Chapter 4 #3
My face heated.“They tried to touch me, and they failed. I’m fast, you know. I’m not completely helpless.” I suddenly thought back to that moment in the Dragon Court.To that feeling of being trapped. Trapped because Kage’s hands were pinning me, confining me.
“You have a lot of nerve,” I said, my voice low.
“Trying to play the hero after what you did to me. But maybe that’s how you really see yourself.
Kage Tanaka, champion of the weak, protector of the blightborn.
Is that it? Do you really think you’re any better than they are? That you’re somehow superior?”
His black eyes searched mine, and I looked right back into the eyes of the man who’d betrayed me mere days before.
I’d started to trust Kage. Hell, I’d started to like him a little.
He was my House Leader; I’d purposely asked to be in Avari.
I thought Kage could offer me more choices than I’d find in Drakharrow.What a fool I’d been.
He’d felt entitled to lay hands upon me. To hold me back as I struggled to protect Nyxaris.
I closed my eyes. Remembering that terrible moment. If it weren’t for him, Florence might have …
“No.”
My eyes popped back open. “No?”
“I’m not better than them, all right? I know that. The other night … I was wrong, Medra. I acted badly. I shouldn’t have gone along with Rodriguez’s plan. I should have been upfront with you. I hurt you. I betrayed your trust. I’m sorry.”
I studied him, but it was useless. Kage was an enigma. Inscrutable as always. Hell, maybe he’d even meant what he said. Who could say for certain?
“Fine. I’m impressed that you actually apologized. It’s more than Rodriguez bothered to do. But I’m not about to forgive and forget so easily.”
He nodded. “I understand. Unfortunately, I have a favor I need to ask of you.”
“Let me guess. You want me to keep my mouth shut about you turning into a wolf.”
“Good guess.”
“I’m a clever girl. Not clever enough to stay out of House Avari, though. And not stupid enough to just say yes to your request.”
Kage smiled slightly. “I didn’t expect it to be easy. So, what do you want?”
“How about some answers, to start?” I challenged him.
“Blood moon rises. That’s your house motto, right?
You even gave me a half-moon pendant once.
” The necklace was back in my room, tucked in a little wooden box in my drawer.
I hadn’t worn it since that night we’d attended the Frostfire ball together.
“Clearly the words are significant. So what do they mean?”
There was a trace of a mysterious little half smile on his face. Seeing it pissed me off.
“Can all of you do it? Can all of the Avari highbloods shift?” I demanded, starting to lose patience.
Kage glanced around. “Keep your voice down. But the answer to that is no.”
“Does the moon trigger it? How is it connected?” I pushed.
He frowned. “I’m sorry, Medra. I’m not about to spill my house’s most ancient secrets right here in the hallway.”
“Not even after all you’ve done? You don’t think you owe me a few little secrets to make up for what you’ve done to me?”
“I owe you your life,” Kage replied. “And believe it or not, I mean for you to keep it. I want to protect you. That’s why … that’s part of why Rodriguez found me fairly easy to convince. Blake, too, I think. When it comes to you, we—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I exploded. “Don’t you dare say you only want what’s best for me.”
He shrugged. “Trite, maybe, but true.”
“You’re not my godsdamned family. You’re not my archon. You’re more like my captor. You’re a highblood.” I said the word with such vigor, such hate, that my teeth nearly rattled.
“We’re a despicable lot in many ways, aren’t we?” Kage agreed. “But I stood up for you just now. It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last. You don’t owe me forgiveness. You don’t owe me kindness. But I’m your House Leader, so when I demand your Blood Vow, you will give me that.”
I glared. I wasn’t exactly clear on what a Blood Vow with my house leader meant, but I knew I wouldn’t like it. “Oh, I will, will I?”
“You will,” he said quietly. “Or I’ll be forced to use some other means to get it from you. I don’t want to have to do that.”
“You’re disgusting. Are you seriously threatening me with thrall-weave right now, after you just apologized?” Let him try. I wasn’t the vulnerable little rose I used to be. He wouldn’t find it easy to get past my guards.
