Chapter Six
Briony
Beaufort dresses me up warm in about ten layers of pajamas and sweaters and insists I remain in his bed. For once, I see no point in arguing. I won’t be winning that row and I do need to recover if I’m to find Fox.
However, he does allow me visitors – Fly and Clare. They come pushing into the room and despite the scowl from Beaufort, I’m jumping from the bed and flinging my arms around both their necks, letting out a garbled sob of relief.
“You’re okay!” I squeak.
“Of course, we’re okay,” Clare says, disentangling herself from my grip and straightening her wonky glasses. “Screech bats are easy to deal with if you know their weakness.”
“She was amazing,” Fly adds, “I’d still be in that grotto if it wasn’t for her.”
“It was you who got us through the tunnel,” Clare insists, smiling up at our tall friend, before focusing her attention back on me. “But how about you, Briony? Thorne said you were hurt.”
“Struck by lightning,” I say sheepishly, hooking my arms through both of theirs and dragging them to sit on the edge of the bed. “I have lots to te–”
But I don’t finish my words because a giant white wolf comes charging into the room, straight at me, knocking me backward onto the mattress.
Before I’ve even had a chance to register what’s happened, he has me pinned to the bed with his heavy front paws and he’s dragging his tongue up and down my face in between panted gasps.
As I protest in anger and attempt to wriggle free, Dray transforms back to his human form.
Clare squeaks. “Oh my stars, he’s naked!”
Dray ignores her, a huge grin spread right across his face, a face covered in grime and dirt, sweat dripping down into my eyes. He’s kneeling on his hands and knees, caging my body beneath him, his hands pressed to my shoulders.
“Little Kitten, you came back!” He smothers me in kisses, as excited in his human form as he was his wolf. It’s not just his face drowning in sweat, his entire body is too.
“Dray, what the hell is wrong with you? Are you sick?”
He shakes his head. “I followed you and the dragon. Or at least I tried to. He’s freaking quick.”
“You ran all the way back from the lake?!” I say in amazement. The distance is vast. A half day’s trek at least. “How is that even possible?”
“I told you,” he says, pausing to pepper me in yet more kisses, “us shifters are fast!” He growls and nips at my throat.
“Careful with her, Dray!” Beaufort snaps from somewhere beyond the door. “She was struck by lightning.”
Dray’s eyes flash with concern, and then he’s scrabbling at my clothes clearly looking for the site of my injury.
“It’s okay,” I tell him. “Beaufort healed me and I’m feeling pretty good.”
Relief floods his features next, followed swiftly by a smirk. “You look pretty good too, Kitten.” And he’s back to nibbling on my throat.
“Chicas, I’m all for a bit of pornography but I haven’t eaten my dinner yet,” Fly says. “Maybe you could save it for later and explain what the hell is going on?”
I swing my gaze back to my friends. Fly has his arms crossed over his chest, while Clare still has her hands covering her eyes.
Dray jumps up onto his feet and pulls me up after him.
“Come on,” I say, beckoning to the others, “we’ll go upstairs and talk in my room.”
“Is he still naked?” Clare asks from behind her hands.
“Yep,” Dray says proudly.
“It’s really distracting,” she mutters.
“Yeah, that’s what she said.” Fly chuckles.
“If you’re referring to my dick,” Dray says, “it does more than just distract her. She fucking loves my cock. She can’t–”
“Okay,” I snap, waving my hands around wildly. “Can you not?”
We reach the landing, finding Beaufort and Thorne waiting there.
“I’m sorry,” I blurt out to Thorne. “I panicked and I wasn’t thinking straight. You were right.”
Thorne’s eyebrows twitch. I haven’t been very good at apologizing when I’ve been in the wrong, or admitting my mistakes. I’ve given the Princes a hard time for acting like assholes, but just as often I have too.
“I know you care about him, Nini,” he says, using that old nickname my sister used to call me and warming my insides. “I know you want to get him back. And we will, I promise you.”
I bite my lip and nod my head. I hope he’s right. Fox Tudor may be big, scary, and immortal but underneath that tough facade, I’ve seen a far softer side and I think he’s just as vulnerable as the rest of us.
“Get him back?” Clare says, averting her eyes as Dray jogs past her and down the staircase, large cock swinging. “What’s going on?”
