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Chapter One

B eaufort

“You’re handling this all wrong,” Thorne growls at my retreating back.

I pause and spin around. He stands at the bottom of Briony’s tower, straight-backed, chin raised, like a soldier lining up for inspection.

Dray hovers in the space between us, eyes flicking from me to Thorne and back again.

“What am I handling incorrectly, Brother?” I snap.

“The girl,” he says.

I almost laugh out loud. Is he serious? He’s hardly spoken two words to her. Has refused to spend any time with her. And now he’s going to lecture me on ‘handling’ her correctly?

“Oh yeah,” I say. “And how exactly should I be ‘handling’ her?”

“You should have insisted on healing her injuries,” Dray says, shifting from one foot to the other and peering up towards the top of the old rickety tower.

“I was asking Thorne,” I growl.

Thorne’s dark gaze meets mine, unrelenting and unperturbed.

I run my hand through my hair in frustration.

“You saw what she’s like,” I say. “Unreasonable, temperamental, damn bratty. She’s a fucking nightmare.” A fucking delicious nightmare I never want to wake up from.

“You should have told her the truth from the start.”

“It wouldn’t have made any difference. She doesn’t trust us. She doesn’t trust shadow weavers at all. She would have thought I was lying.”

Thorne doesn’t respond, just keeps on staring at me.

I won’t admit he’s right. The truth is, I don’t know if she would have believed me or not. If I’d been truthful from the start, would everything have run a lot more smoothly? With Briony Damn Storm who knows.

“Are you coming?” I say to them both. “We need to find out what the hell happened to her and why.”

“What do you mean?” Dray says, scratching at his cheek.

“She was in that maze for far too long and you saw the way she looked. They’re meant to fish them out when they’re struggling.

It’s a fucking rule – no one gets hurt in the first official trial.

It’s like a warm up – a baby beginner’s one.

It definitely felt simple.” I kick at a loose stone with my foot, sending it hurtling across the pathway.

“Something happened. And I want to know who is responsible.”

Dray scratches his cheek some more, thinking this over. Then he grins. “Sounds like fun. I’m in.”

We both look to our bond brother. “You coming?” I ask him stiffly. That remark about the girl has stung me more deeply than he realizes.

He shakes his head. “I’m going to stay here, ensure she’s safe.”

Anguish flickers across Dray’s face as he swings his gaze between us again, torn between his instincts to stay and protect the girl and go rip out the throat of whoever hurt her.

“Thorne has it covered,” I say. “Let’s go ask some questions.”

I march away and soon Dray is bouncing along beside me.

“Who are you thinking? Where do you want to start? Can we go tear Kratos’ nuts off?”

“Too many questions.” I wince. I’m trying to think this through in my head.

The only ones who could have tampered with the trial – if that is what happened – are the teachers themselves.

Possibly one or two of the officials from the Empress’s court.

Both of those seem unlikely. Why would they be concerned with manipulating the trial of some girl from Slate Quarter?

Unless someone knows she means more to us than just a thrall and is using her as a way to punch through to us.

We have enemies. Inside the court. Inside Onyx Quarter.

Inside the realm. Plenty of enemies. There are the other shifter packs, for starters.

Dray has had run-ins with most of them. There are the other powerful shadow weaver families jostling for dominion, who may be taking the chance to swipe at a band of formidable brothers. And then there are the Hardies.

The Hardies are petty and stupid enough to do this, but that’s the problem – they are too stupid. They wouldn’t know how to begin to manipulate the trial .

The shifters like their revenge to be served hot and bluntly. If they wanted to strike at us, they’d come charging full pelt. They wouldn’t choose this devious route.

Which leaves one of the powerful families. While they might not be able to manipulate the trials directly, they may have connections and they certainly have money and influence. Bribery may even have been involved.

“Let’s go see the Titan twins,” I say. “They help set up the trials, don’t they? Maybe they know something.”

The head and deputy-head have rooms in the same building as the Great Hall. The rest of the teachers are consigned to a tower at the back of the academy where I suppose they can’t be disturbed by students. There’s a gated courtyard out front with a large sign instructing students to stay away.

