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“Yeah, I’m sure there were. Like how much he likes you,” she purred.

More like the scorching heat of Shadow Fall and the limited visibility due to that weird fog. But I wasn’t supposed to talk about what had happened there. Apparently, Shadow Fall fell into the realm of classified knowledge. It felt kind of weird protecting a secret I wasn’t even allowed to know about yet.

“Just tell me one thing, ok?” Kylie’s eyes were pleading. “If the White Knight asked you to the Castle’s annual masquerade ball, you would totally say yes, wouldn’t you?”

Asher’s voice cut through the doorway, piercing the vacuum of silence left by me. “You know we can all hear you, right?”

Kylie turned toward the door, where Asher was standing. “And?”

“And we don’t need to hear you two gossip about boys,” he told her.

“Then don’t listen.”

Kylie had already turned her back to him, so she didn’t see him roll his eyes at her before he rejoined the others in the ballroom.

“Whew! Last one!” The tablecloth in my hands made a wet, squelching noise as I pulled it out of the tub. “Can you believe we’re already done?”

Kylie chuckled. “Don’t think I didn’t notice what you did there, Savannah.”

“What did I do?”

“Dodge my question.” She slipped off her gloves and tossed them into the sink. “Ok, let’s go see what else Ms. Featherdale has for us, shall we?”

I followed Kylie back into the ballroom, where the other Apprentices on our team were in the middle of a heated debate about which Tribe they’d end up in.

“The Elves.” Bronte’s answer was immediate and not unexpected.

Nor was Dutch’s. “The Metamorphs.”

“Same,” Asher said.

“Are you sure? Earlier, you seemed awfully interested in learning Elf magic,” Dutch pointed out.

“Hey, I didn’t know telekinesis was an Elf trick,” Asher protested.

Dutch’s expression softened. “I have a book that outlines all the Tribes and the spells that belong to them. You can borrow it.”

Asher patted him on the back. “Thanks, bro.”

Ms. Featherdale cut in front of us. “Run along, girls. No time for socializing.” She set down the box of decorative vases she was holding. “I need those tablecloths bleachedtoday, or my whole Summit schedule is ruined.”

“We’re done with the tablecloths,” Kylie told her.

“Really?” Her eyes scrunched together. “So fast?”

I nodded. “We are fast workers.”

“And fast gossips,” Asher muttered.

Kylie stuck out her tongue at him when Ms. Featherdale looked down at her phone screen. He returned the gesture.

“I have just the job for you two.” Ms. Featherdale glanced up. “I need someone to deal with the caterer. That disagreeable man just messaged me to say he’s decided to change the menu!”

“Did he say why?” I asked.

“Some nonsense about how he knows more about food than a mere human.” Her jaw clenched up. “I spent weeks painstakingly designing a menu to accommodate the demanding needs of our guests from all across the Many Realms. Many of the delegates are quite particular about which foods they will consent to put in their mouths. Prince Fenris, especially.”

“Prince Fenris?” I looked at Kylie, but she only shrugged. It seemed she didn’t know who he was either.