the place, and accessories spinning around. It was the kind of chaos she enjoyed. As the start of the show grew rapidly closer, she fussed around her models, checking the finer details of their outfits, and sending them back to hair or makeup if something hadn’t been done to her exact specifications.
“Madeline, where are your gloves?” she asked one of the girls. “The luminescent ones.”
“Oh, that’s right. There were gloves. I haven’t seen them since the last fitting.”
Biting down on her frustration, Raven returned to the storeroom and walked to her section. The gloves lay on the floor. She quickly drew her pattern code in the air with her stylus, stepped inside the space, and picked up the gloves. She took one step out before swinging back around. Her storage section was empty. Completely empty.
Where was the sprite-wing dress?
She asked everyone she passed on her way back, but no one had seen it. Why? she demanded silently. Why would someone take it? No one else could use it now. Everyone knew she was the one who’d made it. But she pushed her questions to the back of her mind. She’d have to figure out where the dress had gone later.
She handed Madeline her gloves and bent down to adjust the fish scales at the bottom of her dress.
“Hey, did you see all the guardians outside and in the hallways?” It was Poe, obviously finished getting his models ready. “They must be worried about another explosion.”
“Um, some of them, I guess.”
“I saw your handsome bodyguard out there.”
“Oh, really?” Raven looked up in surprise.
“Yes.” Poe frowned. “Why wouldn’t he be here? Isn’t he supposed to go everywhere with you?”
Raven looked down again. “He, uh, isn’t working for my parents anymore. He’s with the Creepy Hollow Guild now.” He must have been assigned here tonight as part of the extra security. Or perhaps, she thought with a traitorous lurch of her heart, he’d volunteered. So he could see her.
Stop it, she told herself. Flint had made it clear things weren’t going to work out for the two of them.
“Five minutes until we start!” Poe said with a squeal, clutching Raven’s arm as she stood.
“Your collection is first, right?” she asked.
“Yes. Yours?”
“Third.
“Ohmygosh I’m so nervous,” Jessima said, running up to both of them. “I can’t believe we’ve finally reached this point.”
“I know,” Raven said. “It doesn’t quite feel real.” She wished she could peek beyond the curtains at the packed auditorium. Her parents were out there, despite the fact that she’d barely spoken to them in days, and so was Daisy. Daisy’s final design work had been judged the afternoon before, so the only thing she still had to get through was graduation the next afternoon.
Raven tried to breathe past her nervousness, her eyes skimming over her models for any last imperfections. “Wait, where’s Cass?” she asked, referring to the model wearing her final piece, the snake dress.
“Uh, she was here just now,” someone said.
“Ugh, why can’t everyone stay where they’re supposed to be?” Raven complained. She asked around, and someone said he’d seen Cass near the stairs leading above the stage. “Where the special effects enchantments are controlled?” she asked.
“Yeah. She was with Cecilia.”
Confused, Raven hurried toward the stairs. There were a few special effects she’d discussed with Cecilia, but all instructions had already been passed on to the relevant people. Had Cecilia decided to change something? If she had, it could only be for the better, but surely she didn’t need to take one of Raven’s models with her when the show was about to begin?
She ran up the stairs as quickly as her heels would allow. The large space above the auditorium was dimly lit, but there was almost as much activity happening up here as downstairs. No models or fancy clothes, but plenty of people hurrying around and others sitting beside circular holes in the floor that obviously gave them a view of the stage and runway below. Holes that must be invisible from the auditorium, since Raven had never seen them before.
Her eyes scanned the area, but she couldn’t find Cecilia or Cass. This space was only about half the size of the auditorium, though, which must mean there were other places to go up here. She grabbed someone’s arm, pointed to a narrow passageway running along the side of the far wall, and asked, “Are there rooms or something down there?”
“Yes, for storage. Props and things.”
“Thanks.” That must be what Cecilia was after. Some kind of prop she’d decided would go well with the snake dress.
