“Really?” I say unconvinced. “Couldn’t anyone blast a crow right out of the sky?”
Dray laughs like I’ve said something really funny. When he sees I’m deadly serious, he says, “Crows are clever magical creatures. You’d have a hard time catching or killing one. Plus it’s fucking dangerous. Those things are vicious!”
“I knew it!” I say.
“I don’t know how to send a message by crow,” Clare says plainly.
“You never read it in one of your books, smarty pants?” Dray teases.
Clare adjusts her glasses and shakes her head.
Dray winks at her and wriggles his fingers, shadows dancing from his fingertips. Then we all jump out of our skins because there’s a huge crow tapping its beak against the glass of the window.
“You need to send us a message, you just call this crow,” Dray tells Clare. The crow tilts its head to one side and caws. “You tie a note to its leg and it will find us.”
Clare looks like she’d rather do anything else but she nods in agreement, regardless. “I find them really creepy.”
“There’s no other way,” Dray says, “now, if that’s sorted, can we please get the fuck out of here?”
“Yes,” I say, “let’s go.”
But before I’ve taken one step towards the door, Clare has enveloped me in a hug.
“Be careful, Briony,” she tells me.
“You too,” I say, because I’m as worried about her as she is worried about me. I don’t know what’s going to happen at the academy now the Madame has fled. Chancellor Sterling gives me the creeps. I suspect he isn’t about to introduce duvet days and mandatory mindfulness. In fact, I suspect he’ll introduce the very opposite.
Clare squeezes me tight, then lets me go and I follow Dray along the pathways out to the square where Beaufort’s vehicle is parked.
My fated mate eyes my best friend walking alongside me with his bag slung over his shoulder and says, “It’s going to be a squash in the back of the vehicle with three.”
“It’s fine,” Dray tells him. “Little Kitten can sit on my lap.”
“Our thrall is going to sit in the front with me,” Beaufort says.
“Briony,” I tell them both, “is choosing to sit in the back with Thorne and Fly. You two can sit in the front together.”
“Too dangerous,” Thorne says, obviously worried about the proximity this will force the two of us into.
“It’ll be just fine.” I tip my head back and whistle. The distance out to the caves is vast. I’m not sure if Blaze is going to hear me. However, in a matter of minutes, he’s swooping over our heads calling down to me. I signal for him to follow the vehicle, hoping he understands, and then I climb inside, taking the middle seat in the back. Fly slides in right after me, gaze flicking all around the luxurious interior of the vehicle, running his fingers up and down the dark leather seats. The others don’t follow suit immediately. We can see them arguing outside the vehicle although the glass seems to block out their voices. Eventually, it’s Dray who hops into the seat next to me, while Thorne takes the front one.
“Sorry, Kitten,” the shifter says, “not going to happen today.”
“This is silly. Thorne can sit next to me. Nothing is going to happen.”
Thorne turns in his seat and glares at me.
“Do you want to be in one piece so you can save Tudor, or not?”
Which shuts me up. He has a point.
“Buckle up,” Beaufort says, and then he’s jamming his foot down on the accelerator and shooting us forward along the pathways. It’s taken us longer to get ready than I realized because the students are all making their way to the canteen for lunch, some nursing injuries from the day before. They all scatter as Beaufort leans on the horn, not bothering to slow his pace.
“You’re such an obnoxious driver,” I mutter.
“I’m trying to get us there as quickly as I can,” he says, swerving around a corner and sending me and Fly crushing up against Dray.
“Hey there, Kitten,” he says, wrapping an arm around me.
