Chapter 16
We all look over the plan laid out on the floor of their room as Maz’s loud music echoes around the room.
All the spells—the ones that are going to change Bloodstone Academy forever—are here, and there isn’t a single thing that isn’t forbidden.
Just like us. The two main spells are in the middle—the ones specifically for me to do.
The first is to tap into the barrier around Bloodstone Academy and control it, making sure that no witches or shifters can leave and no one can get in.
The second one is to call the enchantress.
Using my blood, I made sure to weave the spell so that Bloodstone Academy will let her and only her through.
The rest of the spells are pretty simple.
One’s to drain magic from the witches. We’re going to start by poisoning all their food in the morning, and hopefully that will be enough to slow down anyone who wants to fight back.
It’s going to be a bloodbath, we all know it, but there isn’t a way to change anything unless we do this.
The Umbral Authority are a ticking time bomb, and I refuse to let them steal any more of my life away.
The shifters, the ones who the dragons have convinced to join them, will storm the castle to help gain control.
We can lock down the castle, kill anybody that gets in our way.
Then we’ve done it. We’ve taken Bloodstone Academy back, and the Umbral Authority will have to listen to me.
No more prophecy stuff. No more ruining my life in the name of the greater good.
The riskiest part of our plan is the enchantress.
I have to hope the enchantress isn’t the villain they’ve made her out to be.
We’re betting on a lot here, and I’m worried about what’s going to happen if any of it goes wrong.
“So we agreed this is happening this Saturday at midnight?” I look up at Maz.
He’s sitting on a storage box at the end of his bed, sharpening one of his daggers and looking too good in a loose shirt and joggers.
He winks at me when he sees me staring, and I gnaw on my bottom lip as I look away to Kane.
Kane is on the window seat, looking out at the forest. He turns back and meets my gaze. “We have to do it before the wedding next weekend. People will start turning up, especially the Umbral Authority, with such a grand wedding planned here at the academy. The fewer adult witches, the better.”
“He’s right. This weekend’s our last chance. Lock claims he’s having a bachelor party on the weekend, but he didn’t say where. He will be distracted at least.” I shrug.
“It’s going to work.” Black runs his fingers down my spine, to my hip and over the mark.
“Out of interest, what have you done to that prick Lock? He’s not very touchy-feely like I’d expect your fiancé to be, and he always looks so pale.
Especially recently.” Vale coughs but doesn’t look over at me.
I frown and quickly tell them about the spell, the one that I put on his dick.
They stare at me, open-mouthed, for a minute before all of them burst into laughter.
I laugh with them. Even Vale chuckles from where he’s sitting on his bed, quietly reading a book.
His eyes meet mine for a second before he looks away, his smile dropping.
“I boosted the spell last week. He didn’t look sick enough. ”
Things have been so weird between all of us, and it has everything to do with Vale’s attitude, and this is more proof of how confusing he is.
I’m not going to be the one to break the silence first. What would I even say to him?
No, I’m not saying anything. He only talks around me when we are together as a group and never outside of that.
I go to brush a strand of hair out of my face, and the watch on my wrist falls off with a bang.
“Oh, no.” I pick it up and examine it. “I think I’ve ripped a hole in the leather strap. It’s so old.”
“Where’d you get the watch from?” Vale asks, getting up from the bed. His eyes are fixed on the old watch.
Maz looks between the two of us. I don’t think he’s seen us speak since the vault.
“I know it’s a bit strange, but small creatures gave it to me.
I kept running late for my lessons, so they just turned up with this solution.
Although the glass is broken, and it’s pretty hard to tell time on it, it’s a gift, so it doesn’t matter what it looks like, only that it was given to me. ”
Vale shakes his head with a frown. “Only you would be given such a gift from the small creatures.”
He pulls out a pocket watch, one that’s familiar, but I’m not sure where I’ve seen it. “Put the glass in that together with this pocket watch, and you have one of the goddess’s items.”
I hand him the old watch. “How do you know that?”
“I think there are other people in this castle who are very interested in seeing the leadership crumble. I was given it by the headmaster,” Vale explains, holding the two parts together. “This could be a secret weapon for us if I can fix it.”
“And you forgot to tell us about your meeting with the headmaster?” Kane asks, voice sharp.
“Wasn’t important until now.” Vale doesn’t apologize, and I resist the urge to call him a dickhead. “I’ll work on it, and I’ll let you know. I’m going to take it down to the science rooms, take it apart slowly under the microscopes and make sure I’m not damaging anything.”
Maz asks the important question. “Did he say what that watch could do? The tarot cards take memories, and I believe they bend reality.”
“Apparently, it can jump between worlds,” Vale answers.
“Worlds? That’s just a theory, right? There’s only our world,” I blurt out.
“That’s all I was told. Could be a lie for all I know.” His tone is back to the coldness that has been there since the vault.
Vale walks out without another word, and Maz climbs to his feet, sharing a look with Kane, and Kane nods at him. Maz comes to me, leaning down and kissing me softly. “See you later, beautiful. I’m going to supervise Vale.”
Black leans over and kisses my cheek. “I’m getting near the bottom of the leaderboard with all our extra plans and the lessons I’ve missed.
I’m going to go and do extra lessons in training.
Make sure everything’s looking good for us.
” I did the same yesterday, and I’m nowhere near the top right now.
There was a time when that would have made me go crazy and be desperate to fix it.
Now I know it’s all a lie to keep us here and controlled.
“Okay. Love you,” I whisper.
“Love you, too.” He softly trails his hand over my cheek before leaving with Maz.
