Shit, shit,shit.
Did Viserys go looking for Sienna . . . to save me?
A vein in my father’s forehead pulses in time with his hammering heartbeat. “Why the fuck are you here, Alistair?” Drawing a breath, he bellows, “go back to your room!”
I flinch as the alpha order slams into me...but doesn’t hold. My eyes widen as it snaps at me, biting into my skin with its fangs, but unable to keep its grip. I may not be mated—or graduated—or any number of things that my brother allegedly was, butthisfeels like power.
A tiny sliver of it, at least.
I roll my shoulders back and return my father’s glare. “You can’t order me around anymore.” I don’t know what’s changed to make me stronger, but in this moment, I don’t fucking care. I just need it to work. “Which means that you can’t doshitabout who I choose to mate.” That revelation feels like a weight off my chest. I drag in a greedy lungful of air?—
Until my father clutches my throat.
He squeezes hard enough that I’m lifted off the floor. My toes scrape the surface as I struggle for purchase.
“Watch your tone,” he seethes. “I am still your alpha.”
But am I still his son?
Headmaster Loreander’s hand clamps on my father’s forearm, and the scent of searing flesh hits my nose. Alpha Dire shouts and drops me instantly but can’t tear his arm free. His eyes bulge as his skin sizzles, the steam rising off the wound nearly making me gag.
“You’ve said enough, Thaddeus.” His gaze narrows on my father’s face. “I may not have dominion over your pack or your bloodline, but Idohave a vested interest in my students’ well-being. Alistair Dire is not yours to torment while he is under my wing.” A small smile curves on his lips, and a rush of wind blows hot air across my back. My eyes widen as a dragon’s wing knocks aside the furniture in the room, crashing silver goblets to the floor and smashing tables against the wall. Its bronze scales shimmer in the candlelight as it sweeps against my back, the highest peaks hovering over my head. Sharp talons scrape the ceiling and knock brick dust and debris into the air.
It’s onlyonewing, and yet it fills over half the room.
The dragon shifter chuckles for his own benefit.
I push myself to my feet and rub my aching neck. “Thank you.” The wing’s leathery skin warms my back. I start to sweat.
“I will handle your father,” the headmaster murmurs, “if you will handle yourself, Alistair Dire.”
I’m not sure what that means, but I can take the hint to leave. “I want access to our pack’s records,” I tell my father, “everything that’s restricted under alpha clearance, including family histories and scouts’ field surveys. Viserys’s included.” I nod at Loreander before turning to leave.
If my father won’t concede, there’s one other person who can help, but she’s just as stubborn as him and twice as secretive—but no less powerful. TheotherAlpha in the Dire pack, a title bestowed to the male Alpha’s better half. The last person to seeViserys alive...and the only one who may know the truth about his death.
But there is one huge snag in my plan for uncovering the past: if my father can’t be trusted, neither can his true mate.
Even if sheismy mother.
Chapter 30
Revyn
The very momentthat the sun kisses the horizon, the air shifts. Magic favoring the sun wanes while those that channel the moon grow in strength, and the subtle pressures of the academy’s wards hum in a constant reminder that there is power lingering in the earth, wind, and stars around us. As a shifter, I don’t inherently sense magic, but even I can feel it in this place—like the bones of the academy are as ancient as the grounds they lie upon.
It makes the hair on the back of my neck rise.
As we wait for dusk to officially claim the land, every single student in Aesir’s remedial classes is standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the back lawn. I track our professor’s movements as he paces the narrow strip of dirt in front of the forest he’s designatedground zerofor our practical training sessions. We’re not to stray beyond the academy’s grounds—that is, beyond the river on the far side of the woods—so that we keep our powers within manageable limits inside Heartsflame’s wards. Of course, vampires won’t be able to cross a flowing body of water anyhow, but he doesn’t reveal that fact to the other magic folk in the class. It’s nice to know that we’re keeping some secrets to ourselves.
Including our professor’s true identity.
If any alpha worth their salt knew that this ancient asshole was teaching their children to fight, they’d be up in arms in a heartbeat. But because we’re playing nice for the purposes of this exercise—and Ireallyhope he doesn’t remember me—I keep my mouth shut and my head down.
It helps that Sienna holds my hand.
That small show of affection does wonders to soothe my soul, and I brush my thumb over the back of her hand to reaffirm that it really is her and not another one of Callum’s illusions. If he pulls illusionary bullshit tonight, I’m going to cave his skull in with my fist through his goddamn face.
I just got Sienna back—no matter how fleeting—and I won’t lose her again.
