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He glanced up. “As I’ve said,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “So, it’s okay for you to put me at risk —“
“—when your very presence puts the community we’ve forged at risk? Yes, I have no problem doing just that.” He frowned. “Dammit. You’ll need to ingest a potion for one of the trials.”
“Apotion?”
“It’s supposed to suss out any magic lying in your blood and bones,” he said. “I’ll have to reach out to Barnes.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “So much for not saying anything to anyone.”
I knew it was probably a good idea to keep any potential magic to myself. In fact, I was onboard with this idea wholeheartedly. And yet, I couldn’t help but wonder why he didn’t want to tell other captains or professors or whoever Barnes was.
“Why wouldn’t you — is this even allowed? Does Master Grey know about this?” My temples pinched. I reached up to soothe them with my fingertips but instead of any soothing going on, even the lightest touch was enough to add pressure to the throbbing pain. “Is this…is this dangerous? I’m not —“
At that moment, the door opened, and in walked Byron with a tray of food. The scent of bacon and maple syrup overwhelmed me and drowned everything else out – including the headache. I scrambled up and nearly tripped over myself as I made my way to the small desk Byron set the tray on. I carefully moved Adrienne’s notebook and keyboard to the side, grabbed my fork, and began to bunch potatoes on the ends of it.
“Why is she frantic?” Byron asked, still standing just behind the edge of the desk, giving Rainey a long look.
The second the food hit my stomach, I felt calm again. I wondered if my franticness— as Byron put it — was because I was hungry. After last night, I had thrown up more than the contents of my stomach, and now, my body was demanding reparations. And since Byron had gotten seemingly every food offered, I was perfectly content to do just that.
“She seems the type to always be frantic,” Rainey said.
“He has to get some guy to make a potion for me for one of the tests,” I said around a bite of food. I grabbed the glass of orange juice and took a big gulp before digging in again.
“A potion?” Byron demanded to know.
“I’m just doing what the book says to do,” Rainey said. He turned another page just as I took a large bite of sausage. “You want to know whether she has magic or not?”
“I’m leaning towards the not,” Byron said.
“Did you know she has no idea about ShadowSides?” Rainey asked. “You would think that Giselle being her mother —“
There was no response. I looked up from my half-eaten plate of food, looking at Byron for some kind of explanation. What did my mom have anything to do with this?
“Clearly, Giselle kept that part of her education secret,” Byron said. “There’s no point in overwhelming her with information. Is the potion absolutely necessary to distinguish whether or not she has magic inside of her?”
Rainey nodded. “You know as well as I do that magic can live in the dark corners of the body, the soul,” he said. “This potion will call any magic inside of her out of her. It won’t remove it, but it will inform us of its existence within her.”
“If it exists within her at all,” Byron said.
Rainey hummed but said nothing more.
“What of the other tests?” Byron asked. He still hadn’t moved from beside me, and I found myself appreciating that, though I couldn’t imagine why that might be.
“What of them?”
“If we give her the potion, are they necessary?” Byron asked.
“Magic comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms,” he said. “You have a magic within your body. You can transform into a wolf and you’re beholden to the moon. The potion isn’t going to pick that up because it’s a transformative type of magic.” He rubbed the thick parchment with his fingers, carefully removing dust. “So, yes. Even with the potion, she will be required to complete the testing in order to ensure she has no magic within her. At least, magic we are already aware of.”
Adrya
Later that day, I received a dinner summons from my father. As much as I wanted to refuse it, I knew I couldn’t. I was still duty-bound to obey him, even if my inheritance had been torn away from me by a woman who had yet to become my stepmother. How Chamberly possessed so much power in such a small amount of time, I had no idea. All I knew was that I felt powerless to do anything about it. The full moon was tomorrow night, which meant there was some expectation of freedom there. Certainly, my father wouldn’t expect me to perform my duty the same way if I wasn’t going to inherit the pack. Hell, maybe I could explore more of the grounds as a regular wolf rather than a future Alpha.
But maybe that was expecting too much.
I tried not to think about it. The last thing I wanted was to be disappointed the way I was now. I couldn’t even use training as physical release. Rainey wouldn’t let me even watch because of my father.
It was like I was part of both worlds and none at the same time.
