Page 13
Raelan
AUTUMN HAS FULLY DESCENDED ON Coven Crest Academy. The heat of summer has gone, and in its place are cold mornings, falling leaves, and rain that never ceases. The sky has been dark all day, and my skin feels alive with the electricity in the air. It makes me antsy, irritable.
And like usual, Alina isn’t helping.
Ever since she invited me into her dorm room, I’ve been unsettled. I don’t understand her, can’t quite read the expressions she makes and the words she says.
It’s a small miracle we’ve been able to make this work. I’ve given her a bit more space these past few weeks, and thanks to that, I’ve even been able to sleep at night—mostly, though when my dragon is particularly agitated, like it is now, I still find myself wandering the corridors in the evenings, scaring the students who’ve crept out of their dorms to kiss each other in the darkened hallways.
I can already tell tonight will be a sleepless night. My dragon coils beneath my skin, hot and angry. It wants to spread its wings and fly, to taste the rain and dive through the lightning, to tumble with the thunder while it races across the clouds.
But no. There will be no freedom for it tonight, nor any other night so long as I’m here with Alina.
There will be a holiday vacation in December, for Yule, and when I return home to the castle with Alina, I will tell the king I need a brief respite from my duties. He’ll understand. Since he took me in, there have been a number of occasions when I’ve needed to get away, to cut through the clouds and feel the cold air on my scales, to release all the pent-up aggression inside me.
Usually, I don’t feel so strong an urge to let my beast free. But Alina changes all of that.
Right now, she’s seated at the end of a long dining table, surrounded by her three roommates. She smiles and laughs easily with them, seeming comfortable in their presence. The dining room is lit by chandeliers laden with flickering candles, and heavy aromas drift through the air: fresh-baked bread, spices and herbs, stews and pottages and roasted vegetables.
I typically eat when Alina does. But tonight I feel on edge, and I have very little appetite.
For food, anyway.
My eyes track Alina’s hand as she butters a thin slice of bread and lifts it to her lips. Her movements are graceful, elegant. She takes a bite of the bread, and a small dab of butter gathers in the slight depression above her top lip.
I imagine licking it off for her, claiming her lips with mine. I imagine the taste of her tongue, wonder what it might feel like gliding across my skin.
And in response, the chain around my neck burns, the magic battling my dragon down, keeping it contained. I flex my jaw and try not to react to the pain.
Alina looks up at me then, as if she can feel my eyes on her. Despite all the students lingering around the dining hall, she finds me easily, and she holds my gaze. Her blue eyes narrow slightly, lips drawing together.
I should look away. I always do.
But this time, I don’t.
This time, my dragon meets her eyes and refuses to glance away.
And every second she holds my gaze feels like an eternity. In my periphery, everything else falls away, until all that’s left is her.
Alina Ravenscroft. The princess of Elarwyn. A blue-haired frost witch. My fated mate.
Pain ricochets through me, making me clench my hands into fists and grind my teeth. A few students walking past take notice and step subtly away, giving me a wide berth while their eyes flick my way nervously.
The pain of holding myself back from her hasn’t been as bad these last few weeks, but today is a different story. I’ve been fighting my instincts all day, and it’s becoming difficult to stand for the aching thrumming through me.
We aren’t supposed to resist our mates like this. It goes against nature, against our instincts. And yet I must resist. Because no matter the torture, she is not mine to claim. She’ll never be mine to claim.
My dragon just refuses to accept that truth.
A few students carrying dining trays pass in front of me, breaking my gaze with Alina. For a brief moment, I catch my breath, saved from the power of Alina’s stare. But then I find her again, and she’s no longer looking at me.
She’s looking up at another student who’s stopped at the end of the table to speak with her.
A male student.
My dragon roils as I watch them talk. Alina lifts a hand to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and I swear I can pick up her scent swirling through the room despite the hundreds of other smells drifting through this crowded space.
The other student shifts closer, bracing his hand on the table, so near to Alina’s that he could touch her fingers if he wanted to.
Mine , my dragon growls. Not his. Mine.
I clench my hands harder, digging my nails into my palms, trying to use the pain to focus myself.
But it’s not working. The edges of my vision are starting to go dark in an effort to help me home in on the one thing—the only thing—that matters.
Alina. Always Alina.
And before I can stop myself, before I even realize what I’m doing, my feet start to move, carrying me through the throngs of students, across the candlelit dining hall, and right up to Alina’s table .
Everyone stops talking to focus on me.
“R-Raelan?” Alina says when I stop behind the male student.
He turns and has to look up at me. And I barely resist the urge to snarl.
“What is it?” Alina asks.
Still looking at him, wondering how far I could throw him across this dining hall without killing him, I say, “Urgent matter, Your Highness. Please come with me.”
The male takes a step back, though not as quickly as I’d like. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow, Alina,” he says.
