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Chapter Fifty-Eight

T horne

I meet her after dinner every evening for the next few days and accompany her out to the forest to spend time with Blaze. After what happened to her, I’m taking no risks.

We don’t talk about that evening or the evening she came to our tower and confessed about her dalliance with Tudor.

In fact, Briony seems to understand my silence and stays away from the topic of my bond brothers, the professor and our relationship altogether.

Instead, she chatters away about inconsequential things – like the food in the canteen, her lessons that day and bits of gossip she’s picked up from her friends.

Talk like this would usually get under my skin and irritate me.

But I don’t mind listening to her talk. I like the sound of her voice.

I like her presence. There’s an intimate feel about this routine we’re forming and as it’s the closest I’m going to come to intimacy with our thrall, I’ll happily take it.

The little dragon – who is definitely no longer so little – soon understands and is there waiting for us under the trees.

He’s excessively excited to see Briony each time, flying circles around her head and licking at her face, and though he seems to know not to come so close to me, he does seem happy to see me too, flitting my way and yapping at me excitedly.

The days pass. I know she visits our tower but I stay away, locked in my room, trying my best not to think of what she’s doing with my bond brothers and failing miserably.

The other students are more wary of me, Beaufort and Dray than usual.

They know what happened to the Hardies’ thrall.

They know that was us. There are also rumors flying about Dray and an altercation with the Hardies in their tower.

One Dray denies, although he does so with a wicked grin and an exaggerated wink.

I assume there is truth in it because the Hardies are staying out of our way too – mine especially.

Whatever power grabs they have in mind have been put on hold for now.

The mood in the academy shifts too. With the next trial only days away, people look more serious. There’s less chatter in classrooms, the pathways are solemn and quiet and once or twice I even spot students visibly shaking.

And then it’s the evening before the trial and I am unnaturally unnerved.

It isn’t the mood at the academy infecting my mood. It’s knowing that while any trial will prove straightforward, probably easy, for me, it will be anything of the sort for our mate.

“Briony,” I say, interrupting her mid-flow as she ponders whether Blaze’s wings have grown again.

She looks up at me abruptly. “I may not be able to help you in the trial this time. I’ve tried to gain some insight as to what they have in store for us, but I’ve failed.

” My jaw tightens. I don’t like to fail.

I especially don’t like to fail her. “If there is the opportunity to help you I will, but there may not be that opportunity.”

She stops walking and places her hands on her hips. “I don’t want you to help me, Thorne. Even if there is the opportunity to do so. It’s too risky.”

I stare back at her and she reads absolutely in my countenance that I will ignore this order.

“Thorne, I’m serious.” She lowers her voice. “You were lucky not to be caught last time. You might not be so lucky again and I won’t be responsible for you being banished!” She flings her hands up into the air.

“I need to protect you. I need to keep you safe.”

“You need to keep yourself safe, Thorne Cadieux,” she says.

“You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Well,” she says, shifting on her toes. “I do. Actually, I worry about you a lot. And it isn’t just the guilt I’d have to endure that makes me say I don’t want you to be banished,” she smiles at me teasingly, “I don’t want you banished because I’d miss you.”

I can’t help but snort at that. No one has ever missed me. There’s no one left. Only my bond brothers. And they simply endure me.

“Thorne,” she says, more softly and with no more teasing, “I’m serious. You’re important to me. And I don’t want to lose you.”

I stare at her, wondering how exactly I am important to her. Because I’m useful? Strong? Powerful? Or could she possibly mean … I shake my head .

“Briony, you already forced me to make one promise I’m unhappy about. I won’t make another. If I can help you, I will and there is nothing you can say that will dissuade me.”

She examines my hard features and then sighs.

“I’d better make sure I don’t land myself in any trouble then, so that you won’t have to help me.

” She starts walking again. “Do you have any idea what this trial could be?” I shake my head.

“No, me neither. Clare’s had us studying loads.

Researching as much as we can but none of us has a hunch about this one.

Still,” she inhales and straightens her shoulders, “I feel prepared.”

“Good,” I say, although that unease still lingers in my gut.