Page 161 of Her Tortured Beasts

The dragon community would know that I have left the estate by now, removing any reason for another attempt. Father is bodyguard enough for the hatchlings and the Chens will have been adequately threatened. I know no one will try anything like that again.

But the academy is a different matter.

Everyone separates after dinner, Savage and Lyle sweeping Aurelia into the kitchen as Scythe goes off to speak to some of his people. I head to the bedroom and pick up my phone to check the academy’s security cameras. It was an old habit of mine at Drakos Estate and it’s followed me here. I check the feeds almost compulsively, searching for suspicious activity, then scanning the sky for signs of danger. Scythe, now almost as possessive as a dragon, has avians patrolling the skies on a twenty-four-hour roster. We want to be able to see any dragons coming in from a distance.

Mace has brought his forces here before, and he has the audacity to do it again. My own father would avoid a public attack and would probably rely on Mace to do the dirty work for him. I’m sure it’s one of the reasons why he collaborates with Mace at all.

I’ve heard nothing from Francesca. I have her blocked on everything, but no doubt my father is keeping her quiet anyway. Selena wouldn’t dare reach out to me when the estate monitors her so closely.

Pure darkness drapes around me like a blanket and I throw my phone aside. The others lope in some time later, and once they’ve brushed their teeth, they climb into bed, cuddling up all cosy.

That darkness thickens until it becomes stifling. My ears echo with Aurelia’s high-pitched screams. My bed feels like spikes are embedded into it and I can’t take it anymore. Rolling to standing, I head out of the suite and leave the four of them tangled in each other behind me.

I scowl at the beasts I pass on the way down and, despite the two fang marks on my face, they still blanch and stumble at the sight of me. A hyena drops to the floor and pencil-rolls into the nearest room. All beasts are taught to stop, drop, and roll when they see a fire. I suppose that counts for fire-breathing dragons too.

Outside, Bastien the gargoyle is silent, as is the hunting games field. Telling the guards to shut their mouths, I climb up onto the wall and sit there, my legs dangling down over the long drop.

The night is cool, the stars covered by clouds and the scent of lemon eucalypts fills my nose. I can’t even see the moon, so I settle for listening to the night instead.

Mice chitter in the bushes a few meters away. A guard is blowing his nose in the tower closest to me. In the anima dorm, someone gives a high-pitched scream as she finds a huntsman in her toilet.

I flinch, these sounds only irritating me further. I get the urge to take out my earphones and let loose on the world. To tear it apart and see what remains at the end of the day. It’s tempting, but all I do instead is think of the young woman in the arms of my ex-brothers back in the animus dorm.

Late into the night, my ears pick up the swoop of an eagle’s wings. I know it’s not Beak or one of the other scouts, because I would know the sound ofherwings if I were deaf. The way she moves through the air is unique, like she finds joy in it, like she relishes in every rustle of her feathers.

I turn as she descends upon the parapet, her lilac silk chemise clutched in her beak. There are little bows at the sides. But my eyes slip past this to the space under her left wing, where a bald spot has appeared.

Aurelia has been plucking her own feathers. I tamper the agony in my being at the realisation. That she is still hurting. That she will likely always be hurting because of me.

“How did you sneak out?” I murmur.

She shifts, the chemise levitating upwards as she settles on the wall in her human form. I respectfully keep my eyes forward as she pulls the material over her body. Her skin smells of the herbal rub Lyle massaged into her muscles before bed.

“I was sneaking around for years before I met you,” she says quietly, absently rubbing her thigh. She does that often now.

“For your father,” I clarify.

She nods absently. “Why are your eyes gold now?”

I peer at the clouds as I wonder how to answer her. “We fought in ancient wars together,” I say quietly. “On ancient battlefields, I was your general. In a different body, but it was me. All of us. My dragon showed me pieces of our lives together.”

“You told me that on the day of my trial.”

I exhale at the memory that surfaces like a whale breaking through the water. My dragon had hidden things from me and it should feel like a betrayal, except it doesn’t. “When I gave you the sapphires. I remember that now. I guess I’m…listening more.”

She shifts on the concrete to face me, whispering her next question. “Does he…speak to you now?”

“Yes,” I whisper, eagerly turning to face her. “He’s…much happier.”

“Would you shift?”

“I would slit my own throat if you asked it.”

“Don’t say that!” she exclaims. “I expect you to have—to be your own person.”

I get to my feet on the narrow concrete of the wall. “Everything I do is my own choice, Aurelia,” I say darkly. “You know that.”

My shirt is off in one movement, and to my amusement, Aurelia looks away as I slide my pants down. The corners of my lips turn up before I leap right off the wall.

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