I desperately wanted to ask Dani about her transition from Dire to Dragon-Dire hybrid. But I needed to do so discreetly. And I worried that discreet wasn’t a possibility in someone bonded to two Dragons.
One of which was Tyrez.
Big problem, no bleedin’ pun intended.
Maybe I’d just tough it out on my own. Not easy to do in the academy environment. I was having enough problems keeping my shoulder hidden. Talakai’s tooth marks had mostly healed, but they weren’t vanishing as I’d hoped. And the marks were so distinctive, I’d used my own claws to slice diagonally along them. I’d done it right after the battle on Xumi’s stairs, and everyone assumed it was from fighting the Dragons.
Tyrez called for a complete, timed shift. I braced myself. The partials had gone well. Other than the claws, I’d seen nothing but my usual Dire self. So when he signaled, I went for it.
I was one of the fastest shifters in class and achieved my furry self well before most everyone else. It wasn’t until Cody called for the reversal that I looked down at my forelegs.
The fur was unusually sparse on my forearms, and the sunlight glittered off something that definitely wasn’t skin. I peered closer, and saw them. A mix of blond and darker tones, just like my hair.
Bleedin’ scales.
My breathing hitched. Then I realized everyone else was shifting back to human, and I hurried to catch up.
My heart thundered.Scales.
Had I imagined it?
We did a bunch more partial shifts before Cody and Tyrez called it a class. Easy one today, they usually drove us harder. When I bent over to retrieve my clothing, I ran a hand through the grass, brushing aside the tufts of fur.
And there they were. Glittering among the blond strands of hair. Scales.
I brushed the fur back over them and hauled on my sweatpants, then my tee shirt.
Strewth. My heart was still ticking over like I’d been racing. As students assembled for this morning’s run, I found myself watching the building entrance. I craved Anna so badly that it hurt. I didn’t know whether this was a frustrated mate thing, or just a basic need. But my body ached every time I thought of her. Which, if I was honest, meant I was hurting pretty much all the time.
Talakai may be a mess, but I figured I wasn’t far off it, myself.
I wasn’t as strong as him. Couldn’t have endured what he had. Xumi had barely played with me, but she’d still left her marks. On my body.
And my soul.
22
Sebastian
I stood up on my hind legs and launched myself backward.
Just because I be built like a horse, didn’t mean I thought or acted like one. But when my back impacted the stone walls, Finn be no longer there.
The damned Torshin proved to be a worthy adversary. Worthy in that I had miserably failed in my efforts to stomp, crush, or otherwise maim him.
He be not a particularly adept rider. But Finn wore the red crystals everywhere—around his neck, on his wrists—and he yanked energy ruthlessly from them to ensure that he could outmaneuver me.
He also had a major advantage in the devious bridle he and Isobel had created.
She’d used her powers to ensnare me with it, while I be still trapped in the stall. It wound around my ears, beneath my jaw, and tightened around my nose so that I couldn’t open my mouth. Twin reins came back to Finn’s hands, and when he pulled on them, they ran through rings beneath my chin, between my front legs to a girth strapped to my barrel.
With his power behind it, the reins cranked my nose down between my front legs. But the true strength of the bridle be not in simple mechanics. The entire thing be infused with the bloodpower activating the crystals braided within it until it glowed with the eerie red energy. It burned deeply into the flesh behind my ears and across my nose, and it knocked me out cold when he pulsed energy into it.
This be our third session. The previous ones had ended with me unconscious, lying on the sand floor of the riding arena.
I knew it be time to yield before Finn gave up altogether. I needed to go on Galeran’s missions if I stood any chance of discovering where this hideout lay.
The human part of me understood that. But the beast refused.
