Page 4 of Guardian of the Cursed Egg (Dragonis Academy #2)

Callan

Watching Mina dive into the gauntlet again is the worst feeling in the world.

My stomach twists as I stand on the sidelines, powerless to do anything but wait.

This trial is far worse than the first one she ran here—though even now, it doesn’t compare to the horrors her father made her endure during training.

That thought doesn’t help. It just makes the ache sharper.

“So, we’re just going to sit here and wait for her to come out?” Vaughn growls, dragging his fingers roughly through his hair, his frustration palpable.

“Not exactly,” Ziggy mutters, dropping down beside us with a practiced ease.

He pulls out a medallion hanging from a chain around his neck—a small, polished black dragon scale.

Abraxis’s scale. Of course. “I’ve been ordered to go in and pull her out if she needs it.

If the general decides she can’t handle it. ”

Smoke curls out of the gauntlet, and the sharp scent of burning wood hits my nose.

Then something worse—flesh. My chest tightens, panic clawing at the edges of my control.

Without thinking, I break into a run toward the structure, Vaughn, and Ziggy on my heels, but Lysander steps into our path, his hands raised to stop us.

“There’s an ambush drake in there,” he says calmly, like that’s supposed to reassure us. “It’s her part of the gauntlet. The fire is controlled.”

A scream shreds the air, piercing and raw, and I freeze. My breath catches, my entire body strung tight as a bowstring. My fists clench, and I whirl on Ziggy. “What the hell is Abraxis waiting for? Go get her!”

Ziggy doesn’t flinch. He shakes his head, his expression grim. “No can do. Not unless her life is in immediate danger or she loses her spot here.”

The weight of those bloody rules settles over me like a shroud, suffocating.

My jaw tightens, teeth grinding as I glare at the gauntlet, desperate for any sign of her.

The urge to break every damn rule and go after her myself burns in my chest, but I know better.

She’s in there because she has to be. Because she won’t let anyone save her unless it’s the only option left.

But that doesn’t mean I won’t be ready to tear the place apart the second she needs me.

We wait, the air thick with tension, every second dragging like an eternity.

Then, finally, the lower door on the first wing creaks open.

My breath catches as Mina emerges, limping, her face pale but determined.

In her left hand, she’s holding the severed head of an ambush drake.

Blood drips from it, pooling on the ground as she steps into the light .

I don’t wait. I sprint toward her, my boots echoing against the cold stone floor. “Mina!” I call, slipping under her right shoulder without hesitation, my arm around her waist to steady her. She leans into me, her body trembling slightly.

“What happened?” My voice is low, urgent, and edged with the frustration of not having the others here. I glance around, half expecting another threat to emerge from the shadows.

“Not here,” she says, her voice firm despite her clear exhaustion. She grips the severed head tighter, as though it’s a trophy, a warning to anyone watching.

I nod and guide her to the bench where I’ve been waiting, lowering her carefully onto it.

The medics rush over, their expressions grim as they kneel to assess her injuries.

One of them cuts away her pant leg, revealing a mess of haphazardly bandaged wounds.

Four deep punctures mark her thigh, blood oozing from the ambush drake’s bite.

The edges of the wounds glisten with something dark—poison.

I grit my teeth, fury surging. “Damn it, Mina,” I mutter, but she interrupts me with a smirk, her voice tinged with weary amusement.

“Remember,” she says, tilting her head toward me, “I’m immune to toxins and poisons.” Her eyes meet mine, and there’s a spark of defiance in them, even now. “I’m just tired and a little weak from blood loss, that’s all.”

She forces a smile, though it’s faint and brittle.

Then, with a casualness that makes my stomach turn, she drops the severed head beside her on the bench.

It lands with a dull thud, its lifeless eyes staring at nothing.

Her smirk deepens, and for a moment, I don’t know whether to be impressed or furious .

I settle on both. “You’re reckless,” I say, my voice low, but she just shrugs, leaning back against the bench like she’s already planning her next move.

“I wasn’t reckless. I slipped on her blood.

I miscalculated.” Mina’s voice is steady, but her smile is forced, a shield to keep us at bay.

