Dragonrider Academy: Episode 2 Read online

  Jasmine ran her thumb over the hilt of the blade at her side. It wasn’t a threatening motion, but I took note of it all the same. “I didn’t want you to send someone else to bring them in,” she admitted. “I had to tell him he could go order to get him off of Vivi’s trail. She was trying to escape, and honestly, I was going to let her.” She rubbed her temple as if she was about to get a headache. “I didn’t realize she’d run straight into a vortex like an idiot.”

  The Dean considered Jasmine’s admission for a moment. “And why did you wait to reveal this to me now?”

  Jasmine surprised me by grabbing my arm, making me squeak. “Because you had to see this for yourself. If I had told you earlier, I’d be grounded and I won’t let you play favorites with Killian or his chosen mate.” She yanked my sleeve up, revealing my burning birthmark. “You know what that is, right? You can’t tell me that you’re okay with Killian bringing someone like her here. Not after all we’ve been through.” The accusation was fierce, but it held a note of disgust to it as if Jasmine suspected the Dean was already well aware of my lineage.

  I struggled to get out of Jasmine’s grasp, but the chick had the strength to fight Max Green on steroids. “Get off me!” I screeched.

  “That’s enough,” the Dean snapped. She pointed at Jasmine and Killian. “You both have stall duty for a month.”

  “But I—” Jasmine began, only to be cut off by the Dean.

  “Out,” she said, the word so final that it made my jaw snap shut.

  Jasmine glowered at the Dean before flouncing around and stomping out the door. Killian continued to ignore me as he gave the golden sword a longing look, then turned to follow her. The door shut behind them, making me flinch.

  The Dean visibly relaxed and gave me what I imagined was supposed to be a friendly smile. “You’ll have to excuse them. They have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders. And Jasmine, well, I hope she’ll tell you her story one day.”

  “What did she mean?” I asked, not able to hold the questions in as I rubbed the exposed mark on my arm. “Is it a bad thing… being what I am?”

  The Dean gestured to one of the seats and waited until I sat down before speaking. “That’s a difficult question to answer, Vivienne, but I’ll do my best. You have the mark of the goddess and that can come as either a blessing… or a curse.”

  I chewed the inside of my lip. There was definitely truth to that. On the one hand, my goddess blood had ruined Killian’s life when I made Solstice and manipulated him into becoming my mate—even if it had all been subconscious on my part. But then today in the Tunnel… I’d saved his life, too. “That sounds complicated.” I glanced up at the Dean, seeing my own pleading reflection in her eyes. “What does Jasmine know about me? What’s she so afraid of?” My guess was she had a thing for Killian and I was totally ruining it, but he hated me, so aside from the riderbond and all… there was no reason why I should stand in her way.

  My stomach twisted as I thought of the innocuous idea of giving up what didn’t belong to me in the first place. I shoved my fingers under my legs to keep from picking at my nails.

  The Dean sighed. “Perhaps she’ll tell you her side of the story one day, but you must understand that she lost her entire family at the destruction of wild dragon attacks.”

  I gasped. “What? Really?” As horrible as that was, I certainly couldn’t be blamed for it. “What does that have to do with me?”

  She stood and went to the bookshelf, running her fingers over the spines until she reached a leather-bound tome. She pulled it out and spread open the pages on her desk, pointing at a map with an island in the middle and tiny threads connecting to smaller circles. “This is Avalon, a place where those like you used to live. It’s the hub connecting all the realms together.” She ran her finger around the various threads as she smiled at me. “It’s a great honor, Vivienne, and it’s why I have high hopes for you. But those like Jasmine who have been personally hurt by the wild dragons blame those who were supposed to protect this hub. When we lost Avalon, many worlds were invaded and Jasmine’s was one of them.”

  I chewed my lip again, ignoring the forming blister. I didn’t know what kind of supernatural Jasmine might be, but if I had to guess, it was something much more impressive than the failed protectors of Avalon. “So she blames my family?” I asked.

