Page 49 of Taste of Thorns (The Firestone Academy #3)

Chapter Forty-Five

B eaufort

The erratic, chaotic movements Briony makes through the water cannot be described as swimming.

They also don’t seem to propel her in any particular direction.

In fact, all she does seem to do is bob up and down and eventually run out of puff, sinking her feet back down to the lake’s bottom and rubbing water out of her eyes.

“What do you think?” she asks expectantly.

Dray ducks under the water and Thorne looks off moodily into the distance, both obviously leaving me to deliver the bad news.

“It’s, erm,” I drag my fingers through my wet hair, searching for the words that are going to cause the least damage, “a great start.”

“Really?” she says, grinning, “I didn’t think I was very good.”

Crap!

“There are things we can improve.”

I wade closer to her. Her blond hair is slick to her head and hangs down her back and droplets of water race over her face.

Her green eyes sparkle in the weak sunlight.

The thin material of her bathing suit clings to her body, her breasts clearly outlined, her nipples hard little pebbles.

She looks breathtaking and for a moment I have to remind myself why exactly I am here.

“Like?”

I take a grip of her waist and when she looks up at me with those same green eyes, I have to tame the desire to kiss her.

“Fuck, Briony,” I mutter.

“What?” she says. It kills me how clueless she is, how completely oblivious to her own attractiveness.

“Nothing.” I shake my head and with it all the dirty thoughts in my mind.

“Right, we’ll start with the kicking. You got to think of it as your engine house.

” I take her hands in mine, have her lean into the water and get to practice kicking as hard as she can.

The other two call out instructions, tips and adjustments, and soon we have her kicking in a fashion that looks more like swimming.

Getting her top half working proves a lot harder, even with me or Dray hanging onto her waist and keeping her afloat. The coordination isn’t easy and we have to go over it several times until something clicks and she finally manages it.

Then comes the difficult bit – combining the kicking with the arms.

I make Dray pace several yards away from us. The lake bottom falls away and he’s forced to tread water to stay in place.

“If you’re going to ask me to swim to him, then, no, no way. It’s too deep. I won’t be able to touch the bottom.”

“Briony, you’re going to have to swim right across the lake during the trial.”

“Urgh,” she groans, peering down into the water. A shoal of silver fish glide in the space between us and Dray. “I don’t want to,” she says and not in her usual stubborn, brattish way; in a voice that betrays her genuine fear.

How many times has this girl been forced to do something she doesn’t want to do? It makes my stomach turn. When she is ours, properly ours, when we’re free of the academy, of its rules and obligations, I’m going to ensure she’s never forced to do something she doesn’t want to ever again.

Damn, I wish I had that power now.

I pull her into my arms, stroking the wet hair away from her face.

“I know you don’t want to, sweetheart, but you can do it. I know you can.”

She peers over at Dray, bites her lip and then nods, that familiar determination returning to her face.

This time her movements through the water are a lot closer to swimming. In fact, she moves pretty niftily. There are a few times where she mistimes the breathing and splutters, but Fox is teaching her a spell so that won’t be a problem on the day.

When she reaches Dray, he takes her hands in his, and pulls her close towards him, doing the work to keep both of them afloat.

“I did it,” she says, between gasps for air.

“Told you,” I say.

“Now back to him,” Dray tells her, swinging her around and pushing her through the water. She swims fairly confidently towards me and I feel more relaxed than I did an hour ago. She can do this. I believe in her.

When she reaches my arms, her teeth are chattering together though.

“You’re cold,” I say.

“I guess the spell is wearing off.”

None of the rest of us are cold, but she’s smaller than us and still learning about her magic. She’s going to need to practice that spell too.

I help her out of the water, drying her with a combination of my magic and the big fluffy towel I brought along for the job, then help her out of her swimsuit, into her dry clothes and tug my hat back down onto the crown of her head.

Then Thorne is there with a hot drink and more food.

“Coffee?” she asks.

“Hot chocolate this time,” he says.

“Jeez, you’re spoiling me,” she says.

“You earned it.” He settles down on the ground a foot away from her and places the flask in the space between them.

Dray comes crashing out of the water.

“Man, I am going to crush you dudes in the next trial.”

I place my hands on my hips. “You are?”

“Yeah, I swim about ten times faster than the two of you.”

“I didn’t know wolves could swim,” Briony says, taking a sip of the hot chocolate and then licking her lips.

“This one can,” he says, pointing his thumb at the center of his chest.

“You’re not going to win,” I tell him simply.

He chuckles. “I am.”

“You can’t swim as fast as me.”

“Wanna bet?”

“No,” I say. Dray grins. “But I'll prove it to you.” I fire shadows from my hand out across the lake, creating a marker right in the center. “I’ll race you there and back. Just swimming. No magic.”

“Don’t you need to conserve some energy for the hike back to the academy?” Briony asks.

I snort, striding right back into the water.

“Briony,” I tell her. “You call the start.”

“This is stupid,” she mutters.

“No, it’s not,” Dray says, lifting his arms above his head and stretching.

“Okay, then.” I can practically hear her eyes rolling in their sockets. But I’m too focused on the task now at hand to care. “Ready … steady … go!”

I dive under the water, kicking my legs with all the force I can muster, propelling myself forwards and up to the surface. When I break through, I gasp for air and pound my arms. Dray is right beside me, our speed, at the moment anyway, evenly matched.

I’m surprised how quickly and brutally the lake’s bottom falls away. Soon I can’t see it at all, just dark waters below us and the odd moving shadow.

The water also becomes more turbulent, dragging at our bodies from the east to begin with and then to the north. It’s so choppy, we’re driven up and over waves that seem to grow in force and size.

