creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge Read Online Free PDF Page A

that’s fine, but your mentor isn’t allowed to give you more than a certain number of training hours per week.”
    “Well, I’m sure Olive is giving me the absolute maximum,” I say as I flip through several more pages without bothering to read them. “I don’t mind, though. I like training.”
    “We noticed,” Gemma says, picking up her book once more, the cover of which depicts a woman winking while surrounded by a cloud of sparkling pink hearts.
    “Ah, and what do we have here, Gemma?” Perry, who decided it was too boring to wait in the library for our assignments, reappears and drops into the seat beside Gemma. He scoops her book from her hands and reads out loud. “‘Her breast heaved beneath the corset as the duke slowly dragged his fingers—’”
    Gemma snatches the book from his hands and whacks him with it. “It does not say that.”
    “Oho, how the lady doth protest,” Perry crows. “Perhaps because that’s exactly what it says.”
    “This is an autobiography and step-by-step guide by the runner-up of last year’s Create A Potion contest. It’s basically a textbook, not a romance novel.”
    “Oh. Well if my textbooks were full of heaving breasts, I might open them more often.”
    “There are no heaving breasts in this book!”
    “That’s disappointing,” Perry says. “Why on earth are you reading it then?”
    With a groan, Gemma throws the book onto the table and stalks off. Feeling like I need to support her on this, I pick up the book, lean across the table, and smack Perry’s arm.
    “Hey!” he complains.
    “You know,” Ned says quietly, “that at some point you should probably tell her you like her instead of teasing her all the time.”
    “I—what?” Perry looks so startled that I find myself laughing. “What?” he asks again.
    “Do you really think it isn’t completely obvious?” I say to him.
    “What is?” he asks.
    I look at Ned for confirmation. He nods. “It’s completely obvious.”
    “You—that’s—ridiculous.”
    Ned sighs. “And you say I’m scared of girls.”
    “I’m not scared of anyone,” Perry protests.
    “You really should tell her,” I say, “otherwise she’ll keep pining after Mr. Perfect from upstairs.”
    “Upstairs?” Perry frowns. “Who’s upstairs?”
    Oops. I guess it isn’t common knowledge that Gemma has a gigantic crush on one of the Seer trainees. I prepare to give Perry a vague answer, but all thoughts of Gemma and the Seer upstairs vanish from my mind as Ryn and Violet walk into the library and stop beside our table.
    “We need to talk,” Ryn says.
    Shoot. I’ve managed to avoid him all day, probably because he’s been busy catching up on the work he missed while on honeymoon. I had hoped that work would keep him busy for longer.
    “Do we really?” I ask. “I have an assignment race just now and I don’t want to be late.”
    “You won’t be,” Ryn says, putting his hand on my arm. I have a feeling he’s going to drag me out of my chair if I don’t willingly go with him. I’d prefer not to make a scene, so I stand and follow him and Vi to a quiet corner of the library. Ryn sweeps his arm briefly around us. I sense a ripple of magic.
    “Did you just put a shield up?” I ask.
    “Yes. A sound shield. I don’t want anyone overhearing the conversation we’re about to have.”
    “You’re so paranoid, Ryn. No one is anywhere near us.”
    “It’s not the people he’s worried about,” Vi says. “It’s the surveillance devices all over the place.” I follow her gaze as she watches an insect with needle-thin legs and a bulbous body zoom past us.
    “Oh. I thought that was a real bug. I thought all the bugs I’ve seen flying around here were real.”
    “Some of them might be,” Ryn says, “but most of them aren’t. Now stop stalling and start explaining.”
    “Explaining what?” I demand. “It isn’t my fault this guy turned out to be Lord Draven .”
    “Why was he there? What was flipping Lord