  “She blames the goddess, I think,” she said as she straightened and propped her hands on her hips. She studied the map as if she could find secrets that would solve all of our problems. “She has a lot of hatred, Vivienne, and you’re going to meet others with this same pain and rage. You will only remind them of what they have lost, but it doesn’t change that you have power within you that is capable of changing things in ways we’ve never been able to do. It’s why I have such high hopes for you.” She glanced back at the door. “I just hope Killian comes to see the bigger picture.”

  I touched my birthmark, feeling drawn in by the grandeur and aspirations the Dean had for me, but really, was this my fight? I didn’t ask for this power. “What if I don’t want to be here?” I whispered as shame tinged my cheeks red. “What if this is all a giant mistake? Killian didn’t get a chance to tell you what I did…” It wasn’t something I really wanted to get into with someone like the Dean, but she deserved to know that I wasn’t the savior she was hoping for.

  “I don’t care what you did,” she stated flatly. “I need to show you something.” She cupped her hands and a dull glow flashed between her fingertips. I gasped as she drew the disturbance out, opening her arms until a massive projection filled the room. A distant dragon’s roar rolled through the air like thunder, hitting my chest as an array of dragons sped through rushing Tunnels. They traveled between realms that flashed, civilizations rising and falling as their victims’ cries pierced my ears. I held my breath as futuristic skyscrapers made of glass shattered; golden domes melted off of a cascade of hills.

  I watched in horror as the wild dragons rained down destruction. The Dean interrupted the horror with an upraised finger as she pointed at a blue dragon that dripped with water pouring down its snout. “These are the water dragons that have claimed Avalon.” Her finger shifted as she continued to point out the variances in the infected dragons. They all had a sense of madness in their eyes, scars down their backs and other signs of disease or poor health. The red dragons hailed from Vyorin, a place of fire that flashed briefly through the hologram. She sped through the different races and their home realms, showing me the contrasting difference between the friendly origins and their diseased counterparts.

  If I hadn’t been terrified before, I certainly was now. “I need to get back,” I said, my voice straining on a tremor. “My mother…”

  As if echoing my fears, the image changed to the dragons Tunneling toward Earth. They broke through the vortex and circled dark clouds.

  I leaned closer, my heart in my throat. The setting looked familiar… then it struck me. This was in the past. “That’s Mattsfield High,” I murmured. I’d seen it on the news, but without the dragons. There had been a gas explosion, hadn’t there?

  “You’re correct,” the Dean said solemnly as the dragons released their fire all at once at the gym, instantly killing everyone… except two figures in the center. I leaned closer despite the horror.

  “That’s Lily,” the Dean said with a small smile. She snapped her fingers and the display vanished in a glimmer of power. “You can come in now,” she said, raising her voice.

  I whirled as the door opened and a gorgeous girl stepped into the office. “Hi, Vivi, is it?” she asked with a light smile as if I hadn’t just witnessed the destruction and death of lives all over the realms.

  Numbly, I nodded as the Dean guided me to a seat. I gratefully slumped into it and braced myself on the armrests.

  Lily took the seat adjacent to mine. “I know this is probably overwhelming, but I want to say how happy I am to have you here. You have no idea what it’s been like.” Her eyes flashed for a
moment, turning her pupils into reptilian slits before she shook her head.

  I squeaked and leaned back. “What…?”

  The Dean remained sentinel at my side, conveniently blocking the door. “There are many different types of dragons, Vivienne. Some are good, like Lily, some are our partners, like the wyverns who have bonded to the students, and some have lost their way.” She smiled, resting her hand on my shoulder as her thumb grazed my birthmark. “Any power comes as a blessing… or a curse.”

  And there it was, the point that the Dean was trying to drill into my head. I was able to do something about the destruction. I came from a lineage of power that had once protected the realms and kept order in place.

  There was more to this than my problems, more to this than my father’s revenge. Earth was in danger. All the realms were in danger and I could be a force for good, or I could run and hide and fail them all.

  I curled my fingers, digging my nails into the wood. “What do I have to do?”

