Page 9 of Taste of Thorns

He looks at me.

“She died too,” I whisper, my eyes filling with yet more tears.

“Yes,” he says. “There was a younger brother. He was killed in the chaos as well.”

“Oh,” I say, my voice sounding very, very far away. “But it was an accident, he didn’t mean to.”

“Yes, it was an accident. But that doesn’t matter to Thorne. He still feels responsible. He still blames himself. There are still times when the burden of what he did becomes too much for him. He’ll be okay, Briony. We just have to give him some time.”

I peer down at the half-drunk mug beside me. Suddenly, I have no appetite to finish it.

“He asked me to leave, but I’m not sure I can leave him alone tonight,” I say.

I think of those monsters – his shadows – how they tore and scraped at his flesh and now I understand what they were. They were demons of his own making. It was his own shadows attacking him, punishing him. And he didn’t fight back because he believed it’s what he deserved.

I wonder how often Thorne Cadieux tortures himself unseen, inside himself. I know what that is like.

“No,” Beaufort says, “he needs us tonight. We won’t leave him alone.”

We walk back towards the staircase. Halfway up the stairs, something occurs to me.

“What happened to him afterwards?”

Beaufort pauses. “It took them two days to find him. He’d run away. Out past the realm boundaries.”

“Two days?!” I gasp. “He survived out there for two days?”

Beaufort smiles weakly. “I told you. He’s powerful. That’s why they didn’t lock him away or banish him completely for what he did.”

“What he did?!” I say outraged. “It was an accident.”

“Yes, but not everyone saw it that way. And some argued he was too dangerous to have around. But then the Empress worked out about the gloves. It helps him to control his powers. And then I guess they realized he was too powerful to lose. Too,” he cringes, “beneficial.”

A sick sensation settles in my stomach. I thought I’d had it bad. That fate had been cruel to me. Now I understand what Thorne told me. Fate has already crossed him. No wonder he doesn’t trust it.

“What did his family think of that?”

“Family? Briony, Thorne has no family. They were all killed in that accident. We’re all he has.”

Chapter Three

Fox

As soon as I return to my room, I know there’s someone in there. The magic I use to secure my door shut has been tampered with and there’s a disturbance in the air.

I open the door cautiously. There’s no one in the classroom and I unfasten my cloak and fling it over my desk, then I march through to my quarters.

That’s where I find her, perched on my bed, leaning back on her hands, legs crossed, very little fucking clothing, what there is of it is black and lacy.

“Get out!” I growl.

“That’s not a very polite way to welcome a guest, Fox. Are you falling back into your old Slate manners?”

“I said get out,” I say, remaining by the doorway. Her presence is like poison hanging in the air. Something I do not wish to inhale, something I want to stay far far away from. “In fact, I never invited you in here in the first place. You’re not welcome.”

She curls her tongue behind her teeth, her fangs extended, sharp and dangerous, and her dark-red painted lips stretch into a smile.

“Yes, but you know the rules have never applied to me.”