Page 6 of Her Dragon Defender

The driver got out, then opened the rear door. The small figure who got out walked up to the gate, folded her arms across her chest and said, "Well?"

Blaze wasn't sure what to say. "Well, what?"

She blew out an angry breath, then raised her arm and snapped her fingers. The ground around the gate blazed bright as day under the spotlights.

Blaze half expected to see some sulky teenager, but the woman behind the gate looked old enough to be his mother, or maybe even his grandmother. Except...she seemed to be an ordinary human. An angry one.

"You dragged me down here, away from my dinner, on what my security guard claimed was an emergency. Did you, or did you not want to speak to me?" she snapped.

"You're the headmistress here?" Blaze ventured, though he found it hard to believe. No ordinary human could be in charge of Mirror Academy.

"Headmistress Laima, and you have sixty seconds before I return to my car to head back up to my school."

Blaze didn't doubt it. "It's about one of your students. I think something might have happened to her," he blurted out.

"A lot of things happen to my students, boy. Most of them gain a first class tertiary education, and a number of them even meet their future life partner during their time here. Whoever you're here to see, I can assure you she's not yours, if she won't return your messages. In fact, it's quite likely she's ignoring you to pursue someone far more suitable. I suggest you get back into your car, turn it around, and go back to wherever you came from. Do your best to forget about her, possibly with the help of some alcohol, if you have difficulty doing it on your own, and by this time tomorrow, when you wake up with the mother of all hangovers, I suggest you vow to not only never drink again, but to not think about her again, either." She turned on her heel and headed back to the car.

The door had already clicked shut behind her when Blaze managed to say, "But I can't. She's my sister."

Too late, of course. The headmistress was already halfway up the hill, showing no sign of turning back.

He'd come back in the morning, and try again. Surely the gates would be open then, and gargoyles wouldn't be flying about in daylight.

"Don't," came a voice from behind him. The security guard who'd called the headmistress. "Whatever you're thinking, it's not worth it. You don't want to piss off the headmistress any more than you have already."

"What is she?" Blaze asked.

The man hesitated, as if trying to decide whether to tell him or not. As if he thought Blaze was an ordinary human.

"For God's sake, gargoyle, just spit it out!" Blaze snapped.

"Nobody knows, and anyone who did find out, didn't survive to tell anyone about it," the gargoyle said. He shivered. "If you really want to speak to one of the girls, get a ticket to the next ball. The headmistress never goes to those, but the girls do. That's your only chance."

"When's the next one?"

"It'll be on the Mirror Academy website. The public part of it, so the girls' prospective suitors can find it. It'll be at Tremotino Castle, on the next hill, not here, though, because of the no men on campus rule."

Blaze nodded. He'd buy a ticket tonight, and book a motel room in the nearest town. Diana always went to the school social events, because those were the best place to fundraise for her animal sanctuary. Not that she needed the money, but she was determined to run the place as a proper not-for-profit enterprise, which meant seeking donations to keep the place running and pay its staff.

He pulled out his phone, searching for the website. Ah, there was the notice, advertising the Fairytale Masquerade Ball. At Tremotino Castle.

The home of the man who'd taken out three restraining orders against him, whose property Blaze wasn't allowed to set foot on.

Fuck.

SEVEN

Laima toed off her shoes and traded them for a pair of slippers. The rest of the castle might have under floor heating for the students, but her house had originally been the summerhouse, and the school's budget would never stretch to that sort of luxury for its headmistress. So slippers it was, for shuffling across the worn and broken tiles that were overdue for replacement fifty years ago, and would likely wait another fifty before a tiler darkened this doorway.

Mirror Academy and its students came first, as they always had. There were more and more scholarship girls these days, girls who had grown up in mundane families with no knowledge of their supernatural bloodlines, or the matches that awaited them in the supernatural community. Matches like the one that awaited that boy at the gate, whose fated mate was within the school walls even now.

Gone were the times when mated pairs were grateful for the matchmaking services the school provided, and they'd give the school generous donations at their mating ceremony. Now, even the regular contributions from the Lustro family were a thing of the past, as their line had died out, and the very lands beneath her feet had been sold to a bastard who carried neither the Lustro name nor their bloodline, however loudly he might claim otherwise.

But she would run this school until the walls crumbled around her, for what other purpose did she have in life?

Except for making the occasional cup of tea, of course, seeing as she no longer kept a cook in the house. Her meals were provided by the castle cafeteria, like everyone else's, but Laima would brew her own tisanes, as she always had.

Chamomile tonight, she decided, with a touch of lavender. Sleep did not come easily to her these days, with so many worries, and when it finally did come, it arrived loaded down with dreams of which matches must be made next. For fate had designs so intricate, woe unto the witch who dared to meddle with what she could not possibly comprehend.

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