Page 162 of Spark of Sorcery

My gut is churning with curiosity and I run my hands over my face, rubbing at my tired eyes.

Then I lower my gaze to the passage and I read it.

Maybe I half-suspected what I find there.

Perhaps not. Perhaps it isn’t what I expected at all.

Either way, I have some questions for Miss Storm.

I peer down at my wrist watch. It’s late and tomorrow is the day of the next trial. Briony needs her sleep.

Those questions are going to have to wait.

Chapter Sixty

Briony

I wasn’t entirely honest with Thorne. I may be better prepared for this trial than I was the last two – Clare’s made sure of that with all the studying we’ve been doing – but I’m not one hundred percent recovered from that attack, even after all the healing. My legs are a little more unsteady than they were and my head is just a tad fuzzy. It’s not the best way to be going into a potentially life-threatening trial.

I debate spending the entirety of the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep, but there’s nothing tying me to my room now. No egg to guard, no baby dragon to tend to. Which means …

The door to the Princes’ tower stands wide open and he is waiting there in the doorway as if he was expecting me.

“Hey sweetheart,” he says softly. “Couldn’t sleep?” I shake my head. “Me neither.”

He holds out his hand and I take it, marveling at how nice the simple act of having my hand wrapped in his feels. It’s like a promise – I will take care of you, you are safe.

I stare down at our joined hands as we walk through the dark hallway, up the empty staircase and into his bedroom. His fingers are long. His fingernails are blunt. I can see the crisscross of veins beneath his fair skin. The tips of his fingers are not calloused but there’s a strength in his grip and a magic that tingles against my skin.

“Where are the others?” I ask.

“Dray’s out running somewhere with the other shifters. Thorne’s already asleep.”

“So it’s just us?”

“Just us.” He brushes a loose strand of hair away from my face and strokes his knuckles down my cheeks, sweeping them under my jaw and into my hair. He sweeps my braid over my shoulder and then he’s untwining the band at the base and uncoiling my hair, shaking out the braid until my hair is loose.

“You know I’m going to ask you something.” He runs his fingers through my hair.

“And you know the answer is going to be no.”

“It would keep you safe.” He cups my jaw, and this time runs the pad of his thumb against my throat, tracing the place a collar would sit. “And it would look so beautiful.”

“I’ll be okay,” I say, even if I don’t feel sure of that.

“I can’t lose you, Briony,” he whispers.

“You’re not going to lose me.” I take his hand in mine, lift it to my mouth and kiss the palm where the lines of fate traverse his skin.

“When I thought we had … when I thought we’d lost you …” He swallows hard. “I can’t imagine my life without you in it, Briony.”

“It would probably be a much more straightforward one,” I tease. “Imagine, you could have had a thrall like Odessa – very obedient and more than willing to be your little pet.”

He frowns. “I’m serious. I want you just the way you are.”

“Even though I drive you crazy?”

“Especially because you drive me crazy. There’s no one else I want, Briony. There’s no one I’m ever going to want. Only you.”