Page 170 of The Bond That Burns

My jaw tightened. “What the fuck have you done to her?”

“I’d think it was fairly obvious,” Marcus said disdainfully.

“Blood magic.” No wonder he’d been visiting our class. “Why Lunaya? Did Viktor put you up to this? You’ve always been his puppet. Still running his errands? It’s going to get you killed one day, Marcus.”

If I had my way, today would be that day. But even that thought was hollow. Killing Marcus wouldn’t bring Aenia back or undo what he’d done to Florence. Nothing would. Those were my mistakes to live with. And I’d take the consequences.

“You’ll find out soon enough,” Marcus said, smiling. “She’s been bound to me for weeks now. A useful failsafe, among other things.”

I looked at Lunaya and, for a moment, I saw Aenia’s face instead. The way she used to look at me when she was small, her eyes full of trust and admiration. And then I saw her at the end, feral and wild, the sister I’d failed to save.

“You’ve been using her, twisting her. Walking in Viktor’s footsteps, I see.” My stomach churned.

“Speaking of the old man.” Marcus smirked and gestured to my face. “I assume you finally snapped and tried to take him on.” He gave a low, mocking whistle. “Looks like it didn’t go so well for you.”

My lips curled. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that if I were you.”

Marcus’s expression became uncertain, but only for a moment. He chuckled. “Well, aren’t you full of surprises? But it doesn’t matter. I’ve already won.”

“Won? Won what, Marcus? What the hell are you even doing here?” Out of the corner of my eye, I sensed Tanaka moving slowly across the court.

I risked stealing a glance at Nyxaris. The black dragon hadn’t moved since I entered. He seemed listless. Had Rodriguez already completed the ritual to turn the creature back to stone? A chill went through my veins at the thought.

I glanced over at where the professor still crouched over glass vials he’d arranged on the ground. His hand held one, full of a red liquid.

“Damned Rodriguez. He always was a hardass stickler. Worst professor at Bloodwing,” Marcus said, following my gaze with an irritated expression. Lazily, he pointed his crossbow. “I don’t know what the fuck he was up to here tonight and I don’t want to know. But some blightborn prick isn’t getting in my way.”

He swung his aim toward Rodriguez.

“Marcus, don’t—”

The bolt flew.

Rodriguez jerked, a strangled gasp escaping his lips as the projectile struck him high in the shoulder. The vial he’d been holding slipped from his fingers, shattering against the stones, red liquid spilling out.

Before I could move to help Rodriguez or to take on Marcus, Tanaka made the choice for me.

I’d seen impossible things in my lifetime. I’d become a fucking dragon earlier that same evening after all. And yet somehow, what happened next was still beyond anything I could have imagined.

Kage growled. Then, before my eyes, his body began to ripple and contort. It started with his hands. Fingers elongating, nails becoming claws. His shoulders broadened, his neck thickened.

And then the motherfucker started sprouting fur. Thick, snowy white fur, covering him in a gleaming coat.

Where the Avari leader had once stood, there now stood a massive white wolf, towering and muscular.

Marcus was looking at Tanaka, as slack-jawed as I felt. “Is that the fucking Avari?”

I didn’t answer. I glanced at Rodriguez to see if he’d already known Kage’s little secret, but he looked as shocked as I was.

For a second, I felt myself reaching for the dragon within me. Could I summon it like Kage had just summoned the wolf? But when I reached deep inside myself, the dragon was silent, dormant. Part of me was kind of relieved.

Still, seeing Kage as a wolf was incredible. Someone else with a secret like mine. Someone who might understand what the hell Iwas going through. But I was a little jealous, too. Tanaka seemed to have full control. He could shift in a heartbeat. There’d been no ripping of skin or screaming in pain.

The wolf sprang across the courtyard, his massive form leaping onto Marcus with terrifying speed.

As the two collided—man and beast–Tanaka snapped and snarled as he whipped the crossbow from my brother’s hands, the weapon falling to the ground.

“Tanaka,” I heard myself shout. “Be careful! If he dies, so does Lunaya.”

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