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“We’ll meet at midnight. Don’t be late,” he said, then vanished again as suddenly as he arrived.
Jasmine huffed. “He makes us wait for over an hour and now he has the nerve to tell us to be on time? What a jerk.” She shot a look at Vern. “Are you going to fill us in on what exactly happened here?”
Vern and Jasmine squared off. “Not here, Jasmine.” He tilted his head back toward the Academy. “Let’s go home. Get some food and sleep, then we can all talk about it. We have a week, after all.”
Jade shook her head as her rumbling quaked the ground in response. She wasn’t a fan of Vern’s response any more than her dragonrider.
“Fine,” Jasmine said, turning on her heel.
I bit my lip as I slipped my fingers into Killian’s.
Not that long ago those two had been cozy with each other, but I’d seen Jasmine keep secrets from Vern.
It seemed that was an unhealthy two-way street.
I hope those two figure it out, I told Killian through our mental connection.
Me too, he replied with a squeeze of his fingers.
We could have flown back to the Academy, but we all took a slow walk to digest what had just happened while our dragons launched into the skies to resume patrol.
There was nothing but darkness on the horizon. We’d suffered storms for weeks during the last egg’s adventure.
Tonight, the skies held nothing for me. No stars. No skies.
No light.
A precursor for the fight to come.
One that would end in darkness.
Hopefully, not in death.
CHAPTER 3
Vern didn’t share his secret with us that night. I kept awake staring at my ceiling for what few hours remained before it was time to go on with our day.
As a graduate, I didn’t need to go to class anymore, but I was craving it.
And since it was a new year, that meant new students—and new classes. It was a time of excitement and a fresh start.
Something that sounded pretty nice right about now.
Killian seemed to understand my need to have the spotlight on someone else, even for just an hour. He sat beside me on the open field as we watched one of the newer professors explain fencing basics. The Dean said it might be a good idea for a Valkyrie to evaluate the new class, so I was sitting in as an observer.
And Professor Lumen was a Nephilim who had spent many of her years on Earth when fencing was all the rage.
I’d been taught to use a spear, occasionally a heavy sword, but had never the flimsy little things that these students were wearing.
The argument was that they needed a light weapon that would allow them to run if needed.
With the very real possibility that not all dragonriders would have, well, dragons to ride, it was the sad reality to begin to teach them how to fend for themselves.
As the professor demonstrated proper form and technique for a weapon I had never used, her British accent ringing across the field, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. Despite the possibility of not having a dragon to bond with, there was an inherent benefit.
Their focus was so singular.
So simple.
