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Chapter Forty-Two

B eaufort

The journey back to the academy drags on for an age. The trucks rattle our bones and have us sliding into one another when we careen around corners. The sooner we graduate and are allowed to displace, the fucking better.

Not that they’d want us to even if we were given permission. They like to keep a watchful eye on us. Don’t want anyone deserting and shirking their responsibilities.

The journey is made even more painful by the fact Kratos is sitting opposite me with a shit-eating grin on his face, every now and again, turning to mutter something I can’t hear over the rumble of the truck in one of his bond brother’s ears.

I don’t know what he’s so happy about. It’s clear Kratos’s one desire in life is to see the three of us toppled from our position as the most powerful shadow weavers of our generation.

He’d love for him and his brothers to steal that crown.

But if these last four weeks are anything to go by, that is far from likely.

Time and time again during this ‘training’ camp, we’ve shown our power and our dominance.

Kratos and the others don’t even come close.

Not even Henny and her erratic but fierce magic is a threat to our superiority.

So I smile back at him, then close my eyes and try to sleep. It’s impossible. The other thing that’s making this journey a drag, is knowing what’s waiting for me back at the academy.

Our thrall.

Not just our thrall. Our fated mate. Those marks on Thorne’s wrists confirm it.

Not that I’d ever admit it to the others, but I’d begun to wonder myself if I was wrong this time. If the vision in my head was not a vision at all, but some warped creation of my mind, determined to sabotage every plan set for me by tying me to some weakling from Slate Quarter.

But I was right. Am I glad about it?

She’s not weak. The scars on her back prove that. She’s endured torture, grief, ridicule and yet she keeps her head held high and refuses to be cowed.

Fuck, I love that about her.

The truck hits a bump in the road, jolting us about violently on our seats. I open my eyes to find Kratos watching me. I close my eyes again, forgetting all about the other shadow weaver and imagining all the things I’m going to do to our little thrall once I have her in my bed again.

The hours pass, and then Dray’s shaking me awake.

“We’re nearly here,” he says, pointing to the front of the truck. We’re driving through heavy woodland but in the distance, over the canopy of the trees, are the tops of the academy towers .

My stomach spins with excitement. I feel like a little kid.

Another half an hour and we’re weaving through those towers themselves and parking up in one of the courtyards. A small crowd has gathered to welcome us back, among them the thralls standing to one side together, each wearing a golden collar around their neck.

I scan their faces even though she won’t be there. It’s not her style. I should know that by now, and yet I can’t avoid the inevitable disappointment.

“Thrall not here, Lincoln,” Kratos says as we move down the truck and jump out onto the cobbled ground. “I wonder where she could possibly be …”

He grins right in my face and I can see all the golden teeth crowded in his mouth.

He strolls away, wrapping his arm around the neck of his thrall and bending down to kiss her mouth.

When they break apart, his thrall peers over her shoulder and his arm, and catches my gaze.

She smiles right at me too, curling her tongue behind her teeth.

My blood runs icy cold. Immediately, I understand.

“Briony,” I say to the others, striding quickly away, breaking into a run as soon as we’re out of sight of Kratos and the others.

“What’s wrong?” Dray asks as he sprints behind me.

“Didn’t you see the look on Kratos’s face? On his thrall’s face?”

“What? Those stupid dumbass looks? That’s because they don’t share a brain cell between them.”

“No,” I say, “it wasn’t that.”

I bolt up the staircase of her tower, two girls flattening themselves against the wall as I pass. At the summit, I hammer on her door, leaning against the frame as I catch my breath and then hammering again when it doesn’t open .

“Are you looking for Briony?”

I spin around to find her two friends huddled in the doorway of the boy’s room. I’m not liking the concerned expressions on their faces.

“Where is she?” I boom.

“We don’t know,” the boy says, voice trembling. “She wasn’t in her room this morning. I thought maybe you got back early or something, but then she didn’t turn up for breakfast or first periods.”

“We’ve been looking for her,” the girl adds. “Asking around.”

“But people are being weird as shit.”

I glance at my bond brothers. This isn’t good. Kratos’s smile seems more and more sinister to me with every passing second.

“When did you last see her?” Dray asks them both.

“Dinner time,” the girl says.

“And then where did she go?” Dray asks. “Back to her room or …?”

The boy glances at Thorne and then swallows. “She may have gone out to the forest.”

“The forest?! Why the hell would she go to the forest at night?” Damn that girl. Didn't I tell her to be careful?

“Erm.” His eyes flick to Thorne again. Is he worried my bond brother might unleash his deadly magic? “She’s been going there every evening.”

“Why?”

He shrugs but I can tell by the way he can’t quite meet my eyes that he knows the reason. The reason isn’t important right now though. That can wait. Right now, we need to find her. She could be in danger. Or hurt. Or …

Bile rises in my throat and my heart stops beating.

Not that. Not that. I shake my head .

