No!
I shook my head, my slate-grey fur flashing in my eyeline. No. I could not touch Brendon. I had to get the ball. I twisted right and looked up at the ball hanging high above my head.
No. Fuck Brendon, and fuck his test. I didn’t owe him a damned thing. I didn’t have to jump through any hoops for him.
Not for him, then. For me. To prove I could. To prove everyone wrong. Focus, Jade! The ball was too high for me to jump, and–
Forget the ball. Brendon’s scent was invading my lungs with every breath, and I could smell the blood pumping through his veins. Blood that I would spill before today was done.
I had to kill him. No. I had to get the ball.
My head flicked between the two a half dozen times.
And then I lunged at Brendon.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I felt like I’d been hit by a truck.
I left the shifting chamber with my hair hanging lank around my face, and a defeated shuffle to my step. Was there any way that could have gone worse? Well, yeah, okay, I could have actually mauled Brendon instead of just trying, but the only reason I didn’t was because he used his baton on my cuff, so I was pretty sure that didn’t count. And I was damned sure I’d just failed my final exam.
I didn’t spare a glance for the others waiting to go in. As I traipsed down the corridor away from their curious eyes, I heard Brendon summon Mei inside. I hoped she did better than me. To be fair, it was hard to imagine any way she couldn’t. Shit. What was I going to do now? Failing my exams meant being held back a year – like I wasn’t enough of an outcast as it was.
“Jade!”
I jerked my head up from my feet to meet Ryan’s wild eyes. I shook off my self-pity. I wasn’t the only one who’d just been through a gruelling exam. Maybe we could wallow together.
“Hey, Ryan. That was a bit shit, wasn’t it?”
“What? Oh, the exam? Yeah, sure. We need to talk. In here.”
He grabbed my arm and towed me into a storage room. I glanced around as he shut the door behind us.
“Uh, what are we doing in here?”
“Saving Brad, I hope.”
I raised an eyebrow. I’d done everything I could to help him, and Laura, last time I visited. And they’d been pretty adamant they didn’t want that sort of help.
“You know what, Ryan? It’s been a pretty shitty day. Can you move, please, so I can go back to my dorm and feel sorry for myself?”
“Please, Jade. I heard Blake talking to Shaun. Draeven is coming tonight.”
“Why?”
“Why else?” He slumped back against the door. “You told me there were only two ways I’d leave that dungeon – as a student… or a corpse.”
I closed my eyes, exhaling heavily. “He’s coming to pass judgement.”
“Listen. I know what you think of Brad. But do you really think he deserves to die, just because he can’t accept what was done to him? I can’t let that happen. We can’t.”
It could have been either of us down there. It had taken me a long time to come to terms with what that rogue shifter had done to me, and I’d had a lot of help. We didn’t have the death penalty in this country, and I’d grown up my entire life believing in the importance of giving a person the chance to reform. My views hadn’t changed just because I was a shifter now. And it sure as hell wasn’t right that someone should be sentenced to death because someone else had committed a crime against them. It was victim blaming at its worst, and it was bullshit. I set my jaw and opened my eyes.
“What’s your plan?”
Ryan bowed his head for a second and pressed his lips together, then he met my eye.
“I’ve got the key for the dungeon door, and I’ve got the cell keys and the key for their cuffs.”
“What? How?”
“I picked the lock to Blake’s office after I heard him talking to Shaun.”
“What the hell did you do before you came here?” I held up my hand. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. We bust them out of the dungeon. Then what?”
“We get them out of the castle while everyone’s busy with the exams, and to the wall.”
“The warded wall,” I pointed out.
“I’ve done a lot of research. That day you burned me? That was a druid power. Magic. And if you can use magic, you can bring down the wards.”
“What? I don’t know how!”
“Brad’s been reading that book I took. He can tell you what to do. Please, we’ve got to try.”
“Okay. Yes. Of course, I’ll try. But we need a backup plan. There’s no way of knowing if I can do this, not for sure.”
