Page 145 of Centaur Bolt

He pushed past me, and then vanished through the door.

Cara and I followed. When she tried to talk me into going up to the dorms, I refused.

“Are you going with them?” I asked as we paused by the stairs.

She nodded. “I won’t be in on the fighting, if there is any. But if Isobel is there—they will need my help.”

I looked down the stairs, to where Havoc was vanishing through the front entrance. “I want to wait for you guys by the lake.”

Her eyes widened. “We might be away a long time. Cas and Eli are giving the students the day off. You need rest.”

I shook my head. She must have recognized the stubborn set to my chin, because she relented.

Minutes later, I sat on the bench by the lake, staying out of the way and feeling rather useless as I watched the army assemble at the gate.

In the last hours before dawn, the academy building was dark and quiet, the students mostly asleep. The odd Dire ran out of the woods and froze, staring at the army assembled in the meadow, before scampering back into the building.

There were Dragons galore, and more arriving by the minute. The way they came through the gate and assembled spoke to training. One of them, an imposing Dragon dude so deep a purple he was almost black, was talking with Tyrez.

The Sabres were everywhere. I saw two of them with a female—I’d seen her around the academy, she had a glorious mane of hair—and two little girls. They stood very close together, the males with their arms around her and the children. It was such an intimate thing I had to look away, my heart twisting.

There was no sign of Marcus anywhere, and I was pretty sure I knew where he’d disappeared to.

He’d gone home.

The cause of his vanishing act stood close to Tyrez. Havoc in human form was as big as the instructor. He seemed determined not to glance my way, not even once.

With an aching heart, I watched Cara manipulate the gate, before sending the army through.

51

Havoc

I couldn’t believe I’d let Riley’s stubborn chin and Fang’s damned beady little eyes talk me into this.

I could still vacate. Take off on these fucking do-gooders. Except for two things—the first being that Riley was too clever. Claimed the Webspinner was safer with her. Which she was. But it also acted as a leash, and the woman damn well knew it.

Riley might not be Isobel, but like all her kind, she knew how to manipulate. The second thing was harder to deny. If Rafael was here, I owed it to him to bust him out.

That Riley dreamed of him bothered me more than I wanted to admit, but if it wasn’t for him, I’d still be rotting in that damned cell. Where he might be, right at this minute.

The Watchers stood ready to gate us through to the realm. We were getting spat out far away from the town. They claimed the safe distance would prevent the Isobitch from getting spooked, but I doubted the queen herself was still in residence. My pressing question was—had she taken Rafael with her?

What assembled near the gate in the meadow was a mixture of Sabres and Legion Dragons, with a few Bellatis and Dires thrown in for good measure. I assessed our relative strength with an expert eye. Isobel’s mercs were a vicious lot. It would be a battle to subdue them, even with experienced warriors.

My monster stirred within me at the thought.Soon, I promised it.

The big Legion Dragon pushed right into my space, and my talons erupted from my human fingers. Warrior that he was, he no doubt noticed but ignored ‘em.

The guy was as big as me, and I couldn’t remember the last time I’d faced off against another that size. Or rather, I did.

Ace. It had been Ace.

I stifled the memory as this Tyrez stared straight into my eyes, and said, “I’m in charge when we go in. You answer to me.”

“I answer to no one,” I snarled.

“If Isobel is gone, we need prisoners, or we have no way to track her.”

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