Page 58 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Training Ground, Shadow Military Academy

F reya

The black clouds covering the sun in the afternoon sky crack open, driving a sudden, stinging rain across my cheeks, as I stand on the windswept training ground outside the stone walls of the Shadow Military Academy.

Daire raises his wing to shelter me. I peer through his soaked feathers at the dragons, the Alphas in their shifter forms, who are hunkered in a line down the side of the training ground.

There are half a dozen large ruby dragons and one smaller but beautiful, shimmering silver dragon .

They shift their clawed feet, folding back their wings. Sparks spray from their mouths. Their intense eyes scan the Omegas in front of them, hungrily.

Adrenaline rushes through me.

This is it.

The day that Daire and I discover if we will live or die. Yet we have no control over it.

I don’t believe in fate. If I’m not selected as a dragon rider, just let them try to sacrifice me.

I won’t make it easy for them.

“Iggy is a pretty silver dragon, isn’t he?” I point out. My teeth chatter from the cold. “Not as imposing as Aurelius but still, you can tell that they’re related.”

Rain trickles down the back of my neck, plastering my uniform uncomfortably to my body. The rest of the Omega cadets who are lined next to me, as well as the instructors behind them who are caught in the deluge, look as miserable as I feel.

At least I have a wing to shield me. I take a breath of the delicious smelling feathers to calm my wildly beating heart.

Five is sheltering under the archway that leads into the academy, watching this matching of dragons with their dragon rider with calculating eyes.

For two weeks now, since Daire’s whipping, this day has been my focus and my greatest fear.

“Say that again but louder, you’ll make his bloody life.” Daire smirks. “If we end up matching with Iggy, however, I’ll sacrifice myself to the Shadow Gods.”

I shiver with distress. Fear turns my guts to water .

I frown. “Don’t say things like that. Not after…you know.”

And he does.

For the first week after the whipping, Daire slipped into a fever because of blood loss and the cursed iron.

I nearly lost him.

It was Ignatius who gave up his own bed for Daire, intimidating the other cadets into allowing us both back into the dorm.

Ignatius never apologized. He’d probably break out into hives if he tried.

Yet he followed the healer’s instructions with me each day to clean Daire’s wounds with lukewarm water and vinegar, then wrap them with bandages soaked in honey and oil.

Ignatius was clinical and distanced but he never missed helping me to change the bandages or bring Daire meals.

One day, he even quietly told us that his friends back home called him Iggy.

I helped Daire to eat and drink, while he grew strong enough to sit up, then to stand and walk. In the second week, when the fever broke, he worked on gaining his strength again with a grim commitment.

Every time I saw the lacerations and bruises, however, I knew that he got them because he saved my life.

A fae should use that debt to bind me, but Daire has never asked me to repay it.

I half-expected Aurelius would check in on Daire and me. The fact that he hasn’t is unsettling, worming doubts and fears beneath my skin.

Has Aurelius decided that Daire and I are too much trouble to keep as his pack? What’s happening in the Shadow Court without Daire and me there? Is Aurelius being controlled even more brutally by his uncle?

Will Aurelius want to be part of my upcoming heat, if I survive the dragon rider matching?

Rain like teardrops chase down Daire’s face, as he leans to kiss the top of my head. “Sorry, love.”

“Be honest, you’re warming up to Iggy,” I tease.

“Iggy was an arrogant arsehole, but I’d bet my wings that was based on the prejudices of his family and envy about our closeness to Aurelius. I’d imagine that I’m the first fae he’s even met. When he saw what true sadism looks like, he shrank from it. There’s hope for the little idiot.”

“When Aurelius summoned him, as you lay in your fever, I was terrified that he was going to?—”

“Burn Iggy alive for cuddling his Omega?” Daire’s lips twitch. “Lucky I’m not the jealous type.”

I don’t want to admit that I was the jealous one because I wished that it was me who Aurelius had summoned.

I miss him.

“On the other hand, Aurelius normally is. Yet Ignatius was glowing, as if filled up with the sun, when he returned. He puffed up his chest, announcing that he had been instructed by the King himself that he had the important duty to act as His Majesty’s pets’ academy bodyguard .

” I shake my head. “He’s been like a tick on my ass ever since.

He’s run by my side during exercises and helped me complete the obstacle courses.

I have to admit that he’s a good coach; I’m twice as fit as I was.

He’s also kept the other dickless Alphas away from me.

