CHAPTER FIVE #2
He left her alone in the corridor, and Briar stood there for a long moment afterward, arms wrapped around herself, feeling a fresh, unfamiliar unease settle into her chest that had nothing to do with veil-fractures or ancient horrors and everything to do with the particular, predatory way Malric Voss had looked at her — like she was a problem he intended to enjoy solving.
She found Torin later that evening on the same garden wall where they'd first spoken weeks ago, and he took one look at her face before setting aside whatever he'd been doing entirely.
"What happened?"
"Kade's mating ceremony got moved up. A month, now, instead of whenever they were planning before." Briar sank onto the wall beside him, exhaustion settling deep into her bones. "And I just met someone named Malric Voss, who looked at me like I was something to be collected."
Torin's expression darkened considerably at both pieces of information.
"Voss's house has a reputation. Not a kind one.
" He studied her carefully, some of his usual easy warmth giving way to something more serious.
"Briar, I know you don't want to hear this from me, of all people.
But a month is not very long. And if Kade's father is willing to move up a mating ceremony in the middle of an active crisis just to shore up appearances, I don't think he's going to hesitate to remove anything else he considers a liability standing in the way of that alliance. "
"You think I'm in danger."
"I think," Torin said carefully, "that you should be very careful who you let get you alone in this hall from now on.
" His hand found hers, warm and steady, and though nothing more happened between them, Briar felt the weight of everything unsaid settle heavy in the space where his thumb traced slow, absent patterns against her knuckles.
"I meant what I said before. The offer still stands, whenever you're ready to take it.
But regardless of what you decide about that — let me help keep you safe here. Please."
Briar looked out over the tiered city, fire-globes flickering to life in the gathering dusk, and felt the walls of Pyrhollow close in a little tighter around her — a forced mating ceremony bearing down like a countdown, a predatory stranger with cold, assessing eyes, and underneath all of it, the one true thing she still couldn't bring herself to doubt, no matter how impossible the odds against it had started to look.
"Okay," she said quietly. "Help me stay safe. But Torin — I need you to understand. Whatever happens with Kade's ceremony, whatever this court decides about me. It doesn't change what I feel."
Something in Torin's expression tightened, old hope and old grief tangled together, before he nodded once, accepting it for now.
"I know," he said. "Doesn't mean I'll stop hoping."
Briar should have known better than to linger alone in the lower archives again, but the old texts on veil-lore were the only lead she had toward understanding what her power actually was, and stubbornness had never once served her badly enough to teach her caution.
She heard him before she saw him — that particular warm, close shift in the air that always preceded a dragon — and looked up from the scroll in front of her to find Malric Voss leaning in the archive doorway, watching her with the same cold, assessing interest he'd worn in the corridor days earlier.
"Working hard, I see." He pushed off the doorframe and stepped inside, and Briar felt her whole body go tense and alert, old instincts sharpening fast. "Admirable, for someone whose days here might be rather more numbered than she realizes."
"I have work to do, Lord Voss." She kept her voice level, deliberately unbothered, closing the text in front of her with careful calm. "If you'll excuse me."
"I don't think I will, actually." His tone shifted, court smoothness dropping away to reveal something colder underneath, and Briar's pulse spiked hard as he closed the distance between them with unhurried, deliberate menace.
"You should have taken the hint by now, wolf.
This court does not want you here. Kade's father does not want you here.
The only reason you're still breathing Pyrhollow's air is because his son is too besotted to see clearly, and that particular problem is about to solve itself rather permanently in a month's time. "
"Get away from me."
"Or what?" Malric's smile was thin and unpleasant, and he caught her wrist before she could put the table fully between them, grip hard enough to bruise.
"You'll crack another floor open? Go ahead.
Give the entire court one more reason to see you as the dangerous, unstable creature I already know you are. "
Briar wrenched against his grip, revulsion and fury tangling together fast and hot. "Let go of me."
