21. Aurora
AURORA
I was sure I was going to die—there was no other ending for this scenario. I never should have ignored Chud Larson—shouldn’t have believed he was no longer a threat. I had been stupid and now I would pay with my life. Now—
“Oof!” a deep male voice said in my ear as a pair of strong arms caught me.
For a moment I just lay there, trying to believe what was happening. Was I still falling? Or had I really been caught?
Panic took over and I turned to the person who had me in his arms and wrapped myself around him.
With my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck, I squeezed myself against him, afraid to let go—afraid this was just a dream that had overtaken my mind in the split second before I hit the stony ground.
“Easy, little one. Easy,” a low voice rumbled in my ear. “I’ve got you.”
“He…I…he made the ropes snap—he shook me off!” I babbled, still gripping my unknown savior as tightly as I could.
“He, who?” my savior asked. “Who was running the simulator?”
“He cut the net!” I gasped and I was crying now—though I didn’t want to.
I had sternly suppressed my tears during the month I’d been at the Academy.
Even when I dreamed of my brother and woke with tears in my eyes, I wiped them away quickly.
There was nothing more unmanly than crying—I didn’t want to be accused of any “girly” habits that might make people question what they saw when they looked at me.
But now the tears flowed, and I couldn’t stop them. I had come so close to death I could still feel the cold blade of the Grim Reaper’s scythe pressing against my throat! My terror couldn’t be contained, no matter how hard I tried.
“It’s all right—you don’t have to cry. You’re safe now,” the person holding me said. Because he was holding me—his arms were wrapped around my waist and he was helping me cling to him.
At last my pounding heart started to slow, and I realized what I was doing—grabbing onto a complete stranger. Oh God and Goddess—what if it was one of the Professors? I would never live down the shame if I was clinging to Professor Leesbruck, the Flight Simulator instructor!
Pulling back, I looked into the face of my savior and saw Ryse Skoren staring back at me.
For a moment, I was frozen in place. For weeks I’d been keeping as much distance as possible between me and the enigmatic North Wing Leader. But now, here I was, with my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms around his neck, staring directly into his strange eyes.
And now I saw what was strange about them—they weren’t human.
They were pure, molten gold with a long vertical slit where the pupil ought to be.
“Dragon’s eyes,” I breathed, before I could stop myself.
And that wasn’t his only strange feature.
The gold and purple jewels I’d seen from a distance, glittering around his temples and his high cheekbones weren’t jewels at all—they were tiny, fingernail-sized scales.
They framed his inhuman eyes, glittering purple when he turned his head one way and gold when he turned it another.
The look on his face—which had been open and concerned—abruptly hardened and he put me down and pushed me away from him.
“Yes, I have drake eyes—they run in my bloodline. Are insults my reward for saving your ass again?” he demanded.
“I…I’m sorry,” I stammered, unsure how to undo the offense I had inadvertently given. I swiped at my eyes, which still stung with tears. “Forgive me—I have to go,” I said, just wanting to get away from him.
I turned to hurry away but Ryse Skoren wasn’t ready to let me leave.
“Not so fast, Lysandra,” he growled as one big hand settled on my shoulder and turned me back around.
“What is it? What do you want?” I demanded as he stared down at me.
“I want to get a good look at you. Here—lift your chin.”
One long finger hooked under my chin and tilted my face up, so I had no choice. He was at least six-foot-six, if not taller, so I had a long way to look to meet his strange, inhuman eyes. Still, I tried to hold his gaze without flinching.
“I’ve been wanting to get a good look at you. There’s something about you,” he said, frowning as he studied my face. “Something different from the other cadets.”
“I might say the same about you,” I snapped, my fear turning to defensiveness.
He frowned…then one corner of his mouth quirked up into a reluctant half-smile.
“True. Well then, do you want to tell me what you were doing on the Flight Simulator without any supervision? That’s dangerous when you’re so little.”
“I’m of age,” I said hotly. “And it’s because of my size that I was practicing. My feet won’t reach the stirrups on Woody’s saddle.”
