Page 13 of We Hunt the Night

“I’m not. Neither do I like the marriage your mother has arranged for him with me,” I mutter. “I’m getting a headache even thinking about it.”

“Oh, well, shit. I’m sorry.” She looks shocked.

“It’s fine. I have absolutely no intention of going through with it. So it doesn’t matter.” I shrug a shoulder.

A feeling somewhere deep in my chest beats to life when we stop in front of a solid orange wooden door. My bonded are in there. Rue must read my expression. “Good, you’re starting to sense them. You’ll eventually get to the point where you can find each other anywhere, doesn’t matter where in the world. You’ll eventually get to a point where you can send thoughts to them, but that’s usually like a late second-year, third-year thing. You can’t do it often, anyway. It takes a lot of concentration and power. I will meet you after your classes today, and we can have dinner together.”

“Great,” I say, trying to process that I’ll never escape my bonded.

“Okay, good luck.” She pats my arm and I open the door to walk in.

There’s a teacher at the front with very vibrant red hair. The curly locks of hair are a mess, pinned into some kind of a chaotic bun on top of her head. She’s wearing very floral clothes, almost like a jumpsuit, and questionable flip-flops. The room smells heavily of incense, some kind I don’t know. “Ah, Miss Daygan. You’ve turned up a bit late, but there is a seat for you somewhere. Come on, come on.”

“I saved one for you!” Maz offers, patting the seat. Wini and Aster are a few rows back, and they wave. Black is seated on the other side of the empty seat. There are no other empty seats, so I reluctantly go to sit down, turning my head back to see Kane and Vale, both of them sitting on the desks, their back leaning against the wall. The shadows hide their faces, but I know it’sthem, and they are watching me like I’m their fucking prey. There must be about sixty students in here, if not a little bit more, and thirty of them look like witches. There are roughly thirty first-years left alive. Thirty out of two hundred students that came here hoping to save the world.

“So, everyone, I’m Tutor Sona. I will teach you anything you need to learn about the histories of our race, and of our bonded race, too. I usually start this class by asking who bonded to the strongest shifter and then talk about that shifter, but this time, I won’t need you to raise your hands to tell me. The gossip around Bloodstone seems to be correct. We all know who that is.”

She looks at me, and several people whisper. I want to die and hide in my chair.

She clears her throat. “Dragon shifters are the top of the food chain when it comes to changelings. As we are aware, they have unfortunate circumstances that left them with not many, four to be exact, left in this world. Below them, we have a mixture of bears, wolves, snakes, lions, tigers, panthers, and below that several of the less important races, not useful in a fight, and therefore we will not cover them. They live in the forest, as you well know, outside all of our academies. How many academies are in the world?”

I put my hand up. “Yes, Juniper.”

“Five.”

She looks pleased. “That’s correct. But why is Bloodstone the best?”

A man near the front row shoots his hand into the air. “Because you have the best shifters, the best tutors and the highest survival rate in the war.”

“That is correct. The other academy, like Silverstone, only takes a small number of students, whereas we take a larger class. Tell me, what was the first bonding that was ever recorded in our history?” She looks around. None of us say anything, and I’mnot sure what the answer is either. “See, no one knows. It’s an error in our history that we don’t know exactly where we came from, who began this. Many people say it was the goddess, that she split herself into three different life forms and we are cursed to, one, fight forever and, two, be bonded. She is the three faced goddess and the only true power in this world and beyond. No one knows her truth, and that is the price that most of us pay so that we can learn knowledge, but not always the truth. In these books here are spells that you never ought to see. Dangerous spells, spells that can instantly kill you if not said right or pronounced perfectly.” I shiver in excitement. “You are not to say them, to practice them in a range of anybody else except for your bonded, because they are the only lives you are allowed to take. We do not accept infighting in the academy, and these spells going wrong will be classified as infighting, and you will be terminated.” She smiles like she hasn’t just threatened to kill us. “Now, can anyone tell me the five original spells?”