  Lily and the Dean exchanged a smile.

  For now… I wasn’t going anywhere.

  With the meeting concluded, I stumbled outside feeling dazed.

  Dragons had already attacked my world… what was to stop them from attacking again?

  I realized with a sinking sense of dread that the Dean wanted me to ask that question. The answer was simple.

  I was meant to stop them.

  I finally understood the importance of Dragonrider Academy. They needed me and if I could help them in any way, I had a duty to do so.

  Maybe that was my goddess blood talking, being an ancient protector of the realms and all, but it felt right.

  The Dean must have trusted my resolve, because nobody waited for me outside. I took a moment to watch the dragons soaring above, mixing in with the churning clouds that constantly rolled over the spires. Students on the ground hurried to their classes and despite the horror that I’d just come to realize they all faced, they seemed happy. They laughed and joked, chasing each other and feigning strikes with their swords. My high school principal would have had a hernia, but I guess when a Viking was in charge, things were run a little differently.

  “I like it here,” Lily said, making me flinch as she joined me to survey the streets. “It’s not what I expected, but in a good way.”

  I swallowed hard, trying not to pay too much attention to the fact that this girl was actually a dragon. She ran her fingers through silky hair that draped over her shoulders. A pleated skirt ran short on her long legs and she was one of the few students who didn’t have a sword.

  With a sinking sense of dread I realized that was because she didn’t need a weapon… she was a weapon.

  Lily chuckled as I stared. “I guess I’m not what you were expecting, either, huh?”

  Forcing myself to speak, I released a nervous laugh. “Uh, yeah. You could say that.” I tilted my head, looking her over. “You look pretty human.” But I’d seen her eyes change… she definitely was anything but human.

  She shrugged. “I didn’t know I was a dragon until recently, actually.” She began walking, so I followed her, keeping pace. “I have a bond with one of the other students, James.” She frowned as if this irritated her. “He’s a Knight of the Silver Order. Human, but infused with knightly magic from his lineage that goes back to the days of Merlin and King Arthur, if you can believe it. Did you know he was initially supposed to kill me? The Silver Order has a different take on dragons. He brought me here because he thought I could be a weapon against the wild dragons—well, all dragons, if I’m being honest.” She drew in a deep breath, held it, then released it through her mouth. A trickle of smoke licked across her tongue. “The Dean has been a good influence, though. She’s helped him grow—and she’s helped me accept who and what I am.” She surprised me by taking my hand and giving me a squeeze. “She’ll help you too, if you let her.”

  I didn’t feel so terrified of Lily anymore and I managed to give her a weak smile. We walked silently minus a few pleasantries. She was heading back to the dorms and was voluntarily accompanying me. She explained with a small laugh that “stall duty” would put Killian in a worse mood than he was already in.

  “Does ‘stall duty’ mean what I think it means?” I asked, not able to hide my wry smile. After how much of a jerk Killian had been—even if I kind of did deserve it—it felt like a decent punishment.

  “Oh yes,” she said with a grave nod. “The larger wyverns move out of the dorms and into their own stalls. They eat a lot and, well, it’s got to come out and go somewhere.”

  We chuckled, the laughter loosening my shoulders and coming as a reprieve after the kind of day I’d had.

  She squeezed my hand again when we entered the dorm. The humid air flushed into the cooler atmosphere inside the stone building. “Killian will be back soon. Until then, just take some time. Absorb what you’ve learned today and know that you can come talk to me about anything.” She pointed upward. “I’m on the top floor, far room on the west side if you ever need me.”

  “Sure, thanks,” I said as Lily waved goodbye and took the stairs.

  I sighed. Did they really have no elevators in this realm?

  After building up my confidence, I took the stairs as well and wandered through the corridors. When I reached the door, I smirked because my feet had taken me straight back to Killian’s place, even though I hadn’t exactly remembered the way.

  I’d followed my heart… because we were mates.