I stand up, stretching my arms above my head. I walk over to Kane, who is silent and still watching the forest with an unreadable expression. “I don’t have long before Lock’s lesson finishes. He’s going to start wondering where I am and search.”
“How do you not murder him in his sleep every night you’re there?
” Kane’s question is serious. “I know we have planned all this and you need me to trust you, which I do, but every instinct in me is telling me to shift, grab you and fly the fuck away from here. I know it’s madness, I know I wouldn’t be able to live with knowing all the shifters here are doomed, but I need you safe. ”
I sit opposite him on the window seat, leaning back and pulling my legs up so my feet rest next to where his are.
“It’s a real task in self-control. Kane, I wanted to talk to you about something, and now that we’re alone…
well, what happened to my foster parents?
Do you think they were good people? They must have known that I was the daughter of the enchantress, but maybe they didn’t know?
Were they good people?” I pause. “You told me you were hexed not to be able to tell me the truth of it all, but I was reading a book on shifters and mate bonds. It states that no hex can force lies or distrust between a mated pair. I’m wondering if you can tell me, only me, where no one else can hear? ”
“Fuck, you’re smart, Juni.” He pauses. “You grew up with us four, but Vale was here at the Bloodstone Forest far more than the others. They tell shifters they lose their powers if they leave Bloodstone, but that’s not entirely true for our young.
Everyone knows it, but what can they do?
He was taken to us for visits, and even then, you two would argue.
Maz and Black followed you like a puppy, and I was your best friend. ”
My heart races. “Tell me everything, Kane. Please.”
“Some of this you might know, but the Daygan clan was, in my opinion, some of the best witches there were. There weren’t many of them.
Their town was quite small, a series of houses and quite a large mansion that overlooked the forest. The forest was completely enclosed by tall walls because it used to be a quarry, and my parents were hidden there.
Any shifter was hidden and protected by the Daygan clan.
I don’t know what your parents knew about any of your birth, but I do know that they were planning to rebel.
I used to follow my parents to meetings where people came from all different clans and talked about building a rebellion, changing things. ”
“Is that how they died?” I lean back. I wish I could remember them.
“We killed them, but not on purpose. Between the two of us, no one was innocent or guilty. It was a mess, but it was definitely our fault. But what you did, I never understood it.” His voice cracks. I feel guilty, and I don’t even know what I did.
My voice comes out as a plea. “Tell me. I need to know.”
“I think you need to understand some things first. Maz and Black are not the only cursed dragons that you’re bonded to. So am I. I kill anybody that’s blood-related to me.” He says it so casually, like it isn’t life-changing news.
“What?” I shake my head in disbelief.
“I can never have kids. I can never have any relatives that are blood-related to me because of it. I hexed myself never to be able to impregnate, knowing it’s the only safety net for me.
My mom told me about the curse when I was old enough to understand it.
She said that a woman came and cursed me, the enchantress did, when I was a tiny baby.
That one bit of blood, just a drop of it, is death for them.
I killed my grandmother when I cut my finger at two years old.
My blood would visibly attack and kill anything like it. ”
“What does that have to do with me, then? How did that—”
“Well, of course growing up, we were very careful never to get injured. I told you about the curse. You were my best friend, and I told you everything, including my worst fear of hurting my parents. That night, the night that changed everything, we were playing around. I don’t know if you remember it, but we were climbing a tree together.
You were so mad at me because I got to the top first, and we were arguing like cats and dogs.
It was ridiculous.” He smiles sadly. “But we were kids, and you pushed me. I slipped. I didn’t shift on the way down.
I should have, but I didn’t. I smacked onto the ground.
I don’t remember much, but I was unconscious, and you dragged me through the forest to my home.
I believe you forgot about the curse, the blood pouring out of my head, and you took me straight to my parents.
My blood poured out of the cut on my head and literally strangled them both in front of me, in front of you.
You were horrified. You screamed and ran away, back to your parents, to the big mansion.
It took me years to consider that you didn’t do it on purpose. ”
My heart breaks for the child version of Kane, for the loss he suffered and the pain he felt. I’m horrified that I caused such tragedy. “I would never have done that on purpose. I don’t remember doing it, but I must have been scared, and I’m so sorry. So sorry,” I whisper, my voice cracking.
He looks back out at the forest. “I hated you for it, because I could never understand why you did that. I thought maybe you were just that bad of a person. In my memory, I had no idea what happened next. Only that your parents were dead. The entire town was dead. I was picked up like cattle and thrown in here along with any other shifters in the forest with us. Just the children. All the adults were killed by witches in cloaks. When I was in the transport, the witches just talked about you. How important it was that Juniper was fine. How Juniper was the key to it all. How all this death was to protect Juniper. I just lost everything, and you were the reason. I was so mad at you.”
“I’m sorry, Kane. I really am.” We both know it wasn’t all my fault. The witches must have been from the Umbral Authority.
He leans forward, wiping the tears away from my cheeks.
“It’s in the past, okay? I don’t blame you, and I know you’re not this evil witch I made you out to be in my head to cope with the loss of everything.
We will build our own future, and we are honoring our parents by doing what they couldn’t.
They would have loved our rebellion, don’t you think?
They would have loved that we found each other again in all this madness and fell in love.
” My breath hitches. “I think the Umbral Authority killed them all and probably anybody that had anything to do with the rebellion. They took you because you were always the prize, weren’t you?
They saw it. And now I see it too.” He kisses me softly for a long time.
Not a claiming kiss, but something softer and deeper.
I melt into his arms, and he holds me against his chest.
I look up into his eyes. “They will pay for all their deaths. We won’t let it be for nothing, Kane. We will fight. We will borrow the light from our memories and burn the darkness to the ground.”