Page 64 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

“Why?”

My jaw tightened. I could tell her the truth, but she wouldn’t believe me. I could reveal I knew the truth about her, but that would only cause her to panic. So instead, I gave her an imperious look. “Because when you’re safe and sound, you’ll owe me.”

“I’m not going to owe you anything,” she spat.

I tightened my hold on her, hauling her through the forest. “You’ll owe me. And you’ll use your connections to Court Laurel to get me a place in their ranks.”

“I don’t have connections—”

“Your beast is a wolf, and Seb is your peer-mentor. And there’s no better way to get back at my parents for disowning me than to join their rival court,” I interrupted. That would satisfy her need for answers. I hoped, at least.

I’d suspected ever since the binding trials, and now I knew for sure. She was a shape-thief. It was the only reason she wasn’t injured by the unbinding magic. If anyone knew about it, they’d kill her. Gareth would do it himself. The others would hand her over to Quincy.

They said that shape-thieves were given the chance to bind to a singular form, but I knew better.

I led her to a secret cedar grove, in which was an entrance to the Vespa room at the library. It was a quicker path than any other. Once we were in the Vespa room, I took a breath and turned to her. She stared at me, her eyes bright, curious and suspicious. Her mouth was pinched in a way that made her dimples pop.

Everything about Azriel Jones was designed to escape notice. Pretty, but not too pretty. Brown hair, brown eyes, neither short nor tall. In a crowd, she’d blend right in. Even her aura was ordinary. And yet every time she entered a room, Seb wasn’t the only one to feel her presence.

“Get back to your dorm and try not to answer questions,” I told her. I lifted one hand to brush her hair from her face, but stopped myself in time. “Don’t tell anyone you were in that shockwave. You’re half-fae, so they’ll think you’re on the path to being unbound yourself and will execute you for it.”

She let out a shaky breath. “And if I’m dead, you can’t use me in the future?”

I grinned at her. “Exactly.”

She gave me a searching, suspicious look, then nodded.

After she was gone, I went back to the forest and gathered up the students that had taken off, just as I said I would, and helped to herd them back to the Academy. Upon our arrival, we learned that the Academy was in lockdown. Curfew would be enforced, unlike usual.

I ignored the curfew, going to the Vespa room instead of my dorm. Since I no longer had access to the family funds, I shared a dorm room, so I spent most of my time here anyway. The Academy still treated me deferentially, as I still held rank and power despite my cursed form and exile from Court Vespa.

There, I waited for long enough to know the staff was going to leave me to it before I cast a spell to mask my location, making it seem as though I remained here while I snuck out. The passages through the Academy were loaded with magical sensors, and I had a tough time navigating them as I snuck to the headmaster’s office. There was a ledge just outside the window that one could not get to by climbing, but you could access via a special passage few knew about.

I crouched outside the window and listened.

“If an unbinding can happen on Academy grounds, we’re all in danger,” Mr. Thatcher was arguing. “We need to postpone the second trials until we know more. High levels of stress can trigger it.”

“We are not postponing anything,” Quincy answered.

There was a brief moment of silence, then Miss Wren spoke, “I see no reason for it. Hilda was low-born and had a history of being unstable. Do we know it was a true unbinding, or was it that she was poisoned and the students mistook what they saw?”

“Is that what we’re trying to convince ourselves, or the students?” Miss Atira snapped.

They continued the discussion, arguing over how to proceed. Atira and Thatcher were for postponing the trials. Quincy, Lotmas, Phineas and Wren saw no need for it. There were no discussions about Azriel or any students that seemed suspiciously unharmed by the blast.

“Lords Seb, Jasper and Gareth will have to be commended for their quick thinking. Thanks to them, the unbinding only killed two of our students,” Quincy said eventually. “We will send messages to their parents.”

“Even Lord Jasper’s?” Lotmas asked with a laugh.

Quincy’s voice was harsh as he answered, “They want updates on his progress.”

At that, I squirmed back into the passage to head back to the Vespa room. I didn’t care about what my parents thought. Instead, I considered my new knowledge. Azriel Jones was a shape-thief. The last shape-thief, if that prophecy was to be believed.

I had started to suspect Azriel early on. She seemed so ordinary, so plain. Then when Flora had Savannah steal her school records and we learned she was half-fae, raised among humans, it became more suspicious. It wasn’t until I had seen her in the binding trial, looking the same in her wolf form as Seb was in his, that I fully understood my own suspicions. There had been something wrong about the way she looked, something blurred along the edges.

Robert had seen her as well. I couldn’t risk that he’d seen the wrongness like I had, so I killed him. I was glad her friend had been unconscious during the ordeal, or I’d have had to kill her, too. Those watching couldn’t have seen the subtle errors in her form, but close up was another story.

Back at the Vespa room, I poured myself a glass of whiskey. Alcohol was strictly forbidden for all students, but like all rules, it wouldn’t be punished unless we were caught.