  Opening the door, I spotted Killian’s wyvern keening in his nest, fighting some nightmare that plagued him. My stomach twisted, because my riderbond worked both with Killian and his wyvern. It tore me up to see Topaz like this. Jasmine had said that time passed differently in the Tunnels, so however long I’d been gone was enough for what healing I’d done to the wyvern to completely wear off.

  “Poor baby,” I said as I entered the room. I approached him and hovered my hands over his faded scales, but the power wouldn’t come to me. “I must have used up all my goddess gifts on Killian earlier,” I murmured, disappointed that I wasn’t some all-powerful supernatural that the Dean made me out to be. I had limits, limits that I was going to have to get used to.

  Unable to be magically useful, I spent my time tidying up the room. Killian seemed to be relatively clean, but we’d been gone a while and his wyvern had been on his own. Somebody must have come in to help care for him, though, because I found the refrigerator still stocked with both human food and raw meats. I tossed one of the slivers of steak over to the wyvern and he gobbled it up, satisfied as he reshuffled himself in his nest. I found chewed up shoes and dangled them from my fingers. “Are you a dragon or a dog?” I quietly asked him. He preened, then tucked his snout under his wing as he fell back asleep.

  I cleaned the windows, reorganized Killian’s closet, and then I found my own closet and dresser had been stocked with various things. I put on some shoes after washing my feet. The room was finally starting to look presentable when Killian burst into the room.

  We stared off at each other for a moment as I took in his appearance—very shirtless, hair wet, and blue eyes blazing with agitation.

  “Uh, hi,” I said as I forced my gaze away.

  He glowered at me. “I had hoped the Dean would have sent you home,” he said, his voice gruff. He stepped inside and slammed the door behind him. “I can’t even take a shower without you staring at me.”

  “You’re the one half-naked,” I pointed out as I took an immense interest in the window.

  “You’re one to talk,” he grumbled, making me smirk. So, perhaps I had affected him just as much as he was affecting me now.

  Topaz trilled at Killian, earning an affectionate scratch under the chin from the knight. “It’s okay, boy. Are you hungry?”

  “I fed him,” I said.

  Killian seethed, his eyes flashing with rage, then it passed. “Thanks,” he bit out as he rummaged through his dresser. He frowned at my job of folding his clothes, but
he didn’t say anything. Instead he flipped over items until he found a shirt he wanted at the bottom, ruining my work, before he put it on.

  Topaz whined, shifting as if something was hurting. “Is he okay?” I asked, realizing it was a stupid question the moment it came out of my mouth.

  “What do you think?” Killian bit out as he slumped onto the edge of his bed. He gathered the wyvern onto his lap and carefully ran his thumb over the creature’s snout like I’d seen Jasmine do with Jade.

  I flinched at the harsh tone of his comment. “Is there anything we can do? I tried healing him… like I did before, but, I guess it didn’t work.”

  Killian didn’t look up at me, but his shoulders relaxed. “It’s because our bond is weak and your magic needs time to rebuild. You aren’t strong enough, as we have both learned by now.” He glanced up at me with an accusatory stare. “Dragons need community, love, and most of all, magic to survive. Without all of those things, they don’t make it… or turn wild.”

  Irritation made me bristle. He was putting far too much blame on me. “Isn’t this place full of magic? What about the Dean?” After the show she’d given me today, nobody could tell me she didn’t have some extra magic to spare.

  Killian shook his head. “The riderbond is what fuels the dragon, and even if I wanted to supplement with surrogate magic, the Academy doesn’t have enough. It’s been running low on everything for a while now. We have fewer students, fewer eggs hatching, and so many dragons…” His voice faltered, turning thick before he continued. “So many of them get sick and die before they can mature, no matter if they are bonded to a rider or not.”

  Neither of us matched gazes as silence ate away at my insides. Killian truly cared, as if Topaz was his entire world. It was such a different side of him than the violent killing machine I’d seen in the Tunnels.

  “Topaz is strong,” I said, turning back to him with determination. “He can get through this.” I wanted so badly for that to be true. I wanted for us to be able to get through this.