"I don't think you understand your position here.
" He backed her against the archive shelves, using his weight and strength with the casual, entitled confidence of a man who had never once in his life expected to be refused, and Briar's stomach turned at the ugly satisfaction in his expression, like her fear was something he found genuinely enjoyable.
"No one's claimed you properly. No formal bond.
Which means, as far as the old laws are concerned, you're fair game to anyone strong enough to take you — and once Kade's married off properly, no one in this court is going to lift a finger to stop me from finding out exactly what a wolf like you is worth. "
"You're disgusting."
"I've been called worse." His hand slid up to grip her jaw, forcing her face toward his, breath hot and unwelcome against her skin. "Let's see what all the fuss is—"
She didn't let him finish.
The earth-pull came up through her fast and furious, sharper and more precise than it had ever been in the training yard, guided now by weeks of practice and a fury that had nothing uncertain left in it.
She drove her knee up hard between his legs at the same instant the floor beneath them cracked open with a sound like a thunderclap, and Malric's grip on her jaw broke as he doubled over with a strangled, undignified sound, giving her exactly the half-second she needed.
Thick roots of pale green light tore up through the stone and seized him by both wrists, wrenching his arms wide and slamming him bodily back against the far wall, pinned there, snarling and thrashing uselessly against magic he had no idea how to counter.
"You—" His voice came out choked with fury and pain in equal measure. "You'll regret this, wolf. I'll make certain of it."
"No," Briar said, chest heaving, voice shaking with adrenaline but utterly, coldly certain.
"I won't. Because everyone in this hall is finally going to know exactly what kind of man you are, Malric Voss.
I made sure of that the moment I decided I wasn't going to let you touch me and then quietly disappear. "
She raised her free hand, and the archive door slammed open on its own, torn loose by a sharp pulse of earth-magic she hadn't fully learned to control yet, the sound echoing loud enough down the corridor to draw immediate, running footsteps.
Ophira reached the doorway first, expression shifting rapidly from alarm to grim, dawning understanding as she took in the scene — Malric pinned and snarling against the wall, Briar shaking but upright, shirt torn at the collar where his hand had grabbed her, the whole archive cracked open around them like a battlefield.
"My lord Voss," Ophira said, voice gone hard and flat. "I believe you have some explaining to do."
More guards arrived behind her within moments, and Briar let the roots holding Malric finally loosen, watching him crumple to the floor rather than stand, some of her fury settling into cold, exhausted satisfaction as two guards moved to restrain him properly, over his furious, incoherent protests.
Kade arrived just as they hauled Malric upright, and for one dangerous moment Briar thought he might simply burn the man where he stood — fire licking bright and barely leashed along both forearms, expression gone murderous in a way she'd never seen from him.
He crossed to Briar first, hands hovering over her torn collar and bruised jaw like he wasn't sure where he was allowed to touch without causing her more pain, before rounding on Malric with a fury that made even the restraining guards take an involuntary step back.
"You put your hands on her." Kade's voice had gone low and terrible, banked heat rolling off him in waves. "In my hall. Under my protection."
"Your protection." Malric spat blood onto the cracked archive floor, still grinning despite the guards' grip on his arms, despite the ruin Briar's power had made of him.
"How touching. Careful, Ashgrove — a man in your position ought to think twice before making a public spectacle of just how much this particular wolf matters to him.
" His eyes cut, sharp and knowing, toward Kade.
"Wouldn't want word reaching your father about exactly what's been keeping you so occupied these past few weeks.
I imagine a scandal like that, timed just before your ceremony, could prove rather more damaging to this alliance than one wolf's testimony against mine. "
The threat landed exactly where it was meant to, and Briar watched something flicker, controlled but unmistakable, behind Kade's eyes — the calculation of a man weighing exactly how much this man knew, and exactly how badly he could use it.
"Get him out of my sight," Kade said instead, voice flat, giving Malric nothing further to work with. "Before I forget myself."