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Rain poured from the sky, first a light drizzle, then a torrential downpour. I heard students slipping and tripping around me, but my shadows cleared a path. Clouds of my making covered the sun. Reaper's shadow training had its merits.
A black shadow flew above me as I ran. Sam was keeping tabs on me, as usual. I flipped a vulgar gesture at her, only to stumble as it tried to poop on me a moment later.
Maybe I’d direct the students to take out that demon instead.
When I split through the Whispering Woods to reach the dragon in the lagoon, students crowded like paparazzi around it.
“Look here, dragon!”
“Smile!”
“Do you think I could ride this thing and go viral?”
“Enough!” I boomed. Heads turned toward me. “Leave that thing alone! It needs to go back home!”
“What are you going to do? Find its house?” a boy mocked.
“Didn’t realize she was a demon whisperer,” another whispered to her friend.
“Maybe if you rode that thing, it would go viral,” a foul vampire male suggested.
CRACK!
A beam of light blasted into the ground, cracking the earth into a massive fissure. Students scrambled and wobbled for footing until a thunderclap rumbled so loud, I thought I might go deaf.
I shrunk on my knees, covering my ears with my hands, shadows cradled around me. The thunder cracked five more times before I cautiously released my hands. The other students collapsed.
“Cordelia!” I called, running to her.
“There’s my little beastling,” a dark voice rumbled, “always making friends with the beasts instead of humans.”
Cordelia lay on her side in the dirt.
I whirled around. “What. Did. You. Do?” I shook with the force of my rage.
“I sent a sound wave infused with enough dark energy to make them pass out,” Reaper said, hands resting in his pockets.
“They look dead!”
“I would have a lot more work to do if I killed them,” Reaper said, the picture of cocky arrogance. He had the audacity to smile at me as if I could actually stand him right now.
Aubrey’s earlier words came back to me.We have history.
I turned my back to him, staring at the dragon.
“You know dragons can fly, right?” Reaper questioned. Listening, the dragon shook out its powerful body, spraying rain everywhere. It winked at me, then launched into the sky. “You had nothing to run for. It can handle itself.”
“My books didn’t say that.” I crossed my arms. The magnificent beauty flew away, slithering like a serpent into the clouds. “Where is he going now?” My brow creased with worry, not that he could see it. “Some students have bows and arrows.”
His voice shifted in confusion. “You have too much compassion for creatures that are not yours.”
“I don’t think any being should suffer more than it needs to.” Like my sputtering heart right now, thinking of where he could have been before this. “Do you disagree?”
Reaper sent shadows around me. Slithering, teasing. They gently pressured my hips, encouraging me to rotate. I let them, begrudgingly.
He leaned against a tree, looking as leisurely as a student skipping class. The top of his usual shirt was unbuttoned, exposing the muscular lines of his chest. The desire to taste it rivaled my desire to rip its heart out.
“Does it bother you how much the opinions of others weigh on you?” Reaper implored.
