I set the ball down on the table and stood up. “I’ll handle it.”
She got to her feet with a nod. “They want to know each of the territories’ responses by the end of the term.”
I stuck out my hand toward Sabine. A handshake with a basilisk was an ultimate form of trust, since a basilisk’s venom leaks from their skin. Sabine may not like me, but she wouldn’t kill me without reason.
Her eyes widened for a brief moment. “Are you certain?”
“Sabine, we’ve been working together for over a decade. If I didn’t trust you, there’d be a problem.”
Her gaze searched mine before she placed her hand in mine and shook it. “I appreciate you acknowledging my honor.”
“I appreciate your acknowledgment as well.”
She clicked her tongue and spun on her heels, leaving my office without so much as a glance back.
As the door shut, I let out a breath and collapsed in my chair. I rubbed my hand over my face.
The entire week was draining.
Blair warned me at the start that this year would be the most important one since founding the academy, but I hadn’t expected all of this.
Meeting my mate and forming the bond had been the best thing to happen in my entire existence, but of course, when the Fates give something good, they balance it with bad.
The dragons had left me alone for most of the last century. Now they’d started a damned war on behalf of all supernaturals. They didn’t care what the other supernatural species wanted. They only cared about themselves.
Humans and supernaturals had been at odds since the beginning of time, but until thirty years or so ago, humans weren’t an actual threat to us. However, since they’d discovered technology, they had become dangerous.
My focus had always been on what I considered the biggest threat, the dragons.
Tugging at my shirt collar, I groaned and unbuttoned the top few buttons. My skin was on fire as my dragon tried to come out. Red scales scattered over my skin, and I reached for the crystal sphere to pour my magical energy in.
I needed my mate. She grounded me in a way no one and nothing had ever been able to do before.
Happiness fluttered through the matebond, and my magical fuse calmed. Her sweet bearberry scent had been permanently infused with the scents of mine and her other bonded mates. It made her smell even better, and I didn’t think that was possible. That scent and another wafted through my door as the bond throbbed, signaling to me that she was close.
Wren deserved all the happiness in the world. I’d been so tied up in work that I hadn’t had time to do anything else—which, granted, wasn’t anything new. But I had a mate now, and that changed things. I still wanted to keep my academy in order and help the council, but my desire to be with her outweighed it all.
“Come in, my fledgling.”
SEVEN
Wren
“Comein,myfledgling.”Rowan’s voice rumbled through the door, and comfort flooded my body and the bond.
“Have fun with your mate.” Callie squeezed my arm with a grin before darting off down the hall. Her long blonde hair flew behind her as she weaved through the other students.
I smiled at her retreating form. She was heading to her second date with Samson. They were supposed to go right after class, but she’d noticed I was anxious about walking to Rowan’s office alone and insisted on coming with me.
Callie had become a great friend to me the past month, and even Trixie took to her from the moment they met. I was happy to have two friends.Realfriends I could talk to and seek comfort in.
It wasn’t just them, either.
Oh, Kalista, my mates…
Coming to Fate Hollow was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.
I turned back toward the door and wrapped my hand around the knob. Opening it, I stepped inside.
