Page 26

Chapter Twenty-Three

B riony

Thorne Cadieux claims he’d do anything for me. It seems I might need to put that to the test sooner than I expected.

Because Wednesday comes around again before I know it, leaving me with a big dilemma. The stone, little by little, continues to crack. I’m sure any moment now it’s going to split and whatever is inside – if there is anything inside at all – is going to be revealed. I don’t want to miss it.

Lessons I can’t skip. It’ll only end in detentions that’ll mean more time away from my room. But an evening with the Princes? Surely that can be negotiated. Especially if I ask Thorne.

I don’t fancy another altercation out on the field with half the academy watching and the man is impossible to track down. So, reluctantly leaving the stone behind, I make my way to the tower as usual, and when Dray answers the door with a cocky smile on his face, I announce:

“I need to talk to Thorne. Alone.”

Dray’s grin falls from his face and he gives me those puppy-dog eyes. “That’s it. Not even a hello. And after I introduced you to cunnilingus and took you to heaven and back.”

“A little presumptuous,” I point out.

“Are you denying I took you to heaven?”

I bite my lip and shake my head.

“Good,” he says, placated. “Come here and let me inhale that scent of yours. Then I’ll go get the Grump for you.”

“He’s not a grump,” I say automatically.

“Ahh,” the left side of Dray’s mouth lifts in a half-smile, “it’s like that, huh?”

He winks, pulls me towards him, buries his face in the crook of my neck, inhales deeply, then his body stiffens and before I know it, my hand is gripped in his and he’s unwinding the bandage.

“Want to tell me about this?” he growls.

“Just an accident,” I mutter, trying to pull my hand away.

“An accident with a knife,” he says, examining the wound that is slowly healing.

I shrug. “I was cutting an apple.”

“Aren’t you right-handed?”

“Not when it comes to slicing apples.”

“Hmmm,” he says, stroking his fingertips against the wound, shadows racing across my skin and knitting together the damaged flesh, warm tingles racing up my arm. When my hand is completely healed, he meets my eyes with his chaotic ones. “You’re a stubborn little kitten, aren’t you? ”

I don’t even get a chance to reply, he’s already skipping away.

I’m left in the hallway feeling like I was just sucked up into a tornado.

A few minutes later, Thorne comes striding down the stairs and into the hallway.

I wasn’t sure if he would agree to see me, but after that confession out there on the field, things have changed, shifted.

I can tell by the way he meets my eyes as he comes towards me.

Although, he still stops his obligatory pace away from me as if the air I’m breathing might be toxic.

“It’s Beaufort you need to talk to–”

I’m aware of that. The conversation we had and the things I learned in the library have been pressing on my mind, but right now the stone is more urgent.

“I can’t come tonight.”

He blinks. “Aren’t you here?”

“Yes, I know, but I have to get back to my room.”

“And you had to tell me this because …”

“I want you to come with me, back to my room.”

“No,” he says.

I peer up into his face, trying to read him.

“You said you’d do anything for me,” I whisper.

Beaufort would have frowned if I’d caught him in a trap of his own making like this. Dray would chuckle. Thorne’s face remains completely blank. He is impossible to read.

“This isn’t what I meant.”

“What did you mean?” I ask, tipping my head to one side.

He swallows and I think he is considering his next words. “That if you ever needed me, I would be there to help.”

“Well, I need your help now. ”

“What with?”

I peer around him. I suspect Dray is lingering in the background somewhere, listening in on this conversation.

“I can’t explain it. I have to show you.”

He shakes his head.

“Fuck, Thorne, dude,” Dray yells from somewhere – my suspicions proven correct, “she wants to show you something. What the hell are you waiting for?”

Now emotion finally registers on his face: displeasure. He frowns and shucks his chin my way, I hurry through the door and he follows after me.

“It’s not like Dray is making out,” I clarify, blushing.

“I know,” he mumbles, “Dray is an idiot.”

We walk in silence back to my room, him following several paces behind me. It’s the same up the staircase. If his presence wasn’t so dominating, his magic heavy in the air, I’d have to keep checking he was still there.

On the landing, he waits while I unlock the door and follows me in. His gaze skips around my plain room once we’re inside and I tuck my keys away and chew on my cheek.

Am I doing the right thing? I haven’t trusted anyone with this secret. Not even my own dad. Not even Fly.

But I don’t know what is happening to the stone. I don’t know what will happen if it splits. If it is a firestone as I suspect, then is this bad?

