Page 2 of Taste of Thorns
“You don’t need to.”
“You think I’m going to let you walk around campus alone, unprotected?”
“I just killed three …” I shake my head in disbelief. Is this shock? I can hardly believe what just occurred. “I don’t actually know what the hell those things were, actually.”
“Yeah, but you have no idea how you did it,” he says flatly.
“Fine.” I stride anxiously towards the door, every molecule in my body desperate to be beside Thorne. Every molecule desperate to know that he really is safe. Fox follows closely behind me.
I have to admit, his presence is reassuring. I’m severely shaken by this whole event, my legs and my strides not as steady as they usually are, my arms trembling despite my best efforts to make them stop.
Thorne has always seemed so strong, so solid and so resilient. Like nothing at all could knock him down. I’ve seen how powerful his magic is. I’ve seen how even the other shadow weavers are wary of those powers. And yet …
My whole body convulses as the image of Thorne curled up on the floor, blood running from his wounds, once again invades my mind.
I push that image away, hurrying my pace even more.
Then there’s this strange magic of mine. I don’t understand it.
Amelia was the special one. Not me. Even when the stone called me to it – even when it hatched – I always suspected that was because of her, not me. And yet …
I feel like my whole world just got turned upside down and now I’m going to have to work out how to live, walking around on the ceiling.
Like the last time, the pathways are full of students this evening, many looking physically and mentally battered and bruised. We pass a girl limping, her arms wrapped around the necks of two of her friends. We pass a group sitting out on the steps of a tower, passing around a joint, the smoke curling up towards the stars, their faces still wet with mud and blood. And we pass a strong-looking boy from Iron weeping onto the shoulder of a girl half his size.
They barely seem to register me, even with the shadow of the professor lingering at my heels. In fact, it’s as if they don’t see us at all. I thought walking around with the professor following me would have them staring and whispering again, but perhaps tonight they’re all too wrapped up in their own demons. I wonder how many of these students banished their greatest fears? I’ll have to wait until tomorrow when they publish the points to find out. Although, I suspect, by some curious means, I’ll have zero points yet again.
Okay, I didn’t deserve to earn any points in the very first trial – the one we were set when we first arrived and had to make our way from the train station to the academy. Fly and I arrived really late and long after everyone else. It’s why we were assigned the worst rooms in the academy.
That second trial though – the maze one – I actually completed. I deserved some points.
And they say the system isn’t rigged!
We reach the Princes’ tower, and I look up to find the windows lit from the inside. I take a deep inhale, petrified about what I might discover inside. I step up to the door, but before I can raise my fist to hammer, it draws open and Beaufort stands in the doorway, his face drawn with tiredness.
“How is he?” I say, stepping forward.
Beaufort places his hands on my shoulders and draws me inside to the warmth of the hallway.
“Resting. He’s okay. No major damage.”
“Are you sure?” I ask, searching his face for signs he’s telling the truth and not just what he thinks I want to hear. “It looked …” I shake my head, “so awful.”
“I’m sure, sweetheart. Dray and I healed him ourselves. But how are you? You’re okay?”
“Yes,” I say, guilt crawling up into my cheeks. I’ve been so consumed with Thorne and what happened in that trial, I haven’t even considered if Dray or Beaufort, Fly or Clare were hurt. “Are you? And the others?”
“Everyone is just fine, Briony,” he strokes his hands up and down my arms, “including your friends,” he adds as if reading my thoughts. “But, shit,” he smiles, a lopsided smile, “it was pretty awful. Freaking snakes everywhere.”
“Snakes?” I say, with a little tease. “That’s your greatest fear?”
“According to that trial.” He winks at me, and I suspect there’s more to it than that.
Behind us, Fox clears his throat.
Beaufort looks up over my head and must spot the professor lingering there in the doorway. “You can come in,” he tells him. “Come on, I’ll take you to see Thorne.”
I nod my head eagerly, and he takes my hand in his and leads me up the stairs, all the way to the third floor and into Thorne’s bedroom.
