Page 92 of Bound to Three Fae Beasts

I’d never been in his office before. It was a fairly roomy place. A large desk sat at one wall, with a chair behind it so he could face whoever was at the door. There were two large windows on either side of the room, which indicated we were in a tower. Several shelves displayed books and weapons. Near the one side was a hearth, next to which was a sideboard and two overstuffed chairs.

“This was risky, Clarissa,” Quincy said as he turned toward the Manilow representative. He swept his salt-and-pepper hair from his face.

The woman, Clarissa, tossed aside the cloak. “I had to see you again. Manilow is still concerned about what happened here. There’s been talk about forcibly taking over the Academy to compel it to follow our protocols.”

“The student that became unbound was outside of the Academy’s safety wards. The Academy itself is still safe,” Quincy insisted. “We have had no further incidents. If Manilow is looking for stability in our realm, declaring war on the one neutral zone is not the way to do it.”

Clarissa dropped herself into an overstuffed chair near the fireplace. She rubbed her forehead. “I know, and right now it seems to be only a few vocal dissenters. But that they’re confident enough to say it out loud is disturbing.”

I carefully tucked myself into a corner behind the desk where the shadows were deepest. Now that I was here, I couldn’t get out until they left, too. How long could I hold my invisibility? I pulled my magic around me and waited. Maybe this wasn’t going to have anything to do with Freta, after all.

Quincy went to the sideboard and poured two glasses of an amber liquid. “I take it that the search for the Severance has turned up nothing, then?”

“The fucking Severance.” Clarissa let out a bitter laugh. “The teams we have sent to find it have all come back and immediately unbound. Did they find it? We don’t know, because none of them lived long enough to give us any answers.”

She drank her glass down in a single gulp and Quincy refilled it. It was strange to see such a powerful fae looking so vulnerable. In the meeting I’d infiltrated, she had been cold, arrogant, everything that the high fae wanted to be. Now, she seemed almost human. Her aura was still powerful, but lines of exhaustion creased her face and furrowed her brow.

I had heard of the Severance before in Miss Wren’s class. It was supposed to be where the first bind was performed, so that the fae could control themselves. Before that, they were all shape-thieves and there was no form, no order, nothing but violence and chaos. Wren had dismissed it as a myth, stating there was never a time when the fae were formless.

But if Court Manilow was looking for it…?

“Things are that bad, are they?” Quincy said as he pulled his chair closer to Clarissa’s. When they sat, their knees brushed, and alarm bells started to ring in my head.

“The riots in Coldwater Prison have not yet been quelled. The prisoners managed to disable their collars. Court Laurel is causing more trouble at our southern borders. Court Alegro refuses to sign the dominance accords. Court Vespa continues to sit back and watch like the vultures they are.”

Quincy put his hand on her knee, rubbing small circles, and the alarms rang louder. I started looking around for a way to escape. Maybe I could smash the window and jump out, then pretend like I just happened to materialize on the ground? Or I’d die in the fall, in which case I wouldn’t have to worry about making excuses at all.

“Even if these discussions about taking over the Academy don’t go anywhere, there are more than enough who might start looking to replace you.” Clarissa rubbed her temples and shook her head slowly. “There’s only so much I can do to protect you. And if the others knew I was mate-bound to such a lowly fae…”

“You’d be ostracized. I know. I don’t want you to put yourself at risk for me, Clarissa. Your work is too important.” His hand came to lovingly brush against her cheek.

I crept to the door, heart pounding as the two of them started to kiss. I wrapped my hand in my sleeve to muffle the sound, then rapped on the door. I pressed myself close to the wall as both Quincy and Clarissa jumped and glanced at the door. Clarissa jumped to her feet and went to hide herself in the same corner I’d been in while Quincy straightened himself.

When he came to the door and opened it, I waited.

“Hello?” he called, half stepping through the door. He stepped back, snorting. As he closed the door, I slipped through and escaped.

Thank the gods. The last thing I wanted to see was that. I hurried away, at first only focused on not getting caught. It wasn’t until I was out of the forbidden zones that I let my invisibility drop. My heart started to pound and I leaned against the wall, forcing myself to take deep, calming breaths. That had been too close!

I made my way to my dorm, glad that I had something to distract me from thoughts of the golden boys, although they didn’t stay far from my mind. When I got to my dorm, I grabbed my stacks of books and started to sort through them. I had neglected studying more about shape-thieves since Penry’s death, focused more on how to strengthen Silas and Freta so they could survive.

I quickly found what I was looking for. It was a folktale about an ordinary fae who sought out the Severance, a mystical all-power, and was distorted into a shape-thief. The story ended with the fae being brutally murdered, as they tended to do. There wasn’t anything about what the Severance actually was.

I looked in my other books, but it was all basically the same. The Severance was a myth, and the idea that the fae had once been boundless and only later ended up with one bound beast-form was ludicrous.

With a groan, I laid back on my bed. If it was nothing but a myth, why would Court Manilow be seeking it out so desperately? Once more, I found myself without any answers. I wished I hadn’t burned the letter. Right now, I wished I could reread it to see if there was something about the timeline that I missed. I still mostly thought it was a cruel prank, but part of me still kept waiting for the promised answers to materialize.

I rolled over, sighing. Should I take a sleeping draught and get a proper night’s rest, or should I go to the library?

I reached for the draught on my nightstand, only to push myself back up and head out the door. Another all-nighter it was.

***

The next morning, Freta woke me up. She hadn’t had to do that in a long time. When she looked at the dark circles under my eyes and the books piled up around me, she shook her head, but didn’t scold me. I asked her how the party went after I left, but she only scowled.

“I’d rather not talk about it.”

My brain was fogged up from the lack of sleep, so I chose to skip breakfast and have a shower instead. As a result, I ended up getting to my first class, history with Miss Wren, five minutes late. My normal seat with Silas and Freta was occupied by someone I didn’t know. As I scanned for an empty chair, my heart stuttered.