“Fine. But we better think of it on the run, because if Blake realises his keys are gone, we’ll never get them out.”
He was right about that. And I didn’t even want to think about what he’d do if he caught us in the act of freeing the prisoners we weren’t supposed to know about. I shoved my head out of the door, checking the coast was clear, and then we hurried through the castle, making for the dungeon. We didn’t pass anyone on the way. The instructors were all tied up carrying out exams, and the students were either taking them, or getting in some last-minute practice. The scents in the corridor leading to the sealed door were all hours old – we were the only ones here. For now.
“Hurry up,” I hissed at Ryan as he slotted the key into the lock. He got the door open and we spilled through, pushing it shut behind us but not locking it. We weren’t going to be here long.
“Brad first,” he said, hurrying to the door at the end. I didn’t object. If that had been Cam in there, he’d be my priority, too. I swallowed. Even if Cam didn’t feel that way about me anymore.
We burst into the room at the end, and Brad jumped to his feet. He took one look at our faces and came to the front of his cell.
“It’s happening, isn’t it? Draeven. He’s come to kill us.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” I said, grabbing the cuff key from Ryan’s shaking hands. “I’ve got this. Get that cell door open.”
I turned my attention back to Brad.
“Give me your wrists. Quickly.”
He thrust his hands through the cage. The cuffs he was wearing were the same thick, silver-laced ones I’d been put in when I first arrived. The ones that had stopped me from shifting. Brad wouldn’t stand a chance outside the walls with them on. But he also wouldn’t be able to hurt any mundanes.
“Come on,” he said. “Hurry up.”
I nodded and inserted the key into the cuff. One twist and it fell away. He deserved a chance to be free. To find some peace away from this cage. I unlocked the second cuff and tossed it aside. Brad pulled his hands back through the bars and rubbed his wrists.
Ryan yanked the door, and it swung open with a loud creak. Brad eyed the open doorway for a moment, then eased forward, like he was expecting to walk into a solid brick wall. I watched him from the corner of my eye, trying not to stare openly. I could only imagine what was going through his head after months of being locked in this tiny cell.
“You okay?”
He grunted in reply, and stepped through the door.
“I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye,” he said, holding out his hand to me. “But I owe you for this. Truce?”
I nodded and reached out, accepting his hand. His grip tightened around me, squeezing my hand to the point of pain, then he wrenched my arm, yanking me off balance. I stumbled forwards and he drove an elbow between my shoulder blades. Pain exploded across my shoulders and my legs weakened under me. I spun round, trying to gather my wits in some sort of defence, but before I could even get my guard hand up, he planted a foot on my chest and shoved. I flew back, falling over my own legs and smashing into the wall at the back of the cell. Brad yanked the door shut.
“What are you doing?” I gasped.
“Sorry, darling. But I don’t think you’re going to be too keen on part two of our little plan. The part where we kill every bastard responsible
for keeping us in these cages.”
I lunged forward, shoving my hands through the bars and snatching at the key, but Brad turned it before I got there, and pulled it out. He dangled it out of reach, tutting.
“Nice try, but I don’t think we want you getting in our way.”
“This wasn’t the plan,” Ryan said, gnawing at his lip. “You said we were getting out of here. All of us.”
“That’s not enough,” Brad said. “Not nearly enough. You can come with us, or you can stay here with her. Your choice.”
“Ryan, you can’t let him do this. Those are our friends out there.”
Ryan shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Jade. We’re nothing but outsiders to them.” He touched a hand to Brad’s arm. “And Brad is everything to me.”
“And what are you going to do when Draeven gets here, huh? He’ll kill all of you.”
“Well, see, that’s the thing, darling,” Brad said, his lips peeling back in a feral smirk. He lifted his hand. The palm glowed red, and then a bolt of fire burst from it, smashing into the wall and leaving a scorch mark on the grey stones. “You’re not the only one who can do magic. And now that my cuffs are off – thanks for that, by the way – there’s nothing that can stop me.”
