Chapter 3
This room is literally like living in hell, and I want out.
There is a gigantic lavish gray bed in the middle of the room that I’m certain Lock expects me to share with him.
Sheets hang from the four-poster bed, which is stuffed with fluffy pillows and cushions all in shades of gray.
Thankfully, there’s an uncomfortable looking couch that I slept on, because I am not sleeping in the bed with him.
The four-poster bed takes up most of the room, and everything in here is bright, painted white and gray, and lacking any of the spooky decor of the rest of the castle.
The only parts they haven’t mutated in this room are the gigantic stained glass windows that display wolves and snakes, and the balcony with its iron bars is still the same.
It looks out over the forest and the rising moon.
I spent three hours in the bathroom, claiming I needed to get ready for the bonding night, and Lock wasn’t all that happy about it. In truth, I was hiding all my ingredients, potions and my new spellbook under the floorboards.
Lock’s bonded is a beautiful blonde panther shifter named Emery. I know her only from previous years, and I have to pretend we have never met when she comes into the room. She is sitting on the bed, looking between Lock and me. “Can’t we all share the same room, Lock? I don’t want our bond to—”
“No,” Lock snaps at her, and she flinches. My hands itch to hex him for speaking to her in that tone, and he just makes it worse. “Don’t make me put you in your place, Emery. You are my bonded, but she will be my wife. She comes first and always will. Now get out.”
Tears stream down Emery’s face as she storms out, slamming the door shut behind her.
Lock sighs. “Shifters have such tempers. They are almost wild animals.” Yet, I know you’re fucking Emery, or at least you were in the past years.
I wonder how many witches have relationships with their bonded.
“You will have to remember to keep your bonded in their place, or I will do it for you if you can’t stomach it. ”
If he lays a finger on my bonded, he will die.
I sit on the couch, tugging at the edge of my cloak and tight clothing.
It all fits perfectly, but all I see when I look in the mirror is the years I’ve lost. I watch Lock unpack his clothes and mine, which have been carefully picked for me, and my uniforms. He puts them side by side like we’re already a married couple.
When he is done, he comes over and sits next to me.
“The bonding night can be quite dangerous.”
“I guessed that. I will be fine.” I cross my arms. “I’m sure whoever I pick will be agreeable.”
“About that, my mother decided it was easier just to handpick a shifter for you rather than let you run around the forest with those animals and maybe get hurt. I don’t want you hurt.
She chose someone. His name is Aster.” Wini’s bonded.
The wolf who punched me in training and beat me up to prove a point.
It’s hard to forget him. “He’s a wolf shifter and big wolf, but he’s a nice guy.
I’ve spoken with him, and he would work well in our great family.
I think he’ll be perfect for you. I would have preferred someone female, but Mother decided it was better this way.
A wolf of his size will be easy for you to ride away from any danger. ”
Damn it. First the dragons are locked up, and now they have arranged this crap.
Okay, I can figure this out. I’m definitely not bonding with Aster; he belongs to Wini.
“You can’t come into the forest though, right?
You already have your bonded. I have to do this alone, and who knows what will happen out there,” I point out. I ask him just to make sure.
“Well, yes, I cannot come with you. The Umbral Authority can’t alter the magic of the castle and lands, and it won’t let us.
Don’t be scared. I know this is very annoying, but Aster’s going to be waiting.
Ready for you.” He hands me a dagger. The dagger’s gray, bland, with his family name etched in gold on the blade.
The blade isn’t really that sharp, almost dull.
“Here, your first family dagger. You just have to find a bloodstone, cut your hand over it. It’s really easy, all right?
I’ll be waiting for you at the ceremony afterwards.
The door opens at midnight, and I can’t help you, so I have to step back for now and leave.
I’ve already made sure that no one will touch you in the corridor or castle. My friends and I will protect you.”
“Aren’t you sweet?” I mutter.
He grabs my chin, rubbing his thumb across my lips, and I internally wince. “Remember, Aster is his name. He’ll be waiting for you. All you have to do is walk into the forest and find him.”
Just like last time where it all went wrong.
Hopefully, it goes just as wrong this time.
But wait, it can’t. The dragons won’t be in the forest. They’ve made sure of it to make sure that I don’t bond with them.
Luckily, I have hours alone to think about this now.
Lock leans in like he is going to kiss me, and I freeze in a panic.
He pales and groans, grabbing his crotch.
“I think I should see a healer. I’m not feeling too well. ”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” I bite down on my lip, holding in the laugh as he hobbles to the door, grabbing his cloak and quickly leaving. The second the door shuts, I burst into laughter and lie back on the stiff sofa.
After I get myself under control, I go to the bathroom and double-check all my things, pausing when I see a small pair of eyes watching me from the shower.
It’s a small creature, one I don’t know the name of.
It has sea-blue fur, mostly knotted and a mess, and big ears, and its beady eyes stick out of the fur of its head.
It almost looks like a squirrel, but its tail is long, wrapped twice around its body with a bushy end.
“Hello. I’ve never seen one of you before.
” It pads forward nervously, and I don’t blame it.
Most witches are horrid to small creatures and call them vermin.
Another reason I’m not the biggest fan of my race.
