Page 96 of The Bond That Burns

“Get. Out.” His voice was low and lethal.

The other students in the common room turned to stare, whispers rippling through the space.

But Regan didn’t seem ready to back down completely. She looked him up and down and for a fleeting moment I thought I saw something like actual regret in her eyes. Then her lips turned up in a malicious smile.

“You know,” she said, her voice dripping with venomous honey. “I don’t even need you, Blake. I’ve already moved on to someone with actual power. Someone who knows how to value a woman like me properly.” Her voice dropped to a near-whisper as she added, “The kind of man who can make or break someone like you.”

Blake didn’t react. “What did I just say, Regan?”

With a haughty toss of her silver hair, Regan stalked out of the common room.

When she was gone, Blake looked down at me. “Just ignore her.”

I nodded. Without another word, I rose from my chair, grabbed my things and shoved them into my bag, then walked past him towards the stairs.

I had to get out of there, to escape. I had to find a place where the tears could fall without me having to hold them back.

CHAPTER 24 - BLAKE

I watched her leave, her face hollow, her steps heavy and exhausted.

She hadn’t even made it to the Tribunal evaluation, and already they’d nearly broken her. Not by attacking her directly. No, she would have triumphed in that case. But by threatening someone she cared about–someone special to her. It was an insidious way to get to her. Pendragon was the strongest person I knew, but when it came to her friends... Well, they were her one weakness.

I was livid. Furious with the entire world and everyone in it. But most of all furious at myself for what I’d done to her.

I’d made her cry.

The common room had fallen silent after my eruption.

But I didn’t sit back down, didn’t walk out. I just stared up at the spiraling stairs, as if I could make Pendragon reappear just by looking.

She had every right to hate me. I’d given her plenty of reasons. But watching her crumple, seeing her fight so hard to hold the tears back—something inside me snapped.

What had she said earlier? That the dragon wouldn’t care about her or her friends because they were too insignificant to him? Was that how she saw herself? As insignificant? Disposable?

My throat tightened. I wasn’t blameless. I’d tried to make her feel that way. Weaker. Inferior.

Now I wanted to grab her and shake her until she saw the truth. That she was fierce, stubborn, and kinder than any of the self-serving highbloods around us with their twisted politics and their willful cruelty.

But what right did I have? I’d helped bring her to the breaking point. My uncle was probably the one who’d thought of using her friend at the evaluation. If Florence died, it would be my family that was to blame.Iwould be to blame.

And yet... I couldn’t just do nothing. Couldn’t leave her alone.

I knew she’d gone upstairs to be alone, to wall herself off from anyone who might glimpse her vulnerability.

But to hell with that.

I crossed the room, ignoring the whispers that followed me as I stalked towards the stairs. I climbed them two at a time, my resolve hardening with every step.

I reached her door and knocked. Loudly.

No answer.

I knocked again. Once. Twice.

“Open the door, Pendragon,” I called, not caring who heard me. “I’m not leaving.”

Still nothing.

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