He held up the cell key, cocked his head at me with a smile, and then tossed it into the far corner of the room.
“See you later, darling. Or not. Come on, Ryan.”
He turned and strode through the open door into the hallway. Ryan gave me one last apologetic look, then hurried through after him.
Fuck.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The door slammed shut, and then I was alone. Trapped.
I grabbed the cage door and gave it a rattle, but it didn’t budge. I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid! Falling for that ridiculous ‘truce’ line. I should have known better than to let my guard down around that psycho for a single second. And right now, he was prowling Fur ‘n’ Fang’s hallways, looking for victims. Because of me. I should have reported it the second Ryan told me he’d been visiting.
And as for Ryan… I stalked up and down the cell, scowling. I’d trusted him. I’d considered him a friend. Wanting to bust Brad out? Sure, I got that. But going along with this killing spree? Those were our friends he was talking about! Friends who had no idea what was coming for them. Because Brad hadn’t spent the last months in denial about the strange powers that flared up when he was angry, or anxious. He hadn’t buried his head in the sand when his hand burned hot enough to sear skin. He’d embraced it. He’d studied it. And the second I’d removed his cuffs, I’d unleashed a deadly power into my home.
And I wasn’t going to let that stand.
I couldn’t hide from what I was anymore. Not if I was going to stop Brad from hurting the people I cared about. I’d burned people who had been a danger to me – first Ryan, and then Jax. And what the hell was that thing that had happened in the woods during my tracking exam? Wind didn’t blow from three directions at once. And Shaun had seemed just as bemused as I’d been. Because it had come from me. I needed help finding the scents, and the wind had brought them to me.
And right now, I needed that key lying on the other side of the room.
What was it Brad had done? I lifted my right hand and pointed it at the key, willing it towards me. It didn’t budge. I squeezed my eyes tight, focussing with every fibre of my being on my desperate need for the key to move. My highly attuned senses detected no sound of movement: no wind, no metal scraping against concrete. I cracked one eye open, and sure enough, the damned thing hadn’t moved.
This was pointless. Ryan’s book said these were druid powers, and druids went to academies of their own, spending years to master their magic. It wasn’t going to come to me in thirty seconds just because I wanted it.
I rattled the bars again, growling with frustration.
But Brad hadn’t been able to practice, not with those cuffs on. I’d studied them in Law, and the symbols etched on them would hobble any magical creature, including a druid. Sure, he’d had time to read up on it, and train himself to focus, but he couldn’t have used magic with them on.
I raised my hand to the key again. I’d been worried in the woods. Desperate. Scared I was going to miss Jax’s scent and fail the exam. Well, I was a whole lot more scared now. What if Mei or Dean got in Brad’s way? What if Cam did?
The dust in the corner of the room stirred. My hearted thudded. It was working. Blake, Shaun, even Fletcher – they were all tied up handling exams. No-one would be wandering the halls, keeping guard. The students were completely exposed. And everyone I knew and cared about wore a training cuff. The only advantage they had – their ability to shift – would be muted. Hell, half of them had never even sprinted on four legs. They would be easy prey for the rogue wolf.
The wind whirled round the small room, rattling the door like a coming storm. Yeah, there was a storm coming, alright. And none of us were ready for it.
I locked my eyes onto the key, willing the full force of the wind into it. It scraped an inch along the floor, then shot forward through the air, straight through the bars of the cage. I ducked with a yelp and it zipped over my head and crashed into the wall.
My stomach churned. I felt drained, as weak as a day-old kitten. But I couldn’t afford to be weak. Not if I was going to stop Brad. I crouched down and picked up the key with trembling fingers, and carried it carefully to the lock. It took me three attempts to wiggle it into the keyhole, but I got it. One twist and the door swung open. I stepped out, then paused. Brad’s cuffs lay abandoned on the floor, but the key was gone. Ryan must have taken it while Brad was overpowering me. For Laura. The three of them were going to carry out this crazy plan together. And whether they pulled it off or they failed, innocent people were going to get caught in the crossfire.
