He was apologizing. He was kneeling in a binding ward designed to torture shifters, surrounded by enforcers ready tokill him, andhewas apologizing to her. This was all her fault. She had done the ritual. She had made him be her familiar.
Rage ignited in Avery’s chest as she thrashed against the hold. Callum didn’t let her move an inch as she watched her sister cross behind Felix. It couldn’t end like this. Not when she had just found the one person who made her feel alive again.
“This is for your own good,” Wren said, looking Avery directly in the eye, and put a hand onto his head before he slumped forward into the sand.
Thirty-Four
Avery
Sheknewthis school had fucking dungeons.
The salt rusted bars snarled upwards into a stone roof as Avery sat on the floor of a jail cell. Cold stone bit into her thighs, and rats scurried across the back. The only light was the flickering of candles and a tiny barred window that led to nowhere but ocean. Beside her in another cell, Felix lay unconscious. But he was breathing, that was all that mattered.
They had dressed them in brown prison clothes, which she was sure did a good job of hiding the bloodstains of whoever they tortured down here. There were still dark patches on the floor that she didn’t want to think about. If they ever released the shifters, was this be where they would keep them? What did they do with them when they came out?
The muscles in her spine went rigid as footsteps echoed through the cells. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Callum appear, holding a glass of water.
Callum seethed at her—he had been the one to put the cuffs on her. To walk her down like a prisoner. At the end of the day, he was only doing his job. She would like to think that he would at least hear someone out. All these people who claimed to loveand care about her, only to abandon her when she really needed them. It wasn’t surprising anymore. But just maybe, he would help her. If she played it right.
“Callum!” Avery said, pretending with all her being to be nice to this fucker who had left her in the woods without a jacket. But his usually bright complexion darkened, his face as stony as her sister’s.
“Here,” he said, shoving a glass of water through the bars at her, some of it spilling over the rim. The gruffness in his voice belonged to a stranger. The fox at his feet whined, as if it wanted to come to Avery to say hello, but was unable to do so.
She took the glass of water and downed half of it, leaving the rest for Felix. She made sure the water dribbled down below her neckline and postured herself in a way that her prison clothes showed off her curves. Any integrity had fallen through the floor the day she met Felix. She didn’t give a fuck anymore. “Do you think you could let me out?” Avery said, batting her eyelashes. It was a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless.
Callum laughed in her face. “If you think I would go anywhere near a shifter fucking whore, you’d be sorely mistaken.”
She couldn’t hide the disgust crawling over her face. “Really? Shifter fucker? How creative.” Still, it didn’t mask the hurt crawling up her chest, and the heat prickling behind her eyes. The man before her was no longer her friend. It hit her like whiplash. Goddess, he had practically proposed the last time they were together.
The shiny regalia on his uniform was polished, down to his shoes, the candlelight reflecting off it like a mirror as he turned to walk away. Instead, he twisted on his heels and pointed a finger towards Avery. “We could have been something. Both of our parents sit on the council. We could have been a power couple.”
It took everything in her not to laugh. “So you never really wanted me, just my seat.”
“Your sister made it clear that she would never be interested. So you were the next best thing.”
Ahhh. There it was. Always an ulterior motivation. It was easy to lose trust, especially in this world where people seemed to go out of their way to ram a cock down your throat. Still, she wanted to love them, trust them, even when everything was begging her not to. Was that courage or stupidity? She supposed she had to live to find out. And by the fucking goddess, she wouldn’t die in a dark, damp hole.
“You really know how to make a girl swoon,” Avery said flatly.
Disgust twisted across his face as he turned away, walking close to the iron bars, far too close. In a split second, Felix shot out his arm, grabbed Callum by the collar, and slammed his head against the bars. A sickening crack rang out. Felix was awake and fuckingpissed.
“There are many ways to be fucked by a shifter,” he said, voice laced with rage.
When did he wake up? His morning voice was sexy.Not really the priority to be thinking about right now, Avery.
The hit didn’t knock Callum unconscious, at least not yet. The fox growled and snapped at the bars, trying to get to Felix.
Now that was how to make a girl swoon. But Avery still raised her hand for Felix to stop.
“Please, don’t hurt him.”
He really did deserve it. Avery had seen enough bloodshed tonight, though.
Felix glared at the enforcer. “Can I at least take his eyes?”
“No.”
“Fine,” he said, settling for spitting in his face and pushing him back against the wall with a thud. The enforcer ran like a puppy with his tail between his legs, his fox bounding after him.
