And I’m back at the academy, lying on my back, looking up into the bright blue sky.
“Beaufort!” Briony is kneeling by my side, anxiety written in the wrinkles of her brow. “What happened? Was it another vision?”
I groan and turn to roll up. The action has pain stabbing through my head. I flop back down onto the wet grass. “Another vision,” I say, my voice slurring in my mouth.
“Are you okay?” she says, stroking her hands down my face, peering into my eyes.
“I’m fine,” I say. “They hurt my head.” Immediately, she rubs at my temples, attempting to use her magic to soothe away the pain. I catch her wrists, marveling again at those patterns as I pull her hands gently away. “Doesn’t work, Briony. And the pain’s already fading anyway. Don’t worry about it.”
I hesitate, then pull her down onto the grass too. It’s wet and cold, but I can never resist the opportunity to have her close to me, lying across my body.
“What did you see this time?” she asks, resting her forearms against my chest, her fingers stroking the stubble on my chin.
“Firestones,” I tell her. “Two firestones in the water.”
“More firestones?” she says, her voice full of incredulous amazement. “More dragons?”
“Perhaps,” I say. “I think fate wants us to find them.”
“Oh my goodness,” Briony mutters. “I can only just about cope with one dragon. Not sure I can with two.”
“Think of all the times Blaze has saved your life, Briony – gotten us out of all sorts of difficult situations. Situations that I think are about to become a lot more difficult for us. Imagine if we had more dragons.”
“Yes, but we don’t know where those firestones are. How are we going to find them?”
“I do know where they are,” I tell her, peering into her green eyes. “And I think we’re going to have to go there.”
“Go where?”
“Slate Quarter.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dray
I’m tasked, like the others, with going to talk to different students. We want to determine if anybody else has the power of light wielding lurking in their veins. But I have other things on my mind.
Little Kitten’s scent.
It smelled different this morning. Very different.
I have my suspicions about the events that took place last night, but I still want to hear it from the horse’s mouth. So I make some excuse about needing to fetch something from my room and disappear upstairs as the others set off across the academy to interview students.
I head straight for Thorne’s room. I can hear him in the shower but I open the door anyway. When I step inside his room, and sniff the air, all my suspicions are confirmed.
Smells like sex in this room. A lot of sex.
I grin.
I’m pleased for my bond brother. I really am. Especially as it explodes a hell of a lot of ideas in my dirty little mind. Ideas which involve sharing Little Kitten between the three of us.
I bet that would be good. I bet it would smell and sound and look good too.
I jump up onto Thorne’s chest of drawers and wait for him to finish his fucking long shower and come back into the room, whistling a tune and kicking my legs while I do.
He jolts when he spots me there, then ignoring me completely as he heads for his wardrobe and pulls out clothes.
“I’m dying, man,” I tell him.
