Page 87 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

“The Surrender?” Quincy winced. “That’s only for the fifth-year students.”

“It can be for all of them this year,” Manilow answered.

Quincy hesitated. “The Surrender is a powerful tool. Too powerful for first-years. Even those with potential will be lost to it. And there are certain courts that have a vested interest in keeping their weak-bound children alive.”

“You’re talking about Alegro’s little brat,” Manilow asked, sounding increasingly annoyed.

Quincy hesitated but nodded. My hands tightened in my lap.

“Then drown her in the pond and make it look like an accident. Throw her off the tower and claim it was suicide. Get rid of her already so Alegro stops interfering,” Manilow said flatly.

Blood rushed in my ears. Heat built in my chest, and I was lucky that I was too shocked to react in my anger. Otherwise I would have attacked right there. I knew the fae were cruel, but to be so blatant about telling Quincy to kill Freta? She was in far more danger than I realized.

“My lady,” Quincy said with a laugh, “that would be very unprofessional of us. We are meant to strengthen our students, and it is their weakness that ends them. Court Alegro will no doubt investigate the death of their daughter, should an accident occur. It’s best to leave it to the trials. She hasn’t shown any progress. I’m sure it will take care of itself.”

Manilow sipped her tea. “The Surrender, Headmaster. Or Manilow will take matters into our own hands.” She smiled as she glanced around the table. “Now send your faculty away. You and I have more private matters to discuss.”

I jerked to my feet, bowed, and swiftly walked out. Lotmas was still chuckling, and my stomach curdled. The Surrender. What was that? And how did I make sure Silas and Freta survived it?

Chapter 38 - Azriel

I didn’t know how to tell my friends about what I’d found out, so I stayed quiet about the Surrender and Manilow’s suggestion to murder Freta. Court Manilow left without any official ceremony, but there was no rest from politics. The next day, all the students were told to polish themselves to attend a formal banquet. A handful of the high courts, including Laurel, Alegro, Thunderwood, and Litherio, would be present.

The students with the highest scores would be presented to them, which I thought was strange considering all the high-scored students were also high-born, so it was basically their own children being presented back to them.

Court Laurel were the most prominent of the guests. Seb, Gareth, Flora, and Freta were all permitted to sit with their families, the rest of us assigned according to rank of birth and our ranking from the Assay. As such, I ended up next to Jasper, with Silas far away from me.

I hated being so close. Electricity seemed to crackle between us, and I had to keep reminding myself not to do anything that might make someone suspicious of some sort of intimacy between us.

On my other side, another student who was high-born but weak-bound kept shooting me glares. Clearly, I wasn’t welcome here. I ignored it the best I could.

I caught Seb staring at me for a long moment before a young girl next to him, who shared his silver-gray hair, nudged him in the ribs. His normal angry expression melted as he smiled at her. It made my heart flutter as he grabbed the end of her braid and tickled her nose with it.

“Seb’s younger sister,” Jasper murmured next to me. He delicately cut his steak without looking at me. “She has recently manifested a maned wolf. As you can imagine, Seb is proud of her. She’ll enter the Academy in ten years.”

Mentally, I did the math. That meant she was only eleven now. Eleven and already with a beast. Hopefully that meant she would survive when it was her time to be here. But my heart already ached for her. She looked so light and carefree. How long before she ended up as serious and jaded as her older brother?

I turned my face away, trying not to feel these things. It felt as though all my secrets had gathered under one roof. Seb had touched me, kissed me, and brought himself to orgasm through desire for me. It had been deeply intimate. I’d had sex with Jasper. Forbidden sex that would have us both punished harshly if anyone found out.

Gareth was hunting me. I wasn’t an idiot; he had to be putting the pieces together by now. He saw the way Jasper and Seb both reacted to me. He’d seen my wolf form be slightly wrong during the Assay. Since my night with Jasper, I’d caught him lingering nearby more often, watching me as though I was his prey.

It was all just so fucking exhausting.

“Freta looks tired,” Jasper said.

“Are you really trying to hold a conversation with me?” I whispered from the corner of my mouth.

Jasper made a small noise in his throat. “I suppose I am.”

I wanted to ask him if he’d told Seb what happened between us, and what Gareth had told him after I left. I even wanted to explain why I’d left while he was sleeping, instead of staying until he woke up. But he’d been avoiding me, too, right? Admitting we’d slept together in a crowded room of people was a stupid idea.

So I lifted my eyes to where Freta sat with her family. They were a cold, stone-faced lot. Freta’s head was bowed. From here, the dark circles under her eyes were more prominent, her hair was limp, and she seemed to lack an aura altogether. It made me wince internally.

We had all been training as hard as we could, but I wasn’t sure if it was doing any good. Her family was cold and aloof, the pair I presumed were her parents continually shooting her disappointed looks. Judging by that, I wouldn’t have thought they cared enough to get special concessions from the Academy for her sake.

She was under so much stress. So much certainty that she wasn’t going to make it out of this place alive. So much grief.

Screw it. I didn’t want to sit here pretending to be perfectly fine. I’d been concentrating on remembering the etiquette lessons that Phineas had given us, but now I turned fully to Jasper and picked up my baked potato, rather than cutting it up into delicate bites.