Page 57 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

Was this how Freta managed to keep her warmth? By holding on to the moments of compassion, even for the enemy?

Though Jasper hadn’t done anything to me. Other than pushing me that one day when Seb had me cornered. Even then, he had given me an out from Seb’s anger. I hesitated, uncertain what I should do now.

I’d been hesitating a lot lately.

“What are you out here for, anyway?” he asked. “If you’re looking for another mentor, I’m not interested. And if you think that you can flatter me by talking about the ‘beauty’ of my cursed form—"

“I was looking for a place to practice with my own beast. But these woods are full of other students or are fighting and fu—" I cut myself off from saying the crude word automatically. At the orphanage, I would be locked in the root cellar for two days for using curse words, and it had trained me out of it.

“Fucking?” Jasper finished for me.

I fought back a wince. “Yes. That. And before you get any ideas, I’m not interested in that, either. Especially not with you.”

Jasper let out a soft snicker. “Flattering yourself, are you? I might be cursed, but I have plenty of options if I wanted sex. I wouldn’t have to resort to begging.”

Yeah, I could see that. He was very handsome, and he might not have a position in his own court, but I’d heard rumors. Other courts would want someone as powerful as him on their payrolls. A guard, a spy, an assassin. Plenty of jobs for a disowned heir to have.

“You wouldn’t have to resort to begging, either, if you could get that wolf under control,” Jasper said as he stepped closer. “You would do well to rid yourself of your weakling friends, Miss Azriel. You would have gotten yourself killed trying to protect that unbound girl in the last trial.”

“You mean you would have killed me?” I challenged.

Jasper stepped closer again. He moved slowly, and I wasn’t certain if he was stalking me or moving softly to avoid spooking me. A strange tingling started in my palms, similar to the feeling when I was trying to skim a form.

“I mean—” he started, then stopped.

Voices filtered through the trees. Jasper waved one hand and his magic lights disappeared. The sudden darkness disoriented me, and I didn’t realize he jumped at me until his arm was around my waist. A hand slapped over my mouth, and he dragged me into the bushes. I yelped against his palm. His other arm pinned my elbows to my sides.

“Quiet. Security,” he whispered in my ear.

We crouched beneath a bush, our bodies pressed tightly together as a handful of shadowy figures came by. They mumbled to each other in a language I didn’t understand as they circled the area. I tried to remember what the punishment was for being caught breaking curfew. The hardness of Jasper’s chest against my back distracted me.

When the guards moved on, Jasper eased us both from out hiding space. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me along the path, moving swiftly. I let him lead, making a mental map of where we were going. Before long, we emerged from the trees onto the Academy grounds.

He must have taken a magic passage somewhere, because we shouldn’t have gotten back so swiftly. I was grateful for the shortcut, though. Jasper’s presence was starting to overwhelm me in the same strange, unwelcome way Seb’s had. Was it something do with them being heirs that made them so sexually attractive? A way to proliferate their high fae genes?

Jasper relaxed his hold on me as we headed across the grounds. “Miss Azriel.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t ever stalk me again. You don’t catch my weaknesses, and pissing me off will not help you in the next trials.”

Images of him tearing Robert apart made me shudder. I nodded once, not bothering to argue the point. Then he broke away from me, going around toward the back of the Academy as I headed in the front doors. Tonight had been interesting, that was certain. I just didn’t know what it meant.

Chapter 26 - Azriel

The next day, there was a bulletin pasted on the common room walls. I only glanced over it briefly, found it was nothing important, and went on with the rest of my day. That evening, when I went to the Alegro room, I found the other three already there. Penry had a heavy book on her knee, her dirty-blonde hair piled up on her head.

“I don’t know about attending the party,” Freta was saying.

“What party?” I asked, dropping my knapsack off. I dug a few potions from my pocket and put them in our stash.

“Didn’t you see the bulletins?” Penry asked. “They’re all over the common room.”

Right. I remembered now. “I didn’t read them.”

Penry set her book aside. “Flora decided to host a party for all first-year students in the forest. We don’t have long before the next trial, so she wanted to celebrate our victories so far. She gave Freta a personal invitation to join.”

“A personal invitation?” I took a seat and crossed my legs. “That sounds dangerous. Why does she want you to go to her party?”