Ziggy appears with a protein shake and water, handing them to her like it’s a peace offering.

She takes them with a small smile, though her hands tremble slightly.

We all fall silent as the medics work on her, cleaning the wound and stitching her up with precision.

Vaughn rejoins us after finishing his part of the gauntlet, his steps purposeful but heavy with frustration.

“No one warned me Abraxis was in there,” he mutters, shaking his head as he opens his jacket to reveal the deep talon marks scoring his chest.

Mina leans forward, inspecting the wounds with a faint smile tugging at her lips.

“He could have killed you,” she says, her voice eerily calm, as though discussing the weather.

“Apparently, he respects you enough to only cut you. If he’d angled his talons a little more, he would have shredded your lung.

” Her detached observation makes the medics pause mid-motion, their disbelief palpable.

“All done, Ms. Havock. Give our respect to the General,” one of them says finally, their voice tinged with nervousness as they bow and step away, leaving us alone.

Mina’s gaze flicks to the severed head lying nearby, her expression unreadable, then back to us. Her voice drops, barely a whisper. “I have the egg.”

The words hit like a thunderclap. My heart skips a beat, and for a moment, it feels like time freezes. The egg. The ambush drake had it, and Mina took it. How did she manage it? Why didn’t she tell us earlier ?

“We need to tell Lysander,” I say, glancing around until I spot the headmaster watching from his high perch, his hawk-like gaze missing nothing.

“No.” Mina’s voice sharpens, a low, protective growl that sends a shiver down my spine.

“We wait for Abraxis. When he’s done toying with the student body, then we’ll tell Lysander.

Not a moment sooner.” Her tone brooks no argument, and her eyes burn with the fierce, possessive glint of her dragoness.

She’s claimed the egg. Another one for her hoard. And no one—not even Lysander—will take it from her.

The death toll from this year’s Gauntlet far surpasses last year’s—by several hundred.

The survivors who were pulled out have the option to reapply next year, but those who failed?

They’re either dead or relegated to general education, stripped of whatever designation they’d been striving for.

The Academy is ruthless, as it should be. Weakness isn’t tolerated here.

Mina is asleep in my arms, her breathing steady, her head tucked against my chest. The egg is zipped tight inside the leather jacket she wears.

Its presence is a secret we’re not ready to share yet.

I hold her carefully, my gaze fixed on the last of the bodies being dragged out of the Gauntlet arena.

Only when the mess is cleared does Abraxis finally rejoin us.

Without a word, he scoops Mina up from my lap, cradling her close.

The low, resonant rumble of his dragon fills the space between us, and I hear the soft, sleepy answer from hers.

A faint smile blooms on her lips as she stirs, her arms curling around his neck.

Even half-asleep, she moves to Abraxis instinctively.

“Another victory, my love?” Abraxis murmurs, his eyes sliding to the severed ambush drake’s head resting on the bench beside me.

“Of course,” Mina replies softly, her voice thick with exhaustion.

She yawns, pressing her nose under his jaw in a gesture of submission and affection, her natural grace cutting through the tension of the moment.

“But we have bigger concerns.” Her fingers tap lightly against Abraxis’s wing, and he responds immediately, folding it around her.

I hear the faint sound of the zipper, followed by a sharp inhale from Abraxis. His whole body stiffens, and I don’t have to look to know what she’s showing him. The zipper closes again just before he unfurls his wings.

“Let’s return to the room and discuss this as a nest,” Abraxis says, his voice calm but heavy with meaning. His gaze sweeps over each of us, lingering on Mina before he takes off into the air, the soft whisper of his wings carrying them both away.

“You need to carry the head,” I say, nodding toward Mina’s gruesome trophy.

Vaughn sneers, his lip curling in disgust. “Why? That’s revolting.”

I glare at him, my tone brooking no argument. “Never question the will of dragons. Her dragoness wanted the head, or she wouldn’t have claimed it.”

Without waiting for his reply, I shift into my gryphon form and leap into the sky. The wind rushes past me as I climb higher, heading back to Malivore and the nest. Vaughn can argue all he wants, but the will of the dragons isn’t something to debate—and he’ll learn that soon enough.

