“I’m good, Lock. Just hungry.” I shrug my shoulders and try to smile at him like I desire him. “I am looking forward to going to the academy tomorrow with you.”
“Yes. I’m going to be escorting you everywhere. My mother pulled some strings, and we can share a room at the academy. It means we can really get close to each other without our new bonded causing a problem. Whoever you bond to, that is.” He looks so happy about this.
“Oh, how lovely of your mother.” I swallow. Fuck, living with him?
“I’m so excited for both of you! My daughter has such a lovely match!” Melody slides off the bed. “I’ll make sure to get you a contraceptive potion to have in your morning breakfast. We don’t want any children running around quite yet. Not until you finish the academy and fight in the war for a few years. Then you can get to baby-making.” Gross. I try to hide my grimace at the idea of sleeping with Lock, let alone having children with him. Children are cute and all, but I’d never have them in this brutal world.
“I’m sure my mother will not make us fight in the war. We won’t go near the front,” Lock quickly corrects, and it takes me a second to realize why. Of course, they’d never letmefight in the war at the front. I might run into my mother, and then we might turn our backs on the monsters who stole me away and conditioned me to be their tool. I need to get back to Bloodstone Academy.
The rest of my morning is filled with pretences, and I even drink my contraceptive tea. Melody rattles on about how it lasts a year and I won’t have to worry. Like I have any interest in sleeping with this motherfucker, who keeps staring at me like alove-sick puppy. I eat my breakfast dutifully, which feels like it’s rotten the minute it hits my stomach.
“I’m going to shower,” I eventually tell them the second my plate is empty. They have finished eating too. It’s weird to have a full plate of food in Melody’s home. I’m used to scraps in the kitchen, only after I’d cleaned everything up.
“Want me to join you?” Lock whispers in my ear.
I shiver, which his grin tells me he has mistaken for lust, when it’s actually my body’s attempt to hold down the food rising in my throat. Maybe I should just throw up on him and claim to have a bug.
“Not in Melody’s house. Maybe another time?” I push my chair out. I need to lock my bathroom door and spell it to make sure he doesn’t attempt to open the door. I don’t know Lock at all, or how far he will take this ruse. Would he sleep with me, knowing his mother stole my memories, feelings and bonds? I’m sure he would, and it makes him more of a monster than I expected. They are all monsters.
The minute I get to my bedroom, I close my door and breathe a quick spell to lock it. I need clothes for today, so I start opening the bags Melody packed. My father’s shirt lies on top, and I trace the tattered collar, thankful it’s still here. My finger feels a lump underneath, so I pick up the shirt and out falls the watch I was gifted by the small creatures at Bloodstone, with the broken glass front and the word on the back—Tempusfinis.The old Latin fortime, and it has been erased from the books we learn. Why? It’s a mystery I need to figure out, so I add it to the list of my current problems.
After gathering today’s outfit, I run over to start pulling the floorboards up, sighing in relief when I find what I need. I have hidden herbs and ingredients in here that I’ve gathered in the forest for years or been gifted by small creatures. When I’ve got what I need, I carry it all and rush to the bathroom. I spell thedoor to soundproof it so only the spray of the shower echoes after I turn it on. As I lay the ingredients out on the counter, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Do I look like the enchantress? Do I look like my father? Did the people I thought were my parents have a plan to raise me and tell me who I was? How did they get me when the Umbral Authority stole me away? I have so many questions but no answers.
Not yet.
With the plugged sink acting as a makeshift bowl, it doesn’t take long to make up a considerably strong hex. The potion shimmers purple and black as I look for the final ingredient in my pocket. A hair. I picked it from Lock’s jacket at breakfast, pretending to stroke his back lovingly. Idiot. I drop the hair into the potion, the purple fades away until it’s just black, and I whisper the last part of the hex. The room fills with smog, and the smog moves to slip under the door to find Lock. I close my eyes and wait, knowing he won’t be able to see or sense my hex. He isn’t powerful enough, and my magic is in control. The minute the hex finds him, it is done. My eyes flash white for a second in the mirror as the steam fogs up the room, and I grin to myself.
Every time Lock touches me, his cock is going to burn, and if he keeps doing it, it will fall off. I think it’s the perfect punishment for a betraying asshole cheater who thinks he’s trapped me. Little does he know, you can’t trap the bonded of a dragon. We’ll just burn everything to the ground and go back to them in the skies.
