I nodded at Delaney’s words, and she gave me a rueful smile.
“I mean, he is quite protective of you, when it comes to them,” she cooed thoughtfully.“After that whole leeching your lust thing last year.”
I cast her a wary look, and she sighed.“I’m just saying, you and I both know that people change.After all that’s happened, all we’ve been through...”
She stopped, turning to me.
“I just want us all to get along, you know?”
I did know, and her words settled on my heart heavier than they should have.
I should have told Bane about their arrivals.I knew that.I had meant to, but...
I’d gotten distracted, I will admit.
Perhaps I was worried he’d try to dismiss them, knowing our history.But Delaney was right.What was in the past was in the past.Bane and Delaney weren’t the only ones who came to my aid all those months ago when I’d been taken.
Wanda and Norman had been there, too.
Because we’re all connected.
Those were the words Headmistress Blackthorn had uttered to me during my debriefing after I’d returned.
She’d told me my signature had touched them and therefore we wouldallbe forever bound.
For the light of a faerie is bright and life sustaining in itself, is it not?
Perhaps our alliances were just as fated as our hearts.
“And we will,” I said, taking her hands in mine as we came to the courtyard.I took one look around the landscape, my gaze settling on my mother—the Queen—and a familiar face.
Headmistress Blackthorn.
My heartbeat quickened and I got the feeling something was amiss.But I was not sure just how much I was privy to, yet.
For all I knew they could have been talking about my impending second year and not something ominous.
Right?
CHAPTER2
Bane
My tattoos burnedbeneath my skin, thrumming with the aftermath of my coupling with Violet.Ever since I laid claim to her, since my fangs tasted her blood, it had become a regular thing.
Before claiming Violet, I’d never really paid attention to my infernal markings.They buzzed or lit up from time to time when I was in my human form, but mostly in response to my wavering ability to keep my monster in.
I rarely let my full form out, unless I was certain I was among friends and not foe.
The only people who had seen my true form were Violet and the Squid Squad.Though the latter was not out of comfort, but rather necessity.
When Violet had been kidnapped, all comfort had flown out the window.There was only the desire to get myanam caraback.I did not give a shit who saw my monster, then.Not if it was something that would help me in my pursuit to save her, even though at the time I wasn’t sure what the threat was.
All I knew was Violet left me, for a reason, and that reason was a dangerous one.
Lost in thought, I barely noticed the bodies waltzing down the corridor, and as such, was flabbergasted when one barreled into me, nearly knocking me over.
“Watch where the hell you’re—Bane?”
