Page 20 of Creatures of War

“Rumors also say she rode not just one dragon but three of them,” Coral continued.

That drew in even more gasps, and their curiosity morphed into something more disgusted and judgmental.

“I never knew you enjoyed listening to rumors,” I said.

Coral tucked her curls behind her ear. “My rumors come from a strong source, right out of the king’s throne room. So, is it true, Rayna. Three dragons? Before you’re even mated?”

I bit the inside of my cheek as everyone waiting for a response. My eyes burned as humiliation filled me. I never felt so alone as everyone stared at me with so much judgment. Before I even had a chance to say anything, Coral effectively destroyed any little bit of reputation I did have.

I did say I didn’t care what people thought of me, but only to the extent that they left me alone. But it seemed Coral had it out for me before we ever had an actual discussion with each other.

Words like “whore” quickly began being whispered around the room.

The teacher cleared his throat, realizing he’d lost control of the room. Slowly everyone switched their focus back to him. “We will not entertain rumors in this classroom. If there is a rider here who rode a dragon or multiple ones, then that is between them and our administration. I’m sure they have something planned to correct those transgressions.”

Coral snickered as she faced forward. The teacher so easily made it sound like what I did was sacrilegious and that I was to be punished for doing it. Like I was something dirty. I slid into my seat, wishing I could disappear from the classroom.

Before Aylia faced forward in her seat, she gave me a weak smile. “We’ll get you through this,” she said so softly that no one seemed to hear her except me.

I didn’t even realize it was possible to talk low enough like that in a room full of riders with super hearing. But no one reacted to her words.

Her smile widened as she turned back in her seat, leaving me feeling like maybe there was a glimmer of hope. At least I wasn’t completely alone, even if I felt like I was missing three important parts of my soul with my guys out of reach.

Chapter Twelve

The rest of the morning was at least uneventful as the teacher finished up his lesson, and we went to another class that was more science based, examining biology. Apparently, understanding the bodies of riders, dragons, and Fe was extremely important, and we were promised we’d get in depth after we got through the introductory materials of the class. It was actually kind of interesting, and the woman at the front of the class at least seemed warmer than our first teacher.

Then, it was lunch time all too soon. Aylia stayed by my side the entire time, talking enough for the both of us. I was more than happy to let her, not having much to say, and keeping my responses short but frequent enough to encourage her to keep talking.

I also realized how shy she was. While she easily talked with me, if others approached her, she seemed to shut down, growing nervous and uncomfortable. The others would pick up on that and leave her alone.

“You know, if you talk like you're scared of everyone, you’ll be stuck with me as your only friend,” I said.

Aylia frowned, tilting her head to the side. She finally said, “That’s fine with me. I’ve never been good with making friends. I don’t what it is about you, but you’re easy to talk to. The others…” She shook her head. “It feels weird with them. Wrong.”

I didn’t try to talk her out of her assessment, wondering if she was picking something up from them. Or it could be that she was picking up their adverse reactions to me. After our first class, I instantly became a pariah, all the other riders doing their best to stay away from me.

As soon as we entered the cafeteria, I froze, staring at the massive space, and also at the huge, clear divider between my side of the cafeteria and the other. On the other side, were dragons, sitting at tables bigger than ours, eating huge helpings of food as they talked and laughed. All of them kept their wings tight against their bodies, their tails curled around their feet so no one stepped on them. The light glinted off a sea of different colors, their simple clothes showing off the scales on their backs and shoulders.

The rooms were massive enough for the dragons to fly around in them. Tables were evenly spread out, most of them filled with people already sitting down. This was the moment where we got to see all their bonded riders too, and right away I could see the differences with the upperclassman. Their uniforms were different in that the hems were designed differently. We didn’t have any additional colors, but it seemed like the riders had other colors like black, gold, and blue. I wondered what they meant.

Most likely which class each rider was in.

“Come on,” Aylia said, ushering me toward the long line of riders in my class gaping at the dragons as they waited for their food.

All of them seemed mesmerized, this most likely the first time they saw dragons.

Aylia didn’t seem as interested as she got us in line and every so often nudged the person in front of us to keep moving forward. While we waited, I tried to find my guys, but they weren’t in sight, and I still couldn’t reach out to them. It was like something was blocking us mentally, and it only left me feeling empty and cold. Was there another time to eat lunch? Or were they being kept from somewhere to prevent us from meeting. My stomach tightened at that thought.

They really were going to keep us apart, weren’t they?

That hollowness I had been trying to ignore grew as I continued to look for the familiarness of my dragons and failed to find them. My grip on my tray tightened as we moved down the line and got scoops of foods I couldn’t care less about. I wasn’t hungry, and I had a feeling anything I ate wasn’t going to have flavor to it.

We finally made it through the line and found a spot to eat. I poked at the food, feeling dejected.

“Are you okay?” Aylia asked.

“You’ve been asking me that all day. Aren’t you tired of it?” I asked, feeling a bit snippy.

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