Page 95 of Wings of Ashes
Damn incubus. Thierry growled.
“What?” Ryker asked him, trying to assist with staying on topic. Thierry had never taught Ryker Infernox, but he already preferred the dragon to Baelfire Obsidius.
“For starters, the fire was very peculiar,” Thierry shared. The way the burn marks started around her bed, yet there had been no scent of gasoline…
Bael leaned forward from his seat on the couch and flicked out his blade. “You think someone set it?”
“Could be.” Thierry hated to admit it. “Her room also appeared to be completely vandalized.”
The rising male anger was palpable in the atmosphere of the living room.
Ryker gruffly grumbled, “Explain.”
“Her bedsheets had been ripped to shreds, most likely cut with shears. Red paint spelled out nasty messages on her wall. And to make matters worse, her textbooks were viciously torn up.” Thierry hardly held back the rage in his voice.
For someone to have destroyed the books of a good, dedicated student like Nix—the act implied the specific desire for hernotto learn. To withhold knowledge and keep her from truth. That pissed Thierry off.
“The book thing really messed you up, huh?” Bael asked.
“To burn a book is to shrink a mind.”
Bael rolled his red eyes.
“Nasty message?” Ryker asked, bringing the dreadful image back to Thierry’s mind.
Thierry’s fingers cracked under the force of his tight fists. He had never been so inclined to violence as this night, learning of his mate and those who wished to hurt her. “Someone spitefully painted ‘whore’ above her bed.”
Bael’s nostrils flared as his eyes widened into red lasers of death. “Say that again.”
“Someone painted ‘whore’ on—”
A loud cracking sound came from Ryker’s side of the couch. Ryker had broken the couch arm from tensely gripping the side. Fabric tore where wood now punctured it.
“Who?”
Thierry scoffed. “I don’t know.”
“I thought you knew everything,” Bael remarked.
“There was no scent of anyone else left in the room. Whoever they were, they covered their tracks well.”
“A group?” Ryker clarified.
“It was a lot of damage for one person to manage.”
“This academy needs security cameras,” Bael ranted. “Doesn’t fucking matter that they are human technology—we adoptedice creaminto our cafeteria. But we turn our noses up at their other inventions like we are so much better.”
“If someone did set that fire to—” Thierry cleared his throat. “—hurt Nix, then she needs one of us with her at all times.”
Bael’s arm shot up, volunteering. “I claim the naked times.”
Annoyed, Ryker slapped the back of Bael’s insolent head.Yes, Thierry decided,I like the dragon shifter.
“We can set up times—a schedule,” Bael said, rubbing where he was slapped. “I thankfully have her two morning classes with her.”
“She has combat with me,” Ryker added. “After lunch.”
“You think those psychos will actually try to hurt her again? And do you think they were actually trying tokill—” Bael cuthimself off, sniffed the air, and looked up, where through the ceiling, Nix showered.
