“Fox is right, Beaufort,” Briony insists. “She’s got inside your head. She’s manipulating you. Why would we rise up against the Empress? Why would we risk everything for that? She’s just trying to save her own skin. Come on, I’ve had enough of this. We have Fox. We have what we came for. I don’t want to spend another second longer in this place.”
And I see in that moment that it’s hopeless. I won’t be able to persuade them. I won’t be able to make them believe me. I could tell them everything Bardin has just told me and they’d think it was lies.
I almost laugh. Briony has been the most skeptical of us all this time, and yet I know if I present the truth right before her eyes, she won’t want to see it. Because it’s so incredible, so unbelievable. She’ll insist Bardin is spinning her usual elaborate web of lies. She’ll argue that the Madame has gotten inside my head and planted this seed of doubt.
And as for my bond brothers, they won’t want to see it – because when we rip back the curtain and we see the truth for what it is, that means our whole world will fall apart. And even if the world has been miserable and cold and barren to even them at times, it’s familiar. In some ways it’s safe. Do we have the strength to pull it all apart?
I slide down from the dragon, spinning the sword around in my hand and it swishes through the air in a satisfying manner. I walk to stand between my two bond brothers, Dray and Thorne.
“Join me,” she calls to the three of us. “We could be stronger, stronger than them all. We could change the world. We could rule it ourselves.”
“She’s fucking insane,” Dray mutters under his breath.
But I’m not so sure she is. And if she is right, what the hell am I going to do about it? Ever since I met that girl, since I laid eyes on her at the train station all those many weeks ago, all I havewanted to do is protect her, to keep her safe, to hold her in my arms and ensure nothing ever hurts her again.
And now, if Bardin is telling me the truth, the thing I must protect her from the most is my own damn mother – the most powerful shadow weaver in the realm. Would we be better joining with Bardin? She’s strong herself. So is Briony. So is Fox. Together, maybe the six of us could–
No. What the hell am I even thinking? It’s this place – this evil darkness spinning in the air, those shadows twisting and turning, sucking and spitting out demons with every second that passes. It’s corrupting my mind.
I don’t want thrones, I don’t want powers; all I want is Briony.
“Never,” I call above the roaring noise in this desolate place. “You are evil, a murderer. You tried to kill Briony. We will never join you.”
“Beaufort Lincoln,” she says, “with or without me, you return to the realm, you are a dead man.”
Dray scoffs, but Thorne stares at her, his brows furrowing in concentration.
“Now,” I whisper to the two of them. And together we throw our shadows across the distance, hurtling them towards the Madame. We mean to catch her.
But the woman sails up into the air, her tattered cloak billowing behind her. She soars high into the sky, racing away towards the tornado. And before we understand what is happening, she’s sucked into its mist and all that’s left is her hollow cackle.
“What the fuck?” Dray says. “She can fly? Did we know she could fly?”
I glance up to the professor, still mounted on the back of the dragon, and he shakes his head.
“Do we go after her?” Thorne says, eyeing the shadows spinning in the distance. “Do we try to destroy whatever that is?
“No,” I say. “Not this time. It’s too dangerous.”
But my bond brother doesn’t listen, he whips off his gloves and sends his powerful magic roaring towards the tornado. As it soars closer, his magic becomes caught by the force of the abomination and Thorne is dragged across the ground; attempting to dig his heels in to the ground, he tries to wrestle his shadows back to him.
Briony screams. There’s a flash of light and then Thorne’s shadows are racing back towards him as he stands there panting.
“No more,” I say. “It’s time to go home.”
I just hope home isn’t as dangerous as I suspect.
Chapter Forty-Four
Fox
Briony taps me on the shoulder.
“Are you ready to go?” she asks me. She’s spent the last few minutes healing the dragon with her light magic and seeing to Beaufort’s injuries as well. Mine are unfixable, although I barely feel them right now – her blood still sings in my veins.
I drag my eyes from the dark vortex spinning with sinister shadows – the vortex that only moments ago sucked Veronica into its mists.
I don’t understand what it is.
