He held me tighter and his wings expanded from his back.
A light gasp left my lips as the light caught the smooth wings fluttering behind him. I’d seen his wings before, but they never stopped astonishing me.
They were huge and rounded like a butterfly's wings, and the brightest blue I’d ever seen. They glimmered like diamonds under the now blinding glow of fae light.
He kicked off the ground, floating in the air, away from the immediate threat. “Is that him?”
I swept the ground below in a quick glance before my gaze locked with Grayson’s. He stood in his wolf form, hackled and growling up at us.
“Yes.”
Grayson’s rage bubbled through the still intact bond, but I didn’t hear his thoughts or anything like I was supposed to. Probably because of the rejection. I winced as the rejection between us throbbed, along with his anger.
He let another growl out, and Thorn flew toward the ground again.
His arms were still wrapped securely around me, and I was soaking up his warmth from the desolate air around us.
“He wants to challenge me,” Thorn mused, and his smile twisted into a dangerous leer as he turned to stare down at Grayson. “I will accept the challenge under the condition you make a bargain with me.”
Grayson growled, shifting back into human form and stalking toward us. “I’ll never stoop low enough to make a bargain with a fae. What are you doing so close to pack grounds, Wren? Are you mocking us? Tempting us to rip your delicate throat out?”
Thorn threw up a hand toward Grayson, ice spikes exploding from his palm. Grayson’s naked body flew back, getting spiked into a nearby tree trunk by his forearm. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
My eyes widened a fraction, but I smashed my lips together.
Grayson cried out and tried to pull his arm away from the tree, to no avail. The spike sliced through skin and bone alike before he grit his teeth and stopped struggling against it.
A fae’s magic was indestructible as far as a shifter was concerned.
Thorn placed me down, and the cold snow caressed the soles of my feet.
“I was banished from the pack because I rejected Grayson back,” I told him in a small voice. The wound of that reality was still fresh.
“You will not threaten Wren again. She’s undermyprotection.” Thorn’s voice was sharp as ice. He’d never sounded so threatening. “The Ice Kingdom in the fae realm has overseen the entirety of Briesia and more for centuries. I have the power to make your pack lands uninhabitable as the prince, and in a few short years, I’ll be taking over as king. Do you really want to doom your land before you take over as their alpha?”
Grayson clenched his jaw, staring Thorn down before giving him one sharp nod. Thorn waved a hand and his ice spike dissolved.
“How do you know my mate?”
“She’snothingto you, wolf.” Thorn snarled, and goosebumps pebbled my skin—but not from the cold.
Grayson’s stare landed on me, and I took a step closer to Thorn. “What is she to you?”
“Special. Has been for years.” Thorn reached over and pulled me gently against his chest. “You gave up aperfectwoman as a mate because she was not a wolf. That is the most idiotic thing I’ve heard of. What I wouldn’t give to have her as my mine…”
“Thorn,” I hissed but didn’t step away from him. “Stop baiting him.”
“Is that what you think I’m doing when I say that?” He sighed, and Grayson growled again. “Well, time differs from here and Fate Hollow. We should get going.”
Thorn phased us out of Briesia in one swift motion. His magic filled my body like static, and my head reeled.
I hadn’t had time to process anything, and before I knew it, Thorn and I stood at the gates of Fate Hollow Academy.
THREE
Wren
Awarmautumnbreezeswept through the air, causing my hair to lift and sway with the current. Ivy adorned the bars of the gate that was towering over us.
