Glimmers of Glass (A Glimmers Novel #1: Cinderella)

Chapter 17

I woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. The Waterfall Palace had been full of even more magical energy than I had realized, and my body was feeling it.

I had spent yesterday evening at the Waterfall Palace.

I groaned and fell back into exhausting dreams for another five minutes before my alarm went off again.

By the time study hall rolled around and my migraine had only gotten worse, I realized I should have stayed home in bed. But it was already too late.

"How'd it go?" Imogen whispered. I had three texts from her from last night and this morning asking the same thing. I hadn't responded to any of them. How was I supposed to explain what last night had been like? There was no way Imogen would understand. I knew without even asking that she would have taken the offer on the spot.

I nudged my chin toward the front of the room, where Mr. Duncan was grading papers. Imogen sighed, and I tried to go back to focusing on my math homework. But a second later, Imogen's handwriting appeared in pink on the scratch paper I was scribbling numbers on. What happened?

I bit the inside of my lip and chewed on it. Finally, I wrote, She wanted to talk about work. It was close enough to true. I had mentioned my job, and we'd talked a lot about what she wanted my job to be. The words faded from my paper to somewhere on Imogen's. Half a math problem later and my scratch paper was again littered with her loopy handwriting.

What did she say? Are you going to be famous now?

I couldn't even begin to explain. No, I wrote back. She was just curious. We talked about my dad's work, too. I think she's just trying to keep her finger on the pulse of the Glim community.

She's the freaking Faerie Queen, Imogen wrote back. She doesn't need to have dinner with you to figure out how everything's going. There must have been more to it than that.

Maybe, I wrote. Sorry. I need to finish these problems. This is due next period.

Sure, she replied. Full details later! She added a smiley face. I closed my eyes and tried to calm the throbbing in my head.

When the bell rang, I shoved my papers together and stood, hoping to make it to the door before Imogen was done. But she was right beside me. She was all legs and I had to take two steps for every one of hers just to seem like I was in a hurry.

"So what did she say?" she asked, voice and eyes both more eager than I wanted.

I caught a glimpse of trees through a classroom window. They were in full bloom, loaded with pink flowers. I would have traded anything to be up in their branches, looking down at people walking below who didn't even know I was there. But of course, Imogen would find me no matter where I was. We always knew how to find each other.

"I don't really remember," I said. "I was super nervous. We just talked for a while and she told me a little bit about her job as Queen and the Council meetings she goes to, and that was it."

I felt sick lying to Imogen. I never lied to her. But I couldn't find words for the truth. My head pounded every time I tried to think that hard.

"I need details!" Imogen said. I could feel excitement pulsing from her, the same desire she felt to hang out with the Glimmering elite multiplied by ten.

I couldn't handle her excitement right now. "I have to find Elle," I said. "We can talk about it later, okay?" She stopped, surprised, and I ducked through a pair of guys in band T-shirts and down the hall, but not quickly enough to miss the wave of hurt that rolled off her.

The longest fight Imogen and I had ever had was when we were fifteen, and it had lasted almost twenty-seven hours. This had been nothing, but it was still close enough to fighting to make me nervous with shared pain. I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I walked down the hall in search of Elle.

Sorry, I texted. I need to go deal with Elle and then I'm headed home. Had a killer migraine all day from all the magic at the palace. I'll tell you about it later. Promise. 

The missing clarification of how much later glared at me from the pale gray screen, but this had to be good enough for now. 

I'm going to tell Elle about her mom this weekend, I added, wanting to make up for my omission with an extra shot of truth. DON'T TELL LORINDA.