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Tugging on the last strap and securing the final buckle, I grabbed onto Solstice’s harness. “I get what you’re trying to say, Mom. You mean that I’m not invincible, and I know that. Plus, I won’t be alone.”
Killian led Topaz out from the nearby stall and flashed me a smile before turning his charm onto my mother. “She’s in good hands, Miss Marigold. I promise.”
My mother glowered, but then sighed. “I can’t believe the Dean is allowing you two to go alone.”
“With the Malice King’s blessing,” I added with a raised finger.
Dean Brynhilde had pulled off the impossible. She’d formed some sort of truce with the Dark Elf, although from what I heard about this girl named Penne, she had a lot to do with it and was much more reasonable.
I didn’t know what kind of supernatural creature she was. Based on Killian’s description of her, she could have been anything.
Human, elf, or something else entirely.
It didn’t really matter to me who or what she was. I was just grateful to have another ally in this fight that affected all the realms.
“Well, I don’t trust him,” my mother added as we walked our dragons out into the open. “And why aren’t you bringing your rider harness? You could fall off.”
I rolled my eyes. “Because I’m a graduate, mother. Solstice flies too quickly for me to wear a harness. Now can you stop worrying, please?”
I’d suffer fewer injuries from a fall than I would being yanked in the air from that kind of momentum. If we were flying close to the ground, I’d practiced how to fall without injuring myself too badly. Or if we were high up, it would give Solstice or Topaz enough time to catch me.
Maybe I was counting on my goddess blood to keep me alive in either event, if I was being honest with myself. Most Dragonriders were supernaturals and had accelerated healing—which was a trait I inherited.
When my goddess blood was working, anyway.
I ignored the fact that the mark on my arm had faded in the past few weeks.
If I lost that part of myself, I’d have to worry about things that other Dragonriders didn’t.
Because they weren’t human.
They weren’t weak.
We stopped short when we encountered what looked like the entire student body and staff waiting for us to leave.
Dragons soared in the skies, offering roars of encouragement.
My Academy friends stood in a neat line and held hands.
Jasmine. Vern. Lily. James.
My mother gave me a squeeze and whispered encouragement into my ear. “I love you, sweet daughter. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she added with a smile. Her baby dragon nibbled my ear in response, likely channeling my mother’s affection for me.
Chuckling, I agreed, then scanned the faces of the crowds.
I felt a pang with a wistful desire to see the other personalities I had met and grown to care for. Personalities such as Evelyn and her group of Hovakim that included Max Green, someone who had once been my archnemesis.
But she was off having her own adventure. Of that, I had no doubt.
This was my story, and I basked in the cheers that erupted when we mounted our dragons and launched into the sky.
Killian gave me a wink when we were up in the air as we crossed the campus’s gates.
The cheerful sounds of victory faded behind us as we ventured to the black portal—a manufactured Tunnel to the Malice Realm that would take me to the place I had only seen in my nightmares.
CHAPTER 7
“One visit to the Malice Realm was quite enough,” I lamented.
