Chapter 71
CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE
Briar
When I reached the wall, I followed it to the open doorway. I took only a few steps back into the castle grounds before I stopped. Dismay filled me as I gaped at the churned-up, ruined earth moss.
I spun toward Knox, who was only ten feet behind us. Most of his face and body had returned to normal, though his claws and some orange fur remained.
“Did you do this?” I demanded.
“Did I do what?” he retorted.
I waved a hand at the ruined moss. The tables had turned, and now I was the irate one. He’d angered me in the woods, but I’d gladly grab his hairy balls and squeeze until they popped over this.
“This! Did you tear it all up with your massive toe claws?”
He scowled at me. “Massive toe claws?”
“What else would you call them? This moss is precious and will be treated with respect! It’s helping to keep the plants and roses alive, and you treated it like garbage! It’s going to take weeks for this to regrow.”
He actually looked a little remorseful as he studied the destroyed moss. Thankfully, he’d only torn a path down to the door and there was still more to work with, but this shouldn’t have happened.
“You have to get your temper under control,” I told him. “The sprites and your kingdom need help, and you could have ruined my ability to aid them.”
His eyes narrowed on me, but I didn’t stick around to hear what he’d say as I turned and stormed away. Knox slammed the door shut with a thud that was still echoing when he appeared at my side.
“You don’t get to talk to me like that,” he said.
“I just did.”
I could feel him seething beside me while I carefully picked my way over the ruined moss. The mushrooms needed to go inside, but after that, I’d spend the rest of the day trying to fix some of the destruction he’d caused.
Once free of the moss, I shifted my attention back to him. I glared at him as he cautiously navigated the moss, but his care was too little too late.
We glowered at each other before I stalked away. Zephyr flew a few feet to my right, but the sprite still didn’t abandon me; it had been years since I had a friend, and I was glad to count him as one.
When I smiled at him, he offered a tremulous one in return. I hoped Knox would let us continue to be friends.
I was almost at the door of the castle when it opened. Dromon filled the entryway, and I stopped walking when I saw the look on his face. Uneasiness filled my belly as he stared at me before shifting his attention to Knox.
“Where the fuck were you?” Knox snarled as he closed in on his friend. “She was outside the wall!”
Dromon stepped away from Knox. “I was helping the sprites with the birth of a calf. You said she didn’t have to be watched all the time, and she’s never left the castle grounds before.”
“Yes, she has.”
“Ah… uh… I… ah,” Dromon stammered as he glared at me.
“Not only that, but she’s been tending to all the plants in the castle. I told you she was to only care for the bleeding heart.”
“No, she hasn’t,” Dromon said.
Knox looked about to explode as he seized Dromon by the throat and plucked the easily two-hundred-and-fifty-pound man off the ground like he weighed no more than a baby. “Are you telling me you didn’t notice the difference in the plants?” Knox demanded.
Dromon’s face turned red as he lifted his chin to breathe.
“I snuck the potion to the other plants!” I blurted. “He didn’t know!”
Knox’s head turned toward me, and his nostrils flared. “I saw the difference the second I entered the castle.”
“But you were away; you wouldn’t have noticed the difference if you’d been here the whole time.”
“The fuck I wouldn’t have.”
“Okay, maybe you would have, but he didn’t know.”
“That doesn’t make it any better.”
When Knox released Dromon, the man dropped to his feet. His hand went to his bruised throat as he gasped for breath.
“You’re right,” Dromon wheezed. “I should have noticed. I was left to protect the castle, and I failed you.”
I gazed at him in dismay. “You didn’t fail him. I hid it from you!”
Dromon’s brown eyes met mine as he rose to his full height. “I failed to keep the castle safe.”
“Oh yeah, because I destroyed it,” I muttered sarcastically. “Beware the sorceress who helps you!”
“I’ll do better next time,” Dromon vowed, and I rolled my eyes.
Knox studied him before grasping his shoulder and squeezing it. “I know you will.”
An exasperated noise escaped me. I didn’t get shifters and this whole alpha dynamic, and I never would.
“I have work to do,” I said.
I tried to move past Dromon, but he blocked me. “The tribunal is here… with her mother,” he stated.
My blood ran cold as the implication of his words sank in.
She’d already noticed I was missing, and now she’d come to collect me sooner than I’d anticipated.
I knew she’d come soon, but I’d buried myself in tending to the plants and purposely ignored the ax hanging over my neck. That ax was descending.
Panic filled me as I stepped back and half turned toward the closed door in the wall. I didn’t have any supplies, but it was time to run.
Before I could bolt, Knox grasped my arm and pulled me against his side. His claws extended again, and his smile was more a baring of teeth.
“She’s here to take me,” I whispered. “I can’t be here. I can’t go back. I have to go.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
I couldn’t speak as Dromon stepped back and Knox propelled me through the door. With growing dread, I understood I’d just become a pawn between two warring kingdoms.
**TURN THE PAGE FOR TWO SNEAK PEEKS:
BOOK 2 OF BENEATH THE brIARS, WHEN ASHES FALL.
BOOK 7 OF TEMPEST OF SHADOWS, A TEMPEST OF WRATH
Briar and Knox will return in When Ashes Fall, Book 2 of Beneath the Briars! Before then, the 7th book in the Tempest of Shadows will release.
Turn the page for a sneak peek of When Ashes Fall, or preorder now and continue reading in summer 2026: AFwb
Then check out a sneak peek for A Tempest of Wrath, or preorder now and continue reading in spring 2026: Wwb