Page 47 of Heartflame

Alert my grandfather or Quill.

I chose Quill before I even had a moment to think.

I ran.

The dormitory halls were empty at this hour thankfully, because I didn’t have time to explain myself to anyone, especially not an RA. My heart hammered against my ribs as I took the stairs two at a time, my half-shifted form making me faster and stronger, though I was mostly propelled by my need to protect my mate.

Quill’s dorm was on the third floor. I reached his door and didn’t bother knocking. The lock gave way easily. It was a small spell, barely a whisper of magic that broke through the metal mechanism.

Lysander was asleep in his bed, didn’t even stir as I moved through the darkness. But Quill... Quill was already awake, sitting up in bed with a confused expression as I crossed the room toward him.

“Aeron?” he whispered, his voice rough with sleep. “What the hell⁠—”

“We need to go,” I said quietly, keeping my voice low so as not to wake his roommate. “Right now. No questions.”

He blinked at me, clearly still half-asleep and trying to process what was happening. “It’s the middle of the night. What’s going on?”

“There are undead in the forest,” I said, and watched his face go pale. “A lot of them. They’re heading for the wards and I need to get you somewhere safe before they arrive.”

That got him moving. He threw off his blankets, his earlier confusion replaced by the sharp clarity of someone who understood danger when they heard it. “How many?”

“Sixty, maybe more. I couldn’t get an exact count.” I moved to his closet and grabbed the jacket he’d worn earlier. “Get dressed. Warm clothes. We’re leaving campus.”

“Leaving?” Quill’s voice pitched higher. “Aeron, the wards⁠—”

“Will hold,” I interrupted, though I wasn’t entirely sure that was true anymore. “But I’m not taking any chances with you. Come on, Red. Move.”

He was pulling on pants now, his movements quick and efficient despite the shock. I could smell the spike of adrenaline in his blood, the fear he was trying hard not to show. He grabbed his shoes and started lacing them up.

“What about everyone else?” he asked, glancing toward Lysander’s sleeping form. “Shouldn’t we warn them?”

“My grandfather will handle it,” I said, which was true. I hoped. “Security will activate the emergency protocols. Everyone will be fine.”

It was a lie, or at least a half-truth. I had no idea what my grandfather’s contingency plans were, and right now I didn’t care. All that mattered was getting Quill away from here, away from the danger that was creeping closer with every passing second. As a dragon, I could protect him. But holed up in a dorm room? That could cut us off from any real escape route.

“Okay,” Quill said, grabbing his jacket. “Okay, let’s go.”

We slipped out of the dorm as quietly as we’d come in. The campus was eerily silent, that deep quiet that comes in the middle of the night. But they wouldn’t be asleep for long.

And we’d be long gone before they woke up.

I led Quill toward the northern perimeter, the same route we’d taken just hours earlier when I’d shown him the stars. The wards hummed with power as we approached, and I could feel them beginning to strain. Whatever spell was driving those undead forward, it was pushing against our defenses with increasing force, preemptively weakening them before the undead arrived.

“Hurry,” I urged, taking his hand and pulling him toward the shimmer of the barrier.

“Aeron,” he said, stopping dead in his tracks. “We… We can’t just walk away and not warn everyone.”

“I told you, security will handle it. The wards will hold.” I tried to urge him forward, but he wouldn’t budge.

“Then why are you so terrified?” he asked. “Why do you want to get me out of here so badly?”

“Because I love you,” I said simply, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “Because if something happened to you, I couldn’t survive it. Because you matter to me more than anything else in this world, and I won’t lose you to some necromancer.”

His eyes widened, his mouth falling open slightly. I could see him processing my words, could smell the confusion and fear spiking in his blood.

“Aeron, I⁠—”

Another tremor ran through the ground, stronger this time. In the distance, I could hear the first impacts against the wards. The undead had arrived. The barrier above us flickered, just for a second, but it was enough to make my blood run cold.