Page 115 of Destined Dawn

Winnie tsks and Ellie shakes her head.

“Are you serious, Rhi?” Winnie says. “This fight belongs to all of us. Fate gave you five men for a reason and she also gave you me and Trent and Ellie.”

Winnie takes my hand. “We may not be bonded, but we’re here to help you and that’s what we’re going to do.”

I can’t help smiling at my best friend, my eyes tearing. I’ve gone from precisely one friend (and he is a pig who can’t speak) to so many people that I care about and who care about me too. I may be about to face who-knows-what, but I can’t help feeling blessed and lucky and damn, damn happy.

“Thank you,” I say again, this time with more feeling. “Thank you all.”

“Winnie and Ellie, perhaps you could go and update the other resistance fighters. Beryl, it would be useful if you could dig up any more information that might be of use to us either on Queen Æðelflæd or the prophecy. And Professor Stone, Enforcer Kennedy and …” She pauses as she looks at Renzo last.

“Renzo Barone,” he says, holding out his hand. If the principal recognizes his name and who he is, she doesn’t show it, keeping a completely passive face as she shakes his hand, eyes lingering for a millisecond on the blood still staining his throat and his ear.

“I think it would be helpful if the three of you went to see how Tristan and Spencer are getting along.”

“I’m not leaving little rabbit alone,” Renzo says.

“Pardon?” the principal says and despite everything, I feel my cheeks sizzle.

“It’s okay, Renzo,” I insist, sensing that the principal wants to talk to me alone. “I’ll be along in a moment.”

He frowns, but then Stone and Azlan are shoving him out the door.

It closes and then it’s just me and the principal. It’s been a long time since we’ve spoken alone and a lot has passed in that time.

I turn and face her. She used to intimidate me in my early days at the academy. I certainly didn’t want to end up on her wrong side and even more than that, I found I didn’t want to disappoint her. After all, this woman let me keep Pip with me when everyone else was dead set against the idea.

Now, however, I feel differently about her. I still don’t want to let her down, but I feel like there’s more of a mutual respect between us – especially if she’s recognized how great my best friend is.

“Are you going to ask me if I’m sure I know what I’m doing?” I ask her. “Because the answer is no. I can’t be sure. But I think you should be more worried if I was. Only assholes tend to believe in themselves and their decisions 100% – that’s been my experience anyway. The rest of us have to battle our doubts and weigh up the right thing to do.”

“I agree entirely,” the principal says, “but I wasn’t going to ask if you were sure. Whether you are or not, is almost irrelevant. I think it has to be done. We either take this moment to strike now or we waste years of misery and grief, waiting for destiny to gift us another moment like this.”

“You think so?” I ask.

“Yes, Beryl is correct. We have Spencer and Tristan – boys most of my students would follow off the edge of a cliff. We have talented resistance fighters like Ellie, Winnie andTrent. We have several dragons who appear to be on your side. And then, Rhianna, we have you. You and your five fated mates. If all the prophecy and the tales of Queen Æðelflæd tell us is true, the six of you working together will be truly remarkable.” She nods her head. “What I want to say is, don’t hold back, if the moment comes, use everything you have, don’t let your doubts inhibit you.”

I stare into her intelligent eyes. Maybe like Stone, she’s been able to read thoughts all along because it’s as if she’s reached right into my mind and picked out the worries floating there. That I won’t be strong enough. Or worse, that I’m twisted and corrupted like my dad and if I let my powers truly take hold of me, who knows what damage I might do.

“I’m going to do everything I can to stop that man,” I say, “but you should know, there’s a risk–”

“A risk?” She frowns.

I take a deep inhale. “The magic – the powerful magic I have inside me – it isn’t all good. Some of it, quite a lot of it, is bad.”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“Yes, I can feel it. I’ve always been able to feel it. Although, like you say, it’s grown alongside your other magic.”

“You could feel it all along?”

“Yes.” She tilts her head to one side. “It’s a useful skill to have when you’re a principal. One of the reasons why they picked me for the job – my ability to seek out talent.”

“But I thought you thought there was nothing remarkable about me,” I blurt out.

“Well, of course, it depends whether you consider your magic remarkable,” she says with a smile that makes meblush. “Which I do, Rhianna. But I have also been principal long enough to see many students with remarkable powers misuse it or fail to live up to their potential. I see that is not the case with you.”