30. The Rose
Chapter 30
The Rose
I t was because of me. Kenna, the demons, the massacre—everything, it was all because of me.
My limbs trembled as I made my way through the darkened halls. My breath grew more ragged, more shallow with each step. The spectators from the Rite were gone, likely getting sleep before classes or sobbing in a corner from the morning’s events. I’d give anything to turn back time, to be back on the shoreline watching the stars with Grayson when the only elemental I had to worry about was myself.
I turned the corner and lunged into a shallow alcove to hide behind the statue there at the sound of approaching footsteps. Two sets. One from the east, one from the west.
“Pax!” Grayson’s voice echoed against the stone and sent a tremor down my spine. “Have you seen Briar? I can’t find her anywhere.”
“I haven’t seen the girl since the Rite.” His voice dripped with distaste as he said, “I was in the cells with it . Things got a little messy. I just came from the showers.”
So Pax had been the one to interrogate Kenna, not Grayson. I wasn’t sure if it made me feel better or worse that he hadn’t gotten his hands on her, at least not yet. On one hand, I shuddered to think of him capable of leaving Kenna bloodied and battered. On the other hand, she hadn’t revealed my secret under Pax’s interrogation. Something told me Grayson’s could be much more persuasive if he wished it to be. It’s possible she’d be incapable of telling them what I am even if she did break under the pressure, but I wasn’t going to bet my life on a bound tongue.
“Did you learn anything?” Grayson asked. I could picture him running his hands through his hair in frustration.
“Nothing.”
“We need to expand the interrogation to more than just her.” My heart sank at his words. It was the only logical thing to do, in his shoes I’d do the same, but the weight of being under scrutiny sat heavily on my chest.
“Who else do you want to interrogate?” Pax asked Grayson. I may be imagining it but I swore there was a tinge of eagerness in his voice.
“Everyone.” Came his hushed reply. “Keep it subtle at first and see who feels like they’re hiding something.”
“And the ones who are?”
“They’ll share Kenna’s fate. We have no place for traitors here.”
Isaac’s face flashed through my mind. I’d always known that if I were discovered he’d be sentenced alongside me, but hearing it confirmed left a metallic tang in my mouth. Pax grunted in agreement then began to speak but stopped.
“What is it?” Grayson asked. I strained to hear his response.
“I know she’s from your home pack, and I don’t want to overstep.” My heart stilled in my chest. “But what about Briar? You told me she’s a latent but she just took down an elemental in hand-to-hand, close-quarter combat—with minimal injuries. How is that possible?”
The moment Grayson took to pause aged me a lifetime.
“I don’t know,” he finally said, sounding somewhat reluctant to admit it, “But I’ll find out.”
“Should I feel her out like the others?”
“No!” Grayson barked. Then more calmly, “No, I’ll stay close to her myself. If she is hiding something, she’s more likely to reveal it around me than you. I’ve already been working on getting her to trust me again, this will seem no different. To her, it’ll just be us connecting and leading like any other Alpha and Luna pair. She won’t be suspicious, and if I’m wrong and she is, it won’t matter. She wants to believe this, she wants to believe me. So she will.”
I pressed my forehead into the cold stone of the statue until it hurt, biting my lips between my teeth to keep from making a sound. Stupid girl , I knew better than to believe it was real.
Pax said something in response as they started down the hall that made Grayson scoff, but I was done listening; I’d heard enough. I waited until the sound of their footsteps had disappeared completely before I left the solitude of the alcove to make my escape. The last thing I needed was for them to catch me eavesdropping or see the tears threatening to spill from my eyes.
What little control of myself I’d found since leaving Kenna’s cell was rapidly deteriorating. The heat building in my palms began to spread up my arms.
Five minutes.
I’d give myself just five minutes. I could pull myself together and go back to Isaac’s—no, to my—room, but goddess, it would still be filled with Kenna’s things. Would they search through them, were they already? Was there something there that would link her to me?
Four.
The cool metal of my necklace burned against my skin beneath my top. She said it was what triggered her, but why? How could she have its twin? It was reckless of me to keep wearing it now, but it was the one item, one memory, I had from my life before.
Three.
I’d been stupid. Careless, not just with my own life but Isaac’s. And Kenna! Did she deserve the fate that awaited her? I was living, breathing proof that not all elementals carried out the bidding of demons, but she’d already admitted she had. Did she have a choice? Did it matter? She’d be put to death either way.