Thorne risked banishment to help me in the maze. Banishment means death. Which means he risked his life for me. If I can’t trust him, I don’t believe there is anyone in the realm I can trust.

“I appreciate you coming,” I say.

“Is this about who attacked you in the maze?” he asks .

“You must know who it was,” I say. “Your magic was right there.”

“No,” he explains, “once I sever it from me like that, it acts independently.” He rubs at his head. “It’s difficult to explain. It’s still a part of me, it still acts in my interests, but it isn’t a part of me as well. I don’t know what happened to you in the maze. But I’d like to know.”

I consider telling him. But what would it achieve?

He and the others would go after Madame Bardin – I’ve no doubt about that.

And she’d know it was one of them that helped me – I suspect she has her suspicions as it is.

And then what? Thorne would be banished, banished because of me.

And no matter how powerful he may be, he wouldn’t last five minutes out there unprotected against the demons and the monsters.

“I can’t tell you. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“Nothing will happen to me.”

I smile at him. “We both know that’s not true. You protected me, let me protect you in return.”

He looks at me and something like astonishment shines in those dark eyes. After a moment, he nods, rather reluctantly.

“There’s something I want to show you. Something I’m trusting you to keep a secret. Do you promise you will?”

“If that’s what you want,” he says, lingering by the door.

I rock backward and forward on my toes. “In the maze, your shadow made my attacker promise not to harm me again.”

“A sacred promise,” he says.

“What does it do?”

“Such a promise is extremely hard to break and, if it is broken, there are consequences. ”

“Consequences?”

“Fate doesn’t look kindly on a person who breaks a sacred promise.”

“Will you make one of those promises for me now?” I ask him, a little nervously.

“Briony,” he scoffs – and the way he says my name makes my insides melt just like before, “fate has already looked down on me with scorn. It would be no consequence for me if I chose to break a sacred promise.”

I inhale and exhale. Looked on him with scorn? Is he joking? He’s a shadow weaver. One of the most powerful in the academy. Bonded to two of the most powerful shadow weavers in the realm. Fate has clearly blessed him.

“I’d still feel better if you did it anyway.”

“Fine,” he says.

He closes his eyes and his mouth moves, speaking words silently. I notice for the first time how sensual his lips look, how soft.

A thin slither of shadow dances from his fingertips, and now I see that it is so similar to the one in the maze. It hovers in the space between us and he opens his eyes.

“Briony Storm,” he says, and I hold my breath, my heart thumping, “I promise to keep this a secret.”

“Thank you,” I say and the shadow inches towards me, close enough to touch. I reach out, but it jumps away, then shoots back to his hands.

I can’t meet his eyes after that. I feel like I just did something wrong.

“Let me fetch it,” I tell him.

I turn away and hurry to my cupboard, pulling out the blanket and my bag and then reaching inside and carefully lifting the stone. I quickly skim its surface. The cracks are more numerous and deeper and the thing vibrates in my palms.

With another inhale, I spin around and step towards Thorne.

His eyes linger on my face and then drop to the stone in my arms.

He studies it silently for several long, drawn-out seconds.

“Is that what I think it is?” he says finally.

“What do you think it is?” I ask him, taking another step forward.

“Can I see it?” he asks.

I walk closer to him and for once, with the door blocking his escape, he can’t back away. I hold out the stone to him.

He examines my hands, then carefully and cautiously, he places his hands on the stone and takes it from me, as if he doesn’t want our hands to touch.

He turns it over in his hands.

“A firestone,” he says, eyes still locked on it.

“That’s what I thought too.”

“Where did you get it from?”

I chew on my cheek. Will he believe me?

“I found it about nine years ago–”

“Nine years ago?” he says, unbelieving. “You’ve had it all that time?”

“Yes, that long. But found it isn’t quite right.” I screw up my temples trying to find the words to explain.

“You took it,” he says.

“No!” I scowl at him. “Stars, what is wrong with you men? Just because I’m from Slate, does not make me a thief!”

“I’m sorry,” he says, “you’re right.”

“Hmph,” I sulk .

“Please explain what you meant?”

“It’s hard to explain. It’s like it called me to it.”

“What do you mean?”

I rest my right hand against my stomach.

“It tugged at me. I could feel it pulling right in the center of my stomach. It tugged me into the forest that lies at the edge of our Quarter, all the way in, and then I found it at the bottom of a lake.” I shake my head.

“It sounds crazy. No wonder you think I stole it.”

“I believe you,” he says.