Page 50 of Heartflame

He smiled wide as he swept his hand over his face. Green magic glowed at his fingertips as the glamor fell away. His fair features and blonde hair were replaced with freckles and sharp angles and wild red hair. But those green eyes remained the same.

My jaw nearly hit the floor.

“Elder… Elder Briar Hall?” I gasped.

He chuckled. “Did you really think your grandfather would let you stay here without any inside protection?”

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to scream or kick myself. He’d been watching me the entire time, getting so close that I should’ve been able to scent him or see through that stupidly simple glamor of his. How did I not notice it before? Was I really that fucking blind? And did my grandfather truly send him to watch me when we both disliked him so much? He was the biggest pain in the ass on the Elder Council.

“Questions later,” Elder Briar Hall said, holding up a hand before I could speak. “Right now I need to get you both to safety, and then we can talk it over with your grandfather.”

The world seemed to tilt on its axis. Elder Briar Hall. Wilderain himself, standing in front of me covered in the remains of undead, casual as if he’d just been out for a stroll instead of slaughtering dozens of corpses.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I managed to say, my brain struggling to catch up with what my eyes were seeing. “You’re the one who’s been⁠—”

“Watching you? Yes,” he interrupted, that infuriating smile never wavering. “And doing a damn good job of it, if I do say so myself. Your grandfather was worried you’d get hurt should the wards fail. However, I do think he’ll be surprised to find you’ve got a witch for a mate. And a male one at that.”

I felt Quill’s hand grip my arm, his nails digging in slightly. I glanced down at him and saw the betrayal written all over his face. He was looking at me like I’d known about this the entire time, like I’d been complicit in whatever scheme my grandfather had orchestrated.

“I didn’t know,” I said quickly, turning to face him fully. “Red, I swear I didn’t know about any of this.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Elder Briar Hall said, rolling his eyes. “Thaddeus wanted to keep it contained. The fewer people who knew about my assignment, the better. Though I have to say, watching you two moon over each other for the past week has been absolutely delicious. Do you have any idea how obvious you’ve been?”

“Can we please focus on the fact that there are still undead trying to kill us?” Quill snapped, his tone sharp despite the tremor in his voice. I could smell the spike of adrenaline and fear coming off him in waves, mixing with anger and a hint of betrayal.

Another crash echoed through the building, this time from the back. The undead were testing all the exits, probing for weaknesses. Wild glanced toward the sound with that casual confidence that made me want to punch him.

“They’re not very coordinated now,” he observed. “Whoever’s controlling them is stretched thin. Probably trying to manage the assault on multiple fronts.” He turned back to us, his expression shifting to something more serious. “We need to move. The teleportation circle on the other side of campus will get us out. We can cut our way through.”

I wanted to argue, wanted to tell Elder Briar Hall that teleporting through an active war zone was suicide, but I could already hear the wet sounds of corpses breaking through the back entrance of the student center. We didn’t have time for debate.

“Stay close to me,” I said to Quill, pulling him against my side as I turned to Wild. “Lead the way.”

Elder Briar Hall moved with the fluid grace of someone who’d spent centuries in combat. He pushed through the interior doors of the student center, his fae magic crackling around his fingertips in that sickly green glow. I kept Quill tucked protectively against me. My scales could deflect some minor forms of magic. Besides, better me get hurt than my mate.

The campus was in absolute chaos. Students were running in every direction, some heading toward the reinforced academic buildings, others trying to escape toward the perimeter where the wards used to be. Security witches were engaged with clusters of undead, their spells lighting up the night in bursts of color and power. But there were so many of the corpses. So goddamn many.

“Watch your left!” Elder Briar Hall called out as an undead lurched toward us from behind one of the statues. He flicked his wrist casually, and the creature exploded into black ichor without so much as a grunt of effort. The casualness of it was somehow more terrifying than the violence itself.

We moved through the carnage like we were wading through a nightmare. Quill’s breathing was ragged beside me, and I could feel him trembling slightly, though whether it was from fear or adrenaline, I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that I had to protect him at any cost.

“The circle is near the gates,” Elder Briar Hall said, not even winded as we sprinted across the lawn. “Just another fifty yards.”

That’s when I saw her.

A woman I’d never seen before, easily six feet tall if not more, her skin gray and ashen. She had the ears of a fae and long wild coppery hair surrounding a white mask that covered her features. But even with the mask I could see the glowing emerald eyes behind them, landing on us with inhuman precision. She adjusted her course, coming straight for us, power flickering around her as she raised her hands.

“Run!” Elder Briar Hall called, hurrying us on. “Get to the circle!”

I didn’t hesitate. My dragon instincts kicked into overdrive as I grabbed Quill and shoved him forward, putting myself between him and the masked woman. Her magic crackled through the air, a sickly green that matched Wild’s but felt wrong somehow, corrupted, twisted into something darker and more malicious.

“Go!” I roared, my voice already shifting into something more bestial as my scales and spikes began to fully emerge. “Get to the circle with him!”

“Aeron, no—” Quill started, but I was already moving, shifting my weight into a more aggressive stance as the woman advanced. Her magic lashed out like whips, and I threw up my arms to deflect the worst of it. The impact sent me sliding backward across the grass, my feet digging furrows into the earth.

Behind me, I could hear Elder Briar Hall cursing and Quill protesting, but I couldn’t focus on them right now. All my attention was fixed on the woman in the white mask. There was something familiar about her, something in the way she moved that triggered a distant memory I couldn’t quite grasp.

“You’re Thaddeus Pyre’s grandson,” she said, her voice distorted by the mask but still carrying an edge of amusement. “How delightful. I was hoping I’d get to meet you.”