Page 45 of Wings of Ashes
“Isawthe flames. I heard the screaming as they told me to run. It’s a miracle I survived.” Nix stepped closer to Ryker, her fear seeming to subside as her anger rose. She pointed a finger at his chest. “My parents would be rolling over in their graves if they knew adragon shifterwas teaching me to fight. What is this to you, anyway? Do you like playing with your food?”
Was she now referring to herself as food to him? He was having trouble keeping up with all of her statements.
No one had ever chatted with Ryker sofranklybefore. Everyone always spoke around him like they lightly stepped over broken glass. They were all scared of his infamous fire—capable of killing an immortal.
“I’m here to help,” Ryker mumbled.
“You can act all calm and collected now, but cygnus shifters know the truth. It’s why they will never try to take a dragon as a husband, no matter if we have no one else to go to for protection. If I train with you, how do I know you won’t be overrun with bloodlust and snap my neck when you are trying to—”
Ryker gnashed his teeth at her and grabbed her by her shoulders. “Stop. Talking.”
They will never try to take a dragon as a husband, she had said. As if he needed another reminder of his species being ostracized and cursed into future loneliness.
None of his family members knew where the baseless assumption of dragon shifters being needlessly violent and dangerous came from in the paranormal community. It had arisen over the last century. The hateful rumors had cost Ryker’s family…much.
And “blood lust?” She really thought he was so mindless and violent?
Granted, he was dominantly gripping her shoulders, but he hoped she would listen to his words better if he held her. He pushed back his desire to shake the judgmental thoughts right out of her.
She pressed her lips together in a thin line but kept the scowl on her face. Her shoulders were warm and delicate under his fingertips.
Taking his time with each word, sounding it out in his head first, he said, “You judge my kind on a stereotype but fight others for doing the same to you.”
Nix blinked at his words as they came out in a low rumble from deep in his chest.
For a moment, she appeared to soak in his words. Then, she coughed and hostilely exclaimed, “You smell like blown-out birthday candles.”
What was Ryker supposed to say to that?
“Let me go,” she added, and he followed her instruction immediately.
She appeared surprised at how willingly he obeyed her request.
So, she thought all dragons were violent meatheads who raged and ravaged and pillaged—just like the stereotype Ryker fucking hated. Just like the propaganda that had destroyed his family.
“I am not learning anything from you,” Nix declared, glanced down, blushed, and ran off, leaving combat class early.
She left Ryker wondering why she had looked right at his crotch, bitten her lip, and blushed a rosy pink before running away.
Damn it,Nix thought to herself when she was back, safe at her dorm. Was she supposed to drop out of combat class just because a dragon was assigned to teach her? This was not going according to her plan.
She needed to learn to fight. She needed to get stronger.It’s the only way to change my fate. Yet, the combat instructor just wanted to make Nix run laps and do crunches.I need to learn how to punch without breaking my hand. She needed to learn how to escape a man who was taller and stronger than her.
She threw herself onto her tiny bed.
“Ow,” she said into the pillow and rolled over to look at what hard object had pressed into her ribcage.
A very familiar cylinder vial sat on her bed; a pink note sat beside it.
“I got asked on a hot date tonight! Sorry we didn’t get to chat. Here you go.” Elle had signed the card with little hearts.
Nix had never really thought about how odd it was that Elle had a key to Nix’s dorm room. She did not remember giving Elle a key but maybe she had. In her past life, she would have done anything for Elle.
But then I spent four years in a cage, locked away from society, and wondered where my best friend had gone. Wondered if Elle even cared where Nix had disappeared to.
Nix picked up the vial of liquid and stared at it. It looked normal to her.
She tapped a fingernail over the cork. She had taken the elixir for over ten years, never missing a dose, and for what? To avoid being bullied for not looking like a cygnus shifter?
