Vallynn
The moment Bechora swept into the classroom, I couldn’t focus on anything but her. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest heaved from exertion, as if she’d run up the stairs to our astrology classroom. I had two classes with her, and both were torturous tests of my self-control. I’d even put off setting up the study session for our Human Studies assignment in an attempt to put some distance between myself and my unsuspecting mate.
“Really?” Daena’s high-pitched voice grated across my eardrums. “What is your obsession with the trash? It’s not like she even has any power, Val. Rumor has it she’s a total dud, and Dreadgrave has already claimed her as his thrall as a reminder of her place.”
I forced my mouth into a sneer, directing it at my mate. “I’ve heard the gossip, Daena. I’m curious how she gained admittance to the academy.”
“Vallynn’s right. There’s no way a dud got in,” Dante added. “If she’s truly powerless, it’s his duty as the crown prince to uncover whatever plot is at play that brought her here.”
I didn’t add my voice to the discussion, merely nodding along with whatever nonsense tale Dante was about to spin. Instead, my mind drifted back to my mate. Her visage haunted me, clouding my every thought to the point that I was failing in my duty to the realm. The mating bond was an insistent thrum, pounding away in my chest, refusing to grant me solace even in my dreams. On the rare occasion I could wrench control free of it, my thoughts would turn to the horrific ways my father would use my mate if I succumbed to the bond’s demands.
“Would you kindly shut up, Daena,” I demanded as the female’s grating voice broke through the fog clouding my mind while she hissed her disapproval of Dante’s every word.
I felt her stiffen in the seat next to mine, her hand curling into a fist in my peripheral. “You cannot speak to me that way. I am your betrothed, the future queen.”
“Assuming you make it to the soul bonding, let alone survive the process,” I drawled. “The crown still has many enemies, and you, my dear betrothed, have even more willing to slit your throat to take your place.”
“Is that a threat?” she hissed.
“Merely an observation,” I replied with a shrug, turning my head to look at the scroll spread open on her desk. “A simple look at your birth chart would show you are in a tenuous position. It is my duty to warn you of the dangers that come with tempting fate.”
Daena’s lips pressed together in a thin line as her face paled. Like most of the better-connected students in the academy, she hadn’t created her chart herself. The version displayed on her desk had been created recently by her family astrologer, leaving no room for doubt about the future awaiting her on her current path. My sneer morphed into a vicious smirk as my eyes darted from one alignment to the next, noting that failure lurked at every turn in her future.
“Seems you already have enough troubles on the way,” I snickered, just as Professor Vatorgan called the class to order.
Try as I might to focus on his lecture, my attention was constantly pulled to the female who vexed my every thought. Even though I knew burying any hint of what she was to me was the only way to keep her safe, I couldn’t help the outrage and fury that coiled tightly in my gut, knowing that two males had laid claim to her. She was mine—my mate—and yet the so-called “prince” of demons, Zypher, had laid claim to her as his fated. Worse, rumors were flying around campus that Gabriel Dreadgrave had made her his thrall, in stark contrast to the rumors about their match in combat class. Her flaming red hair covered her neck, preventing me from seeing any marks the vampire would have left on her delicate throat, but the thought was enough to drive me to madness.
The moment class was dismissed, I stormed from the tower, fighting every instinct to follow my mate. Dante’s hurried footfalls echoed behind me as I tore my way across campus to our dorm room. I’d barely made it inside when my friend and bound guardian grabbed my arm and forced me to give him my attention.
“Whatever is going through your mind right now, you need to put an end to it, Vallynn. You’ve been distracted, and we can’t afford to be distracted if we’re going to end whatever the hell it is your father is up to.”
“I’m well aware,” I snapped.
“Are you? Because it seems to me you’ve forgotten what’s important. Instead of helping me go through the information sent by Linoran, you’re doing Selir knows what. We haven’t prevented an abduction since the sphinx, and there have been reports of more going missing since you sent me with that damnable dragon to save her.”
My hands raked through the longer strands of my hair, and I collapsed onto the couch in our common area with a groan. “I know that. It’s the bond. The damned thing is insistent, to put it mildly, and leaves room for little else.”
