Page 124 of Taste of Thorns

I nod, but I don’t feel that much better. The trial is in less than three weeks. That doesn’t sound like a lot of time to me.

Chapter Forty-Four

Thorne

The lake is nearly a half day’s hike away and so we’re forced to wait until the following Sunday for our swimming lesson with Briony. We set off early, before the sun has even risen above the horizon and the air is still bitterly cold. The snow thawed days ago, but the ground is frozen solid and the usual freezing fog hangs in the air. As we cross the field, the ravens wake, swooping over our heads and cawing at us angrily until we reach the shelter of the trees.

“Jeez, I hate those birds,” Briony says, wrapped up warm in one of Dray’s jackets, a hat from Beaufort pulled down over her ears and her hands lost in a pair of my leather gloves.

The girl is going to be spending time in an icy lake. We don’t want her freezing cold before we’ve even reached the water.

“Trust me, they’re better than bats,” Beaufort mutters.

“Snakes. Bats,” Briony says. “Beaufort Lincoln are you actually a massive scaredy cat?”

“Snakes and bats have a lot in common. They both hiss. They both bite. They both move in creepily erratic ways.”

“So you’d rather meet a demon than a bat?” I ask him.

“Fighting demons can be fun,” he says. Dray nods enthusiastically in agreement.

“Oh really,” Briony says, “because I remember you telling me how dangerous and deadly fighting demons was and that was the reason why shadow weavers had earned their right to live such gilded lives.”

“It is dangerous and deadly,” he says, “that’s the reason itcanbe fun. Bats and snakes are simply nuisances.”

“Your idea of fun is different to mine,” Briony says.

Beaufort smirks at her. “I’m not sure it is.”

“There may be a few common interests that we share.”

“Yeah, like you both enjoy it when you suck on his cock.” Dray laughs and Beaufort punches him so hard on the arm he spends the next ten minutes whining. When he eventually quits complaining, Briony asks,

“What are the demons like?”

“Like?” Beaufort says. “Have you never encountered one?”

“No. Only those monsters in the trial …”

She glances over at me but I keep my gaze locked straight ahead.

“Those weren’t real demons,” I say. “Real demons are much worse. Bigger, stronger, more deadly.”

“Oh,” Briony says, fidgeting with her gloves. “Don’t you feel scared when you’re fighting them, then?”

“Scared,” Dray scoffs, full of bravado, but I answer her question truthfully.

“If I had to face them alone, I would be. But I’m not when I’m with my bond brothers. I know they have my back. Plus, we’re stronger together.”

Her gaze flicks around us all.

“Do you think that’s the reason fate matched you together?”

“I think fate matched us together in order to find you, Briony,” Beaufort says.

Automatically, Dray snatches back the sleeves of his coat, but his wrists remain unmarked. He sighs pathetically.

“But how did you discover you were bond brothers?”