The instructors appear scared to even glare at us too hard, after what happened with Caligo. ”

I brush my hand lightly over Daire’s clothed back. His uniform is as wet as mine is. I imagine the bruises and welts, still freshly turning to new scars underneath.

“Then if we survive today,” Daire’s glowing eyes settle on Ignatius, whose head is raised, despite his smaller size against the more brutal ruby dragons, “I’ll offer Iggy a deal.”

“He’ll never take it. Never make a deal?—”

“With a fae?” Daire lowers his plush lips to my ear, licking the shell. I shiver but now from pleasure. His voice is sin. “But you did.”

“I trusted you.”

He draws back, studying me like he can see my soul. “Did you?”

I lick my dry lips, wishing that I was kissing him. “And now, I love you.”

Then, as if Daire is the answer to every wish that I’ve ever made, he is kissing me.

“I’ll love you each day that I’m still drawing breath.

” He folds his wings around us both to protect us from the curious eyes of the other students as he kisses me again.

“I’ll show you what being loved by an Unseelie truly means.

So that you know, being offered a deal by a fae is an honor.

A deal with the Shadow Fae King is even more of a rare privilege. ”

Breathless, I cling to him.

I kiss him because then I don’t need to think about the conversation that I had with Ignatius last night.

I sat on the cold floor of the corridor in a circle with Ignatius and Daire, as moonlight sliced across our faces through the barred windows.

This spot had become our unspoken place to gather before curfew. Our spot to whisper secrets and plot away from the other students.

I won’t call it friendship because that word doesn’t feel heavy enough for what’s being woven between the three of us.

What has already happened between us.

At least, not friendship alone.

Plus, Ignatius is still a dick. It’s just that he’s a dick who is now on our side.

“Were you only trying to scare us with all that stuff about being devoured by the Shadow Gods if we’re not matched to ride with an Alpha dragon tomorrow, Iggy?” I asked.

Ignatius dropped his gaze.

“It hasn’t happened in a generation. My father insisted that I study everything about both the Shadow Court and the academy before I attended. This ritual is meant to frighten students with the threats of being bound and dragged to the lands of merciless mermen and then…”

“Being devoured?” Daire drawled.

Ignatius balled his hands in his lap. “It’s typical of the cruelty here.

Shadowed threats, but in truth, once cadets reach this stage, the instructors are careful to select the right number of both Alphas and Omegas.

The best suited will take each other as mates.

It’s no more than the military version of a matching ball. ”

“How?” I demand.

“I read that your bond mate will be able to hear your thoughts.” For the first time, Ignatius smiled. “It’s one of the most powerful bonds in the realms. A telepathic connection. It will be nice not to feel alone.”

Daire’s expression became sharp. “But I’m not an Omega.”

“Open for debate.”

I stiffened, waiting for Daire to launch himself on Ignatius, but he only fixed him with a deadly stare that had Ignatius cringing back.

“I’m an Alpha who already found his soulmate.” Daire slung his arm around my neck. “Fate won’t match Spark to anyone else, and Aurelius would tear off their bloody wings if they tried. What do your books say about that?”

Ignatius looked troubled, carding his fingers through his hair and mussing it. “It’s unprecedented. But this matching isn’t about Alpha and Omega. It’s about fated mates, not always bonds, although it usually develops. It’s livelong companionship and forever love.”

“I have my mates already.” I stubbornly pressed closer to Daire.

I think of Aurelius’ amber eyes and the touch of his fingers to my cheek, as well as the way that he stormed into the parade ground, grabbing the whip and hurling it .

How he stood up for Daire, halting his punishment.

Aurelius is my Alpha.

My King, as I’m his Queen.

I’ve made deals with both these enemy kings, and I don’t know how to choose between being sacrificed and being taken as the mate of another Alpha.

“Why doesn’t Aurelius have a dragon rider, when he goes into battle?” I blurted. “He went through this academy.”

Daire tensed, pulling away from me. “Trust me, I’ve faced him in battle. He doesn’t need one.”

Ignatius’ questioning gaze met mine. “Mother told me that the King is the only Alpha who was never selected. It was declared by Maximinus that Golden Dragons could not bond, were too dangerous, and would never be selected because they were wicked . He was made exempt.”

“Excluded,” Daire said, softly. “The word that you’re looking for is bloody excluded.”

Now, standing here as the rain lashes the training ground, and I stare at the ranks of warrior Alphas and Omegas waiting to be matched up for life like War and Lucius are, my heart aches.