“Where’d you get the watch from?” Vale asks, getting up from the bed. His eyes are fixed on the old watch.
Maz looks between the two of us. I don’t think he’s seen us speak since the vault. “I know it’s a bit strange, but small creatures gave it to me. I kept running late for my lessons, so they just turned up with this solution. Although the glass is broken, and it’s pretty hard to tell time on it, it’s a gift, so it doesn’t matter what it looks like, only that it was given to me.”
Vale shakes his head with a frown. “Only you would be given such a gift from the small creatures.”
He pulls out a pocket watch, one that’s familiar, but I’m not sure where I’ve seen it. “Put the glass in that together with this pocket watch, and you have one of the goddess’s items.”
I hand him the old watch. “How do you know that?”
“I think there are other people in this castle who are very interested in seeing the leadership crumble. I was given it by the headmaster,” Vale explains, holding the two parts together. “This could be a secret weapon for us if I can fix it.”
“And you forgot to tell us about your meeting with the headmaster?” Kane asks, voice sharp.
“Wasn’t important until now.” Vale doesn’t apologize, and I resist the urge to call him a dickhead. “I’ll work on it, and I’ll let you know. I’m going to take it down to the science rooms, takeit apart slowly under the microscopes and make sure I’m not damaging anything.”
Maz asks the important question. “Did he say what that watch could do? The tarot cards take memories, and I believe they bend reality.”
“Apparently, it can jump between worlds,” Vale answers.
“Worlds? That’s just a theory, right? There’s only our world,” I blurt out.
“That’s all I was told. Could be a lie for all I know.” His tone is back to the coldness that has been there since the vault.
Vale walks out without another word, and Maz climbs to his feet, sharing a look with Kane, and Kane nods at him. Maz comes to me, leaning down and kissing me softly. “See you later, beautiful. I’m going to supervise Vale.”
Black leans over and kisses my cheek. “I’m getting near the bottom of the leaderboard with all our extra plans and the lessons I’ve missed. I’m going to go and do extra lessons in training. Make sure everything’s looking good for us.” I did the same yesterday, and I’m nowhere near the top right now. There was a time when that would have made me go crazy and be desperate to fix it. Now I know it’s all a lie to keep us here and controlled.
“Okay. Love you,” I whisper.
“Love you, too.” He softly trails his hand over my cheek before leaving with Maz.
I stand up, stretching my arms above my head. I walk over to Kane, who is silent and still watching the forest with an unreadable expression. “I don’t have long before Lock’s lesson finishes. He’s going to start wondering where I am and search.”
“How do you not murder him in his sleep every night you’re there?” Kane’s question is serious. “I know we have planned all this and you need me to trust you, which I do, but every instinct in me is telling me to shift, grab you and fly the fuck away fromhere. I know it’s madness, I know I wouldn’t be able to live with knowing all the shifters here are doomed, but I need you safe.”
I sit opposite him on the window seat, leaning back and pulling my legs up so my feet rest next to where his are. “It’s a real task in self-control. Kane, I wanted to talk to you about something, and now that we’re alone…well, what happened to my foster parents? Do you think they were good people? They must have known that I was the daughter of the enchantress, but maybe they didn’t know? Were they good people?” I pause. “You told me you were hexed not to be able to tell me the truth of it all, but I was reading a book on shifters and mate bonds. It states that no hex can force lies or distrust between a mated pair. I’m wondering if you can tell me, only me, where no one else can hear?”
“Fuck, you’re smart, Juni.” He pauses. “You grew up with us four, but Vale was here at the Bloodstone Forest far more than the others. They tell shifters they lose their powers if they leave Bloodstone, but that’s not entirely true for our young. Everyone knows it, but what can they do? He was taken to us for visits, and even then, you two would argue. Maz and Black followed you like a puppy, and I was your best friend.”
My heart races. “Tell me everything, Kane. Please.”
“Some of this you might know, but the Daygan clan was, in my opinion, some of the best witches there were. There weren’t many of them. Their town was quite small, a series of houses and quite a large mansion that overlooked the forest. The forest was completely enclosed by tall walls because it used to be a quarry, and my parents were hidden there. Any shifter was hidden and protected by the Daygan clan. I don’t know what your parents knew about any of your birth, but I do know that they were planning to rebel. I used to follow my parents to meetings where people came from all different clans and talked about building a rebellion, changing things.”
“Is that how they died?” I lean back. I wish I could remember them.
“We killed them, but not on purpose. Between the two of us, no one was innocent or guilty. It was a mess, but it was definitely our fault. But what you did, I never understood it.” His voice cracks. I feel guilty, and I don’t even know what I did.
My voice comes out as a plea. “Tell me. I need to know.”
“I think you need to understand some things first. Maz and Black are not the only cursed dragons that you’re bonded to. So am I. I kill anybody that’s blood-related to me.” He says it so casually, like it isn’t life-changing news.
“What?” I shake my head in disbelief.
“I can never have kids. I can never have any relatives that are blood-related to me because of it. I hexed myself never to be able to impregnate, knowing it’s the only safety net for me. My mom told me about the curse when I was old enough to understand it. She said that a woman came and cursed me, the enchantress did, when I was a tiny baby. That one bit of blood, just a drop of it, is death for them. I killed my grandmother when I cut my finger at two years old. My blood would visibly attack and kill anything like it.”
“What does that have to do with me, then? How did that?—”
“Well, of course growing up, we were very careful never to get injured. I told you about the curse. You were my best friend, and I told you everything, including my worst fear of hurting my parents. That night, the night that changed everything, we were playing around. I don’t know if you remember it, but we were climbing a tree together. You were so mad at me because I got to the top first, and we were arguing like cats and dogs. It was ridiculous.” He smiles sadly. “But we were kids, and you pushed me. I slipped. I didn’t shift on the way down. I should have, but I didn’t. I smacked onto the ground. I don’t remember much, but I was unconscious, and you dragged me through the forest to myhome. I believe you forgot about the curse, the blood pouring out of my head, and you took me straight to my parents. My blood poured out of the cut on my head and literally strangled them both in front of me, in front of you. You were horrified. You screamed and ran away, back to your parents, to the big mansion. It took me years to consider that you didn’t do it on purpose.”
