Page 16

MAZ

T he cake that was in the palm of my hand disappears the minute I step out of the border of the academy and into the forest. “Fucking jackasses.” I knew it would be like this, but everything I’ve eaten today feels like poison in my stomach when I know what it is like to starve.

I grew up with nothing but the rags of clothes that moths had eaten, the shared food that never quite filled my stomach and left me always wanting to go to sleep without the sound of my stomach growling.

Even in dragon form, there is little left to hunt in the forest to sustain him.

He catches fish when he dives into the sea, like the others, but even the fish are becoming rarer these days.

I just hoped I could carry home some treats for the kids, but they make sure that I can’t.

The witches need us controlled and under their thumb—which is only possible when we need them for survival.

Why would they give us free food inside the academy if we’re just going to walk it out and give it to our people?

They don’t want that. Perfectly controlled slaves to be used in their war is all they see us as.

That won’t change anytime soon and it’s the main reason I didn’t want to bond with any witch.

The witches here are brought up to see us as less than them —creatures to be tamed and controlled.

They don’t see us as people like them, with magic and feelings, and that shit.

We are their defence against the enchantress.

A witch who clearly hates her own kind, and no one knows why.

Not that I’m on the side of the Enchantress.

Her war has cost me too, and continues to do so, and too many bonded witches are Mindless now.

Mortals too. No good person could turn someone into one of those things.

I clench my fists. Fucking hell, now I’m one of the bonded.

I almost want to look at my right hand, where in the center of the palm is a witch mark, an old ancient marking of my binding to her.

It really pisses me off that’s my favourite hand to jack off with, and now I picture her every time I wrap my hand around my cock.

Juniper Daygan.

She wasn’t anything like I expected her to be, and it’s bothering me.

I feel our bond like a noose around my soul, tugging and telling me the way to her.

My dragon has never liked to be chained up or held down, yet he accepted this bonding with open fucking arms. He accepted her without even thinking of me.

I always assumed we were on the same page when it came to bonding and the war—that we want nothing to do with it.

But then I saw her. The first time I saw Juniper Daygan was when she was running through the forest, her clothes burnt thanks to Vale, and her eyes panicked.

Yet she was stunning enough to stop my dragon in his tracks and from flying away to safety. He turned and followed her like a lovesick puppy.

The leaves crunch underneath my feet, under the sticks and everything else as I continue to walk towards the borders of the village.

I let the noise and smell of the forest distract me for a second, distract my dragon, which is already itching to go back to her.

We usually like walking in the forest alone for some peace and quiet, but not this time.

This time it feels wrong to be walking in the opposite direction to my bonded witch, but I need to go back to the village and my dragon needs to chill.

It’s important I check that they’re okay.

Being bonded means I can’t be there to protect them from the witches, from the witch students that come and play jokes on the village like it’s fun.

From other witches who come in just to be dicks and be cruel, knowing they can, and no one can do a thing about it.

Small creatures, especially the ones at the academy, are treated the same, and I hate it.

The witches don’t think about coming here often when there’s a dragon or four roaming across the skies.

But now all four dragons are bound, and it’s a different story.

I’m scared for them, and I know once I’m taken to the war front, I won’t be able to do anything to protect the clans.

I have to make sure they see me coming back, know that I’m coming here, and I won’t be gone for now.

We all agreed to take it in turns to come back and make sure we are seen doing so between classes.

I know they’re not happy with the situation, but it could have been so much worse.

Juniper doesn’t seem like a brain-dumb thing the witches have forced into being their slave and she might even be sympathetic to the shifters—especially if we show her the truth.

Some witches in the academy see how bad it is and try to help us when they hear what life was like for their bonded.

The leaders of the witches try to make sure they don’t believe us or that we cause this to ourselves.

Not the fact they trapped our ancestors here with spells.

Not the fact they won’t let us leave and they starve us.

Not the blinding fact we are their slaves.

A small part of me is glad that something is changing for once because the years blur by and sometimes I can’t even remember before.

I didn’t want to fight in a war, not for the witches, because I hate them, but the war—I do want it over.

Juniper is our bonded and there isn’t a way back from this.

I know Vale will be trying to make a dangerous and most likely deadly spell up from scratch to break the bond, but we all know it isn’t possible. The only way out of this is death.

She’s pretty and I can’t get her out of my head.

Her body is that perfectly torturous mix between curvy and slim, where her hips flare out and her breasts—fucking hell, they’re definitely a handful and I want them in my face, on my tongue.

Her long brown hair falls in messy waves down the back of her neck, dark luxurious locks and perfect for gripping as she rides me.

She’s almost doll-like, her eyes big and a unique shade I’ve not seen before.

She’s a beauty and I know nothing about her, other than the fact that if we weren’t bonded, I’d definitely be trying to sleep with her. I can’t do that now and it’s forbidden.

It would fuck everything up to sleep with her. Or try to.

I rub my face, realizing I’m already hard as a rock from just thinking about sleeping with her. Or just her in general. Her hair smells addictive and her scent overall is here to lead me into sins. She smells like cherries and books. I rub my face again. Fuck, I need to stop thinking about her.

After I adjust myself, I jog through the forest to run off some of the energy before I get to the border of the village.

I’ve only got about an hour before afternoon training class, which is going to be a shit show for Juniper and there is fuck all I can do about it.

The magic of the border is nearly invisible to anyone that’s not a shifter.

To me, it looks like orange waves in the sea.

I step through it to the other side, onto the weathered stone path.

It’s the only path in the village, everything else is mud and sloppy snow that has mixed with the mud to make it brown.

The stone pathways are chipped and broken.

It sets the tone for the entire makeshift village.

Mud bricks and plastic tarps are what hold together many of the homes, which are filled to the breaking point with shifters.

The forest looms a shadow over the village, and I step into the darkness as I go down the path.

There are some better built houses made of wood and stone, but they are so old that nature has crawled over the edges, chipping away and threatening to pull the entire house down.

There’s a smell to the village, a smell that doesn’t linger in the academy but out here it does.

It’s the smell of poverty and within is the smell of burning fires heating the homes.

“Good afternoon.” I turn to see Maclan, a kind leopard shifter who never bonded.

He might not have bonded, but he always told me to try every year, and I wonder if it is because he regrets not choosing someone.

He lifts his hand and waves to the seat next to him to invite me over.

I can see nearly every one of his ribs under the small vest shirt he’s wearing that is covered in holes.

There are no warm cloaks around here to keep anyone warm from the winter air.

All the uniform I was given for the academy has to be given back each night, otherwise we lose points on the leaderboard.

“I’m in a rush, sorry! I’ll sit with you next time.

” I carry on walking through the village, feeling eyes drifting towards me.

I make sure to light some of the fire pits as I go past with a wave of my hand, my elemental fire magic bouncing off my fingertips.

I’m the only one of us four that can do that.

They need to shift into their dragon form to cause fire, but I’ve always been able to summon just a small amount of it.