Page 9

M y body hurts as I wake up, as the world fades back into light and fire?

Wait, fire? I can almost feel it against my skin, in my blood and bones.

The world tastes like smoke, and my chest hurts.

I roll my tongue around my dry mouth, coughing on the smoke in the air for a long few seconds until I get it under control.

I can hear shouting—men I don’t know are shouting loud enough to wake the entire forest. Wait, it’s the hunt.

I was hunting for my bonded, and then…I’m not sure.

Then what? My head hurts and every inch of my skin feels like it’s been dragged through a bush.

I don’t know them, but they are arguing like I’m not here at all, and all I can focus on is that I’m in pain.

I breathe through the pain, one breath at a time.

My ribs hurt the most, so breathing is difficult.

I can feel the burns on my hip and my lower legs.

“How the fuck would I know there was an old bloodstone this far out?” one of them shouts. “This isn’t my fault.”

“No, it’s hers!” another male roars and then snarls like a caged animal. “I suggest we get rid of her before this becomes permanent. She fucking bonded to us!”

A smack and thump echoes to my left, shaking the ground as I try to focus my vision. My hair is back to its normal colour, falling over my face. “Don’t be a fool. She dies—so do we! Don’t be selfish for once in your forsaken life, Vale!”

“She’s waking up,” Kane states, his tone clipped and cold but recognizable.

I should be relieved to hear him here, but he isn’t the boy I remember.

He is a dragon shifter changeling, and he just wanted me dead.

My body feels sore, so sore, and I’m confused.

What just happened? I remember the dragons around me, I remember cutting my hand and the ground glowing.

Wait…it wasn’t just glowing. It was a bloodstone.

Goddess above, this can’t be real. This can’t be happening to me.

I roll onto my back and lift my hands above me, looking for the mark I saw on my father’s and mother’s palms. The bonding mark.

My palms are stinging before my vision completely focuses, but there isn’t one mark like there was for my parents—there are four runes on my palms. The black runes look like dragons with their tails entwined, circling around a flame.

Two on each hand. Not one. Not two. Not three…

but four. I’ve bonded to four dragons, and I’ve somehow survived it.

A shadow hangs over me, a man with glasses and dark hair.

He is pale, a contrast to his enormous, thickly muscled body, charming looks and black hair.

The locks hover over the tips of his glasses, and behind them, his eyes are the deepest blue.

“I’m Mazikeen Lycidas and you’re my bonded. Take my hand—it’s going to be okay.”

“For fuck’s sake, no, it isn’t. Don’t lie to her!

” I turn to see a man with thick silver hair being held back by a brown-haired man, who’s wearing gloves as he pushes the man back a few steps.

All of them are dragons. The silver-haired man is angry.

His eyes are nearly black as he catches me looking at him. “You’re dead for doing this, witch!”

Mazikeen crouches down, touching my arm, and a buzz shoots through my skin.

“Hey, don’t look at him. Just at me.” He smiles, a playful grin that I don’t return.

“Your Juniper Daygan?” I push his hand off me, hating how it felt strange to have him touch me, before climbing to my feet.

Mazikeen doesn’t seem bothered by me pushing him away.

“Well, I know of you from Kane.” He points at Kane, who is leaning against a tree in the shadows, his face hidden from me.

“The rude one is Valeron Drexan, but we call him Vale. The other dragon holding Vale back is Black Ashveil.”

“You can’t be happy about this, Black,” Vale snarls, pushing him back and storming up to me. He shoves Mazikeen back a few steps, and my heart freezes as he stops right in front of me. “We are bonded to this…weak, clueless witch! We are fucking doomed.”

I flinch as he shouts into my face. “I didn’t mean to?—”

“That’s your excuse? Pathetic.” His lip curls. “I hate witches, especially ones like you. You might have me bonded with a hex, but you mean nothing to me. I won’t fight for you. I won’t ever do shit for you.”

My cheeks burn. “But the war?—”

“Is a witch war.” Vale shakes his head, a laugh bursting out of him at whatever he sees on my face. “And news flash—we love the war. It kills a fuck ton of witches every day, and that’s fewer for us to deal with.”

