Lullaby (The Fable Series, Book 2)

Chapter Forty Three

The sound of screaming drowns out my thoughts, and I watch dazed as girls close in from all directions, their arms outstretched as they yell Felix and Alastaire's names.

The ground seems to shift beneath us, and the air all around us shimmers, vibrating with tension.

A girl just a few feet away from me hold up her phone and takes a photo, and for a moment the flash blinds me, sending a sharp pain searing through the backs of my eyes.

I tremble, the hysterical fangirl shrieks shuddering through my chest like the buzzing of a million bees.

And as in any swarm, a queen leads the charge.

Beth Donklin, our school's undisputed Queen Bee, leader of the three B's, Her Royal Bitchiness, is just a few feet in front of me.

Her long, sharp finger nails, painted bright yellow to match her Goldilocks costume, dart through the air reaching for Felix as she howls out his name.

In that moment, Felix wraps his arms around me.

In one swift motion, he sweeps me off my feet, and holds me tight as he hurtles through the crowd, like a groom carrying his bride over the threshold, but rather than cheering wedding guests we're surrounded by crazed screeching girls.

I feel fingers brushing against us, trying to grab us, a blur of movement as Felix races towards the carpark on the other side of the field.

I squeeze my eyes shut, burying my head against his shoulder, the sound of the stampede following close behind us.

Alastaire... is Alastaire ok? The other boys were here too... have they been spotted?

"This way!" A voice yells up ahead. "C'mon!"

I open my eyes, straining to find the source of the yelling.

Kitty's hanging out of the window on the passenger seat side of Jade's car, which is racing towards us over the grass. She's waving her arms around, screaming at the top of her lungs, while Jade dodges festival-goers, almost running over a green-skinned girl dressed as Elphaba from Wicked in the process.

The car comes to a shrieking halt in front of us, and Kitty yells "GET IN!!!" as the backseat passenger door swings open.

I jump out of Felix's arms and tumble forward, hiking up my dress over my knees and crawling over Ben and Elliot on the backseat. Ben's pirate hat and eyepatch are gone, but Elliot's still in his full set of knight's armour, and I shudder as my knees scrape over the cold metal. The pretty girl who was hanging out with them earlier is there too, squashed against the side door. Her long brown hair and frilly dress is in disarray, and some of the baby pink glitter has rubbed off her mask and dusted her cheek in a shimmering streak of sparkles. I don't recognize her from school or anywhere else, but it's hard to tell with the mask.

One thing's for sure though - she's super pretty.

How do the guys know her? Or is she some friend of Kitty's that she forgot to mention?

She pulls me onto her lap with surprising strength.

Felix follows behind me, squashing up next to Elliot on the backseat before Alastaire wedges himself in last, half-sitting on Felix as he slams the door shut, right in the faces of the screaming girls behind him. There's a tussle as Felix tries to push Alastaire away, but there's nowhere for him to go - his white feathered costume wings are squashed against the side door window, the white robe slipping down off his shoulder.

"DRIVE!" Felix shouts, but Jade doesn't need any prompting - we're already speeding across the field. I clutch onto the girl in the pink dress as the car bursts through the open school gates and does a sudden U-turn onto Barker street, screeching towards the overpass onramp at breakneck speed.