Dante grimaced, and I could have sworn I saw a flash of longing cross his face. “I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“It’s fine. I knew it was possible when I decided to keep my distance from her. The bond doesn’t care that I can’t claim her if I want to keep her safe; it only cares that it hasn’t been completed yet,” I replied before taking a deep breath. “We should go over the information Linoran sent. It might be helpful to force myself to focus on our task.”
Dante nodded before settling into the recliner opposite me. “I hate to admit Thrackborne is actually useful, but the angry lizard may have uncovered a pattern in the abductions. It seems the majority of the missing have gifts related to shielding, conjuring, ability enhancement, and entire clans of shifters. There’s been a few outliers—a handful of seers, an illusionist, and… well, she’s not on Linoran’s list, but your mother was a dream carver.”
I winced at the mention of my mother. She’d vanished when I was barely fifteen. My father told the court she’d simply retired to the country, but I knew better. My mother wouldn’t have abandoned me like that. That knowledge was enough to make me dig into her disappearance, doing my best to spy on my father without him noticing. My efforts finally came to fruition shortly after my eighteenth birthday during the royal tour of the kingdom required of all royals upon the age of maturity.
My procession had stopped in Solstway, a small village near the veil that kept the realm hidden. Unlike the other villages, there was an air of disquiet and suspicion that saturated everything. Slipping a few coins into the hands of villagers bought me information about an estate on the outskirts of the village. It was said the estate appeared overnight, wrapped in dark magic that hungered for souls. The villagers who’d traded secrets for my coin swore they had seen skeletal mercenaries patrolling the property and that a strange male appeared every fortnight in the village to steal children away to the estate, never to be seen again.
By some miracle, I managed to sneak out of the inn unseen after my retinue retired for the night and make my way to the estate. Selir must have guided me that night because I made it into the estate without issue and eventually found myself in a secret dungeon standing in front of a cell where my mother was being held. Her movements were unbearably slow, trembling as if each step cost her, as she moved to the bars to get a better look at me. It was clear she’d been suffering, her once vibrant skin seeming to stretch too thin as if it clung desperately to brittle bones. Purple bruises kissed the skin beneath her eyes as she raked them over me.
I couldn’t say how long I stood there, my feet rooted to the ground by shock and horror, before she begged me to run, her voice raspy and cracking. Her pleas seemed to hang in the damp air long after her voice failed, rattling through me like a dark omen. I moved closer, despite her warnings, desperate to reach my mother. Guilt twisted like a knife in my stomach. She’d been here for years, suffering, while I did nothing to save her. Her trembling hand reached through the bars, skeletal fingers caressing my cheek just as the tingle of magic crackled through the air.
Once again, her broken voice urged me to run, and this time I obeyed, swearing to myself that I’d find a way to save her. I tore away from the dungeon on silent feet, praying to Selir that I wouldn’t be found; that I’d manage to return and rescue my mother. Cold, damp air, thick with power, cut at my lungs, each breath shallow and ragged, but still I ran. I didn’t stop until the lights from the inn were in sight. I made my way inside, just barely stepping into my room before Dante pulled my mind away from the horror I’d witnessed. He’d been angry that I’d left without him. He wasn’t only my bestfriend; he was my bonded guardian, and I’d stolen away into the night without him. His face paled, anger slipping away only to be replaced with horror, as I told him what I’d uncovered.
Dante’s voice caused the memory to crack like splintering glass, yanking me back to the present. “Vallynn? Did you hear me?”
“I—” I hesitated, not quite sure what to say. The walls of our dorm room seemed to be shrinking in on me, my chest tight with grief over that night in Solstway. I forced myself to my feet, shaking my head to clear it. “I need some air.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied my face briefly before giving me a tight nod of assent. It took all my self-control to make my way out of Magus House at an unhurried pace. Grief clawed at my throat. My mother had died before I could return to that cell in Solstway. The broken promise I’d made taunted me now, weaving itself among my latest failures—my people, my mate—all at risk because of my inadequacies.
