Page 21 of Faeheart
“What?” I grinned, deliberately bumping my shoulder against his. “Scared someone might hear that the perfect Thorne heir is considering getting down and dirty with a fae and a half-breed?”
“That’s not—” Elias started, then stopped, taking a deep breath. “Can we please discuss this somewhere private? Not in the middle of campus where anyone could overhear?”
Atlas chuckled, his arm protectively around Caden’s shoulders. “He has a point, Wild. This isn’t exactly outside conversation.”
“Fine,” I sighed dramatically. “But don’t think you’re getting out of it, Princess. I’ve felt what goes through your head when you look at me. And at Atlas.” I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively. “Especially when he shows up in that stringy little tank top after wrestling practice.”
“I do not—” Elias spluttered, but the flare of embarrassment that shot through our connection told a different story.
We rounded the student center toward the main cafeteria building, the trees casting long shadows across the courtyard under the light of the half-moon. The air felt different somehow, charged with an energy that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
“Do you feel that?” Caden asked quietly, his steps slowing.
I nodded, my usual playful demeanor fading as I sensed it too. There was a magical disturbance rippling through the ambient energy of the campus. Something wasn’t right.
“It feels like...” Elias began, his brow furrowed in concentration.
“A ward being broken,” I finished for him, our magical senses aligning through the bond.
Atlas tensed beside us, his nostrils flaring. “I smell something wrong. Something... burnt.”
We had only made it halfway across the courtyard when the first explosion hit. A blast of magical energy erupted from the cafeteria building ahead, shattering windows and sending a wave of heat rolling toward us. Students screamed, scattering in all directions as debris rained down. The massive domeof protection surrounding the entire campus shattered into a million tiny shards of light.
Widdershins Academy was no longer hidden.
“What the fuck?!” Atlas growled, instinctively pulling Caden behind him. “How is that even possible?!”
But I didn’t get a chance to answer. Through the smoke and chaos, I saw them, a group of cloaked figures emerging from the cafeteria entrance, their hands glowing with malevolent energy. One of them pointed directly at us.
“There he is! The Thorne boy!”
“Elias, run!” I shouted, grabbing his arm and pulling him behind a stone planter as another blast of magic scorched the ground where we’d been standing.
The attackers moved with coordinated precision, their dark cloaks billowing as they advanced across the courtyard. I counted six of them, each wielding a different type of corrupted magic that made my fae senses recoil. This wasn’t wild magic or even structured witch magic. It was something twisted, perverted from its natural state, something meant only to destroy.
“They’re after me?” Elias gasped, his face pale with shock. “Why would they?—”
“Questions later,” Atlas snarled, his body already beginning to shift. Bones cracked as his shoulders broadened, dark fur rippling across his skin. “Get to safety!”
But there was nowhere to run. The attackers had split into two groups, flanking us from both sides. Students were screaming, fleeing in all directions as professors rushed from nearby buildings, their own protective spells flaring to life too late.
“The binding,” Caden whispered urgently, grabbing both Elias and me by the wrists. “We need to use it!”
“Professor Blackwood said no magic,” Elias protested automatically, even as one of the attackers hurled a ball of sickly green energy toward us.
I yanked him down as the spell exploded against the planter, sending chunks of stone flying. “Fuck what Blackwood said! They’re trying to kill us!”
Through our connection, I felt Elias’s fear and confusion swirling like a whirlpool, threatening to pull us all under. But beneath it was something else, a core of raw power that he kept tightly leashed, locked behind years of rigid training and family expectations.
“Let go,” I urged, squeezing his hand. “For once in your life, Elias, let go!”
Atlas had fully shifted now, his massive black wolf form launching itself at the nearest attacker. Teeth flashed in the moonlight as he clamped down on a bare arm, but the witch merely laughed, a hollow, unnatural sound, and sent Atlas flying with a casual flick of their wrist.
“Atlas!” Caden screamed as the werewolf slammed into a tree trunk with a sickening crack.
Something snapped in Caden then. I felt it through our bond, a surge of protective fury that made the ground beneath us tremble. Vines erupted from the manicured lawn, thick as my wrist, whipping toward the attackers with deadly intent.
“That’s it!” I yelled, letting my own fae magic flow freely for the first time since the binding. The pendant around my neck flared to life, burning hot against my skin as I called up illusions so real they could cut, mirror shards of light that sliced through the air toward our enemies.