The small creature looks down at my hidden supplies.
“Oh, I need these to stop the bad guys and my roommate, who is not my friend… He can’t know.
Are you good at keeping secrets?” It surprises me by climbing onto my arm and scurrying under my sleeve.
I can’t make out if it’s female or male.
Its tail is cold as it wraps around my wrist several times, almost like a bracelet, and doesn’t move from its new spot. It rests its head on the broken watch.
I sigh. Little creatures have always liked me, but this is new. They never get this close, let alone allow me to touch them. “I’m about to go into the forest, little creature. I’m not sure you want to be with me.”
It squeaks in protest, and I sigh. “So, what’s your name?
” It squeaks again, and I grin. “How about Minnie?” The creature nods its little head and hides back in my sleeve.
Seems I have a new friend. I push Minnie to the back of my mind for now, knowing I’m going to need to research what kind of creature she is when I can get to the library.
But for now, I spend the next few hours waiting for midnight and mixing more potions.
The recipe I’ve crafted needs rarer ingredients than I have, but the academy has to have some here, and I just need to steal them somehow.
I hear the clock in the bedroom chime for midnight, and I stand, facing the door and bracing myself, while Minnie scurries off.
Time to be the worst student at Bloodstone Academy.
The door swings open with a slam, and the screaming begins immediately.
I send a prayer to the goddess before I barrel out into the chaos, running past my old room, which now has a dead student lying broken by the doorframe, blood pooling from his mouth.
Sickness rises in my throat, but I run, knowing I can’t waste any time here. My hand grips Lock’s dagger tight as I run down the stairs. I search for Winifred and Parker in the huddle of dead people I pass, but they aren’t there, and I’m relieved. They must have gotten out.
A witch surprises me, and her spell lunges out of the air, harmlessly smacking into my defensive spell I cast hours ago.
The witch, a second-year I recognize, opens her mouth in shock.
Defensive spells like this one don’t exist. I grin and whisper a spell, freezing her in pure ice.
She rolls down the remaining steps, ice cracking with each slam on the stairs.
I step over her, not looking back to see if she dies.
I am finding it hard to have sympathy for anyone in this castle right now.
I cast my thoughts out to the castle, making sure it knows I want to go to the forest, and the castle moves for me. I only need to walk down one corridor before I’m on the steps outside, on the lower level, and with nothing between the forest and me. I touch the walls. “Thank you.”
Every instinct tells me not to run into the forest, knowing my bonded are not out there and I have no intention of bonding with anyone else. Still…I don’t have a choice right now. I can feel eyes on me, thanks to my spell, and I run into the forest to get away from them.
The trees blur as I run, keeping close to the castle and following the tree line.
The forest echoes with screams, roars and hisses.
It’s almost alive, and magic hums in the air on this holy night.
I pause when I sense I am being followed.
I turn just in time to see Aster walk out from behind a tree, and he holds his hands up at his sides. “Juniper? I was sent to—”
“I know.” Aster and I have never really gotten along, but he was a good bonded to Wini, and I don’t think he is a bad guy.
His brown braids move in the breeze, the metal clips he wears clinking together.
“You’re Aster, you shift into a wolf, and you want to bond with me because the Umbral Authority told you too. Unfortunately, that isn’t happening.”
Aster frowns in confusion, rubbing his chin. “Why not? I will protect you and—”
“Yeah, I know you would and you would make a great bonded, but I’m not bonding with you.” I lift my chin.
Aster shakes his head in denial. “You don’t understand, Lock’s mother, Fasrah, made it very clear what would happen to both you and me if we don’t bond. They want this…even if it is forced.”
I shrug. There isn’t much worse they can do to me now.
I’ve been beaten my entire life, to the point I hardly feel pain anymore, and I was conditioned to be their weapon against my own mother.
They took everything from me, year after year, and messed with my mind.
I’m done fearing them. “I will take the blame. What’s going to happen instead is you’re going to tell them that we got interrupted because we got attacked, and you lost me in the fight.
I’ll tell them exactly the same thing. You won’t get blamed for it.
They’ll be too distracted with what I’ve done. ”
He gulps and stares at me like I’m an enemy. To the witches, I am. To him, no. “And what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to cause a problem for the witches in charge.” I smile at him. “Go find Winifred. She belongs to you; the goddess knows it and so do I.”
Aster looks so confused between arguing with me and telling me I’m insane.
I whisper a new spell, going completely invisible to anyone that looks my way.
I smile as Aster looks around, trying to sense me.
I see his hands clenching and unclenching.
His head snaps to the right, and he stares into the dark trees that groan in the wind.
I didn’t hear it at first, then I hear her scream.
Winifred’s scream. I almost turn to find her, but Aster is already running in her direction, shifting into a huge wolf.
I know she will be okay now. Nothing comes between the bonded.
The Umbral Authority can erase the marks on our palms and tell us that it’s not real, but they can’t change what’s in our soul or who we are destined for.
He belongs to Wini, and I, I belong to four dragon assholes, who are not going to be happy to find me breaking them out.
I start walking back to the castle, hearing the screams throughout the forest, missing the key element of fire that I was once scared of.
Now I dance in the flames, and hope it burns the witches in charge to the ground.