Extraits

J'ai ressenti une étincelle lorsque nos yeux se sont rencontrés : une étincelle de possibilités

— J'ai un scoop pour toi : si tu trouves que tout le monde autour de toi est un cauchemar... Ce n'est pas eux, le cauchemar, c'est toi.

Il se dirigea vers la forêt en ignorant les protestations de son ami. Il remarqua qu'un bébé Spécialiste le regardait partir. Don ? Non, Dane. Riven envisagea de lui faire un doigt d'honneur, mais il avait la flemme.

Gênée, j'ai voulu ranger mon carnet.

— Qu'est-ce qu'il y a dedans ? Tes parfums de glace préférés ? Des loutres qui se tiennent la patte ?

Hé! C'est super mignon, les loutres qui se tiennent la patte ! Cette princesse n'avait pas le droit de me juger.

“I guess I can just fry the hinges?”

Beatrix’s face said she was a little impressed by the suggestion. But then, she held up the lock. It was no longer on the door. “Or I could just pick the lock.”

That hadn’t occurred to me. I guessed I didn’t operate on the same bad girl plane as Beatrix, but I thought I could bad girl hang.

“That’s much cleaner,” I admitted.

We headed through the door together

Then Dowling turned to another student. An Air Fairy whose eyes glowed gray as she used what Aisha figured was something like static electricity to lift single grains of rice out of a pile.

Dowling said, “Impressive, Beatrix. Keep it up.”

“Got it, Miss D,” said Beatrix the Air Fairy.

Dowling shot her a look.

“Headmistress Dowling,” said Beatrix.

Ms. Dowling moved away.

Under her breath, Beatrix intoned dramatically, “Your Grace.”

Bloom stifled a laugh. Beatrix shot her a smile, conspiratorial and friendly, shared between two people whose class was going great. Maybe Beatrix and Bloom would be friends, easy as that.

Aisha eyed the back of Stella’s hunting green coat. “So what’s the plan, Army Barbie?”

“Did you ask Aisha to come with us?” Stella wondered aloud as the team headed away from Alfea and toward the woods by night.

Bloom kept silent, and Aisha appreciated it. Bloom might be annoyed with Aisha, but she wasn’t gonna play Stella’s game.

Stella continued, “I don’t think you did. And if you didn’t ask Aisha to come, and I didn’t ask Aisha to come … It’s official. No one asked Aisha to come.”

“This is idiotic,” Aisha snapped. “You need me. What are you going to do, Stella, dazzle it with light? While Bloom struggles to light a fire?”

Bloom snarled, “I’m right here.”

Stella claimed: “I fixed her.”

Musa spoke quietly to Aisha: “I hate you. I will always hate you. I will hate your children and your children’s children and—”

Aisha, apparently rendered deaf, told Sam: “Musa has been stalking you.”

Musa could barely get out a threat, only a one-word promise of what she would do to Aisha. “Dead…”

Then all words died in Musa’s throat as she met Sam’s eyes. What must he think of her? Some freak, clutching her headphones, following him around desperate for a chance at quiet in the chaos.

The last rays of sunshine in the courtyard caught the light in Sam’s brown hair. He had smile crinkles around his eyes and his mouth. And Aisha had just said Musa was stalking him—

Beautiful, peaceful Sam looked at Musa, and murmured, “Lucky me.”

“You don’t have to go along with what Stella wants,” he told me as he jogged to my side. “There are other options. Don’t do it just because she has a … strong personality.”

My voice was flat. “I lost the ring. Helping her get it back is the right thing to do. End of story.”

Sky conceded, “Two strong personalities. Got it.”

I looked him dead in the eye. “Clearly, you have a type.”

There was a pause. I didn’t regret saying it. He’d been flirting a little with me yesterday, and then he’d spent the night with Stella. I hadn’t made things awkward. I’d just pointed out where the awkwardness was.

After a silence, Sky offered, “So, yesterday … when I was … when we were talking … I hadn’t talked to Stella in months. Yes, we dated last year. But we had kind of a rough breakup, and …”

And they’d only talked last night? And they’d decided to just be friends?

“And what?” I asked. Miserably, Sky said: “I just don’t want you to think I’m that guy—”

I cut him off. “Sky. We just met yesterday. I don’t think anything about you.” What mattered wasn’t what I thought.

What mattered was whether he was being that guy. Or not.

“Okay. That’s fair,” said Sky.

I caught his eye. I liked that he seemed to really listen to me. I did feel a spark when our eyes met: a spark of possibility, of potential.

I chose my words carefully. “Your deal with Stella seems … complicated. And right now, my life could use less complication. Not more.”

So, that was that. Goodbye, fairy-tale knight. The princess could have him.

Sky couldn’t get California girl Bloom out of his head. He was thinking about her while he was in the shower.

Oh no, Sky corrected himself in dismay, as his inner Riven made a comment about that one. Not like that. Just … how pretty she was, her red hair bright as a new copper penny, in the sunlight streaming through the courtyard. How funny she was. She’d looked so lost, trying to find her way around a strange castle, and that had drawn Sky to her like a moth to a Fire Fairy.