Flame of Fortunes (The Firestone Academy #5)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Briony

I stare down below at the space where only moments ago the three Princes stood, surrounded by the Empress’s elite guards, and now that space is empty; the only sign that they were there at all the crushed grass.

I press on Blaze’s neck, urging him down to that patch of ground, and I’m sliding off his back before his four paws even touch the earth.

“Fox!” I scream at the top of my lungs. “Fox!”

He doesn’t respond.

I don’t know where he is. He wasn’t with those guards. He wasn’t with the Princes. Instead of the Professor, Dray’s three youngest brothers come racing out of the house, and I send a blinding bolt of light at the three of them. The youngest, Dirk, raises his hands.

“Briony,” he says. “We’re on your side. We’re not—”

“You!” I say, my light spinning around him, binding his arms tight to his body.

“You betrayed us.” I glare at him, thinking of how much I loved my sister, of how much she loved me, of all she did to protect and care for me.

She wouldn’t have betrayed me for all the gold, diamonds and jewels in the realm.

“How could you? How could you do that to your own flesh and blood?”

Dirk shakes his head desperately along with the twins. “No, Briony,” he says. “We didn’t know. It wasn’t us.”

“Then who was it?” I snap. “No one else knew we were here.”

“Danders,” one of the twins says.

Danders – the second eldest of the Eros boys. The brother who would step into Dray’s shoes if anything happened to him. I guess it makes sense, although I still can’t believe a brother could do that.

“You told him?” I hiss.

“No, we didn’t. Honest to all the stars, we didn’t. But there’s always been this rivalry between Danders and Dray.” His eyes shift to his brothers. “Danders has always been waiting for his moment to take Dray out, claim his spot as the alpha of our pack.”

I stride closer towards them. Blaze obviously isn’t feeling trusting himself because he growls, the three Eros brothers trembling in response. I’m used to thinking of Blaze as a sweetie pie and sometimes forget he’s actually a pretty terrifying beast.

“Are you telling me the truth?” I say, staring into three sets of colorful eyes. “Or are you lying to me?”

The other twin scoffs. “You think we want Danders as the head of our pack? He’s an asshole.”

“Dray’s an asshole,” I point out.

“Yeah, but not as big an asshole as Danders. Honestly, Briony, we didn’t know.”

I stare into their faces for a moment longer.

I’m probably being a fool trusting them.

They haven’t been whipped away like the others.

They’re still standing here. That in itself is downright suspicious.

Then again, they haven’t made a move to fight back against me or even to capture me.

I think I believe them. Dray trusted them, after all.

I call my magic back into my hands, and the three Eros brothers visibly relax in front of me.

“You can’t stay here,” Dirk says. “They could come back. They were searching for you too.”

I bite my lip and nod. I know I have to get away, but first I have to find Fox, and I need to have some idea where the Princes have gone.

“Where have they taken them?” I ask the three brothers.

They look at each other.

“It’s one of two places, most probably,” Dirk says. And even though he’s the youngest, I gather he’s the one the other two look to. “The palace or the Black Tower.”

“The Black Tower?” I ask.

“It’s where they take …” Dirk pauses, his gaze falling to the earth. He scuffs his foot along the grass. “It’s where they take traitors.”

My hands leap to my mouth, and I feel my whole body shudder uncontrollably. “Traitors,” I say. “They’re not traitors.”

Dirk’s gaze flicks back up to mine. “We know that, Briony. But that’s what they were saying. The guards, I mean. That’s why they were arrested.”

“Where… where is this tower?” I ask.

The three Eros brothers shrug, each one looking at me vacantly.

“It’s in the marshlands at the very edge of Onyx Quarter,” a deep, booming voice says, and when I look up towards the house, I see Fox striding from the main door, down the porch steps towards us.

“Where were you?” I ask.

“We hid him,” Dirk explains before Fox can answer. “The guards didn’t seem to know he was here.”

“Thank goodness,” I mutter, racing towards the Professor and flinging my arms around his neck. He squeezes me tight.

“We have to go, Briony. We can’t stay here.”

“I know, I know,” I say, leaning back and looking up into his pale face.

After those two feeds from my neck, he looks strong and healthy once more.

But there’s something more, something a little different about him.

He always had more color in his cheeks after a feed, but his skin is not so ivory or porcelain.

It looks a little more like mine now. And his eyes seem different too.

The amber has a hint of blue in it, swirling through the glowing color.

But I haven’t got time to think about that now.

