Midnight's Light by Braelynn (a court of thorns and roses ebook free .txt) 📕

“Miss McGun, repeat the rules!” Dr. Beltoro said. It wasn’t fair. Rose had been tripped, he was just lucky she hadn’t said what she was thinking. “Silence in the hall/talking not at all/never cry or call/even if you fall/be you smart or tall/blah blah blah.” There, she thought. The rules. A frown creased the headmasters face. Uh oh. A little alarm was going off somewhere in Rose’s head, but it was too late. Detention, she just knew it! “Insollence is not an excepted behavior,” Then a strangely forced looking smile crossed his face. “… but I’ll let it pass this time.” He pulled out that twisted smile again, and moved on to yell at some poor kid who was humming to himself. Rose was stunned. She hadn’t gotten detention, yay! Mr. Boltoro had let her off, Creepy! When had anyone at Castle academy let her get away with anything? She shook her head and hurried into the Milleage Parlor. It was as different from the drafty stone-floored and walled hall. The Parlor (Many students called it the M-par, or empire.) walls were covered in beautiful paintings and tapestries with the Milleage house’s coat of arms and landscapes. From bare, snow covered oaks, to the spring flowers surrounding ponds and streams, every single piece of art was at least 300 years old. They were so well preserved that they looked brand-new, the paint still gleaming. Many the windows were stained glass, random shapes in random colors somehow blending together, as if one. The floor was covered in a plush red carpet, so thick that each step was if you were on a cloud. The room was lit by electric powered “oil lamps” (the whole school was meant to look exactly like an old castle)Everyone who was in Milleage had the right to enter this place, though, for reasons unknown to Rose, few did. There was a wooden locker and closet space for all students. (Castle Academy was very expensive, high up, and hard to get into, so there were only, in all, about 80-100 students. And there were 4 different groups/houses to be sorted into. So there were about 20 people per group, and there were 20 lockers.) Rose’s was far in the back of the room, in a corner, next to a window and a chair. There was no use for having a backpack, as all of the students lived there (they all went to visit their families during vacations, except for five or so, who, like Rose, were orphans) and the whole school was kept unlocked. Rose, to let people know whose locker it was, had carved a 3-D wooden rose during woodshop, and attached it too the door. All doors were locked, but Roses key was hidden. If you lifted up the rose, there was a hallow space where she kept her key. Just as Rose was pulling open her closet door, she felt a cold hand on her shoulder.
Rose spun around and found herself face to face with her best friend, Emma. With their pale skin, emerald eyes, and short stature, they could have been twins. Could have been, if it weren’t for the fact that Emma’s hair looked like spun gold, and was completely, 100% straight. Rose’s was a vivid red, and tumbled down her back in a waved curtain to her waist. “Hey, how’s it going, what did you do, send The Belt (Dr. Beltoro) a box of chocolates or something? He would have killed me if I had broken the rules like that. Even though it was so totally not your fault Kate and her haters obviously tripped you, even IT’s (Kate’s) boyfriend could see that.” Emma rushed, not drawing breath once. Rose had to laugh. Only Emma could jump from topic to topic, and still make sense, or not so much. Emma spoke so fast sometimes that she was probably the only one who could understand her half the time. “I’m fine, and that would be a no to the first, as he’d probably think that I was trying to poison him or something, not that it isn’t a good idea, but he would deffinatley seen it coming, and had one of the keepers sneek in and murder me in my sleep. Nah, he wouldn’t have killed you, just put you in detention for the rest of your life.” She said, just as fast as Emma. Emma smiled. “Like I said, he would have killed me. Imagine it, a weekend without anything to do except being locked in a classroom for two days. Ughh” she shuddered. “What did you do over the weekend, anyway, I didn’t see you at all.” Emma grimaced at the memory. “The Belt’s servant gave me detention because I was late to class, then, when I was finally free, I had to rush and do That essay for Madame Saltweather’s class. I didn’t get to go to a single place outside of the confines of home.” Rose smiled. She knew that by home Emma meant her Rooms. Everyone at Castle academy were three things; one, they all looked like they had walked out of a magazine, two, were insanely smart, and three, were always getting detentions and demerits. “That sucks, glad she doesn’t hate me, or else I’d have had to skip work.’ Rose said, turning back to her locker as Emma keyed I her combination. The grabbed her French stuff, and locked her locker. It was really kind of pointless as only 2-3 other people could find the Parlor. It was on the third floor corridor, through the green door-sized forest tapestry, and behind a painting. Just as Emma shut her locker, the warning bell rang. This bell gave a warning that it was five minutes to class. As Emma shut her locker door, Rose said “Don’t forget your uniform” it was really pointless as the only uniform they had was to wear was a cloak, in their house color. As long as it could be identified as the house’s color, you were fine. Any shade of the color was accepted, any style cloak was just fine. Milleage’s color was green. The oher colors were yellow, purple, and orange. Orange for Blagov, Purple for Pleasuss, Yellow for Grenage. “Neer forgotten before, not gonna start now.” Emma pointed out. They dashed out the door/painting, though the hall, and under the tapestry, first checking to see if anyone was their. No one was. They flat out ran to the grand staircase, hoping no teachers were there. The Belt was walking through, and, from the looks of it, handing out detentions left and right. Time to start walking. They slowed down, and were blocked by a group of girls they knew very well.
“Kate” Rose said in a cold voice, nodding her head in acknowledgement,
“Rose, Emma” The annoyingly high voice responded.
“And what are you two doing” Kate asked.
Emma started “Well, until you interrupted, we were wondering how to say this…” Rose decided to finish the sentence. “But I guess we’ll just have to be ppoint-blank.” Emma jumped in again. “we’re sorry… about your face.” “Yah what happened to it, Did you walk by a mirror” Rose ended. Everyone had frozen and started to watch from the first word. Kate was blushing, ruining the cool perfection of her make up. “When’s the detention, Rose” Kate asked, changing the subject. “Oh, didn’t you hear?” Rose pretended to look surprised. “Dr. Beltoro just smiled at me and had me say the rules. No detention for me.” Kate looked absolutely furious, and Rose couldn’t help but laugh. Soon Emma joined in. “You mean to tell me that I wasted a good 10 minutes waiting around to trip you and get you a detention for NOTHING!” Kate voice rose until she was shouting. “However the same does not apply to you Miss Zibouski. I don’t care who your boyfriend is.” As The Belt said this he turned his head to stare at his son, Jazz. No one understood why he had named his son that, but they all accepted him, after all, he was the headmaster’s son. The Belt marched kate to back up the stairs. Everyone who had been staring at Rose and Emma up to this point whipped around to watch Kate being told-off by The Belt. “But sir,” Kate whined, “she started it!”. “Don’t Lie to me, I’m already at my wits end with you and your friends. But don’t worry, you’ll be seeing them during detention!”. Kate and him disappeared around a corner

Publication Date: 02-04-2011

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