Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Avery
I found something.
Avery’s heart dropped at the words.
She blinked at Felix in the dim light of her dorm, hand still wrapped around his wrist. His pulse hammered against her fingers, which probably wasn’t a great sign.
Gently, he let go of her and sat on the bed, shoulders slumping forward.
Whatever it was, it had him shaken enough to display it. This was not good.
“What did you find?” Avery asked softly.
He pulled out her phone without answering her. Opening up the photos, he swiped to the bottom and turned it around. Unease curled through her spine as she looked. Rows of animal statues on a shelf.
“What are they?” she asked, scared of what his response would be.
“Shifters.”
Her mind stuttered. “What?”
She waited for him to say that he was joking. But it didn’t come.
“Hundreds of them, trapped in statues.” He swiped to another photo, and then another. Each time, the dread coiled tighter. “The entire room was warded ten times over.”
Avery’s hand started to shake. So many questions blurred through her mind.
Who? What? Fucking why? Her heart pounded in her chest. She wasn’t built for this kind of information.
If it was true, everything would change.
Especially now Felix knew. The fragile truce between the two species would break.
“Where?” The single word was the only thing she could get out.
“Beneath the council tower.” He ran a hand through his hair, exhaling deeply. “Dust bunnies led me there.”
Avery’s lips parted. “The goddess led you there.”
“I think she wanted me to see it.” Felix looked pained. Maybe this was an apology from the goddess for the maze. But why would the goddess help shifters? She was always depicted to hate shifters. It was in their teachings, in the fabric of their society.
Her legs gave out. She sank onto the bed next to him, bent forward, arms wrapped around her ribs because her chest was caving in, collapsing under the weight of it all.
A natural part of her wanted to doubt him.
He was a shifter, after all. If she hadn’t summoned him in the first place, she might have thought this was all an elaborate ruse.
But with everything they had already been through, it felt impossible to fake.
She desperately wanted to believe him. For this to be real.
Not the shifters imprisoned. But them. Whatever they were.
Whatever the bond had made them. Nothing in her life had made sense more than this.
Yet, everything else around her made little sense.
Shifters imprisoned under the council tower? It was downright diabolical.
“Who do you think’s behind it?” she asked.
Felix gave her a look like he was pleading with her not to say it.
“No,” Avery whispered. A fracture formed in her chest. Her nails dug into her arms, hard enough to leave marks. The pain grounded her for half a second before the panic swallowed it whole.
“It’s the only person who makes sense, Avery.”
“Why?” Her voice broke. “It can’t be her.”
“You heard what your mother said at the dinner table.”
Her mother was a bitch, but this was beyond evil. Trapping shifters in statues? And for what? Wouldn’t she just kill them? Avery pressed her palms against her eyes to stop the tears that threatened to fall.
“What are you going to do?” It was a stupid question. She already knew the answer.
“I have to get them out.” Felix’s jaw ticked. “But I can’t do it alone.”
She understood what he was saying without him actually saying the words.
He had to leave. To go back to London. It was not like he could stay here forever anyway.
Every day that passed, he got closer to being caught.
It wasn’t safe for him. Yet, every part of her screamed to be with him in every moment.
The bond thrummed between them, and she felt his concern bleeding through, his alarm spiking as he watched her unravel.
That made it worse. Because he was here, witnessing her fall apart over what her mother had done to people like him, and in two days, he’d be gone and she’d never see him again and hundreds of shifters were trapped in stone and her mother was a monster and—
“What about the bond?” She hated how small her voice sounded.
His voice came out emotionless, but his eyes gave him away. “We have two days until the final riddle. After that, the bond will be broken, and I will leave.”
Avery flinched. She pressed a hand to her chest, as if she could physically stop her heart from falling out. Her throat tightened, another wave of panic threatening to drown her. This time, though, she swallowed it down.
Something unrecognizable flickered across Felix’s face. But he didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say. Only the grim reality that was before them. Any future they could have had in tatters because thousands of years ago, two sides decided to hate each other.
A simmering anger built her walls up instead. At him. At the goddess. At the unfairness of it all. He had fundamentally changed something within her. Her magic, yes. But so much more than that. Far more than she should have allowed. What happened when something so tangled couldn’t be undone?
