Page 16 of Power of Draken

Your problem isn’t her name, Ulyssus informs me. It’s your cock.

Don’t worry about my cock, I send back to him.

It’s one or the other for you lot. Cock or brain. Can never use both at the same time.

I don’t honor that with a reply. Rowan might wake me inconveniently, but I know why I’m here. We’ve spent two years living and training among humans just to get to the alchemist we’d heard would be in this year’s enchanter class. I'll do nothing to jeopardize that.

It’s just that things were simpler before the alchemist had a name. And a face. Rowan. Gorgeous, mouthy and stars-damned suicidal.

The rage that swept through me at the Wishing Well Inn, when I realized our alchemist was at the center of murderous chaos, rushes back with a vengeance. That moment, right before Kyrian threw himself over her, when some burly human boar aimed his booted foot at her head, flashes in my mind again. An imprint, frozen in time. Because after that, I started killing. Anyone who so much as looked Rowan’s way fell within heartbeats of their mistake.

Two years of work infiltrating Eryndor would all be for nothing if that stubborn, reckless girl got herself dead.

“Doesn’t matter what we expected,” I tell Kyrian harshly. “She’s an alchemist. She’s why there’s auric steel. Don’t lose sight of why we’re here.”

“I’m not losing sight of anything, just saying I was expecting someone more like her mother.”

“It would be easier if she were. For one thing, we’d have less chance of her deciding to jump head first off a cliff to save a stranded kitten, or whatever else she’s planned for an evening adventure.” I sigh. “The plan’s not changed. We’ll need her cooperation, so get her trust as best you can. We both know I’m not the male for that job.”

Kyrian snorts his agreement. “Just wait until Logan meets her. Five gold says he’ll be between her thighs in under a week.”

“I’d rather you were that confident Logan won’t fail mathematics,” I say, pinching the bridge of my nose. It’s the one thing I haven’t been able to drill into his thick skull. The humans will kick him out for failing academics, destroying everything we’ve worked for. We’ve come to blows over it, more than once, with no result.

It’s not like Kyrian or I could take the exams for him—glamor magic barely dulls our pointed fae ears.

“Speaking of the devil,” Kyrian says, nodding toward the forest. A pair of golden eyes blink from the darkness, followed by the whisper of rustling brush. A large gray wolf prowls forward on silent paws.

“Glad you could pause your rutting long enough to join us,” I nod at the wolf, who sighs dramatically before shifting into his fae form.

“When there’s no quality, I go with quantity.” Logan stretches, hands interlaced behind his head. “Which one of you idiots was flying? Because if we can take to the skies?—”

“Talk to Kyr. He’s the suicidal one today,” I say.

Kyrian flips me off. “We were talking about the alchemist. The one running a slum clinic under her mother’s nose.”

“And making a mess of it.” A small growl escapes. Reckless. So damned reckless. “Keeping the girl alive might be the hardest part of this.”

“Saving a few humans doesn’t make up for what she’s doing,” Logan says to Kyrian, but doesn’t come closer. It’s still strange, seeing a wolf instinctively seek distance instead of proximity they usually crave. One of my fathers is a wolf shifter from Flurry, so I know more than a little about them. Paying Logan’s pack back for what they did to him is on my to do list.

“I don’t think she knows what she’s doing,” Kyrian says.

“She should,” I reply. “If you make a weapon, you better know what it does. Ignorance isn’t an excuse.”

Shadows leak around me, pooling at my ankles and around Ulyssus’s wings. Even with the wards muting my power, the forest hums with energy. Kyrian gives me a warning look.

Guilt lashes at me, and I make no move to shield myself. Lilith. Bright-eyed, energetic Lilith. The first dragonling to hatch in centuries—and the first to consume my heart. She should be soaring through the skies, scaring her parents with her antics. What happened to her is my fault. That I never intended for things to go down that way doesn’t matter. All I can do now is make it right. I have to.

“I’m just saying, it’d be easier if it was Collin Chambers who turned out to be the alchemist instead,” Kyrian says, holding up his hands.

“She’s an Ainsley. It’s not that hard.” Liar, I think to myself. You’re a damn liar. “Two more months, at most, and this is done.”

“I vote we grab her now and go,” Logan says.

“Which is why we don’t take votes,” Kyrian says with more patience than I’d have. It’s tempting to grab her now. We know exactly who she is, and we have her in our grasp. But we’re as deep in Eryndor as you can get without sitting in the queen’s lap. If we try to take off with Rowan now, we won’t make it to the city’s edge. Thankfully, Eryndor’s command is going to solve the problem for us soon enough when they send the cadets beyond the wards.

“Here’s what we do next,” I say, laying out the plan that will keep us moving toward our goal. “Get the alchemist’s trust if you think that’ll help, rut her if that’s what it takes—but don’t ever forget the truth. Rowan Ainsley is not our ally.”

Chapter 9

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