“There was never a threat. I just said that. Pollux never wanted to hurt anyone. We only wanted to live our lives in peace. This was all an accident.”
“Forgive me if I have trouble believing that,” the captain countered, his expression turning darker the longer he spoke. “But even if it were true, it does not change the fact that at least two people are dead, possibly more. I’m still waiting for a complete report of the damage. Pollux will be held accountable, and you are complicit by having withheld this information for so long.”
Adrissu stared at him for a moment, irritated. Then he turned his attention back to Willow, addressing her alone.
“Pollux has worked for you in the past, Lord Representative,” he said. “You have enjoyed his work and sought him out to work for you again. You got along with him, and by extension, me as well. Am I correct?”
“Up until all this, yes,” she sighed.
“Then for the sake of the rapport you once had, let me handle this,” he continued. “Let me take Pollux, and we will both leave. I can pay for whatever damages were incurred, then you never have to see either of us again. You will have rid Polimnos of its dragon. Isn’t that what you wanted to accomplish with all of this, the Dragonslayer Cannon and commissioning Pollux for more weapons, in the first place?”
“So he can terrorize a city that’s less equipped to deal with a dragon?” the captain cut in, incredulous. With a scowl, Adrissu snapped his fingers and forced the man’s lips together, silencing him.
“I’m speaking only to you, Willow,” he said. The half-elf’s eyes were wide, flickering with uncertainty between Dane, who was now grabbing at his face and making a muffled sound of anger, and Adrissu’s hands.
“I don’t know if that will be possible, Headmaster,” she stammered. As much as he had tried to remain calm, her refusal now made him see red.
“Give me my husband,” he snapped, fury burning hot through his veins, “and we will never bother you again. But if you keep him away from me, I can promise you there willbe no peaceful resolution to this.”
Heat was building in his mouth, and too late Adrissu realized it was not his rage making his face burn, but embers sparking from between his teeth. He snapped his mouth shut, forcing himself to maintain control of his form—but Willow’s eyes had become huge, her face draining of color as she gaped at him. The captain had stopped too, hands still on his mouth, but staring at Adrissu with a look of shock and mounting fear.
“Just let me take him,” Adrissu repeated, barely above a whisper now.
“It’s you… both of you,” Willow whimpered. “You’re both—you’re Zamnes, aren’t you?”
Chapter Thirty-Three
ForaslongasPolimnos had been his home, Adrissu had promised himself that if anyone did somehow find out his secret—that he was the very same Zamnes who had destroyed the city so long ago now—that he would kill them before word could spread. It had seemed like a necessity: Polimnos was his home, and if he was to continue living there comfortably, no one could know. He had no qualms about killing to keep himself safe.
Now, though, with recognition and dread creeping into the face of both Willow and the captain, Adrissu’s resolve faltered. If he killed them, there would be no easy solution to any of this. They were both too important to simply kill in secret and wash his hands of it. If he killed them now, even if the revelation about Zamnes did not spread, he would still be hard-pressed to answer the accusations of murder.
In the split second he had to consider his response, Willow had stood up from her seat abruptly and taken a step away from him, and Dane’s hand went to the hilt of his sword and gripped it tightly, though he did not draw it yet.
After a beat, Adrissu sighed and answered slowly, “Listen to me. Bring me my mate, and we will both leave quietly. You’ll never hear from us again.”
“So you don’t deny it, then?” Willow accused, her forced calm tone long gone now. “This whole time, it’s beenyou?”
“No, I don’t deny it!” Adrissu snapped, rage building in his chest all over again. “It has been me this whole time, but think about all I’ve done for this city. Polimnos would be nothing without my guiding hand! And if you mortals are too stupid and short-lived to wonder why the Academy of Magic has always had a headmaster Adrissu in a long fucking line of Adrissus, that isn’t on me.”
The sound of steel silenced him as the captain drew his sword. Adrissu clenched his hands into fists on the table, quivering as he forced down the fire burning in his throat.
“Now,” he hissed, glaring between them in turn. “I’ve given you the opportunity to choose a peaceful resolution. Are you going to bring me to my mate, or are you going to make me fight you for him?”
The captain remained silent, but his sword was drawn and pointed at Adrissu. His gaze was trained on him, but Adrissu could see the way he leaned toward Willow, waiting for her command. The half-elf glanced between the two of them, more obviously at a loss for words than Adrissu had ever seen her—for all her intimidating presence before, here she was pathetically mortal, withering in fear to be in the same room with a dragon.
“Captain,” she croaked, barely above a whisper, and without as much as flinching, Dane lunged at him. Adrissu shielded himself with magic, so the blade that had been pointing right at his chest slipped harmlessly away from him. Taking advantage of the momentum, Adrissu grabbed the captain by the shoulders, reached in with his magic, found the glowing center that was his life force, and shattered it with a snarl. It only took a heartbeat. The captain fell dead to the ground beside him, and Adrissu rounded on Willow.
“Are you done with this farce?” he growled, relishing in the tears of fright that had sprung to her eyes. The only sound between them for a moment was her ragged breathing, as her eyes darted around the room, searching desperately for a way out. But he was between her and the closed door. She took in a sharp breath, ready to scream for the guards outside, but she wasn’t fast enough.
Adrissu muffled the sound with a snap of his fingers to envelop them with magic, and in the same movement threw her back against the opposite wall. The breath left her body all at once, and as she slid to the ground, Adrissu shoved past her to place his hand on the far wall. From the window he could see a small courtyard on the other side, hardly more than a patch of grass with a few flowering bushes and a single tree; but he could see a narrow, arched servant’s entrance on the far end that would lead out onto the street. It would be much easier to slip out this way than try to fight past the guards.
A rapid flick of his wrist toward the door was all it took to click the lock into place, which would buy him at least a few seconds. He turned back to the wall, and with a blast of force from his hand, it exploded outwards into the little courtyard. Willow screamed and curled in on herself at his feet; but even as he heard muffled shouts from behind the door and the handle rattling, he reached down, seized her coat, and hauled her up so that she was forced to look him in the face.
“I could kill you if I wanted to,” he hissed as she flinched away from him. “Remember that.Youare the one who refused my peace offering.Youare the one who chose violence.” With that, he threw her back to the ground and ducked through the opening that he had made, running for the far end of the courtyard while morphing his illusory disguise around him. When he emerged at the other side of the clearing, coughing and waving his hand to disperse the cloud of dust, he was a plain-looking human in servant clothes. He slipped easily into the gathering crowd of onlookers, and the guards hurrying past to investigate didn’t even notice him.
He pushed past the handful of people who had already arrived to see the commotion and hurried out of the neighborhood, knowing the crowd would only grow in size as word of an explosion at the Lord Representative’s office spread. Luckily, the central guard station wasn’t too far, and he was sure they would have sent Pollux there to wait in a jail cell.
As he walked, he tried to formulate a plan, but all he could focus on was how everything was ruined. The city guard knew Pollux was a dragon, and they would soon discover that Adrissu had killed the captain and terrorized their Lord Representative. If it had been one, two, maybe even five people who had found out, he might have been able to wipe their memories or change what they thought they knew. But word was spreading far faster than he could keep up with, so he had to assume the entire town knew or would know soon enough. He would lose his home, the school, maybe even his lair and his hoard—he could not let them take Pollux from him now, too. But a plan would not come to him; his mind felt all at once blank and in utter disarray, and it took all of his focus to keep his feet moving until he was at the station.