And hearing her name on his lips makes me bristle, sends a wave of angry heat from my head to my toes. He has no right to say her name so casually.
Alina’s sky-blue brows crinkle as the male student steps away, and she stands slowly, still looking at me. “What’s happening?”
“We’re leaving,” I say in way of answer. “Now.”
Alina’s roommates all stare as I take her by the arm and gently escort her from the dining hall. She doesn’t resist, but she keeps asking, “What’s wrong? What happened?”
I should stop. I should tell her I made a mistake and apologize for interrupting her dinner.
But I can’t. All I can do is stalk down the candlelit corridor while rain hits the windows and slides down the glass in never-ending rivulets.
I don’t even know where I’m going. All I know is that I needed to get Alina away from that boy—though I haven’t yet determined if it’s because I felt he’s a threat or because my dragon can’t stand the sight of another male so close to her, so casually comfortable with her, like those two I chased away from her in the astronomy tower. Right now, it doesn’t matter. Because my hand is wrapped around Alina’s upper arm, and she’s stumbling alongside me, her hair falling around her shoulders and tickling my wrist where my long-sleeved tunic is pushed up.
A few students give her confused or troubled looks, and a silver-haired professor asks, “Miss Ravenscroft, is everything all right?”
“Just fine, Professor Silvermoon!” she says, waving the woman off.
We turn down another hallway. This one is quieter. And once we’re alone, Alina plants her feet and rips her arm from my grasp with surprising strength.
“That’s quite enough,” she says, refusing to take another step. “Tell me what’s going on. Now. ”
I turn slowly to look at her.
We’re standing in a narrow corridor, the din from the dining hall having faded into the distance. Overhead, stained glass windows run with rainwater, casting dim colors down across Alina’s hair and face. Her eyes are wide, her lips parted as she breathes heavily.
“Well?” she snaps. “Is it Grandfather? Has something happened? Tell me!”
But I can’t. I can’t tell her what I am, and I certainly can’t tell her she’s my mate. I’d lose this position in the guard in a heartbeat, and my mother and sisters would lose their home.
No. I can’t. So I just clench my teeth and hiss, “I felt a threat from that student. I wanted you away from him. ”
The worry in Alina’s wide eyes slowly shifts, turning to the blue fire that sets my veins alight, that makes me yearn for her in the darkness when I’m alone with my hand and my thoughts.
“A threat?” Alina bites out, her fingers curling into fists at her sides. “Tristan is my friend , Raelan. He was just speaking with me about an assignment in divination class.”
“How do you know?” I growl. “How do you know he’s not just trying to get close to you so he can use you? You’re the princess—you have to be more careful.”
It sounds ridiculous, even to my ears. I’m grasping, trying to come up with some explanation for my erratic behavior. But there’s only one explanation that makes sense, and it’s the one I’ll never speak aloud.
I expect Alina to yell at me, tell me I’m being a fool, threaten to tell her grandfather that I’ve failed in my duties and need to be replaced. So she surprises me when she crosses her arms and narrows her eyes, head tipping just far enough to one side that it makes her look catlike, perhaps even dangerous.
My dragon likes it.
Shit.
“You’re lying,” she says.
My skin prickles.
She has no idea how much I’m lying about. She doesn’t even know I’m not human. But I don’t say a word. I just clench my jaw and try not to breathe too deeply lest her smell overwhelm my senses.
“First those boys in the tower, now Tristan. What’s actually going on?” Her voice is a bit quieter now, coaxing, like she thinks she can pull the truth out of me if only her words lilt just right.
And she could if not for the chain around my neck. It was already hot back in the dining hall, but it’s growing hotter as it works to force my dragon into submission. But it’s never had to work this hard.
A door opens down the hall, and a moment later, a student passes by us, mumbling, “Pardon me,” as she goes. Alina takes a step toward me to make room. I step away. But it’s a narrow hall, and my back is already brushing the stone wall. There’s nowhere else for me to go.
The student disappears down another hallway, but Alina remains where she’s at, arms still crossed, gaze unblinking as she glares at me.
“Raelan,” she says.
My cock twitches when she says my name, and I’m grateful the corridor is only dimly lit.
Fuck.
“Don’t, Your Highness,” I bite out. She has no idea what her proximity is doing to me. I’m breaking out in a sweat just trying to fight the pain and desire warring through my body. If she takes another step closer—
“Don’t what?” She arches a brow. “And I’ve told you a hundred times to call me Alina.”
“Don’t—” I swallow hard. “Come any closer.”
My chest rises and falls rapidly, my heart racing, creating a sound like waves in my ears. I think I might pass out. I can’t keep doing this. I can’t—
A strange look comes over Alina’s eyes, like a mixture of want and fear.
Then she does something incredibly stupid.
She takes one more step toward me, presses onto her toes, and brushes her lips against mine.
And I fucking lose it.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13 (Reading here)
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46