When we finally catch up to her, Mina has both eggs nestled side by side on a pillow.

She’s speaking softly, her tone melodic, almost hypnotic.

The eggs pulse faintly, as if responding to her words.

The sight sends a shiver down my spine—something ancient and powerful is happening here, something we barely understand.

“We weren’t that far behind. What did we miss?” I glance at Abraxis first, then at Balor, Ziggy, and Leander, hoping one of them can explain.

“She brought Klauth out, set them next to each other, and started telling them about the gauntlet,” Balor says, his voice flat but his eyes betraying his unease.

I walk over to the bookcase, pulling down the dusty tome on cursed eggs.

The pages crackle as I flip through them, searching for something—anything—that might shed light on what Mina’s doing.

Then I freeze. There, etched in faded ink, is a depiction of Klauth and Thauglor, the black dragon, razing a castle together.

I hold the book up for the others to see.

“Apparently, they have a history,” I say, my voice tight.

“According to this chapter, they destroyed a rival den. The rival dragons hunted in Thauglor’s territory without permission and ruined a display he’d made to attract a mate.

” I frown, my eyes lingering on the illustration, before looking up at Abraxis and Mina.

“Do dragons still … make displays to attract mates?” The idea feels foreign, strange.

Then again, male gryphons build elaborate nests to win a mate, so maybe it’s not that different.

Mina laughs softly, shaking her head as if I’ve missed something obvious. “You didn’t notice the weapons and skulls arranged at Shadowcarve?” she asks, her eyes twinkling with amusement. She leans in and plants a quick kiss on my cheek before turning her attention back to the eggs.

“Wait—that was a display ?” I glance at Vaughn, who looks just as confused as I feel. He shrugs, his expression mirroring my disbelief.

“Yes, it was a display,” Abraxis says, his tone heavy with finality.

I can’t stop myself from asking, “How did Mina accept it?”

Mina laughs, but Abraxis answers before she can, pulling something from his coat—a braid of hair, dark and intricate, unmistakably Mina’s.

“This,” he says, holding it up, “is the female’s acceptance.

Or, sometimes, she might gift a scale. Since Mina couldn’t shift yet, this was as close as she could get. ”

A single tear slips down Mina’s cheek as she stares at her braid in Abraxis’s hand.

There’s a weight in the air now, the kind that comes with something deeply personal, undeniably significant.

I don’t know what to say, so I just watch as Mina’s fingers hover briefly over the braid, her lips curving into a faint, bittersweet smile.

“I’m still mad everyone hid the fact Abraxis was my mate,” Mina says, her tone light, the sharp edge of genuine anger absent. It’s more a statement than an accusation, but the weight of her words lingers.

“We had to keep you safe,” I reply, careful, meeting her gaze briefly before nodding toward the eggs resting on the pillow. “What are we going to do about them?” My focus stays on the ancient shells, their soft, rhythmic pulses drawing me in like the beat of some ancient heart.

“I’m not putting the black one back. He’s staying with us,” she says firmly, crouching down to scoop both eggs into her arms. She hugs them to her chest, protective, unyielding .

“Spoken like a true dragoness,” Abraxis remarks, a smile tugging at his lips. His fingers move quickly over his phone, and he chuckles darkly. “Lysander’s on his way here. Lemon tattled on us, and let’s just say he’s not happy.”

Before anyone can react, Iris swoops into the room, her wings folding neatly as she lands on Mina’s shoulder.

Lightning crackles between her horns, a warning as she tilts her head with an air of challenge.

Mina doesn’t miss a beat. “He can be unhappy all he wants. They’re mine, and he can’t have them,” she growls, her voice low, dangerous, and laced with finality.

Her eyes flash, flickering briefly to her dragons, daring anyone to contradict her.

I swallow hard, feeling the sharp tug of her protective fury ripple through the air. There’s no universe where I’ll step between Mina and those eggs—not now, not ever. The headmaster? He does not know what kind of storm he’s walking into. Part of me almost pities him. Almost.