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“He was treatingallthree of us that way,” she pointed out.

“Which points to some kind of malevolent magic which Avery is wearing like an ill-fitting suit,” Lachlan said.He looked at me.“Since Avery’s father is a Warlock, I think it’s likely the magic is more up your alley than mine.”

“You’re right,” I said.“I’m going to do some research.”

“You’d better do it fast,” Lachlan advised.“I don’t know much about Witch magic, as I said, but Idoknow any kind of magic used to mask a person’s true self becomes more difficult to remove the longer it remains attached to them.”

“You should look in Avery’s family grimoire too,” Emma suggested.

“And maybe we should go get Saint,” Kaitlyn added.

“I agree with that—having his beloved nearby may help to break whatever magic or curse he’s under.”Lachlan nodded.

“I’ll go tell the front office that my father has requested me at home and try to get him right away,” Ari promised.“But even if I can get Saint’s father to release him, we probably won’t be back until night.It’s a long flight.”

“That’s all right—it will give me time to do some research,” I said.“I’m going to the Sister’s library right away.”I got up from the table at once and Griffon rose with me.

“Shall I come with you, my darling?”he asked.“I know it pains you to see your coven mate under a malicious spell.”

“No, it’s okay—there’s no point in both of us missing our first period class,” I told him.I would probably get into trouble for missing mine, but Avery was more important to me than any bad grades I might make.

Something was wrong with my coven mate and I was determined to get to the bottom of it!

40

SAINT

“The Trial of Fire is about to begin—unless you’ve come to your senses and decided to let your Drake out on your own?”My Sire asked.He had his hands on his hips as he glared down at me, his bushy eyebrows raised in question.

I shook my head, mutely.I was sitting on my bed in my room in the Western Tower of my father’s stronghold.Honestly, I had barely budged from this spot since General Lupe had brought me home.

I saw no reason to move—myl’lornawas dead and my heart had died with him.

“Come to your senses—we shouldn’t have to do this to bring out your Drake at your age!”my Sire exclaimed.“I’ve gathered the girls for him again—he can have his pick, now that the damned curse is lifted!”

It was true that Avery had been successful in lifting my Drake’s curse—which had ultimately killed him.But ever since he had, my Drake and I hadn’t spoken even once.Though I sensed him inside me still, he was silent.I wasn’t sure if he was mourning for our lostl’lornaor if lifting the curse had done something else to him.Maybe he had lost his voice.

It seemed strange to have silence in my head.For years I’d had him raging at me like a raving madman.Now that he was quiet, I didn’t know how to act.I simply sat in my room and mourned.My loss was so great there was nothing else I could do.

“Speak, damn you!”my Sire exclaimed.“Did you hear what I said?Soon you’ll be choosing yourl’lorna!You must be ready to let your Drake out!”

I shook my head.

“I lost myl’lorna.No other can take his place,” I said in a low voice.

“That witch-boywasnotyourl’lorna!”my Sire growled.“You only thought he was because you were under a curse.Now that the curse is lifted, you can be free.Don’t you see my son—you can choose to benormalnow!To live your life as a proper man with a wife and, in time, children.I might even make you my heir again if today’s Choosing goes well.”

I only shook my head.He thought that since my Drake was no longer cursed, he would be willing to choose a woman for us to spend our lives with.I doubted that was true.I still had no interest in the opposite sex and though my Sire seemed to think it was a personal choice, it wasn’t.I simply did not like females—at least, not romantically.

I remembered that Avery had felt the same way—he had told me he knew he was “gay” as the humans called it, back when he was only five or six years of age.So the idea that I could now “choose” to like women when I never had before was ridiculous—not that my Sire would believe that.

“If you don’t let your Drake out to choose al’lorna, we’llhaveto conduct the Trial of Fire,” he warned me now.“It will be a great shame to see a man of your age treated like a boy of eleven or twelve.”

Normally, the Trial of Fire was only used to make reluctant Drakes emerge in younger males.At the time of puberty, when a male’s Drake normally came out, there were always one or two shy ones.During the Trial, four full grown Drakes would all shoot their flame at the boys in question at the same time.

In order to keep from being burned alive, the boys always Shifted to their Drake forms at once—it was an instinctive reaction—an act of self-preservation.Now, because my Drake would not emerge on his own, my Sire threatened me with it.

But what did I care for shame?I cared for nothing now that Avery was gone.My Sire had forced me to remove his Mark too—the last little thing I had left of him.My forehead felt bare without it just as my heart felt empty without myl’lorna.