Page 59 of Taste of Thorns (The Firestone Academy #3)

Chapter Fifty-Five

B eaufort

I lift our mate up into my arms. Her face is pale, but her body warm, her breath strong.

I clasp her fragile body tight to my chest and peer out across the cave.

The Madame is on her knees, Thorne’s shadows wrapped around her body, binding her arms tightly to her sides.

Dray’s wolf stands guard alongside, snapping its jaws towards her throat. The dragon crouches behind me.

I turn to the Empress at my side.

“There,” I say, sternly. “There is your proof. The Madame has been killing and feeding on talented students from the common Quarters. Has been for years.”

The Empress, a look of disgust on her face, considers the injured girl in my arms and then the Madame before us.

“We would not have believed it, if we had not seen it with our very own eyes.” She shakes her head.

“Veronica. You have been a trusted servant all these years and yet … Killing students. Young people entrusted to us by their parents. The future custodians of this realm. We can’t imagine a worse betrayal. ”

The Madame doesn’t say a word. I’d always imagined she’d try to justify her actions. Or at least attempt to lie her way out of her predicament, twisting the evidence, claiming we’d got the story all wrong. Instead, she stays still and silent, simply scowling across at us.

“What will you do with her?” I ask.

“She’ll be taken to Onyx to stand trial. Where we’re sure she will be found guilty and sentenced to banishment, and ultimately death.”

“You’re sure?” my usually quiet, bond brother says, obviously not satisfied with that response. “Aren’t vampires immortal? And will they definitely find her guilty, anyway?”

“Even a vampire cannot survive the savage attack of a hoard of demons,” the Empress says. “And the evidence speaks for itself.” She lifts a hand in Briony’s direction.

“You saw her strike out at Briony,” I add. “This wasn’t the first time. She attacked her in the maze trial as well. She was lucky to survive.”

“Exactly. We are certain she will be found guilty.” The Madame’s eyes ignite but still she says nothing. “And she will face the full force of the law.”

The white wolf growls and snaps his jaws some more as if offering to bypass all that nuisance and put an end to the Madame right now.

But justice is what Briony seeks. This is what she wanted. I nod, satisfied.

“And the girl?” I ask.

“Your thrall?”

I keep my face entirely neutral. I don’t know what it is, but something propels me to keep the fact that Briony is our mate secret, for now at least. “That magic was not shadow weaving,” the Empress says.

“She’s a lumomancer. And she has a connection to the dragon. He’s let her ride him.”

The Empress’ brows rise up her forehead. She turns to look at the dragon, her gaze swimming hungrily over him.

“This is a rare find. One the realm sorely needs. Our numbers are dwindling. Our powers weakening. And all the while the demons grow in strength and number. Perhaps this will be the start of something new. A turning point for us all.”

I smile down at Briony, pride swelling my chest. She is brilliant. I knew it right from the start.

“I think you are right.”

As if she hears me, Briony’s eyelids flutter. With affection, I watch them open, but then she’s staring up at me in alarm.

“Beaufort!” she cries out, struggling in my arms. Her head snaps towards the Madame.

The deputy headmistress is staggering to her feet, yanking against Thorne’s shadows as he struggles to contain her. Dray’s wolf growls and barks.

“It is the beginning of nothing at all,” she cries.

Then a rip in the very air appears, a gaping hole revealing something desolate and bleak beyond. The air around us whips and then tugs. The Madame screams and then she’s sliding towards the hole as Thorne attempts to drag her away.

It’s so quick, the rest of us have no time to react. Before we know it, the Madame is leaping through the hole, Thorne now yanked that way too.

“Thorne!” I cry out, as Dray’s wolf leaps forward, gripping Thorne’s pant leg in his jaws and pulling him backward.

The hole sucks at them both as it begins to seal.

“Thorne!” I yell a second time but before he’s pulled through the hole with Bardin, he whips his shadows away just in time.

And then, just like that, the gaping hole in the air closes. The air around us stills once more.

The Madame is gone.