Page 17 of The Night Prince 6

“How do you know?” Laura tipped her chin up almost defiantly. Her blond locks danced in the wind.

“Because…” Gemma shrugged. “It’s not in any of the myths!”

“You’ve never seen one. Rachel and I have.” Laura put a possessive arm around Rachel’s shoulders. “We would know better than you. We know better than some dumb books.”

“There’s millions of reasons why it came out before and not now!” Gemma protested. “I’ve only heard about the virgin thing being important and that’s not even true–”

“You’re not a virgin?” Laura’s eyes widened almost comically and she took a step back as if Gemma was diseased somehow.

“What? Of course, I am!” Gemma answered quickly, shocked by the turn this conversation had taken. It was bad enough to be told she was too ugly for the unicorn to show up, but if Laura and Rachel started a rumor at school that she wasn’t a virgin… Oh that would be bad. So bad…

“She’s right, Laura, isn’t she? I’ve never heard that being ugly keeps the unicorns away, but not being a virgin would do it,” Rachel was nodding almost conspiratorially.

“What? No! I’m a virgin! What are you–stop saying that!” Gemma stamped a foot, feeling hot tears forming behind her eyes. “Rachel, you know I am!”

Rachel wouldn’t quite meet her eyes as she said, “I don’t know, Gemma. It’s not like I’m with you every moment of every day. Why else is the unicorn not coming?”

“I told you! A million reasons! If it even ever came to you guys at all!” Gemma’s vision blurred and her cheeks felt as hot as nuclear reactors. This was going off the rails. This was really bad.

“Now you’re calling us liars?” Laura splayed her right hand against her chest in mock outrage. “You’re definitely not a virgin.”

“I should never have come out here with you guys!” Gemma confessed as hot tears flowed down her cheeks.

She’d known that Laura was a “mean girl” and Rachel a classic “follower” but when she’d overheard them talking about seeing a unicorn, she couldn’t help herself. She’d gone over and attempted to befriend them both. Seeing a unicorn was something she desperately wanted to do. As much as Finley wanted to wield magic, she wanted to see a unicorn. And maybe pet it’s silky mane. Or even ride it. So she’d approached Rachel first. She and Rachel had been friendly last year in school, but then Rachel had decided that being popular was more important. And Gemma was not popular. Quite the opposite actually.

People thought that they had to be careful around her because of who her parents were as if she might rat them out if they broke any of the rules. But also being a survivor set her apart. Though she’d never told Declan or Finley, the truth was that people assumed there was something off about the three of them. How did they survive when everyone else in Lightwell had died? Yes, these kids and some of their parents were survivors, too, but they’d come from big cities where bunches of people were able to hold out until the Sun King had arrived. But Lightwell was Ground Zero in terms of the Leviathan invasion and the rumors of how they’d survived… Well, people were a little bit scared of her. Or, at least, suspicious. Suspicious was a better word.

“You shouldn’t have come with us?” Laura’s eyes narrowed to slits. “We shouldn’t have let you come with us! C’mon, Rachel, let’s go back to Tyrael. Maybe without her with us, we’ll see the unicorn!”

A flash of guilt speared through Rachel’s eyes and she resisted Laura’s strong tugs on her arm. “We–we shouldn’t leave her alone out here, should we? The monsters–”

“Why not? She survived the invasion. She can survive a sunny day!” Laura had laughed cruelly.

The two girls had then headed back to Tyrael and the safety of the dome. Gemma could have trailed after them, of course. Keeping a safe distance so that both she and they could act like they weren’t together. But she’d stayed behind in the glade.

As they’d disappeared from view, her cheeks were wet with tears. Her chest was tight with anger and hurt. Fear and rage that come the next day of school, the rumor that she wasn’t a virgin would likely be spread to every single student. It was already bad enough to be belittled by the Aravae children. Now she would lose whatever friendships she had with the human ones.

So while she’d ostensibly waited for the unicorn to show up, in reality, she’d pictured herself telling Declan about what the girls had done and him doing to them what he’d done to those orcs who misbehaved at the Dawn! Oh, her revenge would be glorious then! They’d learn just how she, Finley and Declan had survived. Declan was the Night Prince! Son of the dread Night King. He had a magic sword and more. They better not speak badly of her or he’d cut them down!

Maybe that’s why the unicorn hadn’t come, because I was thinking bad thoughts!

Her hands fisted at her sides. Maybe she was the problem. Too angry. Too ugly. Too weird.

Lysanthir, the voice whispered almost mournfully as if agreeing with her or knowing her fate.

“What does that word even mean? Lysanthir?” Darcassan wasn’t really asking her that.

He was staring down at the glittering blade and murmuring the question. She didn’t think he had heard the blade that last time either, but was just repeating what she’d said earlier.

“It’s the name of the sword’s owner, of course,” she answered with an exasperated sigh. “The moment you touched it, the sword started shouting that name and now it is whispering it mournfully. I don’t think it likes you touching it.”

“How do you know that’s even a name? It’s not an Aravae name? You can’t believe that this sword belongs to a human!” He scoffed.

That had her narrowing her eyes. She could have argued that it could belong to a human, but she knew it didn’t. Lysanthir wasn’t a human name from any country that she knew of anyways. Besides, this sword was old. Really old. Then she thought of Declan. His white hair and red eyes. Darcassan knew about him according to her mother and father so it wasn’t a secret what he was.

“Aravae aren’t the only kind of elves, are they?” she reminded him with a tight smile.

His eyes widened as understanding suddenly entered his thick brain. “You mean–”