Two.
I banged my head against the stone wall behind me with each question, the tears falling freely now. I slid my hand over my mouth to muffle my soft cries that still seemed to echo against the walls. Grayson and Pax would be watching me for any sign of suspicion, and I’d have to let them, pretending not to know that every graze of Grayson’s hand, every offer to tag along would have an ulterior motive.
One.
One more minute, I promised—just one more. I dropped my hands from my face and tilted my head up to the ceiling, willing the tears to stop falling and my breath to regulate. I shook my head and arms along with it.
Zero.
Time to be a normal, not-at-all-infused-with-fire, Luna to avoid attracting even more suspicion, yet saltwater still leaked from my closed eyes, and I couldn’t avoid the lingering sniffles. I couldn’t shove down the flames begging to be free the longer the night’s revelations circled in my head.
I couldn’t stay here—not where anyone could come across me and not when my control was hanging on by a thread. Forsaking all stealth and silence I did the only thing I could think of: I ran.
Through the breezeway and across the quad, I pushed my legs as fast as they could carry me. Pressure was building behind my eyes but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. Not running, not the panic, not the magic flooding my system as if it were punishing me for keeping it dormant for so long.
I cursed my own stupidity for not going back for the bloodstone after losing it in the Rite. I was too confident—too arrogant to think that keeping my fire buried for a single battle meant I no longer needed it. Stupid, presumptuous girl.
I cut through the treeline of the forest and pushed even harder to put as much distance between me and the Academy as I could before whatever brewed inside me burst through the surface.
Calm down, I urged myself as I ran, just calm down. Stay in control. Breathe.
But how could I breathe when I was drowning? How could I be calm when the world had turned to chaos? How could I control anything let alone my mind when everything was both literally and figuratively crashing around us?
It was too much. Everything was too much. Kenna. The Pack Rite. Grayson. Isaac—oh goddess, Isaac! He would be interrogated too along with everyone else. If I was discovered he’d surely pay the price alongside me.
A week ago I’d have thought there was a shred of hope, but Grayson’s actions today proved nothing would stay his hand when it came to a threat against the pack—even a perceived one. How many lives would be at risk because of my failures? Even if Isaac and I came out of Grayson’s investigation unscathed, Kenna had said it herself, the demons were coming for me.
They were coming to the Academy, and they were coming for me.
The first sign of a spark sputtered from my fingertips and I clenched my hands into fists to contain them.
Just keep running.
Don’t think.
Don’t look back.
Don’t slow down.
Don’t stop.
Just keep running.
I veered off the path through the underbrush as I made my way deeper into the forest. I just needed to make it over the border and I’d be safe. Branches and twigs pulled at my hair and whipped in my face but I didn’t let it slow me down. What was a trickle of blood against my cheek when the alternative could be a blade through my neck? If I was discovered, it wouldn’t matter if the demons came for me, I’d already be dead, and my friends would be left to fight the enemy alone.
They’d need me, I realized as I pushed myself even harder, ignoring the sharp pains beginning to spread through my legs and the cramping growing more pronounced in my abdomen.
With me, they were in peril. Without me, they’d be doomed before the battle ever began. We had barely defeated the two demons in the woods and there’d been not one, but two elementals fighting against them, even if I hadn’t known it at the time.
My heart sank at another revelation: they let us win. If they were there for me, if they’d been working with Kenna, if they needed the two of us for something, they’d have no choice but to let us win. But had we? Were the two we’d fought even dead? Or were they just biding their time until we left to make their escape and report back to whatever power they served?
Flames burst from my hands and began clawing their way up my arms. Their glow was too bright not to be spotted against the blanket of night even with what had to be miles I’d put between me and the nearest campus building. I spun and searched my surroundings for any sort of protection—any kind of cover, and then I spotted it: a curtain of ivy and branches blanketing a cluster of trees. I sprinted toward it, pushed through its hanging vines, and froze.
There, carved on the trunk of a fallen tree, was the outline of a flower. A briar rose. No. There was no way. I looked around for flashes of orange eyes watching me from the forest. I inhaled trying to detect even the subtlest hint of sulfur but there was nothing.
If this was left for me to find, it may not have been the only one. If I found this, someone else could find others. If they found the others then they’d start asking questions, and if they started asking too many questions when suspicion was already at its peak?—
The last thread of my control snapped.
Then there was no tree.
No carving.
No me.
There were only flames.