Page 19

AVERY

I looked up and saw Saint standing there.

His fists were clenched at his sides and his eyes were doing that horrible flaming thing again, though at least he wasn’t crying lava tears this time—not yet, anyway.

The look on his face was half rage, half betrayal as he stared at the way Ari and Kaitlyn were holding on to me.

At the sound of another Drake’s voice, Ari stopped sniffing my neck and stood up, frowning at Saint.

“By what right do you claim him?” he demanded, frowning at Saint.

Saint took a deep breath and I saw that he was struggling with his Drake. When he spoke again, his voice was his, not his Drake’s.

“You already have your l’lorna,” he said, nodding at Kaitlyn. “Give Avery to me. I need him.”

“Well, they can’t just give him to you, Saint! I mean, he’s a person, not a thing, after all!” Megan looked worried.

As well she should be, I thought. If Saint’s Drake came out again and this time right in the middle of the crowded Dining Hall…well, it wouldn’t be a good scene.

“It’s all right—I’ll go with him,” I said.

To my relief, Saint’s words seemed to have gotten through to my bespelled Coven mates—maybe the Drakes inside them recognized Saint’s prior claim on me. But for whatever reason, they had both stepped back and let go of me.

“All right,” I said to Saint, as soon as I was free of them. “Where do you want to go?”

“Someplace we can talk in private,” he growled.

Then he spun around and headed for the far end of the Dining Hall. After a moment, I realized he was going to the trapdoor in the floor that led down into the dungeons, where the Norm Dorm was located.

For a moment, I hesitated. Was it really safe to follow him? What would he—or more likely his Drake—do to me after seeing me in the embrace of two other Drakes? Would it be jealous? Would it feel like I had been cheating on it and want to barbeque me with one blast of flame?

I didn’t know. But I did know that if I didn’t follow Saint and at least try to calm down his Drake, the entire Dining Hall might become a fiery inferno.

There really was no choice.

Squaring my shoulders, I followed my roommate.