Chapter 2
Everything is different this time. This time, I don’t get to go alone with a driver and a magical car to take me to Bloodstone. This time, a limo turns up, escorted by five other fancy cars filled with trained witches and their bonded. I’m not left alone for a second, and I hate every moment of the endless trip. We don’t stop, not even when night falls and there is the risk of the Mindless finding us. I would have asked Lock about it, but he slept most of the trip, and his snoring has made me come to dread the upcoming room sharing we have to do.
The bridge didn’t fall when the limo drove over it and parked right outside the gates to Bloodstone Academy. I stare up at the academy now, and it’s like I never left. Gothic towers spread high above me, touching the heavy gray clouds that threaten to pour rain down on us. I cast my eyes across the gloomy forest, the way the trees’ branches crawl over each other and mix with the feel of the castle. I heard other students call this black and red castle depressing—I call it home. I don’t think there will be a time I don’t close my eyes and wish to be back here…with my bonded.
Lock and I are greeted by his friends and various people on our way up the academy steps and to a balcony that overlooks the front of the academy and the sea beyond. I walk to the edgeof the balcony and glance up at the highest tower, a memory flashing into my mind. Vale. He threw me over the edge because he was so mad that I bonded to him. Is he going to do that this time? Probably. Am I going to let him? Definitely not. Everything has changed now, and I can’t show a moment of weakness to anyone. I know they are here; I can feel them, even without a bond.
My nails dig into the balcony bars as I overlook the choppy sea, the gray waves smacking into the red stone base of the island. I clench the metal railing tighter, relishing the sting in my palms as Lock puts his hand on the middle of my back. Thankfully, my long cloak is a good barrier, but I do not want him to touch me. Ever. The desire to rip his hand off me is overwhelming. I just wait, knowing what is going to happen. One. Two… Lock grimaces and shuffles away, dropping his hand. He looks so uncomfortable and pale…and I try to keep my smile away.
“Is everything okay with you?” I ask sweetly, pretending to care. Pretending it’s not my hex that is causing him pain.
“Yeah, just, uh, nothing.” He grunts and looks forward out at the bridge. “It will begin soon. You will want to see this.” No, I won’t. I don’t like death, and I don’t think I ever will. Especially not when these witches are innocent.
I lift my hood and look away, my eyes tracing the giant forest that is spread out for miles. I didn’t see the truth last time, not right away, but I see it now. The shifters can’t ever leave, and the witches treat them like slaves, like they are something that can be used and discarded in the war. The academy binds them here, keeps them, traps them, enforces slavery into the war, and I have to do something about it. Wait, I am going to do something about it.
Last year, and every year before it, I convinced myself I was working so hard for the witches and to win the war. Now…I amfighting for the shifters’ freedom and for the Umbral Authority to suffer. They are liars, and I will not fight for them.
I lift my chin and focus, feeling eyes watching me. The Umbral Authority must be watching, and thanks to the spell I cast before I came here, I can sense when someone is watching me now.
The wind whips through the trees in the forest, and it howls loudly. I tilt my head back, hoping to see dragons flying across the sky. But I don’t. It’s silent, and I miss seeing the flash of their scales, the scent of fire, and justthem. I pretend to be clueless when I spot witches lining up on the distant coastline. “What are they going to do? Swim?”
Lock laughs. “Swimming in these waters is a certain death. There are monsters worse than the Mindless in these depths.” He smiles at me. “Don’t be scared. I will not let anything happen to my future bride. You would have had to line up with them, but I’ve pulled some strings. You can thank me later.” He winks at me.
I hardly doubt I’ll be thanking him for anything. As I turn and watch, unable to do anything, I spot Winifred at the end of the bridge, her blonde hair glinting in the storm. The rain begins to pour from the sky, and I send a prayer to the three-faced goddess for my friend. I don’t know if she’s betrayed me, but she might have, with who her mother and brother are. I don’t know if she’s in on it, but something tells me she’s not. I need to find out, and I hope she wants something to do with me this year.
There is a stillness to the air, just before the bridge appears, and I beg her in my mind to run. She runs. Fast. Her legs chop up the space across the bridge, her hair flowing behind her in the wind as she bounds across the bridge, and it collapses into the ocean behind her and the others. Lock laughs as several people fall into the sea, and I bite down on my inner cheek. I pretend to be shocked, like I didn’t know this was going to happen.
Lock sighs at me sympathetically, but my heart is racing as I watch Winifred. She’s going faster and when she finally gets to the end, right where the border of the forest is, she collapses onto the stone. My shoulders drop in relief. Lock is watching me too closely. The rest of the surviving witches get across the bridge just in time, but at least a dozen witches just died. Just like that. I jump when Lock wipes away a tear from my cheek. “You are so caring. It’s sweet.”