I’d know if it were that, wouldn’t I? I’d feel it in my bones. In my heart.

“Did you hear her come home after her visit to the forest?” Thorne asks – and thank the stars someone is thinking straight.

“No,” Fly says, “but I’m often asleep before she gets back.”

Fly glances once again at Thorne which is really starting to piss me off.

“Why the fuck is she going into the forest?” Dray says. His face darkens and he growls. “To meet some other dude?” And I can’t help it, but that thought has my hackles rising too.

“You’d be able to smell if she was with some other man,” Thorne points out, my shoulders relaxing. “We can worry about questions later. Right now, we need to find her.”

I rub at my chin, covered in a layer of thick stubble, the bristles sharp against my finger tips.

“We can split up,” I suggest. “You two,” I point to Briony’s friends, “can go check the commoners’ clinic again. Thorne, you can–”

“There’s no need,” Dray says, already striding towards the staircase.

“If I can find her scent, I can track her down.” He descends the first step.

“What are you fuckers waiting for?” Thorne and I follow after him, the other two remain where they are.

“And you, too,” he snaps, making the boy and the girl scurry after us.

Out on the pathway, Dray sniffs the air, then turns back to Fly.

“You know whereabouts in the forest she goes?” Dray asks.

“Yep,” Fly says .

“Then show us,” Dray gives him a little push, “and pick up the pace.”

We sprint along the pathways, the boy struggling to keep up with us and the girl left far behind. Out on the field, we wait for him to catch us up.

“Whereabouts?” Dray asks.

“She usually goes off that way, towards the east of the forest.” The boy hunches over his knees, catching his breath. “It’s more hidden from the academy in that direction.”

Dray yanks off his sweater and toes of his sneakers, leaving them abandoned on the field. He starts sprinting out onwards the forest, his sweatpants ripping in half as his body morphs from human form to wolf, four solid paws soon hitting the ground.

In this form, he’s a hell of a lot faster than me and Thorne, disappearing into the trees before we’re halfway across the field.

We chase after him and find him standing still under the trees, sniffing the air, then the ground, then the air again, then walking in a zigzag fashion, sniffing all the while before spinning in circles and retracing his steps.

Then he halts. His tail flicks up straight and his ears flatten on his head.

Nose to the ground he trots through the trees, his path direct at first, then once we’re deep in the forest, it becomes more meandering.

Then he stops, peers up at us and growls before his nose hits the ground again and he pads through the trees.

He stops again and immediately I can see why.

There was some kind of disturbance here. It’s clear from the trampling of the dead leaves on the ground something rolled through them or kicked them about.

Dray growls again, only this time it’s sinister and deadly – making my blood run cold .

Together Thorne and I step forward to examine whatever the wolf has found.

“Fuck!” I say, dropping down to crouch. Blood – splattered across the ground and over the leaves. I reach out and touch it with my fingers. It’s not fresh, but it isn’t old either.

“She was hurt,” I say, peering up at Thorne. His eyes are fixed on the blood on my fingertips. “I can’t see a trail of blood,” I say, “which means she either patched herself up or someone moved her.”

“Can you track her from here?” Thorne asks the wolf.

He sniffs, then snarls, his nose crinkling up in disgust.

I peer at Thorne. What the hell does that mean?

But then Dray is moving through the trees again and we’re scrambling to keep up.

He leads us out of the forest, and across the field.

Her two friends are crouching on the ground, still catching their breath.

“Did you find anything?” the girl asks, adjusting her steamed-up glasses.

“Looks like it,” I say, gesturing to the wolf and then running after him as he weaves along the pathways.

It causes an inevitable commotion. Some people scream when they see the wolf bounding along the pathway, others scatter and the rest stand and stare.

“Where the hell is he going?” Thorne hisses, as a group of clueless girls giggle as we race past them.

Dray takes us right through the heart of the academy and out the other side, to a modern building that squats to the north, hidden by one of the large towers. The shadow weaver clinic. I’ve had no need to visit the clinic since my arrival and its shiny and modern appearance surprises me.

What surprises me more is that someone brought Briony here. Don’t get me wrong, it’s where I would bring her myself. Where any of us would if she were too hurt for us to heal her ourselves. But she wouldn’t be brave enough to come herself, and what other shadow weaver would bring her?

Dray transforms back into his human form. His long white hair is damp with sweat and so is his body. He’s also completely fucking naked, not that he cares. He pushes against the door, steps inside and strides straight up to the reception desk, large cock swinging between his legs.

The eyes of the young receptionist on the other side of the desk nearly pop right out of their sockets.

Dray isn’t in a flirting mood today, though. He leans over the desk and fixes the dude with a menacing glare.

“Briony Storm – is she here?”

“The girl that got hurt last night? She’s in room three back there,” he says, pointing over his shoulder. “But you can’t–”

The three of us stroll right past the desk and towards the door of room three.

Dray pauses, hand on the door-handle.

“There were other scents out there,” he says, “including Tudor’s.”