Page 64 of Empire of Flame and Thorns

Jeb elbows his way through a group to my left and stalks up to me. His cheeks are stained red with anger or indignation or both, and his brown hair is a complete mess. As if he has continuously raked his fingers through it in frustration.

Quickening my step, I try to reach my room before he can corner me. I’ve had enough confrontation for one day, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, I’m still three steps away from my door when Jeb reaches me. He throws out an arm, blocking my path, and forces me to stop walking. I draw in a breath that does absolutely nothing to calm the annoyance and frustration now swirling in my soul. I’m exhausted and sore and so freaking fed up with people. I just want to lie down on my bed and rest for a moment.

Jeb, however, has other plans.

“You,” he sneers, and stabs his index finger against my chest. “You cheated.”

I narrowly manage to stop myself from replying,yes, I heard you the first time.Instead, I draw in another calming breath and ask, “How could I possibly have cheated? I took the same route as everyone else through the maze.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. You stole my egg!”

“I saved you from falling.”

“Which is when you stole my egg.”

“When would I possibly have had time for that? I grabbed you and pulled you up.” Raising my eyebrows, I shoot him a pointed look. “And besides, if it hadn’t been for me, you would have fallen and shattered your egg anyway.”

He scowls and works his mouth a couple of times. His cheeks are now flushed a red so bright that they could most likely have seen it all the way from the Unseelie Court.

“You were probably the one who made me fall in the first place,” he accuses with an indignant huff. “And then after you pulled me up, you used your mumbo-jumbo magic on me to make me hand over my egg without me even realizing it.”

I suppress a scoff. By Mabona, these ridiculous scenarios that they dream up about what I can do with my magic is getting more and more absurd every day.

“Did you just roll your fucking eyes at me?” Jeb demands, looking both stunned and furious.

I wince inwardly. Aw crap. Did I make that face out loud?

“You’ve become way too bold ever since you entered this competition,” he says, and stabs his finger against my chest again. “You need to remember your place.”

“My place is here. In the competition.” I hold his gaze with hard eyes. “While you have been ordered to leave the premises by first light. So perhaps you are not the right person to be lecturing someone about learning one’s place.”

A gasp rips through the corridor. It startles me enough that I nearly jump. I had almost forgotten that there were other people here too.

The realization makes a wave of cold dread crash over me. Oh Goddess, what are they going to think of me now? I have never been this rude, this cruel, to anyone in our city before. And now, all of these people are going to think that I’m a bitch who rubs it in people’s faces that I won and they lost.

Panic snakes around my heart, squeezing hard.

Oh crap, I shouldn’t have said that.

Before Jeb can even think of a reply, I duck under his arm and hurry the final three steps to my door.

“Hey!” he calls after me. “Don’t you fucking dare?—”

I slam the door shut, cutting off his threat.

Groaning, I bury my face in my hands. Goddess above, I shouldn’t have said that. My interaction with Draven made me feel bold and indestructible. But I can’t go around acting like that with everyone else too. They will only hate me even more.

With a sigh, I slide my hands up and rake them through my hair.

Exhaustion slams into me like a tidal wave.

“Fuck,” I mumble under my breath.

Dropping my arms back down by my sides, I walk over to the closet and the mirror instead. With muscles that still tremble from an entire day of getting through a massive hedge maze, I slowly start stripping out of my clothes so that I can check myself for injuries.

There is a large bruise covering my hip and side from where I hit the ground when I fell from the ice wall. My forearms are covered with tiny cuts from when I had to climb along the hedge to evade the lava. And the muscles in my shoulder ache from when I caught Jeb as he fell.

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