I hurried out into the corridor, pausing only long enough to sniff the air, but they were long gone. They hadn’t locked the main door out of the dungeon, either. Guess they’d thought that cage would hold me. Their mistake.
I crept along the eerily quiet hallways. I needed to raise the alarm, and I needed to do it in a way that wouldn’t cause mass panic. That meant finding Blake. I paused at an intersection. If Draeven was coming, then there was every chance Blake would be preparing for his visit. There wasn’t time to blunder around trying to find him. I turned left and hurried in the opposite direction.
As I approached Shaun’s office, a tingle ran across the back of my neck. Something wasn’t right. I paused outside the door and sniffed. Brad. His scent was all around here. Ryan’s and Laura’s, too. I started to back away, but a voice froze me in place.
“I know you’re out there, Jade.” Brad’s voice sent ice down my spine. “Open the door and come in, slowly – or people are going to get hurt.”
“Don’t do it, Jade!” Mei shouted. There was a thud and a muted yelp of pain. Shit. What was Mei doing in there? And what had that bastard done to her? I clenched my jaw.
“Don’t make me kill her. You know I will.”
“Alright!” I sucked in a breath, trying to calm my racing heart. “Alright, leave her alone.”
I took hold of the door handle and eased it inwards, taking care to keep my hands in sight. Brad clicked his tongue in disapproval.
“I should have known. You used your magic, didn’t you?”
I swept my eyes round the room. All three of the Bittens were in here – Laura gloating over Mei where she lay on the floor, glowering, and Ryan leaning against the far wall, trying to avoid everyone’s eye. Brad was standing behind the desk, and Shaun was sitting in front of him, his hands bound at the wrists. The feral shifter was holding a blade to his throat, and even from here I could detect the stench of silver. And on the floor, in the middle of the room…
“Dean!”
I hurried a step towards him.
“Uh-uh, not so fast.”
I stopped, turning my glare on Brad.
“What t
he hell have you done to him?”
“Ryan, shut the door,” he said. “Wouldn’t want anyone else interrupting us. The alpha’s brat will be fine – unless I decide otherwise.”
Dean’s clothes were a smouldering mess, his t-shirt burned half away, and I could see pink splodges of healing burn tissue. His face was contorted with pain, but he was alive. His hands had been pulled behind his back and bound, adding insult to injury. I glared at Ryan as he shut the door behind me, but he steadfastly avoided my eye.
“You choose the wrong side, Jade,” Brad said. “We’re better than them. More.”
“You’re a psycho.”
“Sticks and stones,” he said with a shrug. “You’ve made your choice. Put those on.”
He nodded to a set of cuffs sitting on the desk. Suppressor cuffs. I narrowed my eyes but didn’t move.
“Now.” He moved the blade, nicking the instructor’s neck. A trickle of blood leaked from the wound, and Shaun’s jaw clenched.
“Alright!”
I stepped forward and snatched them up. I snapped the first around my left wrist, but my right was already covered with the narrower – and less inhibiting – training cuff. I waved it at Brad. He smirked and pulled a key from his pocket.
“I already underestimated you once today. I’m not going to do that again. Switch the cuffs.”
He tossed the key on the desk, still keeping the knife to Shaun’s throat. The wound was still bleeding, and one glance at his bound wrists told me why. He’d locked him into a set of suppressor cuffs. I wasn’t sure how he’d subdued the instructor long enough to get the cuffs on, but I was guessing it had a lot to do with what he’d done to Dean. Nothing like torturing a student to make an instructor compliant. Sick bastard.
I snatched up the key, unlocked the training cuff, and locked the second suppressor cuff in its place.
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“I’m going to kill you,” I told him with a smile, keeping my voice relaxed. “The next time these cuffs come off, I’m going to rip your throat out.”
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