Page 33 of When Roses Burn

When she flinched before opening her mouth to say more, I grasped her arm, moved her out of my way, and continued up the hill.

“You have to hold onto her other side,” I told the elf. “We can only go through if we’re touching one of them.” I looked pointedly at Briar. “Which is another reason why we can’t take everyone with us.”

She huffed but didn’t speak. When Devnair hurried to her side and clasped her arm, a snarl twitched at the corners of my mouth.

At one time, I’d marked this woman as my mate, and the beast was reluctant to let that go. It certainly didn’t like another man touching her, but it would get over it… as would I. Even knowing this, I didn’t let go of her arm.

With my claws still embedded in the sorcerer’s head, I dragged him across the barrier as Devnair and Briar stepped through with me. We continued up the hill to the rise where I’d left Pierce, Dromon, and Lyra.

They waited with our horses near a copse of trees. Pierce and Lyra sat on the grass, sharpening their knives, while Dromon stood against a tree with his arms crossed and an irritated expression on his face.

The four of us had formed a pack after the harem, and Dromon was my beta, the one I trusted most, and the one who would see through my orders if something should happen to me. As soon as he spotted us, he stepped away from the tree; his movement drew the attention of the others.

Pierce and Lyra rose as all the horses continued to graze, their tails swishing occasionally. When their gazes found Briar, fury darkened their eyes, and an air of savagery emanated from them.

“And there’s the other missing three,” Devnair murmured. “How did you figure out how to escape?”

“Luck,” I replied.

When I first forced the night caster to open my room and let me out, I dragged him with me to free the other shifters. Not thinking right, I left him at the back door of the harem when we fled. It wasn’t until we hit the barrier that I recalled we couldn’t get past it.

Unnerved by what I’d become and desperate to get free, I threw myself at the barrier over and over again to no avail. I was mindless in my desperation to get free and couldn’t stop.

It was Lyra who suggested returning for the night caster. We’d crossed through the barrier with them to enter the harem; perhaps we could leave it with them too.

We returned to the harem together and found that the dark sorcerer had dragged himself down the hall and was almost to the sitting room. I grasped him by the neck and hauled him outside with me as the other prisoners howled.

When we all held onto each other and the caster we couldn’t get through, but Lyra and Pierce could cross with him between them. Once they passed the barrier, they threw the caster back to us, and Dromon and I crossed next. We never looked back until today.

“Is this her?” Lyra demanded as she raked Briar with a scathing gaze.

“It’s her,” I confirmed.

“Holy shit,” Dromon said.

They all knew she was the reason I was in the harem. It wasn’t something I revealed while in captivity, but once I was free, it didn’t take long to learn that almost everyone in the kingdoms knew what happened.

It was impossible for them not to learn about me and Briar, as Marina’s wrath had resulted in a devastating fallout for the rest of the shifters.

“Can she break the curse?” Pierce demanded.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Briar

My jaw clenched as the three other shifters eyed me with hatred and curiosity. They were all expecting me to break some curse I didn’t know about, but I didn’t bother to tell them that. If Seth didn’t believe me, then they wouldn’t either.

Free of the harem and my mother, for now, I had no idea what would become of me once I went through my Needing, but that wasn’t my biggest problem. No, my biggest problem was that all four of them saw me as the enemy, and I had no idea how far they’d go to prove that to me.

I’d gone from being my mother’s prisoner to theirs and all because they expected me to do something I couldn’t. Even if I knew what the curse was, I couldn’t break it. I hadn’t fully come into my powers yet, and I didn’t know if I would now that my Needing would occur outside the harem.

“We’re going to make her,” Seth said. “Or at least she’s going to give us answers as to how to do it.”

When he shot me a pointed look, I gave a haughty sniff. I couldn’t give answers I didn’t have, but I wasn’t going to bother wasting my time telling him that.

I had nothing more to say. Seth didn’t believe me, and I didn’t care about these other shifters. The only one whose opinion mattered to me thought I’d betrayed him, and I couldn’t change that unless I discovered how my mother learned of our plans.

“What’s with the elf?” the female shifter inquired.