Page 196 of On Wings of Blood

Rodriguez’s mouth twitched in a faint grimace. “Interesting.”

I glanced down at his desk and for the first time noticed something else was there laying beside the book. My essay on dragons. I had finally turned it in last week.

“Tell me,” Rodriguez continued, his voice frosty. “What did the book teach you about dragons?”

My heart sped up. “Dragons? It... It didn’t. I mean, there wasn’t anything about dragons in there.” I thought for a moment. “Or if there was, I didn’t notice.”

For a second I could have sworn he looked disappointed. Then his eyes narrowed, his expression darkening. He flicked my paper towards me across the desk. “This paper is an embarrassment, Miss Pendragon. A child could have written it.”

My face flushed hot. “I’ve had so much going on in my other classes...”

“I gave you extension after extension, Miss Pendragon,” he shot back. “More fool I. When a student usually asks for an extension I am always inclined to deny it. Yet I had high hopes you might actually make good use of yours.”

Knowing I had disappointed him, that he thought the paper unworthy of his time–that actually meant something to me. I felt hot with humiliation.

“Look, I’m sorry, all right? I’ll do better. I can rewrite it. I’ll read everything you told me to read. I can stay at lunch to work on it. Or after class,” I said desperately.

I was praying he wouldn’t do the one thing I was most afraid of and cancel our thrallguard sessions. I didn’t know when exactly but I knew the Consort Games were coming up soon and I felt as if I was finally getting somewhere. Once or twice in the halls, I’d felt the prickling of a highblood student, trying to pry into my mind. I’d successfully managed to shut them out each time. But these were just students. As Blake had said, older highbloods would be much more of a challenge. I still had a long way to go if I wanted to be able to protect myself.

Rodriguez scowled and leaned forward. “It’s too late for that, Pendragon. I would have thought that you of all people would have been most eager to learn everything you could about dragons. But instead you act as if you actually care about your other classes. As if you’re taking all of this bullshit seriously. I thought you didn’t even want to be here.”

“I didn’t... I mean, I don’t,” I said lamely.

But he was right and we both knew it. Something had changed.I’dchanged.

Had I bought into the highblood propaganda without even realizing it or just fallen into an easy routine? Either way, I’d grown complacent.

Part of me had started wanting to be here. Bloodwing, for all of its horrors and cruelties, had begun to feel like home.

“And now,” Rodriguez continued, ignoring me. “You give me this half-assed excuse for an essay. Do you even care? You have no idea what’s at stake here, do you?”

My temper rose. “How the hell would I when you haven’t told me anything? You keep things from me and yet you expect me to somehow learn? To care. Why should I care? All the dragons are dead and gone.” I leaned forward. “Speaking of half-assed bullshit, what about you, Professor? Why were you meeting Blake Drakharrow in the middle of the night in Veilmar?”

His eyes flashed. “Don’t. Don’t even go there, Pendragon. I'm warning you.” He leaned back and took a deep breath, as if trying to calm down. “I thought you wanted to survive. That you’d use the knowledge you found to help you get through the Consort Games, to help you... prepare.”

I blinked at him, utterly confused. “I don’t understand. What knowledge? What do dragons have to do with anything?”

“It doesn’t matter now, does it?” he snapped. “You’re obviously not as clever as I’d hoped. And now we have a bigger problem.”

I bristled at the insult, but knew his frustration was at least somewhat understandable. I hadn’t held up my end of thebargain. But at the same time, it felt like he was talking in riddles.

He leaned forward, his dark eyes holding me in place. “Do you know what a legacy is, Pendragon?”

I narrowed my eyes and swallowed a witty retort about the breadth of my vocabulary. “Yes, I believe so.”

“There’s a legacy I’ve held onto,” he said, his voice lowering slightly. “It’s been passed down through my family for generations. A legacy of dragons and their riders.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What kind of a legacy exactly?”

“The subject we’re talking about,” he said slowly. “Is the most dangerous one in existence.”

I swallowed, taking in the gravity of his words.

“Some say there was a time when dragons and their riders ruled these lands. Not highbloods.”

My mind raced at the possibilities. “How do you know this? Are you saying this is real history or just a legend?”

Rodriguez smiled thinly. “The only way you’re ever going to have a chance in hell of finding that out now is if you survive the Consort Games.”

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