“If it were the other way ‘round,” Thorne says quietly, “if Briony were out there in the demon realm, would anything or anyone be able to stop you from going after her?”
“I wouldn’t be stupid enough to fuck off like that without a freaking plan.” Thorne stares at me. “Fuck off,” I snap because we both know I’m lying. Nothing would stop me, and I wouldn’t even hesitate. I’d be gone in a flash. We would all do the same.
And so I make up my mind. I’m going after her. I’m not letting her face whatever is out there alone. I will protect her. I will keep her safe.
Without another word, I transform, my body stretching, snapping and bending in a blink of an eye, and then my white wolf falling to his four great paws.
My gaze snaps up to the sky and then I’m racing away, following the dragon along the ground, trying to keep pace with him.
“Dray!!” I hear them call after me, but I’m thundering across the landscape as fast as my four legs will carry me, leaping over gorse bushes, smashing through thick heather, hurtling over the rough ground.
The dragon flies high in the sky, nothing more than a distant insect, and I’m resigned to squint up as best I can, my powers of scent useless when he’s so far away.
I see fire stream from his jaws, lighting up the heavy clouds. I see his tail swing like a whip behind him, and I watch him fall and lift in the sky.
Our mate is nothing but a doll, clinging to his back, so fragile, so small.
Mine.
My wolf feels it even more strongly, even more innately than I do. If he’d caught a hint of her scent that very first day at the academy train station, he’d have hunted her down and claimed her as ours then and there. We wouldn’t have needed Beaufort and his visions to tell us she was ours.
He’s frantic now and determined. He will rip the dragon to shreds for stealing her away from us. He will destroy every demon that even looks her way.
I race onward, the dragon nothing but glinting metal in the dark and vast ocean of the sky.
I won’t lose her. My wolf will swim across rivers, climb over mountains, and smash through forests to find her.
The hard earth, the rough stones, the sharp vegetation, cut and scrape at the soles of my paws. Soon they’re damp with blood, a trail of crimson paw-prints marking our path. My legs scream with agony, my muscles cramp, my joints ache.
Still, my wolf continues. Chasing after our mate, feeling that pull of our magic sitting in her chest. He won’t ever stop. She’s ours, and we will run to the ends of the universe just to keep her close.
Chapter Three
Fox
I regain consciousness and immediately pain hits me square between the eyes, vicious and violent. I groan, attempting to roll over, but I can’t. My body is restrained, and when I open my eyes, I find I can see nothing either.
A hood has been forced down over my head, my hands tied behind my back and my ankles bound together.
The ground I’m laid out on is cold and hard. No light penetrates through the cloth, so I sniff at the air instead, the action causing more pain to stab through my skull and down my spine. It’s dry and full of dust. The taste on my tongue is of something bitter and evil.
I close my eyes and try to drive the pain away, force it from my body.
I need to focus, to think, to remember.
Who am I?
Fox. Fox Tudor.
I was once from Slate, but now I am a creature of the night, with the ability to shadow weave.
Yes, shadow weave.
I feel for the magic. It’s weak and difficult to find, but it’s there.
I scrunch up my eyes, trying to think past the pain, to remember more.
There’s a girl. A girl with light dancing in her hands. A girl who smells of life and brightness. Who smells like heaven.
