I was smaller and lighter, but it was swiftly apparent that he was a master of air games. Whereas Guild training was focused on my human form, the Dragon Legion’s had also emphasized flying. I had never seen that rolling move done with such incredible precision. And as I ducked and dove, he stayed with me.
Somewhere in my crazy spinning through a cloud, the voices receded, and my rage drained away. The despair was still there, and I was still broken. But for the moment, anyway, I wished to continue breathing.
What I really wanted to know was how he’d done that roll. So I slowed and let him fall in beside me.
And I asked him.
Minutes later, he was taking me step by step through it. I got it right on the third try.
“Yous ares a quick learner,” the big Dragon said approvingly as we soared over the quiet moonlit landscape. “I wills teach yous more, if yous are interested.”
I was, more than I liked to admit. I managed a nod as he banked back toward the academy. After a moment, I copied him.
He slowed until I caught up to him. “The Shades Academy needs yous.”
I turned my head away from him. “I am a mess,” I admitted, my heart twisting.
“We alls have baggage, Talakai,” Tyrez said. “It is hows yous deals with it that matters.”
I considered that. Was my baggage any worse than anyone else’s? Tyrez had been a prince until he broke the rules and ended up exiled. Anna had been in such a severe accident that she didn’t even know who she was. I’d seen the scars on Matt—they weren’t from any claws. Sebastian had followed and trusted Galeran, and now was back in that monster’s clutches.
Monsters came in all shapes and sizes. And sexes, as it turned out. Xumi was dead. Why was I still giving her power over me?
“Withs your training, yous do nots needs what the academy is offering,” Tyrez rumbled. “And it wills takes me a whiles to convince thems to keeps you on, withs your Guild background. Buts your experience is valuable. Ands I haves a mission for yous, if yous choose to accepts.”
My wings stilled as I soared, considering. “Whats kinds of mission?”
“We needs to finds Galeran, ands Sebastian,” he explained. “Ours contacts have had zero lucks findings him. But with your underworlds connections, yous mights have more luck.”
I might, it was true. And the contract on me had died with Xumi. The thought of slipping quietly back into the ruthless world I knew so well was tempting. Sort of like coming home. It might be just what I needed to find myself again.
“I coulds sets it up for yous to use the Satyr, Jacques, as a go-between,” the big Dragon continued. “Buts yous woulds be actings as a Shade operative.”
“I know of him.” Haki had dealt with him in the past. The whole thing made sense. I either accepted I was an academy operative, or I walked altogether.
Why not walk away? My heart constricted. The answer was far from simple. Anna was linked to something I wasn’t sure I could now be. Being with her meant facing an abyss filled with faces, and they all had names.
But in coming up here with me, the big Dragon had given me a gift that I could never repay. And now, he offered me a path forward too.
“Thank yous, Tyrez,” I said, as we dropped toward the academy, and my new life.
20
Anna
I stood on the rooftop and peered into the rising sun, searching the clouds for Dragons.
Trix whined and bumped my hand with her nose, and I patted her absently. What I’d sensed from Talakai as he fled Cara’s suite had turned me to ice. I’d been desperate to go with him.
He’d pleaded with me... and promised that he’d come back from this flight. But he wouldn’t promise to come back to me. My heart ached at the difference.
A strong arm folded around my shoulders. “Tyrez has got this, Angel.”
“If Talakai is determined, I’m not sure even Tyrez can stop him.” I almost wrapped my hand around Matt’s arm, but stopped myself just in time. I’d retrieved my gloves before leaving Xumi’s, but several fingers had gotten holes in them—they’d been on the floor, and center stage for the Dragon fight.
I so desperately wanted to touch my Dragon. To reassure myself that this wasn’t just another dream.
“He promised you he’d come back,” Matt insisted. “He’ll be back.”
