Just like last time where it all went wrong. Hopefully, it goes just as wrong this time. But wait, it can’t. The dragons won’t be in the forest. They’ve made sure of it to make sure that I don’t bond with them. Luckily, I have hours alone to think about this now. Lock leans in like he is going to kiss me, and I freeze in a panic. He pales and groans, grabbing his crotch. “I think I should see a healer. I’m not feeling too well.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I bite down on my lip, holding in the laugh as he hobbles to the door, grabbing his cloak and quickly leaving.The second the door shuts, I burst into laughter and lie back on the stiff sofa.
After I get myself under control, I go to the bathroom and double-check all my things, pausing when I see a small pair of eyes watching me from the shower. It’s a small creature, one I don’t know the name of. It has sea-blue fur, mostly knotted and a mess, and big ears, and its beady eyes stick out of the fur of its head. It almost looks like a squirrel, but its tail is long, wrapped twice around its body with a bushy end.
“Hello. I’ve never seen one of you before.” It pads forward nervously, and I don’t blame it. Most witches are horrid to small creatures and call them vermin. Another reason I’m not the biggest fan of my race. The small creature looks down at my hidden supplies. “Oh, I need these to stop the bad guys and my roommate, who is not my friend… He can’t know. Are you good at keeping secrets?” It surprises me by climbing onto my arm and scurrying under my sleeve. I can’t make out if it’s female or male. Its tail is cold as it wraps around my wrist several times, almost like a bracelet, and doesn’t move from its new spot. It rests its head on the broken watch.
I sigh. Little creatures have always liked me, but this is new. They never get this close, let alone allow me to touch them. “I’m about to go into the forest, little creature. I’m not sure you want to be with me.”
It squeaks in protest, and I sigh. “So, what’s your name?” It squeaks again, and I grin. “How about Minnie?” The creature nods its little head and hides back in my sleeve. Seems I have a new friend. I push Minnie to the back of my mind for now, knowing I’m going to need to research what kind of creature she is when I can get to the library. But for now, I spend the next few hours waiting for midnight and mixing more potions. The recipe I’ve crafted needs rarer ingredients than I have, but the academy has to have some here, and I just need to steal them somehow.
I hear the clock in the bedroom chime for midnight, and I stand, facing the door and bracing myself, while Minnie scurries off. Time to be the worst student at Bloodstone Academy. The door swings open with a slam, and the screaming begins immediately. I send a prayer to the goddess before I barrel out into the chaos, running past my old room, which now has a dead student lying broken by the doorframe, blood pooling from his mouth.
Sickness rises in my throat, but I run, knowing I can’t waste any time here. My hand grips Lock’s dagger tight as I run down the stairs. I search for Winifred and Parker in the huddle of dead people I pass, but they aren’t there, and I’m relieved. They must have gotten out.
A witch surprises me, and her spell lunges out of the air, harmlessly smacking into my defensive spell I cast hours ago. The witch, a second-year I recognize, opens her mouth in shock. Defensive spells like this one don’t exist. I grin and whisper a spell, freezing her in pure ice. She rolls down the remaining steps, ice cracking with each slam on the stairs. I step over her, not looking back to see if she dies. I am finding it hard to have sympathy for anyone in this castle right now.
I cast my thoughts out to the castle, making sure it knows I want to go to the forest, and the castle moves for me. I only need to walk down one corridor before I’m on the steps outside, on the lower level, and with nothing between the forest and me. I touch the walls. “Thank you.”
Every instinct tells me not to run into the forest, knowing my bonded are not out there and I have no intention of bonding with anyone else. Still…I don’t have a choice right now. I can feel eyes on me, thanks to my spell, and I run into the forest to get away from them.
The trees blur as I run, keeping close to the castle and following the tree line. The forest echoes with screams, roars andhisses. It’s almost alive, and magic hums in the air on this holy night. I pause when I sense I am being followed. I turn just in time to see Aster walk out from behind a tree, and he holds his hands up at his sides. “Juniper? I was sent to?—”
“I know.” Aster and I have never really gotten along, but he was a good bonded to Wini, and I don’t think he is a bad guy. His brown braids move in the breeze, the metal clips he wears clinking together. “You’re Aster, you shift into a wolf, and you want to bond with me because the Umbral Authority told you too. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening.”
Aster frowns in confusion, rubbing his chin. “Why not? I will protect you and?—”
“Yeah, I know you would and you would make a great bonded, but I’m not bonding with you.” I lift my chin.
Aster shakes his head in denial. “You don’t understand, Lock’s mother, Fasrah, made it very clear what would happen to both you and me if we don’t bond. They want this…even if it is forced.”