It didn’t matter. Not really, when hundreds of people were trapped in statues. Not shifters. People. She had to help in any way she could, regardless of what she wanted.
A sad smile pulled at her lips. “And until then?”
His features softened. “We pretend.”
“To do what?”
“Pretend we could have had a chance.”
Maya burped as she passed the bottle back to Avery. Their weekly ritual had been delayed due to things. But Maya hadn’t minded.
Avery felt a sad guilt as she took a swig, then gave the bottle to her best friend.
They used to tell each other everything, or at least she had told Maya everything.
The need to tell her about the past few days was eating her alive, probably one of the reasons she was avoiding her best friend.
Avery wondered how Maya would react to finding out that shifters were buried underneath the council tower.
Not that Avery would tell her. She was already putting her friend in danger by even being here, in the same room as a shifter.
Felix had promised not to touch her. And he had been peacefully watching from the bed as he said he would.
Some part of her knew that he wouldn’t do anything.
That somehow, despite what he was, she could trust him.
Which was insane, trusting a shifter. But she did.
If you had told her two weeks ago that she trusted a shifter more than her own family, she would have called you insane.
But this was her fucked-up reality. Drinking was the answer.
Avery sent a smile over to him as she took another swig from her turn of the bottle.
Even in cat form, he made her stomach flip.
They had turned off the TV ages ago, and the warm, tipsy feeling filled her veins.
Halfway through the reality show, they migrated to the floor where Maya draped her legs over the couch backward.
“Does your familiar always stare like that?” Maya asked, giggling.
“Yeah, he does.”
“It’s creepy. I mean, mine is always around, obviously, but he doesn’t just like, stare.” Maya looked over fondly to her crow, throwing him a piece of popcorn that he gracefully caught midair.
“He sleeps sometimes.”
“I’m glad you got a familiar, but I’m sorry it’s that one.” Maya snorted.
Avery made a fake gasp and hit Maya lightly with the back of her hand. “He’s just…attentive.”
Felix’s amusement rumbled through the bond. He was far more than just attentive.
Maya raised her eyebrows and then looked away.
She was smart; she definitely sensed something was wrong with him.
Maya had always been able to read Avery like a spell book; she could see through her bullshit before Avery even opened her mouth.
Luckily, the alcohol probably dampened that worry.
Who would ever suspect that a shifter was in their goddess-damn dorm room?
“Have you decided what you’re going to wear to the Spirit Night party?”
Spirit Night. Ugh. That was right. There was always a massive party during Spirit Night; they went together every year.
Even after Avery’s dad died, she didn’t skip it.
It wasn’t a fun one, but she still went.
And they had to solve the final riddle. And break the bond.
Avery drank from the bottle to fill her chest with a burning that drowned out the other feelings threatening to bubble to the surface.
Two days. That was all they had left.
“I haven’t had anything made yet. I was thinking of just wearing the same costume as last year.” Avery said.
“Boooo, that’s so boring,” Maya said, pouting and putting her thumbs down before sitting up on her elbows. “Also I knew you were going to do that, so I had something made for you to match.”
“Maya,” Avery said, throat tightening. Maya had commissioned a costume for her. While Avery had spent the week lying to her face. Goddess, she really was a horrible friend.
“Avery,” she warned. “I’ll surprise you on the day.”
She smiled softly, putting her hand over Maya’s and squeezing, which squeezed her heart just as hard. “Thank you.”
At least she would still have her.
Maya smiled back and then brushed her off. “Ugh, enough mushiness, come on, you know I hate that.”
There she was.
“Okay, let’s play a game. You have to answer the question or take a drink,” Maya said.
Avery did not like where this was going, but agreed. “I’ll start.”
“Best hookup?”
“You better say me, little witch, or I’ll be offended,” Felix said through the bond.
Avery made a gesture that her lips were sealed and took a swig from the bottle. It was not like she could say the shifter currently on the bed.
Maya’s mouth hung open. “You sly little wench, I knew you had been seeing someone!”
“What!” Avery squealed. “How could you possibly know that?”