Chapter One
Briony
We stand on the shores of the black lake, the perverse red line shimmering in the air before us and Fox’s ring warm in my clenched fist.
The three Princes stare back at me. Their faces are worn and tired and full of skepticism.
Fox wasn’t at the trial. He isn’t at the academy. And he isn’t here at the lake. He is nowhere to be found. All that is here is his ring and the strange shimmering line – the strange shimmering line that hung in the air after the Madame and the demons escaped from the grotto.
It seems there’s only one logical explanation for Fox’s disappearance – he’s stepped through that strange portal and into the demon wastelands.
But why?
The Princes want to believe the worst of Fox, assuming his loyalty has been to the Madame all along, that the two of them – both vampires – have been working together.
But I know the truth. Fox Tudor looked deep into my eyes and promised that he loved me. He placed a piece of his magic around my heart. He says I am his fated mate. He swore he’d never betray me. And I believe him.
The Princes are being led by their prejudices – the same old prejudices that run deep in this realm.
Just because Fox is from Slate, just because he’s different from them, they believe he is capable of betrayal.
I know what it feels like to be judged that way, and I refuse to be swept along in their poison.
I spin his ring in my fingers, the metal warm despite the bitter cold. It glints in the feeble light as if it’s winking at me. I trace the engraving with my fingertips and then I force the ring onto my thumb.
I can’t help thinking he dropped it deliberately.
But if he did, why?
I remember that time we spent in bed together when he offered me this ring – the ring that had belonged to his dad.
He knew I wouldn’t forget that moment. It was special and intimate between us.
If he dropped this ring for me to find, it was to let me know he was thinking of me, that he cares for me.
I’m even surer the others are wrong. Fox wouldn’t do anything to harm me. If he stepped through one of those rips in time and space, he had no choice. If he’s out there now in the demon wastelands, he was forced there.
By her!
I’ve seen the madness in her eyes. I’ve seen how much she wants him. I’ve felt the extent of her hate for me. She’s taken him from me.
Overwhelming panic soars up from my stomach and wraps itself around my throat. It tightens and strangles, restricting my windpipe.
I can’t breathe.
My heart beats furiously in my chest and white noise rings in my ears.
She has him. Madame Bardin has Fox, and who knows what the hell she’s going to do to him.
I think of my sister, ripped from my grasp by that bitch. My sister – beautiful, brave, unique – sucked dry by that monster. I think of her coffin, plain and dull and nailed shut.
I’ll be damned if I let the Madame do it again. She won’t steal another person from me.
My breath rasps in my throat. My lungs burn. The world swims in and out of focus.
I won’t let her.
I won’t!
My body shakes. I gasp for air. My nails pierce my palms.
I have to find him. I have to help him. I have to follow him out to the demon wastelands.
Because I will not let her hurt him. I won’t give her the chance. Which means I have to go; I have to go now.
The question is how? How can I get there?
As that question forms in my mind, the magic in my veins tingles, and I have a feeling …
I peer towards the dull horizon, where heavy thunderclouds are gathering, and, yes, I’m right.
“Kitten,” Dray says, eyeing me with concern as the first bolt of lightning streaks across the sky, illuminating our anguished faces in a stark momentary brightness.
“No,” I gasp, as thunder rumbles menacingly away in the distance, “Fox wouldn’t betray me and I’m going to prove it. I’m going to find him.”
“Find him?” Beaufort says with confusion. “He’s out in the demon wastelands – beyond the safety of our realm’s boundaries! There’s no way to reach him.”
“Yes, there is,” I say, watching as a faint silhouette in the sky swoops closer.
Blaze.
The beat of his wings catches the others’ attention, and they swing their gazes up to the sky, watching as the dragon – my dragon – sails our way, fat droplets of rain beginning to fall down onto our faces.
A few at first, barely noticeable, and then suddenly many streaking from the sky in a stream of heavy water as the thunder roars above our heads.
I don’t care what they say. I don’t care if they try and stop me. I have to go. I have to find him. I can’t let her take him from me. They have to understand.
“Briony, no!” Beaufort says, standing to block my path with his large frame, his shoulders already wet, water running down his face. “That’s suicide. You’re not thinking straight.”
“I am! Don’t you see? I have to help him!” I rant desperately. “I have to go now before it’s too late!”
“You wouldn’t make it one meter outside the boundary of our realm before they ripped you to pieces.”
“I’m stronger than I was, Beaufort.” I shake the rain from my eyes as panic engulfs my body. “I defeated a handful of demons in that trial today. I’m not afraid.”
“You should be,” he says sternly. “The demon realm is far more dangerous than you could possibly imagine. It would be suicide. I won’t let you do this.”
He reaches for me, but I shake off his grip.
“That’s not your decision to make,” I cry as Blaze circles above, casting dark shadows over the four of us, the lightning that streaks across the sky reflecting off his golden scales. It makes him seem even more magnificent, otherworldly.
“Briony,” Thorne says more softly than his bond brother. “He’s right. This is too dangerous. The professor wouldn’t want you to do this. He wouldn’t want to put you in any danger at all. You need to calm down, take a breath, and think about this rationally.”
