Pushing my speed to its limit, I lunge for the dagger he stole from me earlier today, quickly unsheathing it and plunging it into his chest. The runes etched onto the blade’s edge hum as they glow, activating the magic within. The vampire’s wound quickly turns to ash as solar magic seeps into his body. He makes a choked sound as I sink the blade deeper.
“No one can give me what I want,” I rasp, his scent somehow sweetening in the midst of a threat to his life, “except for me.” I pull the blade free and stab again, but the vampire disappears in a cloud of smoke. I slice through little more than air. A cold exhale tickles my ear along with an amused chuckle that damn near sends me into a rage, and I whirl around only for him to capture my hands and drag my body against his.
He grins like we’re playing a game. I glance down at the hole in his chest to find it smoking from within, the stench of charred flesh filling the air.
“Oh, Wildflower, you’ll have to try harder than that.” Grabbing my chin, he holds me with a strength I didn’t think a man so lean could possess. “But remember . . .” Fangs scrape against the pulse in my neck, and he shivers with excitement. “I bite back.”
My heart pounds as he presses a delicate kiss to the spot and pulls away, sparing me from a vampire bite but making his intent known. He’ll either mate with me or kill me if I’m not careful.
Without warning, he lifts my hand over our heads and twirls me in place, spinning me so fast that I stumble and fall to the ground in a spray of gray dust. When I look up, he’s already gone, but so is the arena. The decaying landscape fades before my eyes, transforming back into the wintry courtyard where the trials began. Students stand in disarray, each one of them marred by battle. Only two dozen of us remain. The rest are either dead or standing at the edges of the yard, overlooking the failures with contempt.
I hear Revyn call my name from the sidelines, but I refuse to look his way.
I fuckinglost.Not a single judge on that panel deemed me worthy for admittance into Heartsflame—meaning that I’m as good as dead. The only reason I’ve survived in the wilds as longas I have is because of Revyn, and if I have to go at it alone, I’m not sure how much time I have left. Death’s clock has always been ticking, but I finally hear its mocking beat counting down the minutes until the rest of us—the unchosen—are thrown back into the chaos of rotting earth and ashen air.
The rot will kill us if nothing else does.
Alpha Thaddeus Dire stares me down from the balcony, his presence emanating pure hatred. At his side, his son and heir Alistair broods in silence, arms crossed, posture stiff, face flushed. Our eyes meet, and throbbing pain coupled with intense heat engulfs my heart. I struggle for air while Alistair flinches and sweat breaks out across his brow. He quickly looks away, the tight set of his jaw making mine ache.
Once our gazes break, I can finally breathe.
Revyn calls out to me again, and I continue ignoring him as I push myself to my feet. I can’t handle his heartbreak on top of my own.
The headmaster claps his hands to call everyone to attention. “Thank you for participating in this year’s entrance trials. If you are still standing, take heart in knowing that you are capable of surviving the cruelties of our world.” His words echo with fewer bodies filling the courtyard than before. “Congratulations to those of you chosen for admittance. Your advisors are awaiting your arrival through the castle entrance.” He gestures vaguely to the oak doors at his back. “To everyone else…” His gaze burns with an inner fire brighter than any I’ve ever seen. “May your hearts find their home.”
My ears ring as the weight of my loss settles in. After all that, I still wasn’t accepted into the academy. I killed a boy. Stabbed a vampire. Saved a damsel in distress. Fought more demons than I could count. And yet . . . it wasn’t enough.
Gritting my teeth, I clench my fists and glare daggers at the man responsible.
Not the headmaster.
Not even Revyn.
Thaddeus Dire.That fucking bastard has something to do with this. I know it as surely as I know my own fucking name.
I tear my gaze away to address the headmaster. “I demand a retrial.”
Someone must want me. Anyone watching should have seen my grit, my tenacity, my skillset. “I didn’t shift once,” I call out, shaking with rage. “And Istillsaved you—” I glare at Veronica’s smug expression. “Stabbed you—” The unnamed vampire grins at me. “And got your precious Dire wolf to notice me.” Alistair’s eyes glow vibrant gold as he matches my intensity with his own. The barest tips of fangs protrude past his lips, like he’s barely containing his wolf. Even I have more self-control than that. Addressing the council, I reign in as much anger as I can for a more diplomatic approach. “I’d make an excellent addition to any pack or bloodline here. Shifter or otherwise.”
There. I said it.
If the shifter pack leaders won’t accept me into their precious academy, someone else will. My skills are an asset. Anyone who cares about the security of their people will see that. I can hunt. I can defend territory. I can scout new lands if we have to uproot and move.
A porcelain-skinned woman approaches the edge of the balcony, her long dark hair falling over her shoulder in an elegant spiral. Crimson eyes study me curiously. “You would trade your allegiance to shifters for another clan?”
I nod. “They haven’t done much for me anyway.”
She smiles briefly before turning to Alpha Dire—then to Alistair as the next-in-line. “You would rescind your claim over this one?”
Thaddeus Dire’s face blotches. “Need I remind you, Councilwoman Navarro, that we do not allow co-species relations?”
The councilwoman shows her fangs. “Need I remindyou, Alpha Dire, that your prejudices are not my concern. I am asking if your blood rejects its claim over hers.”
I almost roll my eyes.Politics.“He doesn’t speak for me, nor does any pack alpha. If you want me as a potential mate for your—” I quickly remind myself of the correct vampire term. “Bloodline, then accept me into the academy. I’m sure that everything will fall into place as is fated.”
Revyn growls loud enough that multiple heads turn his direction. Tingles dance down my spine, and I clench every muscle in my body to keep from reacting. This decision isn’t about Revyn. It’s about me getting into the academy by any means necessary, even if it means telling a lie.
I have no intentions of bonding with a mate, shifter or otherwise.
