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“To make mestraight,you mean.”Avery glared at him and then looked back at the Headmistress.“He used conversion magic on me.He tried to ‘spell the gay away.’”

Headmistress Nightworthy looked appalled.

“Mr.Connor, is this true?”she demanded, looking at Avery’s father.“Did you actually come onto school grounds and work a personality changing spell on one of my students?”

“Thatstudentof yours happens to be myson,”Avery’s father snapped.“And yes, I worked the spell—I won’t deny it.I should have done it a long time ago but his mother wouldn’t let me.She always was too tender-hearted for her own good,” he added, making a bitter face.

“In this case, I must agree with your wife, Mr.Connor.”Headmistress Nightworthy’s voice had turned icy.“Don’t you know that it’s been proven such spells can lead to serious complications and suicidal tendencies in the children they are performed on?”

“That doesn’t happen very often!”Avery’s father argued.“It’s really rare—a chance worth taking!”

“Not in my school, it’s not!”The Headmistress’s voice cracked like a whip and she narrowed her bright blue eyes at Mr.Connor.“Besides which, the possibility of complications rises exponentially the older a child gets.Avery is nearly an adult now—trying to change him into something he is not now that his personality is fully formed is a recipe for disaster!He’d barely have any chance at all of living a normal life before his true memories and sexual identity broke through and made him want to hurt or kill himself.”

“I’ll take any chance I can get of making him normal,” Avery’s father snapped.“Which is what I’m going to do right now because as of this minute, I’m removing him from your school.He’s going to come with me and live anormallife.”He reached for Avery.“Come on—we’re leaving.”

My Drake rose so hard and fast I could barely hold him back.I found myself between the two of them, with my Drake’s rage burning in my eyes.I opened my mouth, but it wasn’t my voice that came out when I spoke.

“Touch him and die!He is MINE!”my Drake’s voice thundered in the Headmistress’s office, making everyone around me wince.Even Avery’s father jerked back, a look of panic in his eyes.

“Enough, Santiago—call back your Drake!”Headmistress Nightworthy said sharply.“No one is taking Avery anywhere.”

I heard the ring of truth in her voice and so did my Drake.He backed off—but only slightly.He was still glaring at Avery’s father through my eyes and I could feel his rage, ready to overflow if anyone threatened our belovedl’lorna.

Avery’s father was glaring right back, though.

“This is outrageous!I can’t believe you’re allowing this!”he shouted at the Headmistress.“How dare you let anyone keep me from taking my child!”

“I’m not a child anymore, father.And I don’t want to go with you.”Avery spoke in a calm, measured voice but his tone was ice cold.“In fact, I never want to see you again.If you can’t accept me for who I am, then we’re through.Saint and I are Blood-Bonded now and we’re going to stay together.That’s ‘normal’ enough for me.”

“You don’t know what’s good for you!”Avery’s father stabbed a finger at him.“You’re too young to know what you really want!”

“I know I want Saint and he wants me,” Avery said coolly and squeezed my hand again.“And I know you’re never going to separate us.”

“You must seereason, Mr.Connor,” Headmistress Nightworthy said to Avery’s father.“No magic on Earth or in the Realm or the Sky Lands can separate a Drake from hisl’lorna.Just as nothing but death can break a Blood-Bond.You must accept your son as he is or cut ties with him.There is no ‘fixing’ him now.This situation isnotchangeable.”

“I don’t accept that!”Avery’s father raged.He glared at her.“And if you won’t let me take him, then I’m withdrawing his tuition.”

“That’s fine,” the Headmistress said calmly.“I am prepared to offer Avery and anyone else whose parents have disowned them due to their sexual orientation a full scholarship.We donotdiscriminate here at Nocturne.”

At last it seemed that Avery’s father knew he was beaten.He gave Avery one last, hate-filled look.

“Last chance, Avery,” he said.“Come with me now and let me fix you or you’re dead to me.”

I could see the pain in my Bond-mate’s eyes but he lifted his chin defiantly.

“Then I guess you have no son and I have no father,” he said clearly.“I was always closer to Mom, anyway.”

I could tell he was trying to be flippant but I knew how deeply his father’s disapproval cut him.I knew it because I had felt it myself, from my own Sire.Why did they hate us just for being different—for something we could not change—something we were born with?

I didn’t know and I heard my Drake roaring mournfully within me.It is painful to lose the family you were born into—to be cast aside and disavowed.It was a pain that I and my Bond-mate both knew well.

I only wished I could make it less for him.

44

AVERY

As my father stalked out of the office, Saint squeezed my hand comfortingly.