“That’s enough.” Kane’s voice cuts through the air. Vale surprisingly steps back away from me, joining Black and Mazikeen.

I feel Kane coming closer before I turn to face him.

Even as a kid, he looked like a storm when he was mad.

That storm has only grown into a hurricane, and I can’t help but feel scared as he stops in front of me, his short silver hair glimmering in the moonlight.

I put my hands up. “Whatever I did, it was an accident. You scared me and I was going to die. The dagger was meant to be my last defense, not a bond.”

“We weren’t gonna kill you.” Kane is surprisingly calm—unfeeling almost—with every word. “I wanted to speak to you alone and help you find a fool to bond with in this forest. Now, you’ve cursed us all.”

“What?” I whisper.

“You bonded to the last four living dragon shifters left alive. You die, you take our entire race fucking with you.” He leans down. “You absolute bitch. Wasn’t what you did when we were kids enough? Didn’t you hurt me enough back then?”

What is he talking about?

“Don’t call her that.” Mazikeen moves to my side. “She is our bonded and I can already feel everything changing. We can begin this hating each other or find a way to make sure we all get out alive. We all have people that need us, Kane.”

Kane’s laugh is empty. He puts his hands in his pocket. “Be seeing you, Juni, and I’m going to make your life hell for this.”

His threat smacks into my heart, making it beat so fast it might escape my chest. He walks off with Black following him, who hasn’t said a single word to me. Vale is still here, watching me closely. He walks up to me, cocking his head to the side. “Run, Hex. I’m hunting you now.”

Mazikeen goes to say something, but Vale punches him—hard.

The sickening crack of his nose breaking echoes to my ears, and Vale jumps on him, punching again and again.

I care. Every punch feels like it’s hurting my heart, and my hands itch to do something.

A spell. Anything. Is my magic back now that I’m bonded?

Mazikeen goes limp, and Vale, with a face covered in a spray of blood, looks at me with his devil-like eyes. “Your head start is over.”

I turn and run from my bonded like my ass is on fire. I do not want to end up like Mazikeen. Vale’s laugh echoes through the trees, through the very forest, like he is whispering through it himself. “Undo this or I will make every moment of your life hell. I will haunt you day and night.”

“I can’t undo a bond!” I yell into the trees. “I don’t even understand how it’s done in the first place!”

“There isn’t a spell to undo it, but you’re a smart witch, apparently.

You’re going to make one.” His laugh is outright creepy.

Make a new spell to break a bond? I don’t know where I’d even start.

Yes, I can make new spells, small ones, but they are forbidden here.

I run faster, clueless as to where I’m going, and I know Vale isn’t far behind me.

He isn’t going to let me go that easily.

How is this possible? Four dragons and one witch?

It hasn’t ever been done in anything I’ve read…

In fact, one dragon shifter bond is all I’ve ever read about.

The history books haven’t really explained bonded more than about two ever.

The magic between us all is probably going to kill us.

I’m so lost in thought I don’t see the black swirling portal until I fall right through it and out into cold air, a heavy breeze and thick snow.

I’m high up, too high up, and I turn around to see I’m on top of one of the towers.

Oh fuck. There isn’t a way down, and the portal shimmers as Vale walks out.

He is so casual, like he isn’t hunting me.

“I should thank you for the magic boost. Portals have always been challenging until now.” I keep walking back until my back hits the stone edge of the half wall.

He steps into my space, and he grabs my neck tight.

I gasp, clawing at his hand, and he lifts me right into the air with hardly any effort.

He holds me right over the edge of the tower of the academy.

“You are all betrayers,” he snarls at me. “I hope this fucking hurts and you’re with the healers for a few weeks. I’ll bring you back up here when you feel better.”

I struggle to get the words out, and I kick my legs, my stomach exploding with fear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me go!”

He smirks. No, he fucking wouldn’t. “Bye, Hex.”

Valeron Drexan, my bonded, throws me right off the tower.