Page 164 of Wings of Destruction

It takes me precious seconds to realize she’s looking at not only my bloody hands—still mostly Evie’s blood from earlier—but at Kieran’s blade.

I swallow my pride rather than speaking first and take another deep breath to figure out some way out of this. Apologizing isn’t going to get me anywhere and the words cling to the inside of my throat anyway.

This is the demon they’ve sent to collect me.

I’d have had better luck and perhaps a chance at escape if I’d been up against one of the professors or a security detail. They’d be people I do not know, or have only glimpsed around. Astrid strikes a chord of something unnamable inside of me. It’s not fear, but it is apprehension.

“Look,” I start off slowly. “I know you are such great buddies, but I don’t regret giving Evie the thrashing she deserved. And I don’t regret trying to do the same to Kieran.”

I flip the dagger.

Astrid arches an eyebrow at me and her glance cuts down to the bone.

“This? I stole it right off his belt without him noticing. Your pal has a real attitude problem.”

If I expect an answer out of her, I’ll be waiting a long time.

“He’s arrogant and entitled,” I clarify. “He thinks he can own anything and anyone.”

A hundred more insults for Kieran spring to mind. Astrid merely smiles sweetly, which is more terrifying than anything. I sway uncomfortably on my feet and will my fingers to clench the dagger that, with a little more effort, I might be able to use against her. Or at least hold my own.

Astrid doesn’t react as she stops directly in front of me.

I’m not going to make it out of this. She won’t let me past her.

Thirty-Five

Kieran

Ican’t meet you right now, I reply eventually. Later. Right now, I’m hours past Harbi’s deadline. She’ll have my head for this.

And I won’t? His smile in my head is black gums and white fangs.

It’s better if I placate her now rather than force her to hunt me down. She’s had her claws out for me from the start.

I wait for the thought to mean something, to spark a reaction inside of me, but there’s nothing. It should terrify me to be empty this way. Instead, the world has flattened and lost its detail. The clarity I’d always banked on is nowhere to be seen and my reality has reshaped itself around the loss.

Some strategist I turned out to be. The one thing I always counted on, my mind, isn’t accessible anymore.

And brilliant? My private tutors mentioned it often until I’d been thrust into DragonSpear. Things change in an instant.

I’m not brilliant. I’m broken.

No. Mozi is having none of it. See me now. There will be no time later. You better get stepping instead of moping and staring out a window like you’ve had your heart shattered.

I bristle. You’re giving me ultimatums?

A slight chill takes up residence along my veins and floods my system with ice. Mozi has never been the type of dragon to demand groveling, or any kind of supplication from me. I’ve heard that other dragons make no attempt to disguise their superiority and arrogance, but our relationship has been reciprocal.

We are bonded but we’re friends first. We respect each other. Both of us have always felt like we are in the same phase of life, growing and getting stronger, discovering our truth and our way forward together.

Now, Kieran.

I hate the way he uses my name and the way it lands. The way it feels like there’s a division between us where there’s never been one before.

I acted without thought, irrational and impetuous. Those are all good things if one’s focus is in the right direction. Mine clearly hadn’t been.

Or else.