AllFreeNovel
Share Us
An older professor with long, flowing silver hair and kindly green eyes stepped out of the crowd. He seemed so fragile with his small stature, but there was pure mischief in his curious smile. The man might be aged, but I had a feeling he made up for it in spirit.
“I’m Lucian. How can I help, though?”
“I’d love to speak in private,” I said.
He waved me off with his cane in hand. “Of course. Will your dragons be joining us?”
“I said arrest him!” Arius screeched. He was desperately grasping to control the situation.
“Arrest the board. All of them. Starting with Arius. They’ve lied to us all and aided in the escape of a dangerous fugitive,” Vlad ordered.
Arius’ magic lashed out, but before he could hit anyone, he was within a floating bubble, suspended as if it were full of water. I glanced behind me to see the blue dragon staring intently at him. The magic Arius had tried to use fizzled out, and it wasn’t until guards were around him that the magic fell away. Within seconds, the guards had him in magic dampening cuffs.
“What is the meaning of this?!” Romas yelled as Kyler and Phyros stormed out to join him. Before they could even react, they were in a magical containment. The guards called out their thanks to the dragons before approaching.
“You’ve been accused and found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, treason, and a whole host of other shit,” Vlad finally answered. He nodded at the dragon before the magic fell away.
Now that the threat was contained, they shifted back. Deacon stepped forward to address the professor.
“We’d love to join. The life of our queen is on the line,” he explained. More murmurs ran through the crowd, but Lucian ignored them as he waved for us to follow. Despite having a cane, he powerwalked us across campus to the faculty building.
When he closed the door behind him, he busied himself with an electric kettle and a stack of to-go coffee cups.
“I have tea and coffee. Take your pick.” I wasn’t going to turn down caffeine after the stress of everything going on in my life. Deacon followed me over as I got mine, preparing cups for his brood. The way he took care of them was sweet, and I made a mental note to do that more often for mine… Though Kane would likely punch me if I waited on him like this.
When we were all settled back in and he’d poured hot water in the waiting cups, he finally gave us his full attention.
“Please, start from the beginning.” His eyes bounced from Deacon to me, waiting for one of us to start talking. I took the lead, sharing what had driven us from the university to the present day. He let out a low whistle when I concluded. “Here I thought dragons would be the most interesting thing to happen today.”
“We aren’t?” Leander teased. Deacon gave him a stern glare, but the beta didn’t flinch.
“Lighten up, Deacon,” Axel gently urged. “We’re safe here now.”
“He’s right,” Karina said as she took his hand in hers. The alpha immediately relaxed at her touch.
“So your healer’s theory is that the babies have kept her magic from fading completely?” Lucian prompted once they’d settled.
“Yes,” I agreed. “It’s odd. Her body seems to react to us, but her mind can’t place it. She says we feel like strangers, yet she can sense that we belong with her.” My call with her had been enlightening, but that observation gave me hope.
“That prompts me to wonder if I could help at all,” he admitted. “I’d have to meet her to know for sure. And it seems you’ve given me reason to flee while there’s a full change of leadership.”
“It was needed. Their lies had to be exposed,” I said with a shrug. He chuckled at my nonchalance. “But we’d love for you to meet her. Any chance that you could help is good enough reasoning for me.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” he said as he ran a hand through his flowing locks. “The positive is that if she does find her magic, it would come back to her. So, if this man approaches, the pull for her magic to go ‘home’ will be too strong for him to stop. I’d wager that a dragon soul would be even harder to contain.”
“The asshole has kept his distance so far, and I have no intention of letting him near my mate again,” I told him bluntly.
“You may have to,” he said simply. “Proximity might be the only way for her magic to reconnect. That, or killing him, but again, she’d have to be near so that the magic returned to her once his grip on it was released.”
“She’ll have an army behind her,” Karina said. It was meant to be reassuring, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d be sending my mate to certain death if we let her anywhere close to the Arch Mage.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I finally said in defeat. What else could I do? If that was what needed to happen, I knew Farren wouldn’t hesitate to throw herself right into the fire. Because in the end, it would protect her babies, and her mama dragon instincts would kick in.
“Then I shall prepare for travel. I take it you have transportation?”
“We do,” I agreed. “We have an SUV at the gates. I’ll bring it around.”
Deacon and Karina stayed while Leander and Axel followed me out to the gates. Just as we passed, I saw Vlad and Dorian trading punches.