I shake my head wildly. This isn’t their decision to make. It’s mine. And I don’t have a choice.
My world has turned completely upside down over the last few weeks.
I’ve gone from a girl suspicious of everyone and everything, sure that the tables were turned against me, to a woman with magical abilities of her own.
To a woman raising a dragon. To a woman who believes in fate.
And fate has tied me to four men. And I won’t be losing any of them.
Because I know what it’s like to lose someone you love, to watch them lowered into the indifferent embrace of the stone-cold earth, to never see them again, to never touch them again, to never hear their voice.
“I can’t lose him!” I shake my head violently. “There’s no way I can go through that again.” I can’t willingly walk into the deadening pit of grief. I survived that once – just about – clawing my way out, finding I was half the person I once was. I doubt I’d survive it a second time.
“You’re hyperventilating for stars’ sake,” Beaufort snaps. “You’re not thinking rationally.”
“If it were me out there beyond the realm boundaries, if it was me who had been taken, nothing would stop you,” I cry to the three shadow weavers standing before me, the rain pounding down onto their heads. “You’d go. You’d try everything to save me, wouldn’t you?”
They all stare at me silently, knowing they can’t argue with my logic. Finally, they nod reluctantly, although Beaufort insists, “You can’t do this alone.”
“Then come with me, help me.”
“Briony, it’s not that simple,” Beaufort says, meeting my gaze with that steely expression of his. “We don’t even know where he is.”
“I do.” I lean my head back, squinting into the rain and whistling up to the sky, hoping the sound will carry above the roaring storm.
Blaze responds, spiraling down to the ground and landing with a thud on the soggy sand that brushes the lake’s shore.
He’s so big now, I barely remember the tiny, fragile creature that slithered from the stone all those weeks ago.
He tosses back his head, snorting puffs of smoke from his nostrils.
It’s hard to believe anything in the realm or beyond it could harm me riding Blaze’s back. Surely together we’d be safe.
“Kitten,” Dray tries, “Fox is a big boy. He’s fucking powerful. He doesn’t need you to go rescue him!”
“I have to go!” I scream, raking the wet strands of hair away from my face.
“Briony,” Beaufort pleads, trying once again to wrap me in his embrace.
I dodge his arms and dart towards the dragon. All three men move to block my path this time, caging me in a tight circle.
“Let me through!” I shout above the noise of the storm.
“Little Kitten,” Dray growls, all his usual casual nature turned dangerous, “we’re not letting you run after a bloodsucker, one we can’t even trust. Who’s probably been working with Bardin all this fucking time!”
“Move out of my way,” I say through gritted teeth, lifting my hands.
“Briony,” Thorne pleads, trying a more gentle tactic to his bond brother, “there’s no hurry.
It’s too dangerous to fly, and if you go out there with all your magic blazing, Bardin will be waiting for you.
For all you know, this could be an ambush.
You could be stepping right into a trap.
She’s going to be out for your blood, out for revenge. ”
“You’re not going to persuade me otherwise,” I yell at them, desperate to get moving, desperate to be on my way, “so move out of my way and let me go!”
Fox is in danger. I don’t care what they say; I don’t care about the danger. I have to find him. I have to save him.
The rain smacks against my head like the beat of a warning drum, urging me on to action.
“Little Kitten,” Dray says, trying to charm me with one of his smiles this time instead, “come on now!”
I send a warning shot of magic towards his feet and he leaps away, swearing loudly as my light scorches and sizzles the sandy earth.
I take my opportunity and bolt through the gap in their formation, racing across the sand towards Blaze. He’s already lowered his head to the damp ground, and I scramble up his neck, swinging myself onto his back, and gripping his scales tightly in my hand.
“Briony!” Beaufort says, more desperation in his tone because he can see I’m serious. “I command you to stay!”
“What? As my protector?” I spit back.
“As Prince of this realm,” he roars, “I command you to remain here!”
I glare at him. He can go to hell!
“We’ll go to the Empress,” Thorne says, still trying to convince me. “We’ll get the permission we need to go after Tudor, and we’ll come with you. We’ll help you. Just please, please don’t do this.”
“I have to,” I say, the wind whipping around me like a wild thing, making me feel just as wild.
The magic in my veins is wild too and desperate.
Desperate to find Fox, desperate to rise up into the sky, and desperate not to leave these men behind.
Tears I didn’t even know I was crying, roll down my cheeks and drip onto my chest. I don’t want to part on bad terms. I don’t want to leave them behind.
I want more than anything for all of this not to have happened.
My stupid plan – my stupid, stupid plan!
It’s my fault Fox is in this position. “I can’t lose Fox! ”
Blaze lifts his head and spreads his wings. He sweeps them back and forth until the air catches in the sinewy material and his clawed feet rise from the ground, lifting us higher and higher.
I stare down at the anguished faces of my mates.
Beaufort lifts his hand as if he’s about to strike me down with his magic.
I brace myself, ready to strike him right back, but he thinks better of it, dragging his fingers through his wet hair instead.
Dray attempts to jump into the air and grab at Blaze’s tail.
Thorne stands still as a statue, dark eyes boring into me.
My heart rips right down the middle. But what choice do I have?