Page 2 of Libra Dragon

Well, she wasn’t. She wasn’t one of anyone, least of all adragon.

Focus on the mission, she reminded herself as the room seemed to press in around her. Don’t focus on being surrounded by hundreds of dragons. Focus on why you’re here in the first place. Inota had been involved in her fair share of reckless plans over the years, but this was bold even for her. But what choice did she have? Signing on with Haspar’s crew had been more than enough to blacklist her from every reputable mages’ organization that existed. Since his death, she’d run from insula to insula, searching with increasing desperation for somewhere, anywhere she could catch her breath… but to no avail. Her ability to alter her appearance at will had always been unique, but that uniqueness was a double-edged sword. Nobody wanted to hire Haspar’s right-hand woman. Even dead, his reputation had poisoned hers for good.

The only way out was through, that was what she’d always told herself. And the only place left to go through to lay beyond the Fog. It wasn’t another city, another town, another insula—no, it was another world entirely. The world Haspar had been trying to get to when they’d launched their disastrous attack on that dragon community. A world where shifters lived in the shadows, where humans ran a thriving civilization, a world where Inota might finally be able to build a new life for herself, finally free from a past that had been chasing her for as long as she could remember. She’d been compiling information studiously ever since she’d gone into hiding after Haspar’s death, and though a lot of the rumors were wild and off the mark, the central promise held true. The dragons of the Valley could make portals out of the Fog, somehow. Portals that led to the other world.

Focus on the mission, she told herself again, trying to smile in the face of the polite round of applause following her introductory speech. Step one, find the targets she’d identified. There were two students enrolled in this university who came from the insula in question, and her first task was to find them and begin to develop a relationship with them. She’d managed to get one of her fellow teachers to point them out, claiming she was interested to know more about their insula… and she’d done a masterful job of hiding the shock of panic that had run through her when she saw an all-too-familiar figure standing with the group.

Cato. There had always been the outside chance of her old friend making an appearance. After his dramatic betrayal of Haspar and declaration of love for one of the dragons of the insula, she’d imagined he’d remain with them. Him actually being here was a separate issue altogether. She’d wanted to go over and introduce herself to both Morgan and Callan, but with Cato there, that was out of the question. She might have all these dragons fooled, but a fellow mage would recognize her magical signature in a heartbeat. Especially Cato, who had been the closest thing she’d had to a friend for a very, very long time. His presence complicated things, of course, but she forced herself to stay calm. He wasn’t enrolled at the university, he was just here for the party. He’d be gone by morning, and if she stayed on the far side of the hall from him, he wouldn’t be able to pick her out among all the dragons. He’d barely looked at the stage while she was being introduced, after all.

She milled about in the crowd, smiling and laughing, making small talk, all skills she’d honed to perfection over a long career of infiltration and disguise. Transfiguring her appearance was an innate gift, but she’d had to learn and develop the ability to actually act like the people she was pretending to be. It had become second nature, now… though she did regret having chosen the name Kaya for her university professor disguise. It had been a name she’d often used with Cato, when the two of them worked together. The face she was wearing was new, though, and it wasn’t an uncommon enough name to have piqued his suspicion.

At least, she hoped it wasn’t.

She saw Callan coming well before he arrived, making sharp observations out of the corner of her eye. He was a tall man and carried himself with the understated confidence of someone who’d been trained to fight. Long, dark hair, light-brown eyes, a firm jawline, skin that had only recently been brushed by sunlight… Inota had been in the habit for a long time of making close, detailed observations of the faces of people she met. You never knew when you might need to replicate someone convincingly. The more detail she could commit to memory, the easier it would be to recreate later. And it might come in handy to be able to impersonate Callan, further down the line. Once she’d made her way to his home insula, of course. Baby steps. They needed a relationship first.

He was calmer than she’d expected, more grounded. Something familiar about him, something that niggled at the back of her mind as they spoke… something about those light-brown eyes, that quiet sense of forbearance. The Dean had said that one of the dragons from the new insula was interested in politics and diplomacy, and she suspected that this was the one, a suspicion confirmed by his interest in the subject she was teaching. Faint alarm bells kept going off whenever people mentioned that they were looking forward to her lectures. She’d talked a big game to the Dean about her interest in the Mage’s Guild and their inner workings, but the extent to which she’d been telling the truth was… well, debatable. It had been a long time since she’d been a member, if her bizarre relationship with the organization could even be called ‘membership’, and the truth was she knew barely anything about how they worked. But neither did anyone else. Their infamous secrecy could work to her advantage, here. Besides, her first lecture wasn’t until the end of the term. And she had plenty of experience with bluffing.

She found an excuse to cut the conversation with Callan short, allowing another member of the teaching staff to draw her away from him. She’d been honing the instincts for years that told her how to manipulate men, how to draw them close by holding them at a distance, how to fascinate them by denying them access—a short conversation, she knew, would be infinitely more powerful than a long one. And from the way his eyes had been riveted to her when she spoke, the faint hint of well-concealed nervousness in his voice, the conscious way he’d kept his body relaxed, she knew he found her attractive. He’d hidden it well—dragons were good at that, she thought with a shiver of habitual loathing—but she was a hard woman to fool. And who could blame him for being drawn to her? She’d chosen this form carefully, having spent quite some time learning how people were most easily manipulated. It was amazing what a difference it made to travel through the world with a beautiful face.

