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"I'm listening."

"I mean actual magical bonds."

"I'm still listening."

Tamsin threw a pillow at him. He caught it one-handed and immediately regretted the movement, doubling slightly when his ribs protested. I waited until he had finished swearing before I continued.

"The records say a Wildheart can borrow the form of someone she's bonded to."

Jax's grin disappeared.

Silas understood first.

"The wolf."

I nodded. "The wolf at the Proving wasn't mine."

"Kaelen's," he said.

"Kaelen's."

I pressed a hand to the place beneath my breastbone where the ache had lived since my second morning at Ironmoor.

"The bond never broke. His rejection didn't work because he didn't mean it. The old law is explicit about that. A rejection spoken falsely doesn't sever anything. The bond remains until it's Claimed or truly broken."

Tamsin's voice dropped to a whisper. "Oh."

"Yes."

Jax watched me for a moment before asking, "And your own beast? What is it?"

That was still the strangest part to say aloud.

"Apparently, it's a deer. A white deer. A hind, technically, except she has antlers."

Jax considered this with unnecessary seriousness.

"Hot."

I stared at him. "What?"

"I've never seen an antlered woman before."

"I hate you."

"No, you don't."

Unfortunately, that was becoming increasingly true.

"The records say my own beast is asleep," I continued. "Before the Accord, Wildhearts were called the Hart. Sons had white harts, and daughters had white hinds with antlers. When I was four, I used to draw them constantly. Marion burned almost every drawing."

Tamsin's face crumpled.

"And the one in here," she said. "The one under the plaster."

I nodded. "The Lantern Tower used to be Hart House."

That silenced them again.