“Do we go to the Black Tower?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “That would be suicide, Briony. It’s heavily guarded, the most heavily guarded place in the whole of the realm. Besides,” he says, “I think that’s what she’s hoping you’ll do.”

“She?”

“The Empress. She knows you went tearing out into the demon wastelands to save me. She’ll expect you to do exactly the same thing for the Princes.”

“You think it’s a trap?”

“Of course it’s a trap,” he says.

“You know I’m not going to stand back and let her take them from me,” I say, taking a step back from him and landing my hands decidedly on my hips.

A smile glides over Fox’s plush lips. “Yes, I know you well enough to be quite aware of that. But we both know the Empress is not Bardin. Sure, the Madame is powerful, deadly, and pretty unhinged, but she’s nothing compared to the Empress herself – the woman has been ruling this realm with a steel fist for the last three decades.

She has seen off plenty of challengers and rivals, has refused the hand of several all-powerful men, and has bred a whole clan of heirs. ”

“And she also apparently wants me dead.”

“We need to find out if they really are in the Black Tower,” Fox says. “I have contacts, some of whom I think may help us.”

“So do we,” Dirk says.

I narrow my eyes at him. “You sure you can trust them?”

He nods enthusiastically. “Dray’s an asshole,” he says, “but he’s also a kind of hero in these parts. Lots of people love him, and they’ll be willing to help him. I’m sure of that.”

I turn to the other two. Dray’s youngest brother obviously adores him. That might be clouding his judgment. “Do you think he’s right?”

“Yes,” the first twin says. “I hate to admit it, but Dirk is right.”

“Okay, so we determine exactly where they are, and then what?”

“Then we work out a way to get into the tower and free them,” Fox says.

All three of the Eros boys scoff at that. “Not possible,” Dirk says. “There hasn’t been a successful escape from the Black Tower in the last three hundred years. You know that. You’re a professor, right?”

Fox hesitates, meeting my gaze, and then nods.

“Shit,” I mutter. Why is nothing simple? Then I straighten my spine. Everyone said trekking out to the demon wastelands was suicidal. They said we’d never make it back. They said pursuing Bardin was signing my own death certificate. They told me that Fox had betrayed me.

There’s lots of things people have told me over the years, including that my own sister had died in a tragic accident in the academy. I’m finished with listening to what other people, with their limited expectations of me and their perceived prejudices, have to say.

“So there hasn’t been a successful escape from the tower in three hundred years.

Maybe it’s about time there was one,” I say.

“We’ll find a way.” I nod way more confidently than I feel.

“So where do we go now?” I look around at the man in front of me and the three boys.

No one seems to have any idea. I peer back at my dragon, sitting, waiting, ready for his next instruction like a good, obedient boy.

“The academy,” I say. “We’re going to go back to the Firestone Academy.” If there’s a way to get into the Black Tower, if there’s a way to escape from it, I know one person who will be able to find that information with a little help from her bookish admirer, Clare.

“Briony, is that—” Fox starts.

“Yes,” I say, “it is a good idea.”

“Thorne told me there were soldiers stationed at the academy. You haven’t heard from your friends in days. Who knows what security measures might be there now. And don’t they have that bastard, Sterling, running the academy as well?”

I shrug. “Then we’ll just have to find a way to sneak in, won’t we?”

Fox stares at the dragon. “You think we can sneak in with him?”

“Yes,” I say. “I kept him hidden for weeks, didn’t I? And not even you, Professor, knew of his existence.”

“He was much smaller then,” Fox points out.

I turn to my dragon, crossing the yards between us, and stroke my hand down his snout, kissing first one nostril and then the other. “You’re very subtle and very sneaky, aren’t you, Blazey Baby?”

He hums contentedly.

Then I spin back around. “I’m going to find some pants,” I tell them all.

“And then you and I, Professor, are leaving for the Academy.” I turn to the three boys.

“You don’t share this conversation with anyone else.

Understood?” They all nod. “Because if you do …” They smirk at me.

“You think I’m not serious?” I say. “You may find your big brother intimidating, but I promise you, if you betray us, I will fry each one of you alive and then I’ll feed what’s left of you to my dragon.

” I thumb over my shoulder in the direction of Blaze.

They nod again. And I really do hope I can trust them.

“And if we find anything out, we’ll send you a crow,” Dirk says.

“Is that safe?” I ask Fox.

“If they take the usual precautions.”

“Of course we will,” Dirk says.

“Right then,” I say, strolling back towards the mansion in search of some damn pants and some damn shoes.