Page 63 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

“She probably took a wrong pill,” I started.

Hilda’s back arched. She threw her head back and howled. Her form started to shiver on the outsides, pieces of her body flashing to that of a white coyote, her beast-form. My heart came to a stop, and a roaring filled my ears. I’d seen this before—it was the unbinding.

The academy was meant to be safe. There was meant to be ancient magic in these grounds that prevented the unbinding from occurring here. Hilda twisted and howled, writhing every which way. The other students started to scatter. From the corner of my eye, I saw Red grab Flora around the waist and drag her back toward the forest, putting his body between her and Hilda.

“What is happening?” Azriel asked, sounding bewildered. “We have to help her!”

She started forward, and I lunged to catch her. Seb threw an arm out, slamming it into her chest. It sent her flying to the ground, where she choked.

Hilda exploded. Her body seemed to be ripped apart from the inside, a terrible beast taking its form. Wings spread behind her, then turned into spindly arms with massive claws at the end. Her face turned from a dog’s to a cat’s to an eagle and back to a dog.

She grew twice as large as magic lashed out around her. It caught a nearby student and dragged him screaming to her. She leapt on him; a massive mouth opened in her chest and mauled the boy.

“Gareth, Jasper, with me,” Seb yelled, then took his beast form. His wolf charged the beast while Gareth changed into his jaguar.

I swooped to Azriel and grabbed her arm, dragging her to her feet. “Get out of here,” I told her. “Now!”

I shifted, taking my cursed form. Seb and Gareth were both fighting the beast that used to be Hilda. She kept shifting shape, growing larger. When she howled, it sounded like hunger. I dodged in, spitting a stream of venom onto the beast, which ignited streams of fire on its skin.

She lunged for Gareth, who dodged her clawed hands and slashed across the massive mouth with his claws. Seb leapt onto her back, tearing at her spine. I dodged forward, aiming my venom right into the middle of that grotesque mouth. The howl cut off suddenly. Gareth grabbed one of her arms in his jaws and twisted his body, ripping it off. I grabbed the other arm and Seb snapped her neck.

A wave of magic burst off the corpse as it fell. It blasted into my chest, sending me spinning away. My beast form slipped away like water, and I was left gasping as pain rippled through my body. All around us, students were thrown to the ground as they screamed in pain.

The shockwave washed over Azriel, too. But instead of dropping like everyone else, she scrambled to her feet, unharmed. One of her hands lifted, and she started toward where Seb and Gareth were both crumpled over the corpse as it twitched back into Hilda’s shape.

I pushed myself to my feet and stumbled over to her, one eye on Gareth. He was groaning as he pushed himself up, holding his head. He hadn’t seen. With any luck, nobody else had seen. Azriel turned startled eyes on me when I grabbed her arm and yanked her toward the forest.

I was right about her all this time. All around us, the other students were slowly getting to their feet. The ones furthest from the shockwave raced away, heading back toward the Academy. Azriel twisted her arm away from me, but I grabbed her again and shoved her behind a tree.

“Stay here until I come back,” I told her. “Don’t go anywhere, or you will regret it.”

Her face was white as she stared at me, but I saw a flash of her usual defiance in her eyes.

“I’ll tell Seb that you want to marry him,” I added, hoping to stave off her rushing back out just to show me she wouldn’t do as I said. At this, a surprised expression crossed her face.

Praying that she would listen to me, I went back to Gareth and Seb. Both of them were disoriented, having been closer to the shockwave blast. I was only thankful I’d been standing back further. I was primed for the unbinding myself, as I didn’t have a proper bind. If it had hit me, I would likely be Unbound now, too.

“We need to get back to the Academy and report,” I said as I helped first Gareth, then Seb to his feet.

Seb yanked his arm away, glaring at me. “I don’t need you to tell me what to do.”

“I said we, not you,” I snapped back. “But whatever. I’m going to round up any students that ran away. We’ll all need to be checked over.”

Gareth nodded. “Seb, you’re the fastest of all of us. Quincy needs to be told.”

Seb growled, his gaze searching over the crowd. He’d never admit that he was looking for Azriel, but his obsession with her had been poorly hidden. I bit back a growl of my own. He took his wolf form again and loped into the forest while Gareth started to organize a triage of the injured students. I slipped away, then circled back to where I’d left Azriel.

She was still there, peering around the tree.

“You need to get back to the Academy,” I told her as I grabbed her arm, tugging her back. “If anyone asks, I made advances and you slipped away into the forest to get away from me.”

“My friends—” she started, pulling against me.

I shook my head. “Freta would know the signs. She’s seen an unbinding before and would have gotten Silas and Penry out of there.”

Azriel lifted her face toward me, looking startled and suspicious. “What are you even doing?”

“Getting you away from here.”