Page 95 of Burdened Bonds

I step forward, motioning for the wolves to follow me, and as I do another group of guards come sprinting into the yard.

“Stop!” one of them yells. “Stop right there!”

Not likely.

I call on all the energy I have, forming a fireball the size of a small car to form in the air and then I fling it at them, running after the beasts, burning the goddamn bridge behind me for good measure.

As I reach the end of the bridge, my foot hitting the road beyond, I allow myself to smile.

We did it.

We fucking did it.

But then the beasts are screeching to a halt in front of me, and the smile falls from my lips.

Charging our way, surrounded by more men than I can count, is my father.

“Hello, Tristan,” he calls out, his voice amplified by his magic, “I’d heard you were here.”

And I’ve nothing left, not enough in the tank to fight him with, the pain in my gut overwhelming, making me far weaker than I should be.

The giant brown beast bares his teeth, blood and spit drooling from his jaws, and launches up into the air, right towards the mass of men.

My father simply lifts his hand, and the beast is caught in mid-air by some invisible force. It hangs there, thrashing and snarling, unable to free itself. My father cackles, flicks his wrist and a horrifying snapping sound shoots through the air. The great beast dangles limp and lifeless, then crashes to the ground, dead.

Before me, the black beast – Moreau – is bombarded with magic, hissing and smarting against his fur, the smell of it putrid, and then he too collapses motionless before me as the cold tentacles of my father’s magic wrap around my neck and I fall to my knees.

“Spencer,” I croak, my hands at my throat. “Spencer.”

37

Rhi

I wakein the morning to find Winnie out of the bed and wrapped in a towel.

“There’s a bathroom down the hallway,” she says as I emerge blurry-eyed from under the cover. “You have to use your magic to make the water warm, but it’s not bad really. There was even some ancient bottle of shampoo which actually smells pretty nice.” She takes a piece of her hair and sniffs it.

I rub my eyes, yawning and stretching my arms over my head.

“I guess I’ll go investigate then,” I say, sniffing myself. “Is that toast I can smell?”

“Yeah, Azlan stuck his head in the room a half hour ago and said he was going to make some breakfast. He said not to wake you after last night.” She rubs the towel over herbody before picking up her discarded clothes and sniffing those too. “I wonder if I can find any clean clothes in this house.”

“You might be able to, but only if you want to wear bloomers and petticoats.”

“I think I’d actually look pretty fetching in a pair of bloomers,” she says, tugging on her jeans. “How did you sleep the rest of the night, Rhi?” She pauses. “Any other dreams?”

I shake my head and rub my temple. “I slept fine,” I say, shuffling to the end of the bed and picking up a towel Winnie’s found for me.

Truth is I didn’t sleep particularly well. I’d lain awake mulling over that dream, trying to work out what it could mean, debating if Azlan was right. Is the beast I’m meant to save Spencer? And if I am, how am I meant to do that? I don’t even know where he is.

I pad along the hallway until I find the bathroom, stepping inside and locking the door behind me. As I’m standing naked investigating the shower, there’s a knock on the door.

“Rhi, are you in there?” Stone says from the other side.

“Yes, I’m just about to hop in the shower.”

In the next moment the door clicks open and Stone steps inside, his eyes running all over my naked form.