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Chapter Forty-Three

B riony

Something is beeping incessantly. Right by my ear.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I try to open my eyelids. But they won’t. They are heavy and sore. Instead, I lift my arm to bat the noise away. But it is sore too. It doesn’t move when I ask it to.

I panic. The memories come flooding back. Where am I?

But then the darkness returns.

The next time I wake, the noise is still there. Persistent like a small baby bird.

Blaze!

I roll up to sitting and pry open my eyes. This time my body obeys, but it’s painful and sore.

Light hits my eyeballs – bright and stark and I groan and shield my eyes.

This isn’t the forest. For a moment, I think I must have died and ended up some place else. Then the room comes slowly into focus and I understand where I am.

A clinic of some sort.

I’m lying in a raised bed under starched sheets and bright electric lights; lines run in and out of my arms and that beeping noise is a machine above my head.

Cautiously, I examine my surroundings. This isn’t the clinic at the academy. I’ve been there. It’s worn and old. Most of the machinery was broken and the whole place dirty.

This room gleams and the machinery positively sparkles. It’s modern and sleek.

“Miss Storm, glad to see you are finally with us.”

I jolt. I had no idea anyone else was in the room with me, but when I peer towards the end of the bed, I find Fox standing there, bathed in the only shadow in this room. Seriously, does he hunt them out?

But even in the shadow, I can see how disheveled he looks. He’s missing his usual jacket and tie, his shirt is creased and splattered with blood. His usually neat hair flops into his eyes and his beard is tangled. Dark shadows ring his eyes that seem to glow with less intensity than usual.

“What happened to you?” I gasp.

He stares at me dumbfounded. Snorts. Shakes his head. Run his hands over his face. Then lets out a bark of laughter.

“Stars above, what happened to me ?”

“No offense, Professor. But you look like shit.”

“You’re not looking so good yourself, Miss Storm. What happened to you ? ”

“Oh, you know, the usual. Someone decided to beat the crap out of me.”

“Some one ?” he asks, tension in his jaw.

“It was a group of people and before you ask, no I don’t know who they were. It was dark, they were shining a torch in my face.”

“You didn’t recognize their voices?”

“They were muffled.”

“Probably wearing masks. Spineless dickheads,” he spits.

“Erm, where exactly am I? And how did I get here?”

“The shadow weaver clinic. And I brought you here. I …” He swallows, brushing his hair away from his face. “For a moment, I thought you were dead.”

“The number of kicks to the head, I should probably be,” I say cheerfully.

I glance down at all the wires trailing in and out of my arm.

Are they pumping me full of drugs because I feel pretty good considering a gang of hooligans just beat the shit out of me?

“But seems I’m not that easy to get rid of.

” I smile at Fox, which makes the poor professor actually flinch.

Then run my tongue over my teeth checking I didn’t lose any.

“What the hell were you doing out in the forest in the middle of the night?” he says. “Are you asking for trouble?”

“I like the forest,” I say, considering my answer carefully. My answer needs to sound convincing. “I always have. I spend nearly all of my time out in the forest back in Slate Quarter.” Anything to avoid Muriel.

“That’s Slate Quarter. This is the academy. It’s dangerous.”

“Oh, those squirrels are truly deadly.”

“Maybe not, but the shifters can be.”

I sniff. Dray in wolf form is a big bouncing ball of fluff. Not deadly at all. “So this is the shadow weaver clinic?” I ask.

He nods.

“But I’m not a–”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Because of the whole thrall thing,” I say bitterly, thinking of Clare’s friend who has been stuck in the commoners’ clinic for weeks now.

“No, because I brought you here,” he says.

“Oh … well … thank you?” He glowers at me, leaning on the end of my bed. “But I feel okay. I think I can get back to my …” Blaze is out there somewhere in the forest, all alone and thinking that I abandoned him. I go to tug the wires from my arm but Fox growls so fiercely, I jolt my hand away.

“You’re staying right here until the doctor confirms you’re well enough to leave.”

“But I need to get back to …” I trail off, chewing on my lip.

“You need to get back to …”

“How long have I been in here exactly?”

“Twelve hours.”

“Twelves hours!” I say, jerking up.

Blaze has been out in the forest on his own for twelve whole hours. He will most definitely think I’ve deserted him. Or he may come looking for me and then …

“I really have to go.”

“Briony!” Fox barks, so forcefully I drop back against the pillow. “The shadow weaver doctor spent five hours healing you. You were barely breathing. You had internal bleeding – including a bleed on the brain. You nearly died.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time,” I mutter.

“The scars,” he growls. “Want to tell me about those?”

“No,” I say. “I don’t.”

He runs his hand down his face again as if trying to remove his annoyance. I really do wind him up. I’m surprised he didn’t leave me in the forest to die. It would probably have made his life more bearable. “You need to stay here and rest until the doctor says you are well enough to leave.”

“And how long will that be?” I ask with exasperation.

“As long as it takes.” He shifts his weight from one foot to another. “Look, if there is something you need to do urgently, then I will do it for you. I will help.”

“Seriously?” I ask, surprised. “Why?”

Does he mean the wanting-to-touch-me thing? I’m so confused. Most of the time I appear to irritate him and then there’ve been these other rare occurrences when he looks at me like he wants to kiss me. And he saved me – brought me here to make sure I got the treatment I needed.

“Because,” he says, “contrary to what the world may think about me, I am not a bad person.”

“I don’t think you are a bad person.”

He screws up his eyes as if I just punched him right in the gut. “Maybe you would if you knew,” he whispers.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing,” he dismisses. “What do you need?”

I consider him. Do I trust him? I was tempted once before to tell him about the stone, to show it to him.

But that was when I believed it was him who had rescued me from the maze.

He did rescue me last night. But this was different.

He’s a teacher here at the academy. He holds a position of authority in the academy and the realm.

Do I truly believe he wouldn’t tell the necessary people about the dragon?

No, I don’t.

“I’d really like to see my friend, Fly. ”

“That’s it?” he says. “That’s the urgent thing?”

“Yes, and it is urgent.”

He strokes his fingers through his matted beard. He knows there’s more. He knows I’m keeping secrets from him. But unlike Madame Bardin, he isn’t going to torture me for them.

“All right,” he says. “I’ll fetch him for you,” I smile, “right after the doctor has given permission for you to receive visitors.” I frown.

“Are you not a visitor?”

“No, I’m your professor.”

And, shit, these drugs they have me on must be really strong, because the way he says that makes me shiver.

But I don’t get a chance to analyze that reaction because, suddenly, the clinic door flings open.