Not that she imagined that beauty would be the only tool she needed here. Shifters were generally speaking much harder to sway than humans—it was difficult, if not impossible, to fool a dragon into falling in love with you, for example. It was the soulmate thing. Sexual attraction and passing flings were all on the table, but you simply couldn’t fake a deeper connection than that. The soulmate bond was linked to their shifter magic, after all, and while her unique magical signature was dragon-like enough to fool them, she knew she could never imitate that complex a bond, especially one so poorly understood by magic users generally.

Flirting was a useful tool, though. A faint crackle of sexual tension could be useful to hide the weak points in a cover story, or to disguise prying questions. And despite being a dragon, Callan was easier to flirt with than a lot of the marks she’d approached during her career. As he moved away through the crowd, she wondered again what it was about him that was so familiar. And then the memory came rushing back. The disastrous attack on the mountainous home of the dragons of the Valley. The dark stone passageways she’d moved through in disguise… he’d been there. He’d been one of the guards she’d fooled after she’d taken the shape of their beloved Prince. She could still remember the relieved look on their faces when they’d turned to her, the way he’d lowered his sword—just before she’d lunged, quick as lightning, to knock them both out before they could react. She’d left them for dead. Dragons were notoriously hard to kill, she knew that, and she’d been reasonably confident the damage she’d done hadn’t been lethal… but still, she knew in her heart that preserving their lives had been so low on her list of priorities that it might as well not have been there at all.

After all, she doubted the dragons that had destroyed her life all those years ago had let it botherthem.

Still, Inota was a little surprised at the strength of the guilt she felt. She excused herself from the inane conversation she was stuck in, then moved away across the crowded hall and through the open doors to the courtyard. Out here, the crowd was thinning as a light rain began to fall, and she took a steadying breath of humid air. She’d done hundreds of things in her life that were worthy of more shame than that disastrous attack. So why was this the one that was coming back up to bother her? Was it the realization that she was about to target one of her victims again, this time with a brand-new face? Whatever it was, she had to get on top of it sooner rather than later. Things were getting dire, now. This could be her last chance at a life that didn’t take place almost entirely on the inside of a prison cell—this was no time to start developing a conscience.

She’d made her choice between survival and moral righteousness a long, long time ago. And at the end of the day, that wasn’t the kind of choice you could go back on.

Besides, it wasn’t like these dragons were free of guilt, at the end of the day. If it wasn’t for dragons, she wouldn’t be here in the first place. If it wasn’t for dragons, she’d still be… but that was a dark road, a road she’d learned from experience not to go down. No sense thinking about how things could be different. The past was out of her control. All she had left was the future, and her dream of the kind of freedom these privileged, sanctimonious dragons had enjoyed their whole spoiled lives.

And anyone who got between her and what she wanted was acceptable collateral damage. If anything, she’d relish the opportunity to give back a bit of the pain they’d put her through.

Chapter 3 - Callan

It felt so good to be settling back into the routine of study. Callan had worried that the step up from first year to second might be difficult. There were certainly higher expectations of them now that they weren’t freshmen any longer, but by the same token, all his hard work the previous year seemed to have prepared him well for the extra workload. It helped, of course, that he’d selected his classes with such care. By the end of the first week, he was certain that he’d made the right choices.

It was good to be back at Brisant, too. As much as he had a little more space and privacy back home in the cavern, there was something much cozier about his dorm room at Brisant. As per his request, he’d been housed with the same roommates again as last year, three guys who shared his interest in politics and didn’t mind his hermit-like tendencies to bury himself in his books for the majority of each evening. They barely saw each other, but their mutual understanding that they preferred that kind of isolation made what little contact they had with each other very pleasant indeed.

There was one development there, though. After his third day of classes, Callan returned home to find his roommate Arion sitting on the couch in the common area. That in itself was unusual, but Callan was most surprised to see he wasn’t alone. There was a young woman sitting with him, close enough that their legs were touching, and the way the two of them seemed to have been startled by his arrival home made him linger suspiciously in the kitchen.

“Hi,” Arian said faintly, breaking a somewhat awkward silence. “Sorry, I should have said something about… you know, having a guest over.”

“Should you?” Callan said, blinking. “I don’t think we have any rules about guests.” It had never come up, he realized, fighting the urge to laugh. “It’s no problem. Nice to meet you,” he added, giving the girl a smile. “I’m Callan.”

“I’m Jora.” She was clearly holding back a smile, sneaking occasional glances at Arian. “Are you going to—”

“—Jora’s my soulmate,” Arian said in a rush, his face bright red. Callan had never seen his quiet, stoic roommate so animated. “So—she might visit, sometimes. A lot. If she wants to,” he added quickly, looking back at Jora, who laughed a little as she nodded. “And if that’s okay.”

“More than okay with me,” Callan said warmly. “Congratulations, both of you. When did this happen?”

“End of last year.” Arian was still flushed to the roots of his hair.

“For you, maybe.” Jora was grinning. “I knew when we met, I was just waiting for you to figure it out.”

“Well, you’re welcome any time, as far as I’m concerned,” Callan said with a smile. “And I’m sure the other guys won’t mind either. We don’t really come out of our rooms much,” he said, feeling a pang of embarrassment. “Not exactly a party house.”

“My roommates are the absolute opposite,” Jora said, rolling her eyes. “Trust me, I love and respect the peace and quiet.”

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