Slightly muffled, but still audible, the welcome music began to play. “Crap,” Raven muttered. The show was starting, and she needed her last model. She ran to the passage and pushed open door after door. Every room was dark, though, until—
“Oh, I’m so glad I found you,” she said as she stumbled into the next room and saw Cecilia. Then her eyes fell upon a girl she didn’t recognize—wearing her fully repaired sprite-wing dress and headpiece—and then Cass, crumpled on the floor.
Without warning, the door swung shut behind Raven.
Chapter Sixteen
“What—what happened to Cass?” Raven lowered herself to the floor beside the model. She was still breathing, but showed no sign of waking. “Cecilia?” Raven looked up, suspicion crowding her senses. “What’s going on?”
“Raven, finally. I was worried you weren’t going to show up. Don’t worry about Cass. She’ll be fine when she wakes, though she won’t remember anything. She was just the bait to get you here.”
“Bait?” Raven stood. “Jeez, Cecilia. You could have sent me a message.”
“What, and have you ignore me like last time? You probably don’t even know where your amber is in all this mayhem.”
“Last time? Did you … were you the one who sent that weird message about escaping death and making the most of the rest of my life?”
“Yes.” Cecilia leaned against a stack of chairs. “I need you on my side, Raven, so I was hoping to warm you up to my ideas beforehand. I thought you might be open to them, having just been rejected by the director and then narrowly escaping death, but I realized you probably wouldn’t have agreed with everything I want to do. You might have tried to stop me, so it was better to wait until now and force your hand.”
“Force my—”
“Obviously I don’t want to force you into anything. It would be better if you cooperate.”
“Stop. Hold on.” Raven held
one hand up, palm facing Cecilia. “You’ve stolen my dress, knocked out my model, probably caused that explosion two weeks ago, and now you want me to cooperate with you on something? Cecilia, are you okay? This all just seems exceedingly strange.”
Cecilia smiled. “I’m okay. At least, I will be soon. Once I’ve killed my sister.”
Raven’s eyes widened as her mouth dropped open. She looked at the girl wearing her sprite dress—a girl who seemed quite bored—then back at Cecilia. “You are definitely not okay.” She reached behind her for the door handle. “Why don’t I go fetch one of the other teachers.” She twisted it, but the door wouldn’t open.
“I can’t let you go until I know you’re on my side, Raven. Just hear me out.”
Instead of answering, Raven pressed her back against the door. Hopefully she could figure out the right spell to open it while Cecilia was talking.
“My sister doesn’t deserve to be the head of the House of Cascata,” Cecilia said. “That position should always have been mine, and it’s time I claim it for myself.”
“Wait, Mella Cascata is your sister?”
“Yes. Sorry, I forgot you didn’t know that. She always called me the ugly one, which is why I was so pleasantly surprised the other day when you said I look like her.”
“Why don’t we all know that she’s your sister?”
“Same reason you don’t know that Mella Cascata has two brothers, or that her uncle is a halfling, or that her father died of a drug overdose: she distanced herself from her family years ago. But she and I came up with the House of Cascata idea while we were still teens, training as clothes casters. Decades later, after paying me off to stay away so she wouldn’t be threatened by my talent, she’s the queen of fashion and I’m just a teacher.”
“And now you want to kill her?”
Cecilia sighed. She played with the end of a peacock feather sticking out past a lamp. “I’m not a bad person, Raven. You know that. I’ve simply been dealt a bad hand. I thought I could put up with it, being shoved aside as the unskilled sister while she took credit for dozens of my early designs, but after … after last month when I …” Her voice wobbled. She took a deep breath and focused on the floor. “Mella and I began meeting again recently. I wanted to patch things up. Perhaps leave Delph and find a way to work with her at the House of Cascata. But then I discovered that—that she and my … my husband had been—” She cut herself off and shook her head. “For months. Months. And after the way she treated me before, I just couldn’t take this. The betrayal, the humiliation. She might have had the illustrious career, but I’ve always had him. That was enough for me. But then to find out that she took him too? No. She doesn’t deserve anything now. Not a single thing.”