Page 108 of Unbound

"You can do that?"

"I can communicate with his elemental. I suppose I could also reach out to the air touched you are rumored to vigorously mate with."

"Bastian?"

"Yes. I should also admit I am only asking to give you the illusion of choice. I already reached out to them several minutes ago when I suspected the humans who led you here of treachery."

"And you didn't think to warn me?"

Rage explodes in my chest, hot and vicious. Typhon is supposed to protect me, and he just let me walk straight into this?

"Yes. Better to face our enemies than hide in the shadows from them. I will admit I didn't expect... quite so many of them, however."

The slight throb of apology through the tether softens my anger. We’re still screwed, though.

Serena slides inside my space and plucks my rapier from my waist. Blunted or not, I still feel naked once she takes it.

"Just to be safe," she says, eyes holding mine as she steps back, her smile cutting like a blade.

"Are they close?"I ask Typhon through our tether.

"Yes."

"I didn't see anything," I say, trying to keep my voice steady despite the situation. "Just let me walk out of here, and I won't talk about this. Whatever it is."

"Hmm," Malakai says, lips curving into a smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "Serena mentioned she gave you the opportunity to work with us. Said you weren't particularly receptive, though. We could use your dragon, Nessa. Maybe there's bad blood between us, but we're willing to leave it in the past."

"You tried to kill me during the water trial. And you had your goons try to kill us in the training arena. And you've murdered dozens of innocent students." I lift my chin, refusing to cower even as my insides quiver with dread. "So fuck leaving anything in the past. I want nothing to do with you bastards."

Malakai's smile widens, teeth flashing white in the torchlight. "I'll admit I like your spunk, Nessa. Almost as much as I like the idea of having that water dragon on our side."

"It's never going to happen."

He nods, eyes falling to the floor for a moment as if he's considering something. "I believe you. That's too bad. Because it means you're also too dangerous to keep alive." His gaze flicks to the two first-years. "Veeni and Jira, you did good bringing her here. Titus, it’s your turn to get rid of the body. It has been a while since we threw one over the cliffs. That should do for her.”

My stomach clenches and bile rises in my throat as I take a step back, only to bump against the doors. If Veeni and Jira turned to Serena’s side, how many other fires can’t be trusted? My pulse hammers in my throat, but I start preparing to fight. If they're really going to try to kill me, I'm taking some of these fuckers down with me.

Typhon moves in front of me, spreading his wings wide, his long body rippling with power.

Malakai, Serena, and the gathered students all take a huge step backward, eyes suddenly wide with fear.

"Let them see what they threaten. Let them see Typhon. First of his name!"

He throws his head back and lets out a roar that rumbles through my chest, shaking dust from the ceiling and rattling my bones. The sound vibrates through every inch of my body, making my teeth ache and my ears ring.

Elementals flash into view around the room as the students draw weapons and prepare for a fight. Three fire elementals and twelve water elementals bathe the room in magical light, red and blue.

Veeni and Jira, the first-year fires who led me to the room, make the first move. Just as Typhon engages with four elementals, biting into one and throwing it hard enough to shatter stone, the girls rush me.

They're both holding daggers, and I'm unarmed. Unarmed, maybe. But not defenseless. Fucking far from it.

I reach into the stone beneath their feet, shifting the earth upward. A stone rises in front of Veeni's feet, tripping her and sending her flying forward.

I step back, pull water from the air, and form a small buckler of water over my right wrist. I barely raise it in time to knock away Jira's dagger, the impact sending shockwaves up my arm that make my teeth rattle.

There's a chaos of movement around me as Typhon creates a deadly barrier between me and most of the students. He's biting, clawing, and spraying magical torrents of water at elementals and students alike, but there are too many of them. He's only able to keep them back. To buy time. And it's not without cost.

His body is already slashed with several wounds that leak blue energy, each gash making my own skin tingle with sympathetic pain.

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