I put my hand straight in the air. “The first spells in our recorded history are all forbidden spells. There is one for time, love, death, life and the worst spell of them all—power.”

“That’s brilliant, Juniper. I did read from your school that you had an extreme aptitude for Latin, and to know these spells—and their warnings—is a sign you have studied hard.” She smiles. “Many of you could learn from Juniper. Four dragons and already getting points from her tutor for answering questions? You have competition for my favorite, Vale, and you only came in here for fun before you bonded. I thought I’d never get a chance to really teach you.”

Any hope of fitting in sinks with her speech and the glares from everyone except Black, who might be snoring in his seat while his eyes are closed. Maz is grinning at me, and I roll my eyes at him. I hear his heavy footsteps, hear and feel Vale comecloser until he stops right at my side. He looks right at me. “I don’t see any real competition here. Only a stupid witch.”

I feel blood rushing to my cheeks as Maz snarls at him, “Piss off, Vale.”

More whispers and gasps burst out in the crowd.

I grit my teeth, looking forward. I’ll show him. Competition? Fine, it’s on. Vale moves to sit at the front after grabbing one of the books, and I rush over to get the second one before anyone else. I glare at the side of his perfect face until I’m back in my seat, and I open the first page. I refuse to let the asshole dragon ruin this. I’m learning new spells, I’m free of Melody, and I’m honoring my parents.

Nothing else matters. Maz leans into my side. “Vale is a genius with an endless memory. He can’t forget anything he sees, and his dragon is a nasty fucker. Just stay away from him.”

Vale turns to look at me, like he heard Maz’s warning somehow, and he smirks. A smirk that sends a frigid chill down my spine. I can’t stay away from him—he’s my bonded too.

Chapter 9

MAZ

The cake that was in the palm of my hand disappears the minute I step out of the border of the academy and into the forest. “Fucking jackasses.” I knew it would be like this, but everything I’ve eaten today feels like poison in my stomach when I know what it is like to starve. I grew up with nothing but the rags of clothes that moths had eaten, the shared food that never quite filled my stomach and left me always wanting to go to sleep without the sound of my stomach growling. Even in dragon form, there is little left to hunt in the forest to sustain him. He catches fish when he dives into the sea, like the others, but even the fish are becoming rarer these days. I just hoped I could carry home some treats for the kids, but they make sure that I can’t. The witches need us controlled and under their thumb—which is only possible when we need them for survival. Why would they give us free food inside the academy if we’re just going to walk it out and give it to our people? They don’t want that. Perfectly controlled slaves to be used in their war is all they see us as. That won’t change anytime soon and it’s the main reason I didn’t want to bond with any witch. The witches here are brought up to see us as less than them—creatures to be tamed and controlled. They don’t see us as people like them, with magic and feelings, and that shit. We are their defence against the enchantress. A witch who clearly hates her own kind, and no one knows why. Not that I’m on the side of the Enchantress. Her war has cost me too, and continues to do so, and too many bonded witches are Mindless now. Mortals too. No good person could turn someone into one of those things.

I clench my fists. Fucking hell, now I’m one of the bonded. I almost want to look at my right hand, where in the center of the palm is a witch mark, an old ancient marking of my binding to her. It really pisses me off that’s my favourite hand to jack off with, and now I picture her every time I wrap my hand around my cock.

Juniper Daygan.

She wasn’t anything like I expected her to be, and it’s bothering me. I feel our bond like a noose around my soul, tugging and telling me the way to her. My dragon has never liked to be chained up or held down, yet he accepted this bonding with open fucking arms. He accepted her without even thinking of me. I always assumed we were on the same page when it came to bonding and the war—that we want nothing to do with it. But then I saw her. The first time I saw Juniper Daygan was when she was running through the forest, her clothes burnt thanks to Vale, and her eyes panicked.

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