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I let my eyes stray to the Drake’s banner, which was green with gold writing, and then down to the long table beneath it. Sitting at the far end was Ari Reyes. He was definitely the tallest of the Drake guys and the most muscular too—though he wasn’t all pumped up and beefy like some of the other football players. Still he was plenty strong, as I could attest after he had caught me and held me during our History of Magic class.
Stop thinking about it, I lectured myself sternly. Stop thinking about how warm he was and how he pressed you against that broad chest of his…
Suddenly, as though he felt me looking at him, the big Drake glanced up and met my gaze. He had dark hair cut short, and caramel-colored skin like most of his people, but his eyes weren’t black like most other Drakes’ were. Instead, they were a clear, pale amber that met mine and seemed to burn into me before I could yank my gaze away and look back down at my green plastic tray, my heart pounding.
God, what was wrong with me, staring at him like that? He must think I was such a freak. Which was exactly what Sanchez, the Drake who had hit me in the head with a football and then laughed about it, had called me.
Just the thought of that made my scarred skin crawl with shame and I stared fixedly down at my tray, trying to will the awful memories away.
But I couldn’t help remembering how vulnerable—how naked—I had felt when Coach Vasquez had forced me to dress out in a t-shirt and shorts that showed all my scars. Worse, she had made me put my hair back to show the bad side of my face. And then she had paraded me and Megan down the athletic field in the back of the castle, putting us on display as the rest of our class looked on curiously, all of them obviously revolted by my awful appearance.
Well, all of them except Ari, that was. He hadn’t made any comments about how disgusting I looked. In fact, he had punched Sanchez for calling me a “freak.” Why had he done that?
I still didn’t know why. Anymore than I knew why he had caught me and held me in our History of Magic class that morning. And then picked up my test papers for me afterwards, like a perfect gentleman.
How could he want anything to do with me? I was everything his people hated—a scarred and deformed girl who wasn’t a Drake herself. I was damaged goods and Ari was a prince among his people—or at least Avery seemed to think he was. Surely he had just been being nice to me—he didn’t really care for me in that way. He couldn’t.
Could he?
You’re forgetting something, whispered a little voice in my head. The image of a huge, winged black shadow formed in my mind’s eye and I remembered looking up and seeing it coming…coming for me.
When Nancy’s mother and some of the rest of the Windermere Coven had kidnapped me and Avery and Emma and made us watch while she attempted to have Griffin kill Megan, (it’s a long story—trust me,) she had tied us to trees out by the edge of the coven’s Hallowed Glade. We had all come out of the experience all right because it turned out that Megan was kind of a reincarnation of the Witch Queen and Griffin was her Blood Knight so they had gotten out of the trap and come to set Avery and Emma and me free.
But before they could, he had come. I hadn’t really seen his Drake directly—it was just that vast shadow passing by overhead in the dawning light that sent a shiver down my spine. It was huge and there had been smoke or steam—I couldn’t tell which—drifting from its nostrils. Not all Drakes were fire-breathers, according to Avery, but I had a feeling Ari’s certainly was.
Just the thought of that vast creature with a furnace inside was enough to make me cringe. Ever since The Fire, I wanted nothing to do with flames of any kind—I didn’t even get too close to our friendly little fire down in the Norm Dorm where Avery made our second supper most nights.
I didn’t see him change, but when Ari came to me, he was in human form and dressed only in a pair of ragged shorts. The outfit showed off his perfect body—so tall and muscular and flawless, his skin a warm caramel color and smooth and perfect. So unlike my own scarred visage…
“Hi guys,” a voice said, jerking me out of my morose reflections. I looked up and saw it was Emma.
“Oh, hi,” I said, glad she had come to complete our little group. All our Coven-mates were present and accounted for now, which always made me feel safer and more at ease. Also, her presence helped distract me from my confusing and distressing thoughts.