His frown deepened.
“Can’t they adjust those?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” I shrugged and tried to sidle away again. “I really need to go…”
“You’re not going anywhere until you tell me who you had controlling the simulator and who cut the net,” he said sternly.
I nibbled my lower lip in consternation. I didn’t want another reason for Chud Larson to hate me. Then again, he’d already tried to kill me, so I doubted reporting on him for the incident with the Flight Simulator would make things worse.
“I think it was Chud Larson,” I said at last, in a low voice.
“Chud?” Ryse raised an eyebrow at me. “Is this about the argument you two had when you kicked his chair during the Head Master’s first assembly?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Not exactly…” I was reluctant to tell the whole truth. What if Ryse Skoren thought I was a coward too, just like Professor Griven had? I didn’t know why, but I didn’t want him to think that of me.
But the North Wing Leader wasn’t about to let me go until he knew the details of my feud with Larson.
“Tell me, Lysandra,” he said. “I want it all—come on, out with it.”
With his golden eyes boring into mine, I felt helpless to refuse. I don’t know what it was about that inhuman gaze that loosened my tongue, but I found myself admitting everything.
“He was cheating off me during the entrance exam,” I said.
“I noticed it around the middle of the test and started hiding my paper so he couldn’t see.
He failed the test and got into trouble for cheating with Professor Griven.
He was put back in the First-year classes again and I think he blames me for it. ”
“Larson’s repeating the First-year classes because he has about as much brain power as a box of rocks,” Ryse said, frowning. “And he has no self-control—he never should have been given the chance to Impress a dragon in the first place.”
“Well, he hates me and blames me for failing,” I said. “And I’m pretty sure he’s the one who cut the net and made the simulator go crazy to buck me off.”
Ryse turned his piercing gaze away from me to study the dangling net and the sagging simulator.
“We’re going to have to report this,” he said at last.
I wanted to protest, but I could see he was right.
Someone would have to take the blame for the damage to equipment, which would probably cost a lot to repair.
But the thought of being called before Professor Griven again with Chud Larson glaring at me made me feel like my stomach was turning inside out.
“What if they kick me out of the Academy?” I asked in a small voice. “I shouldn’t have been riding the simulator without permission or supervision. What if they decide it’s all my fault and they send me home? I have nobody there—there’s no one left.”
Ryse’s expression softened somewhat.
“You don’t have anyone to go home to?” he asked softly.
I shook my head.
“My father is dead—I’m sure you know that…that he killed himself—everyone here does. And my bro…I mean, my sister’s gone too. She got married off to the Duke of Brekenshire.”
That really had been the name of one of my suitors, so I hoped it would hold as long as the North Wing Leader didn’t go to the trouble of checking.
“I see.” He nodded. “All right, Lysandra—I’ll come with you to the Head Master and help you explain.
” He pointed a finger at me. “Not because I give a damn about your scrawny ass—because I’ll be drawn in anyway, when he wants to know how you survived a fall from the simulator without cracking your stupid skull open. ”
I nodded humbly, willing to accept his help, even if it came with a side of insults.
“How did you happen to be in the right place to catch me?” I asked, as he led the way from the simulator cavern. Luckily, there was a lower exit, so I didn’t have to bear the indignity of climbing the rope in front of him.
Ryse frowned.
“My dragon, M’alex, called to me. He woke me up and insisted that I needed to go to the simulator cavern and wait under the net.”
“He did?” I looked at him in surprise. “But…how could he know?”
“Some Gold-wings have special abilities,” Ryse said shortly. “M’alex is the first Midnight Gold-wing to be hatched in almost a century. Sometimes he just…knows things.”
“And do you always listen to him?” I asked. I was walking by his side, nearly trotting to keep up with his long strides as we traversed the long stone hallway.
Ryse’s golden eyes darkened.
“Now I do,” he said and then abruptly changed the subject. “The Head Master is an early riser—he’ll already be in his office. Let’s go.”