Standing on the landing, I explain everything that has happened since the beginning of the trial – ending up in the mountains and not by the lake, facing a handful of demons, discovering Linette Smyte has no powers, facing off against Madame Bardin, her subsequent escape, my conversation with the Empress, and discovering that Fox is missing.
“You think he was taken into the demon wastelands by the Madame?” Clare asks. She seems less shocked and less overwhelmed than the last time I dumped a load of crazy information on her. Maybe she’s getting used to having a crazy friend with an even crazier life.
“Yes,” I say.
Behind me, Dray snorts, and I turn to find him jogging up the stairs in a pair of sweatpants. I scowl at him.
“Kitten,” he says, spreading his palms wide in surrender, “I know how you feel about him, but the dude is powerful. There’s no way Bardin could force him to do anything he didn’t want to!”
“She might have if she was helped by a horde of demons,” I growl, feeling sick to the stomach at the thought of it.
“Or maybe he went after her to try and catch her?” Clare suggests helpfully.
“We can speculate all we like,” Beaufort says, “but until we find him, we aren’t going to know for sure.”
I can’t help smiling at him. Despite the fact he probably agrees with Dray, he’s trying to be reasonable about this, because he knows how much Fox means to me.
“What?” he says with suspicion.
“Nothing,” I say.
“Wait,” Fly says, “what about the lightning bit? How the hell did you get struck, Cupcake? And also,” he adds, “half the academy is currently gathered out on the field gaping at a dragon – a dragon, so the rumor says, belonging to you.”
“Ahhh,” I say, chewing my cheek and dropping my gaze to the floor. “I decided to fly off on Blaze to rescue Fox.”
“From the demon wastelands?!” Fly cries. “Have you lost your mind?!”
“Yeah, for a moment there, I think I did.”
“Love can do that to you,” Clare says matter-of-factly. I nod.
“Professor Fox Tudor does not need you to go rescue him,” Fly points out. “Have you met the guy? He’s fucking scary.”
“That’s what I said!” Dray pipes up. “Plus, the dude is fucking immortal.”
“It’s Bardin and she’s working with demons. He needs me.”
“I think the others are right, Briony,” Clare says. “Fox can look after himself and the Madame has a strange fascination with him, doesn’t she?”
“An obsession,” I mutter.
“Right, she’s not going to kill him – even if she could.”
“She murdered my sister. I’m not letting her take anyone else I love from me.”
“Do you even know for sure that he’s in the demon wastelands?”
I explain to Clare and Fly about the rips in the air, about how the demons and the Madame had escaped through them before they’d resealed. Then I explain about the same strange abomination hanging in the air at the lake.
“Portals,” Clare murmurs. At Fly’s puzzled expression, she adds, “It’s like a way of traveling from one place to another. Similar to displacement.”
“Demons can’t displace,” Beaufort tells her.
“No, but they’ve found another way to infiltrate the realm,” Clare counters, paling at the idea.
“Shit, that’s not good,” Fly mumbles.
“So you see,” I tell them both, “that has to be where he’s gone. Which means I’m going to have to follow him out there.”
“I thought you lost your mind momentarily,” Fly mutters, “clearly you misplaced it permanently.”
“He doesn’t have anyone else, Fly. No one else is going to go and bring him back.”
“And what if he went there willingly?”
“Then she’s warped his mind and I’ll have to fix that too.”
“Sheesh,” Fly says, “you’re really serious.”
“I am.”
“I think the professor will be seriously pissed off if you go charging off into the Wastelands, risking your life,” Fly says. “What if he comes back and finds you gone?”
I look around at my two friends and the Princes. “You’re right.” Everyone gapes at me. I guess they’re used to me arguing with them. “I need to see if he comes back and if he doesn’t, I’m going to need a plan and for that I need your help.”
“Briony, Cupcake, I love you to bits, but there is no way I’m following you out into the demon wastelands. The professor is a nice guy and everything, kind of, but …”
“I know, Fly. I’m not asking you to.”
“Nini, if it comes down to it, you’re not going out there alone,” Thorne says. “We will come with you.”
“We will?” Dray cries.
“You want to let her go alone?”
“No,” Dray sulks, “but I don’t see why she’s so bothered by that bloodsucker.”