Rise of the Fey Read Online Free PDF Page A

the wall beneath her section, her squire Sophie flicks her finger and a large pothole suddenly opens up at my feet. I fall onto my face, cutting my lip open on my manacles, and the group of onlookers roars in laughter.
    The guard pulls on my chain, and I let out a strangled gasp as the metal collar bites into my throat.
    “Up!” he growls.
    I push myself back up, Puck struggling to stay on my shoulders, and find Jennifer smiling at me. I licking the blood off my already healed lip then grin back at her.
    If ever I get out of this alive, I silently promise her, I’m gonna make you pay.
    Jennifer quickly looks away, her azure eyes looking troubled.
    “Get moving!” the guard barks, prodding me with the tip of his steel-toed boot.
    With a final nod in Jennifer’s direction, I resume my forced march towards the school. As we reach Lake High’s northeastern entrance, I can’t help but notice that the massive door’s once beautiful carved tableau of nymphs is now marred by deep gouges. A parting gift from the horde of Fomori that attacked us while Dean was up on the surface freeing his mother-dearest.
    Percy, in the lead, pushes the heavy door open and we engulf ourselves in the darkened hallway in pairs. Our footsteps echo back to us as we cross the building, mixing themselves to the whispers of students watching us go by. Finally, we stride past the herbarium and find ourselves in the school’s inner courtyard.
    The gardens look peaceful, untouched by all the death and destruction left by the attack. Standing tall in the middle of the courtyard is the giant apple tree, its branches heavy with apples.
    “I can’t believe it was in the school,” the fat Board member huffs. “All this time we’ve been looking for it and it was right under our noses?”
    “Makes you wonder if someone didn’t purposefully hide it from us,” Father Tristan says.
    “We all know Gorlois did it,” Irene says. “No need to rehash useless facts.”
    “Or the girl’s lying,” Luther says again.
    “And now, child?” the judge asks me.
    I point to the center of the courtyard with my chin.
    “The Sangraal was in the tree, of course!” Father Tristan says, drawing a formidable roll of the eyes from Sir Boris.
    “No,” I say, “the makeout—I mean the hedge hides a staircase that takes you to a small room below. That’s where I found it.”
    Father Tristan pushes the other Board members out of the way in his rush to get to the wall of roots that stretches from the apple tree’s massive trunk all the way to the school’s inner wall, forming a small maze where couples at school like to snog all day long. Within seconds he’s disappeared inside, leaving the other jury members to examine the hedge from the outside.
    “You’re not making any of this up, are you?” Arthur whispers in my ear.
    “Why would I do that?” I ask.
    “You were under a lot of stress,” Arthur insists. “A hallucination—”
    “I know what I saw!” I snap.
    Although, as I watch the others inspecting the area without success, I’m starting to doubt myself.
    “Perhaps we should cut our way through,” Percy says, drawing his sword out of its sheath.
    He raises the blade up then, with a practiced movement, swings it down. The sword slices through the thick roots like butter, but before he can take another swing, more vines move over the shorn area, thick black thorns sprouting over them like a hedgehog’s prickly back.
    Irene yanks on my chain until my head is level with hers. “Explain,” she says, her breath tickling my chin.
    “The roots move away when you get close to them,” I say. “You saw what they just did. Except, opposite.”
    “Then show us,” Irene says, dragging me behind her like a dog.
    But despite us getting closer, the wall of roots remains inert. I frown, idly scratching Puck who’s now cradled in my arms. “I-it worked before,” I say.
    “I said she was lying, didn’t I?” Luther says. “I hope it’s evident to