Dray tuts at the sign and leaps straight over the metal fence. I open the gate and walk straight through.

We walk up the little path and find a sign listing the various rooms and their occupants. The Titan twins share a room that takes up the entirety of the first floor.

The front door to the tower is unlocked and we pass straight through, heading for the Titan twins’ door.

“Sounds like they’re having some kind of party in there,” I say.

Dray cocks his head to one side. “It sounds more like a fucking orgy than a party.”

“Who the hell would want to sleep with those two?” I shake my head and knock my fist on the door.

Nothing happens. The rhythmic thudding and the revolting grunts and groans from the other side of the door continue. I bang again, this time harder and louder.

The noise stops. There is some whispering. What sounds like a female voice giggles .

Then one of the twins calls out. “Go away. We’re busy.”

“We’ll give you thirty seconds. Should be long enough to finish what you were, erm, doing,” Dray says, with a wicked grin.

“Who the hell is that?” one of the twins asks angrily.

“Beaufort Lincoln and Dray Eros,” I say. “We want to talk now.”

There’s some muttering from inside and then one of the twins opens the door, a towel that was once white wrapped tightly around his waist and not leaving a lot to the imagination. His body is covered in sweat and his face purple.

I have to force myself not to gag. Seriously, how are these dudes getting laid?

“What is it?” he says, obviously annoyed but trying his best to suppress it. Any other students, he’d probably be ripping them a new asshole, but he knows to keep on our good side.

“The trial today,” I say, “anything unusual happen?”

“Can this not wait until tomorrow?” he grunts as his twin joins him. He’s wrapped in a black silk dressing gown that gives off mega sleaze vibes.

“No,” I say simply.

The two twins look at each other, before the one in the towel says, “No.”

He goes to close the door, but Dray jams his foot in the way. “You sure about that?” he says, with his usual charming smile. “I know there were a lot of kids that went through the trial together. Everything was normal, nothing out of the ordinary for any of them.”

The one in the towel scratches the top of his head, the other looks about, as if trying to remember.

“I don’t think–”

“Because we could jog your memories, if you’d find that helpful,” Dray purrs, his shadow magic weaving from his fingertips.

Mine unwinds to join his and lingers right in front of the twins.

“Do you think something unusual happened?” the one in the towel asks us, looking confused. I can’t tell if it’s genuine – whether they are in fact as stupid as the Hardies – or whether this is a ruse.

I give them the benefit of the doubt.

“The girl from Slate — the one who went last,” I say, attempting to jog his memory.

“Ahhh,” the one in the dressing gown says, “the last student to go. Yeah, that was strange.” He nods, looking at his twin.

“Strange how?” his brother asks.

“That was why I was late. She took fucking ages to come out of the trial. Probably was in there for two hours.”

Two hours. The time limit for the trial was one. All students, whether they were near the end or a million miles from it, should have been whisked out of the maze as soon as that one hour marker was hit.

“Did that happen to any of the other students?”

He scratches his head like his twin did earlier, the gesture identical.

“Nah.”

“You know why she was in there so long? Why it happened?” Dray asks.

He shakes his head.

“Did you report it? To Madame Bardin, to one of the officials?”

He shuffles on his feet uncomfortably. “Not yet.”

I take a step closer to him. “But you will, won’t you?”

“Sure,” he says .

“Do things go wrong like this often with the trials?” Dray asks next.

They look at each other and shrug.

Yeah, I think they are as dumb as they look.

“Hector, honey,” a female voice squeaks from somewhere behind them. Is that the potion mistress’ voice? Fuck me! “You done yet? We’re waiting.”

“Anything else?” the first twin asks, his hand now tight on the door.

“No,” I say. “But if you hear anything, you be sure to tell us.”

They both nod obediently, then slam the door in our faces.

“What do you think?” I ask Dray. With his nose, he can sniff out a lie a mile away.

“I don’t think they know what’s going on,” he says carefully, “but if they find out, they won’t be telling us.”

Which means their loyalty lies somewhere else. With who? I glare at the door. If it’s someone at the academy, it won’t be any of the kids from Iron, Granite, or Slate.

“I think it’s time we show our faces at the shadow weaver party,” I tell my bond brother.