Memphis stepped forward, seething. “Why didn’t you agree? What do you think is left for you here?”
Whipping around, she yelled, “Memphis Carter, my parents just died back there. Our home has fallen. One of my closest friends just betrayed—” She shakily sucked in a breath. “Do you honestly have the nerve to think I would let my parents’ dream die? For nothing?” Her voice cracked like a whip, and Memphis pressed his lips in a thin line. Howls cut through the air, falling and climbing over one another in a haunting tremble. Spinning, she searched the fading light, her hair standing on end. “We don’t have much time.” The howls grew, sounding too close, too fast.
“Brokk.” It was just his name, a whisper, and she could feel his tension crackle like lightning behind her.
His voice was husky. “No. Absolutley not. We are in this together. We have always been in this together.”
Licking her cracked lips, she clenched her fists. This. This being the Academy, their friendship. And love. Because love wasn’t always clear, wasn’t always easy. Love was their support. The fact that it killed her inside to imagine life without them. Love was their adventures, their bonds, their loyalty, their banter and the way they had gravitated toward one another. They were her best friends. Would always be her best friends. And that could never be broken. She locked her eyes with Memphis, his ice blue eyes cutting into her, his chest rising and falling heavily. For him, friendship wouldn’t be enough.
Chewing the inside of her cheek, she growled. “Adair killed my parents. Do you really think he will stop until any threats are out of his way? The entire school, gone.” Her voice cracked. “I will not let everything wither into nothing. For the madness of one family. For the lust of power.”
Memphis jokingly snapped, “You wish to disappear but not to be brought back? Impossible. Where could we hide from his new army?”
She locked eyes with Brokk, not saying a word. Their silent battled raged while Memphis’s gaze flickering between them.
Memphis’s voice dropped into a dangerous whisper, “What do I not know?” The howls climaxed, and she could practically see their gleaming teeth, how they had ripped flesh so easily. How in hours, they had demolished some of the strongest people in Kiero. Her voice cracked. “Brokk, I am begging you.”
“You do know that I barely understand it myself? That this power is unstable.”
“I think you understand it better than you know, but you are afraid to give into it.”
He surged forward, hands shaking. “I’m afraid? Yeah, I am. Our world literally just entered another war that we barely understand because of forces rushing against us. We just lost our friends, our home. We all almost died. Your parents did die. Our only safe passage just left because you are banking on me to do something I’m not even sure I can do.”
The cold air formed into fog as she exhaled hard. “I get that you are scared. I am too. But you didn’t see Adair. Didn’t see the look in his eyes as he saw his own mother and destroyed her without barely batting an eye. The Gortach—” she waved her hand at the lifeless body, “—a seer who only knows the truth, assured me that Adair is the reason this is happening. I lost him weeks ago, and no one, especially me, saw the change because we were all so wrapped up in what was happening around us! About kings and queens and a legacy!” Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her voice cracked as she jabbed a finger into his chest. “This isn’t our time to step up and save the world. I’m begging you please, come with me. We can leave this world, this monarchy, this war.”
The snow drifted down softly around them, the afternoon bleeding honey-colored light around them, and if they were suspended in this moment forever, it would be chaos trapped in the breathtaking beauty of their world. Brokk was visibly vibrating, tears shimmering in his eyes. He whirled to slam his bloodied fist into the nearest tree trunk. It exploded, bark splintering around them, disappearing into the drifts.
He didn’t turn around as he snarled, “Something happened when Bresslin had us. Whatever this is in me, I have always felt it there, but I don’t want to be more. I think you would all be scared if being a shifter puts people on edge. But to also…” He paused as he whispered, “But to also have the power to manipulate time. To jump through it.” Memphis tensed, looking at his best friend as Brokk faced them, darkness sweeping through his features. “It’s torture to feel that alive when all I want is a shot at a normal life. A shot of feeling peace. But this, this is more of a beast than my other form. And I have no idea why it has to be me.” He stepped forward, looking behind them as roars now thundered through the air, shattering their illusion. Taking away their time. “But I do know two things for certain. That for you, Emory, I will go to the ends of this forsaken country to keep you safe. And that your parents—” His lips quivered as he snapped through his anger and welling sadness. “Even though I don’t understand why this is happening, I trusted their dream. I trusted that they wanted for Kiero to flourish into and it’s not this. It got twisted with their secrets.”
Memphis was so still, he looked like a statue carved from the ice around them. Her heart welled, and she
