THORN
Iwake in my bed sometime during the night, drenched in sweat, my head pounding like war drums. My muscles ache as though I’ve run for days. I rub my hands down my face. The last thing I remember is heading to the Taste trial. How did I get here?
Then the memory drifts in on a cloudy haze: a pink flower in black raven hair. Sweetness. Then darkness. I missed the Taste trial.
“Fuck.” My fist slams into the mattress hard enough to make the frame groan. The one thing I’d been waiting for, the one trial that brought me back to that night with her. They took it from me.
No. She took it from me. I know who the real mastermind is. It’s not Aura, or Rue. It’s Lucia.
Lucia is cleverer than Olcan or Steele ever were.
She can’t challenge me directly, so she cuts me where I’m weakest — through Ember.
Every trial, she finds a way to twist the knife.
She had Aura pull me away just to talk nonsense, keeping me from talking to Ember.
Now this. Drugging me, stealing my chance at tasting her.
I grind my teeth until my jaw aches.
And gods, what if Ember thinks I didn’t show up for her? What if she takes this as a sign I’m not interested?
The thought rips something raw inside me.
Maybe I’m the fool, still clinging to the idea that she’s mine.
After all, she denied me last year. Maybe she found someone else in the year apart.
Or worse, she truly doesn’t want me as a mate.
I don’t see her busting down my door looking for me, checking to see if I’m okay.
I inhale deeply.
I drag a hand over my scars and let the fury settle into something colder, sharper. If the gods give me one more chance, I’ll prove it to her in the Chase. I’ll burn the world down before I let anyone else take her from me.
As for Aura and Lucia...or anyone else who thinks they can stand between me and Ember, I’ll make sure they regret ever breathing my name.