Bonded by Thorns (Beasts of the Briar Book 1) by Elizabeth Helen

Author:Elizabeth Helen [Helen, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Luna Fox Press
Published: 2023-02-06T16:00:00+00:00

31

Rosalina

Our first family breakfast—and by family, I mean me and my four fae captors—is just as awkward as our dinners.

Dinners over the last few weeks have followed a certain pattern that usually involves Farron explaining our research, but getting talked over by Keldarion, who is usually yelling at either Dayton or Ezryn, depending on his mood. Sometimes Ez and Kel will team up on Dayton when he’s being particularly annoying, and that’s always good fun to watch.

Though Ezryn only attends half the time. And Dayton is sometimes so drunk, he passes out before he makes it to the dining hall. And if he does get there, all he can do is sit sleepily while Farron tries to spoon-feed him soup. It’s kind of endearing.

Thankfully, I hadn’t had to endure any more awkward one-on-one dinners with Keldarion.

Besides the dinners, I spend most days with Farron, researching in the library. I’m desperate to learn more about him, the other princes, and the world. But they’re all so cagey with information. Even Marigold and Astrid aren’t helpful. The former only wants to talk about how incredibly gorgeous the princes are… which is fair. Their future mates better send me lovely thank-you letters. And the latter is too frightened of Keldarion to tell me anything juicy—but that’s also fair. His temper is fickler than a cat.

But the scariest thing of all is the more time I spend here, the less I feel like a prisoner and more like another member of the household, desperate to break this curse.

I’m on the right track now. Soon, the princes will have their mates in their loving arms and I’ll be home, in Orca Cove getting gossiped about in the bookstore.

I shake my head and shovel half a blueberry muffin into my mouth.

“So,” Dayton drawls, swirling his orange juice that smells a little too strong, “what’s everyone doing for the full moon?”

The full moon. They’re quite excited about it—or at least Dayton is. The one night of the month the curse doesn’t take hold. It was a sidebar point in Farron’s and my research. We speculate the Enchantress’s magic isn’t as strong on the full moon, or perhaps their fae magic is at its peak. Whatever the case, for every full moon for the last twenty-five years, the curse has not affected them, nor the castle staff.

I had made a joke about werewolf movies having it wrong, but Farron hadn’t gotten it.

“Seriously,” Dayton continues, “on the full moon, you’re going to—”

“Transform into my wolf and hunt goblins,” Ezryn says, sitting there stoically. No food in front of him, of course.

Dayton puts a hand to his heart, flabbergasted. “It’s the one night of the month you don’t have to change into that mangy mutt.”

“The goblins don’t take a break from terrorizing our realms,” Ezryn says. “I won’t either.”

“Not me, brother,” Dayton says. “I need a break. A chance to be a man.”

“A break from what? Day drinking? Sitting in your hot springs?” Farron mutters bitterly.

Come to think of it, he’d been in a bad mood yesterday as well.

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