Page 91 of Taste of Thorns

Briony

“I have your proof,” I tell Fox, stepping into his classroom as the last student leaves at the end of the next day.

Fox stares at me, then busies himself collecting discarded books from the benches and sliding them back into the bookcase at the back of the room.

“We’ve talked about this.”

“We did. You said I needed proof to see the Madame brought to justice. And now I have it.”

“Briony–” he says, spinning around in frustration.

“Jeez, aren’t you even going to hear me out?”

The professor lifts his chin and folds his arms over his chest.

“You’re right. Go ahead, Miss Storm.”

I hold up a finger. “Firstly, there’s the coincidence that the talented students the Madame has mentored have all ended up dead.”

“Not all of them,” he says darkly.

“Good as,” I snipe back. “Secondly, she attacked me in the maze and if it hadn’t been for …” Fox tilts his head to one side as I trail off.

“If it hadn’t been for what?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head. “Three, there just happen to be objects that belonged to the people that have died hidden in her office. Trinkets,” I stress.

“And how do you know this?”

“I found them there when I broke into her office last night.”

“You what?!” he roars. “Are you out of your mind?!”

“No, but I do want to find out what the hell has been going on in this academy.”

Fox marches towards me and grabs my upper arm. His grip is cold and tight. “I told you it was dangerous. I told you to stay away from her.”

I attempt to pull my arm away from him but he’s far stronger than I am. “I needed to know and you weren’t going to help me.”

“Briony, do you even care what happens to you? Do you know what she’d have done to you if she’d found you in her office?”

“I can protect myself now, Fox. I’m not scared of her. You said yourself, I’m a force to be reckoned with.”

“You’re a fool, that’s what you are.” He snatches his hand away from me like I just burned him. “Your powers are still weak and feeble. They are nothing in comparison to the Madame’s.”

“I saved Thorne from those monsters!”

“And since then …” I glare at him. My skills are improving slowly but he’s right. I’ve not been able to repeat what I did in that trial. He twists away from me and then snaps back around. “She’ll know you were in there. Your scent will be all over her room.”

“I’m not scared of her!” I snap.

“Really?” he growls, lifting his hand and sending a torrent of cold shadows racing my way. Before I understand what’shappening, they’re coiling around my body, locking my arms to my body and squeezing me tight. “Come on then, Miss Storm. You think you can take on the Madame, you show me what you got?”

His shadows are cold against my skin, bitingly so, not pleasant and soothing like they usually are, and his flaming eyes hiss with anger.

But I’m just as angry with him as he is with me, just as frustrated. He said he’d help me, yet all he seems to do is hold me back. Even our lessons aren’t moving as quickly as I’d like.

I search for my magic inside me and, screaming with all the rage and vexation I feel, I blast my light right through his shadows.