By the time we reach my marker in the center of the lake, I understand just how difficult this trial is going to be. Not for me and my bond brothers, but for her, our mate, and all her friends. Especially with the added burden of obstacles.

As we hit the marker and twist back in the water, we realize together that one of those obstacles has already materialized, because out of nowhere, the waters in front of us no longer tug this way or that, or fall and crest in waves, they spin in one massive whirlpool, dragging the water around and around in circles.

“Shit,” I mutter, pulling my body away as best I can.

“Where the hell did that come from?” Dray barks, fighting the water in the same way I am being forced to.

“We can’t swim past that!” I say. We may be good, strong swimmers, but we’re not that strong.

“The other shore,” Dray says, spinning in the water. But another whirlpool has appeared that way too, blocking our route to the shoreline. “Do we wait it out?”

But who knows how long that would take. Hours, days, who the fuck knows? We’d both have drowned before then.

“This was a fucking stupid idea!” I tell him.

“Yeah, and it was yours,” he snaps back. “We’re just going to have to swim through it.”

Before I can stop him, he’s off, swimming full pelt towards the spiraling waters.

“Dray!!” I yell. “Dray!!”

But he doesn’t respond, and I have no choice but to follow the maniac.

On the distant shore, both Briony and Thorne are up on their feet by the water’s edge. I can’t make out their faces though, or the words they’re probably yelling at us.

I keep swimming, following in Dray’s wake, both of us trying to skirt the edge of the whirlpool. It’s hopeless, we’re dragged that way anyway, no matter how hard we kick or slam our arms into the water.

“Beau,” Dray calls, “can we use our fucking magic now?”

I grunt and then we’re both shooting our shadows through the water in unison. Together, they wrangle the water, twisting the tides back on themselves, calming the waters until it’s as still as a baby’s bath in front of us.

Like Thorne said, we’re stronger together, our magic complementing and enhancing one another’s.

“See you at the shore, sucker,” Dray shouts and then he’s swimming again, already a couple of seconds ahead of me.

“Motherfucker,” I yell as I start swimming myself.

I give it my best shot but the fucker had a head start on me and as a consequence, hits the shore just a millisecond or two before me.

He whoops, raises his fists above his head and then collapses down onto the shore. I follow after him, both of us panting and gasping for breath.

“What the hell happened?” Briony says, all wrapped up in her oversized coat and hat. She peers down at us like we’re a pair of misbehaving children.

“There was a whirlpool,” Dray tells her.

“I saw!! You could’ve drowned.”

Dray grabs her hand and drags her down towards him.

“Nah, we had it under control.”

“You’re all wet!” she squeals, attempting, half-heartedly, to pull away as he litters her throat with kisses.

Eventually, he lets her go, and she sits out on the shore alongside us as we dry our bodies.

“Who do you think is better looking?” Dray asks Briony once he’s whipped off his trunks and is standing there butt naked as usual. “Me or Beaufort or Thorne?”

“Jeez,” I say, spinning my towel until it’s a tight coil and whipping it towards him. “Enough with the competition.”

He jumps out of my path. “I can’t help it. It’s part of my wolfy nature.” He lifts his arm and flexes his biceps. “What’s your answer, Kitten?”

“You can’t ask me that question,” she says. “If we’re doing this thing between us, then I’m not going to have favorites. It isn’t fair.”

“So you do have a favorite.” Dray winks at her.

“It’s me, isn’t it? I mean,” he points towards Thorne, “he’s a grumpy grouch most of the time and his conversational skills are trash.

” Thorne scowls at our bond brother. Dray points at me next.

“And he has the ability to put his foot in his mouth every time he speaks.”

“Whereas you …” I say.

“Handsome, outgoing, very talented in bed,” Dray says and Briony laughs. “You don’t think I’m talented in bed, Kitten, because the other night when I stuck my finger in your–”

“You’re very talented in bed,” she says. I go to argue but she beats me to it. “But so is Beaufort. And Thorne–”

Dray and I snap our heads around to stare at our bond brother.

“I thought that wasn’t possible,” I say. Thorne has gone out of his way to avoid touching others ever since I’ve known him. It’s always been how things are – our bond brother moves several steps away from everyone else.

Have things changed?

“It isn’t,” he says stoically.

“But we’re making things work,” Briony says, smiling at him, “and we’re having a good time.”

“Are you?” I ask him.

I can’t imagine not being able to touch this girl. It’s all I want to do. It’s all I can manage not to touch her every minute of every day.

“Yes,” he says, holding Briony’s gaze in his own dark one. “Very much so.”

“Shit,” Dray says. “This is fucking epic! I’m so happy for you, man.” He smiles with genuine joy at Thorne and this, despite all his fucking craziness, is why I love my bond brother.

Thorne, however, glares right at Dray and tells him, “Put some clothes on.”

On the hike back to the academy, we go over everything we’ve taught Briony today as well as the spells she needs to keep practicing with Tudor.

“We’ll need to talk to the professor about any spells he has to counteract whirlpools,” I say.

“Why?” Briony asks.

“Didn’t you see Dray and I nearly drown out there?”

“I thought you had it in hand?” She raises an eyebrow.

“We did, but … you’re going to need to learn how to control those things. They’re a menace.”

“Or she could just swim around them,” Thorne says. Briony nods and Dray shakes his head.

“They’re fucking strong. We tried that, didn’t we, Beau?”

“Yes, you can’t swim around them.”

“You can,” Briony says. “The whirlpools appeared in distinct places. All you have to do is follow the path around them.” She adjusts my hat. “I think it’s going to be okay. I think I can do this trial.”