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“Are you okay, Mikaela?” Kasi asked, a worried look on her face.
“I’m fine.”
“I figured you’d have dropped this class.”
“Oh, I tried,” I said.
“So rude,” Jasmine muttered on my other side.
“Are you going to be okay?” Kasi asked again.
I shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Wait. What?” Jasmine caught my arm and pulled me to a halt.
Kasi stopped with us.
“Why wouldn’t you be okay?” Jasmine demanded.
“Maybe because she was attacked by adragon,” Kasi said.
Jasmine looked startled. “But we’re not riding dragonshifters.These arerealdragons. Plus you said you didn’t remember much about the attack and didn’t even know Zowenwasa dragon until we told you.”
“Yeah, but now thatshe knows,” Kasi said, “I bet her brain has been busy filling in all the gaps and they’re probably all dragon-shaped by now.”
“Is that true?” Jasmine asked.
I shrugged. “Come on. We need to keep walking or we’re going to be late.” Making sure we were far enough behind the others to not be overheard, I spoke quietly as we walked. “It’s funny how the brain and memory work. Even though I didn’t know who was hurting me or why, now that I do know, all my dreams of that time are about dragons. For some reason, now that Iknowhe’s a dragon, the dreams are even worse than what actually happened.”
“What do you mean?” Jasmine asked.
“In reality, it was just his shadows hurting me, hurting my leopard. It was bad. I can’t even express how bad it wasand it only lasted—what? Thirteen minutes?”
“Thereabouts,” Kasi muttered. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to you sooner, didn’t manage to stop him from taking you in the first place.”
“Not your fault,” I said, “and you saved me when pretty much no one else could, so it’sreallynot your fault.”
Kasi nodded, but didn’t say anything.
I knew she was also struggling, mostly with an intense feeling of guilt for being the last surviving shadow-beast, but also for not knowing how to stop Zowen from hurting me.
“So what makes your dreams worse?” Jasmine asked.
“Now when I dream about him, he’s an actual dragon with giant, shadow wings that are freakingscary. They spew shadows that lash me like a whip and I swear it feels like I’m back in the Shadow Realm. It’s not just his shadows, though. He also has claws and spews fire in my dreams.”
“But fire’s your element,” Jasmine protested. “I thought it couldn’t hurt you.”
“Theoretically, yes,” I said, “but I’ve never actually tested my ability against adragon’sflames. Besides, these are dreams, where anything can happen, and as it turns out, not only do Inothave the ability to control his flames in my dreams, but theycanhurt me there. Most of my dreams end with him burning me to ash.”
“Mikaela, that’s terrible,” Jasmine whispered. “You should have told me. I would have gone with you toBlackthorn’s office, to help you convince her to let you drop this course.”
I shook my head. “No. She’s right. It’s not like I can avoid dragon shifters for the rest of my life and if Zowen comes back for me, like I’m sure he will, I need to be able to fight, and that means connecting with my leopard. Maybe this class will help with that.”
“All right, gather around!” ProfessorVesely—I had to practice using his name, even in my head, so I didn’t slip up—called out from where he stood by the stable doors, and the three of us hurried to join the rest of the class.
“Welcome to Dragon Riding 101. Here you will learn all about the various dragons—full-blooded dragons, that is—how to care for them, how to correctly interpret their bodylanguage, how to handle a dragon tantrum without panicking, and yes, you will eventually learn how to mount andridea dragon.”
“Dragon tantrums?” I muttered. Dear goddess, what had Jasmine gotten us into?
