Page 191 of The Forbidden Dragon King
Caligo’s mouth falls open. “But…b-b-but…”
Aurelius’ mouth curves up at the side. “Yes? Do you want to beg? Although, you don’t allow begging within the academy. I’ll make an exception for you.”
Caligo’s jaw clenches, and his throat bobs. “No, Your Majesty.”
Aurelius turns back to me. A soaring joy makes my eyes glitter, as I meet his gaze.
This feels like change, or at least the first buds of it, as if something long rotting and withered is coming to life.
“I am giving you two weeks off duty; fae are fast healers. Although, with the way that your skin and muscle is torn, you’ll need it. I’m trusting you to rest and not be reckless.”
“Hopeful,” I finally find it in myself to rasp.
Aurelius’ lips twitch. “Don’t break any more rules, at least until you’re able to stand again. Then in two weeks, we’ll discover whether you’re chosen as the first ever Alpha dragon rider or sacrificed to the Shadow Gods.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Training Ground, Shadow Military Academy
Freya
The black cloudscovering the sun in the afternoon sky crack open, driving a sudden, stinging rain across my cheeks, as I stand on the windswept training ground outside the stone walls of the Shadow Military Academy.
Daire raises his wing to shelter me. I peer through his soaked feathers at the dragons, the Alphas in their shifter forms, who are hunkered in a line down the side of the training ground.
There are half a dozen large ruby dragons and one smaller but beautiful, shimmering silver dragon.
They shift their clawed feet, folding back their wings. Sparks spray from their mouths. Their intense eyes scan the Omegas in front of them, hungrily.
Adrenaline rushes through me.
This is it.
The day that Daire and I discover if we will live or die. Yet we have no control over it.
I don’t believe in fate. If I’m not selected as a dragon rider, just let them try to sacrifice me.
I won’t make it easy for them.
“Iggy is a pretty silver dragon, isn’t he?” I point out. My teeth chatter from the cold. “Not as imposing as Aurelius but still, you can tell that they’re related.”
Rain trickles down the back of my neck, plastering my uniform uncomfortably to my body. The rest of the Omega cadets who are lined next to me, as well as the instructors behind them who are caught in the deluge, look as miserable as I feel.
At least I have a wing to shield me. I take a breath of the delicious smelling feathers to calm my wildly beating heart.
Five is sheltering under the archway that leads into the academy, watching this matching of dragons with their dragon rider with calculating eyes.
For two weeks now, since Daire’s whipping, this day has been my focus and my greatest fear.
“Say that again but louder, you’ll make his bloody life.” Daire smirks. “If we end up matching with Iggy, however, I’ll sacrificemyselfto the Shadow Gods.”
I shiver with distress. Fear turns my guts to water.
I frown. “Don’t say things like that. Not after…you know.”
And he does.
For the first week after the whipping, Daire slipped into a fever because of blood loss and the cursed iron.