I shrug. There isn’t much worse they can do to me now. I’ve been beaten my entire life, to the point I hardly feel pain anymore, and I was conditioned to be their weapon against my own mother. They took everything from me, year after year, and messed with my mind. I’m done fearing them. “I will take the blame. What’s going to happen instead is you’re going to tell them that we got interrupted because we got attacked, and you lost me in the fight. I’ll tell them exactly the same thing. You won’t get blamed for it. They’ll be too distracted with what I’ve done.”
He gulps and stares at me like I’m an enemy. To the witches, I am. To him, no. “And what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to cause a problem for the witches in charge.” I smile at him. “Go find Winifred. She belongs to you; the goddess knows it and so do I.”
Aster looks so confused between arguing with me and telling me I’m insane. I whisper a new spell, going completely invisible to anyone that looks my way. I smile as Aster looks around, trying to sense me. I see his hands clenching and unclenching. His head snaps to the right, and he stares into the dark trees that groan in the wind. I didn’t hear it at first, then I hear her scream. Winifred’s scream. I almost turn to find her, but Aster is already running in her direction, shifting into a huge wolf. I know she will be okay now. Nothing comes between the bonded. The Umbral Authority can erase the marks on our palms and tell us that it’s not real, but they can’t change what’s in our soul or who we are destined for. He belongs to Wini, and I, I belong to four dragon assholes, who are not going to be happy to find me breaking them out.
I start walking back to the castle, hearing the screams throughout the forest, missing the key element of fire that I was once scared of.
Now I dance in the flames, and hope it burns the witches in charge to the ground.
Chapter 4
Ihaven’t thought this all through. I mean, I should have. I’ve had a whole day to think about it. But as I wind myself back through the castle, going lower and lower down the steps, I come to face a wall of witches guarding my dragons. Two of them have their bonded with them, a huge emerald snake and a white fox that curls around one of the witches’ legs. They don’t see me because of the invisibility spell, but they’re blocking the entrance to the dungeon behind them. There is only one door in, and it is covered in markings that I don’t know, and I doubt I would be able to easily open it.
I can’t use the door. Carefully, slowing my breathing so they don’t hear me, I go back up the steps and to the small window I passed. I don’t mind heights, but climbing out of a castle window and scaling the side of the walls isn’t going to be fun. I pop the window open and edge out, holding onto the grooves in the brick and plastering my body to the black stone as the wind harshly blows against my back. My cloak whips around me, and I unclip it, letting it fly away in the breeze before I begin to move.
It’s painfully slow, every small movement, until I get to roughly where I think they are, and I’m trusting the bond I still feel an echo of, even without the mark on my hand. I can do this.I’m a powerful witch. I know a hundred banned and new spells thanks to all the years I’ve had to learn them alone. I’ve always been alone. I’ve always had my own back, and the only people who ever stood at my side don’t remember me. They are here, so close to me, and I have to get to them before everything cannot be changed.
The words to the spell escape my lips in a hushed whisper, the wind easily hiding the wisp of magic that races around me. My power echoes in my chest like a phantom, and my hands shake as I keep going, testing a spell I’ve never used before. This is so risky, I could pass out and die when I hit the ground below. My heart is racing as the magic settles in my body and I slide through the solid wall like I’m made of nothing. It’s easy to walk through the wall cavity, past the bricks and concrete, and the castle groans around me. I fall through the wall and into the dungeon before the spell flickers out. My breath comes out in pants as I collapse to my knees, the drain of that spell hitting me hard, and everything blurs.
I don’t think I got the spell quite right…my magic is drained. Dammit. I took too much without my bonded, and I’m now powerless…while faced with the most powerful shifters left in the world. Four shifters who are mine, but they do not remember me.
I lift my head as my eyes focus, my wavy hair pooling around my shoulders as I look at the four men staring at me in shock. I was once scared of them, worried they would set me on fire and hate me for eternity. Now…
Black is hidden in the shadows, his long cloak covering his face, hands nestled together on his lap, but I can see his blue eyes in the darkness, like beacons drawing me in. Black Ashveil, the cursed dragon who cannot touch anyone but me. I turn to the others, to Mazikeen Lycidas. His hair is just as messy as always, the black locks falling into his glasses that hide hisvibrant, ocean-deep blue eyes. His shirt is unbuttoned, the fabric clenching as he leans back, showing off all of his toned body. Maz flashes me a charming smile, but it’s fake, the smile he gives everyone so they don’t look closer. They don’t see anything but the playboy, the funny shifter he wants them to see. Black can’t let people close, and Maz keeps them close to hide the real him.
