Page 98 of Shattered Stars
As we fly through the lanes back towards Los Magicos, I’m no longer tired, I’m wide awake, her presence electrifying and stimulating, my body and bond pulsing with her proximity. How did I have the strength to leave her in the first place? How did I tear myself away? Because being with her is like heaven, addictive, something I can’t live without.
As we enter the city, I feel her body stiffen and her arms tightening around me. I reach down and squeeze her thigh, projecting through our bond all my intentions to keep her safe.
It does little to reassure her, and though it wounds my pride, I understand. I’m one man. One man against the chancellor and all his guards. But what she doesn’t understand is, they have nothing to fight for, while I have everything. If it came to it, I’d fight to the bitter end to protect her.
The council gates part just like the academy’s and we glide through, around to the side entrance I brought her to all those months ago. That seems like a lifetime ago. I had no idea back then how much my life would alter, how much I would. Or maybe I did. Maybe I always knew.
“Okay?” I ask her, as she yanks off my helmet and shakes out her dark hair.
“I’m fine.”
I want to pull her towards me and hold her. At the very least I want to squeeze her hand again but there’s too many pairs ofeyes now so I have to make do with signaling for her to walk through the entrance way, and as she does, lightly pressing my hand to the small of her back.
The chancellor’s secretary meets us under the glass dragon in the hall. It seems extra sinister today, its ruby eyes glinting as if its gaze is real, piercing through us all, its wings taut as if it’s about to soar right out of the building. The first dragon to fly through the Los Magicos skies in centuries.
“Rhianna Blackwaters,” the secretary asks me and not her.
“Yes,” she answers anyway, frowning at the man, tall and skinny and not much older than Rhi herself.
He gives her a sickly smile that has me bristling. “The chancellor is waiting for you in his office. If you’d follow me.” He motions to the staircase and I go to follow them both. The secretary halts. “Enforcer, there is no need to come with us. You may wait in the–”
“I’ll be required to escort Miss Blackwaters back to the academy. She is a known flight risk. I will wait outside the chancellor’s door.”
“There’s really no need …”
I glare at him and he visibly slinks backwards, obviously deciding an argument with me is one he won’t be winning.
At the top of the staircase, we find two guards flanking the chancellor’s doors and they inspect Rhianna carefully, running their hands over her body in a way that has me grinding my molars and fisting my hands. Then the secretary knocks on the door; it opens, and she’s walking through into the chancellor’s office.
It’s too risky for her to look back at me, too dangerous for me to whisper her any words.
The door closes, and it takes every ounce of my self-control not to break it down.
36
Rhi
His office is designedto intimidate. I can tell that straight away and so is the way he sits behind his grand desk and takes no notice of me, scribbling away on a piece of paper with a golden pen.
I stand and wait, determined I’m not going to play any of his games. I was naïve and uninformed the first time we met. I didn’t know how the world worked – how people ticked. But the academy hasn’t only taught me how to handle magic – it’s also taught me how to handle people. And if I can handle a vicious bitch like Summer Clutton-Brock, if I can escape the clutches of the Wolves of Nights’ assassin more than once – then I can handle this man. This man who thinks he’s far more clever than I suspect he actually is.
“Ahhh Miss Blackwaters,” he says at last as if he’s only just noticed my presence. “Thank you so much for coming to see me.” Like I had any say in the matter. He replaces the lid on his pen, leans back in his chair, and points to a wooden one in front of me. “Take a seat.”
I desperately want to peer behind me at the door, where Azlan is waiting for me. I know he’s there – my bond yanking me in his direction as if it wants me as far away from this man as possible and in the arms of my mate instead.
I draw out the chair, its legs scraping against the highly polished floor and slide into the seat.
The chancellor looks me straight in the eye. His are cold and calculating. He reminds me of the snakes that would slide into the chicken pen sometimes. How one moment they’d be still and watching and the next they’d strike, sinking their fangs deep into a chicken’s neck. It’s not only my bond ringing out a warning, my magic is suddenly alert too.
“I thought it was about time we spoke,” he says.
I concentrate on breathing, on not letting my heart race away. It’s not just my own neck on the line. It’s Stone’s and Azlan’s too. Shit, and Pip’s. I wait for him to say more, not trusting my own voice, knowing if I speak I’ll likely trip myself up.
“You see, I haven’t been completely honest with you.” I frown unable to help myself. “I’ve suspected for a while now that I knew your mother.”
“My mother?” I say, again unable to help myself. That the chancellor has been hiding secrets about my mom is no big surprise. Azlan told me as much. But to hear him admit it, to speak about her … I lean forward on my seat. I’m so desperate to know more about her, even if it means trading secrets with a snake.
“I believe so.” He smiles with what I suspect he thinks is sympathy. “She died when you were young.”
