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He laughs low, and I feel his body vibrate against mine, everywhere we are touching. We are close, so close. “He’s out there defending you to the headmaster with Black and Maz because Kim has called the council. I think it’s best you come into the forest with me and to the clans. I can defend you better there. We all can and make a plan from there. You are not safe here and I’m done pretending I care about anything but your safety.”

“I can’t do that. I came here for a reason and maybe I know more spells... I’ve forgotten somehow.” I shake my head. “Honestly, I think I’m going mad sometimes. I keep seeingthese things that aren’t real. Like us living together as kids and planning to be bonded. But how?” I blink when something in his expression shifts.

He searches my eyes. “You really don’t remember what happened, do you?”

“No.” I whisper.

“I wish I could fucking tell you, but I can’t. I’m hexed just as much as you are to forget.” He grits his teeth. “I wish I could make up a spell for it. I want to know what happened that night and why you did it. I can’t stop wondering if I was wrong about what I thought. You don’t seem like a murderer.”

“I’ve never killed anyone.” I state, but the words feel bitter in my mouth. Like a lie.

“It’s sad you don’t remember the many you’ve killed.” Lock’s mother’s voice echoes, and we both turn to see her walking into the room. She isn’t alone. There are five witch guardians behind her, personal protectors of the council members. Extremely well trained and deadly. “I have your other bonded and I have witches in Bloodstone Forest ready for my command or my death. If either of you harm me or I say the spell, they will kill every shifter child in the clan’s school.”

Kane and I go still. His eyes drift to me, and then back to Lock’s mother. “I never had you down as a child killer, Fasrah.”

Fasrah. Her name echoes in my head so many times it hurts. I know that name. Why? How? Her eyes drift from Kane to me. “Say a spell, Juniper. Any move I do not like, and that foster sister you care about is dead.”

“You have my full attention and if this is about the spell, I don’t know how?—"

She cuts me off. “Shut up, child.”

“Don’t speak to her like that!” Kane growls, fully protecting me and rising to stand. The room feels warmer, and all the heatis coming from Kane. From his dragon. One spell from Fasrah and Kane collapses with a thump onto the floor.

A scream bursts from my throat as I jump for him and collapse to his side, breathing in a sigh of relief when I see he is just sleeping. “What’s going on? I know you’re angry about that spell, but I don’t remember how I did it and I’m sorry! Don’t take this out on my bonded!”

“Of course you don’t. I think it was the first year that you made that spell up. Or the second or the third?” She wonders while I stare at her in confusion. “This time they didn’t figure out you are their mate, and you have dragon blood.” What the fuck? I don’t have dragon blood. I’m not a shifter and my parents were witches. I don’t know what a mate is. Isn’t a slang word for friend? “They usually do, and then everything spirals. This time was a little different and I will study it.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve only been here one year.” She is insane.

“You have only been here one year, yes, but you’ve done it over and over. Every time you make the same mistakes. Every single time and we are disappointed. I was hoping you were smarter this time. Lock changed everything by planting false memories of you two being together and we assumed with him as a love interest, you wouldn’t care about the dragons.” False memories? There isn’t a spell for that, it’s impossible. What she is saying is madness. “But then again, you’ve done it again, and we’ll have to reset your memories and all of theirs with the goddess’s three tarot cards.”

“Tarot cards?” I frown.

She rolls her eyes at me as I hunch over Kane. If she touches him, I’ll fight. The threat of the children and Rue is the only reason I haven’t moved. “There are five objects in this world that once belonged to our goddess. The tarot cards are three of them, a lost glass piece is another, and the fifth is.... well, no one quiteknows.” She shrugs. “They hold her magic, and we bend it to do this to you because of who you are. Who you have always been.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t understand.” I shake my head.

“There was a prophecy, one written at the same time that the Enchantress took to power. It said that her daughter would, in her first year, change the course of the world. She will fall for love, or she would fall for magic. The prophecy had strict instructions of what to do when you appeared, and we are following that plan.” For a moment, she looks sorry for me, and I hate it. I hate her. “I know this is difficult on you, even when you don’t remember. I’m not sure where you learnt that spell you used today, but it concerns me. I’m half tempted to call my sister and ask her to beat it from you.”

“Melody is your sister?” Lock and Wini’s aunt? That means they are Rue’s cousins. Do any of them know?

“Yes, well, half.” She brushes some dust off a shelf. “Now is the part where you tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about and to leave your bonded alone.” She steps closer. “But I will not do that. Every time that you choose them, every time you fall in love with them, like you do time and time again, you will choose love and not the war. You betray your race. You will choose them and curse all of us and we have to reset the year. We reset the memories of all the surviving students and pull a few new ones in. Winifred doesn’t deserve this, and I’ll make sure you don’t end up friends like the last two years.” She lifts her nose. “The memories, ones that have been coming back, are loose ends that we tend to fix for the next time. That shirt that you wear had enough magic bound into it. It wasn’t meant to be destroyed and when it was, I know you remembered things. The only reason Melody let you keep that top was because of the hex on it. I’m sorry for any discomfort these last few months have caused.”

“I grew up with them.” I whisper, my mind swimming with thoughts. With memories I had in dreams. It wasn’t fake...it was real. My mind has been screaming at me this entire time.

“Yes, your parents were rebels and were encouraging misuse of bonds for their own cause. They were our most trusted guardians until they ran away with you when you turned one. I was thrilled they ended up dead.” She waves a hand and my heart drops. “Well, they weren’t your parents. Just adoptive ones...as close to family as you might get. Your adoptive mother was the same clan as your mother, and it was easy to keep that up.”

“They were my parents,” I snap. “Not adoptive! I look like my mother!”

“No, you do not. You think you do because you have never seen your real mother’s face. I make sure it’s hidden from you in case it triggers your memories.” I’m not ready for any of this, but she keeps going. “Your mother is the enchantress, and you are a halfling born of her bonded dragon who is dead. She has two more bonded alive, and she is looking for you. You will be our weapon to end her and her war.”

I can’t breathe as I cling to Kane’s arm. “No. You’re wrong! You’re lying!”

Her head falls to the side. “Why would I bother lying to you now, Juniper? You won’t remember this, and I do like seeing the same shock on your face each time I tell you. You are a halfling with incredible power, and the daughter of the enchantress. You are the only one that can take her down, and you will do it. You just won’t remember this or them. These last few months will be gone like that.” She clicks her fingers. “I forget how old you all are now. We are running out of time before you look in the mirror and know you are not twenty-one anymore.”

“You’re stealing time from me.” I hiss. “And I do not believe you.” I may say it, but a part of me screams it’s true. She pulls outan old, weathered gold box from her pocket and opens it with a heavy click. The second it falls back, golden light pours from the box and three cards hover into the air. “Stop! Please, I’ll do what you want. Just stop!”

I know she won’t. This is normal for her, and I’ve lost years to this. I can’t even remember them now, only stolen dreams my mind has clawed back. I’m going to forget them again.

“Yes, you will, child.” She clicks her fingers and the blank tarot cards begin to fill with drawings. I can only focus on one, a square of runes, and inside it is Bloodstone Academy. My dragons fly above it, only three of them, like one didn’t shift. The power from the tarot cards, the burning light, slams into me and Kane with a force that floats me into the air. I feel claws digging into my mind, deep and punishing, and I can’t do anything but scream as my world is ripped away from me.

As my bonded and I forget everything—again. I will find a way back to them. I can’t lose them. They are mine.

Epilogue

JUNIPER

Two days later.

Iremember.