“I am sorry for what happened. But I used my powers to try to protect you, to protect all of you that night. Did you ever stop and think of that? I revealed something I was not supposed to reveal. Things could have been much worse, Medra. I put my life on the line to try to stop the damage. Now I’m asking you for your help.
” He held up one hand and pointed to his palm. “It’s quick. Almost painless.”
I gave a mirthless laugh. “Isn’t that what you all say?”
“We mix blood. You’re sworn to silence. If you break the vow in an attempt to harm me—”
“Oh, please,” I interrupted. “Let me guess. I die?”
He smirked in a way that was practically Blake-ish. “Basically.”
I rolled my eyes. “Here’s how this is going to go. You’ve apologized. You did throw yourself into the fray that night, all of which is more than Rodriguez did.”
“But Rodriguez—” he started to say.
I held up my hand. “No. Nope. Don’t even try to defend him, Kage. We’re not going down that road. He was the one behind it all. None of it would have happened if it weren’t for Rodriguez.”
A nagging part of me said that in that case, Marcus and Catherine might have found the Dragon Court empty—which would have made their plan much easier to carry out. But so what? It wasn’t as if we’d actually stopped them just by being there. No, we’d lost more than we’d gained that night.
“I’ll make the vow,” I said.
Was it my imagination, or did the cool, calm, and collected Avari look slightly relieved? I wondered what his grandmother would say if she knew he’d used his powers in front of all of us. “But …”
Kage stepped towards me. He bared his teeth. “But?”
I refused to flinch. But the gesture did remind me of just what kind of a creature I was dealing with.
I made myself smile as if I didn’t care.
“But you’ll make one to me, too, House Leader.
You owe me. Not just my life. The way I see it, I have a favor to call in.
And when I call, you’d best come running. ”
He gave a tight nod. “Fine.”
A knife appeared in Kage’s hand. He slid it across his palm, and I watched the blood well up. Fucking entitled highbloods: Kage would probably heal within minutes. As a half-fae, I’d heal quickly too—but my palm would be stinging all night as I tried to hold a quill.
I stretched my hand out before he could reach for it and let him lower the knife. Then our palms met. I could feel the blood mingling, Avari blood mixed with Pendragon.
“Is this supposed to be magical or something?” I asked, looking skeptically down at our hands.
Kage pulled away. “Of course. It’s a Blood Vow. It has a weight of power behind it.”
I shrugged. “If you say so.”
“It’s binding, I assure you,” he said shortly. “Just because you don’t feel it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
“It?”
He grinned wolfishly. “We’re connected, Medra.”
“You’re protected, you mean,” I snapped.
“Just don’t forget the vow works both ways.
You owe me. No matter what I ask of you, you have to give it.
” Before Kage could reply, I slipped down the hall—using some of that rider speed I so rarely displayed openly.
I let out a breath. Had I been bluffing?
Honestly, even I wasn’t sure I knew the answer to that.
But having Kage owe me a favor couldn’t be a bad thing, could it?
Unless it makes him want to eliminate you altogether, you stupid girl. I could almost hear my mother’s voice in my head.
I sighed. Regan. Rodriguez. Kage. The Bloodguard assholes in the hallway. This had already been an exhausting day. And it wasn’t over yet.
By the time I got to my destination, classes were over. The last person I expected to see waiting outside Jia Shen’s suite of rooms was Rodriguez.
“Not you again,” I growled, narrowing my eyes.
Rodriguez had cleaned himself up a bit since earlier in the day. He’d shaved and no longer smelled like a cheap bottle of liquor. He was even wearing a clean shirt. For a moment we just stood glaring at each other.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I finally said.
“In case you’ve forgotten, Miss Pendragon,” he replied coldly, “I’m a faculty member at this school. I can come and go where I please. And if I choose to visit one of my students because she’s missed a class, just how is that any of your business?”
“Haven’t you done enough?” I said bitterly.
“I saved your friend’s life. Some might say that was a reason for gratitude.”
“Tell me, has she thanked you yet?”
“Librarian Shen has been extremely grateful, in fact, yes.”
“Not her, you idiot. Florence. Has Florence thanked you?”
He pressed his lips together and didn’t answer.
“I didn’t think so.” But I didn’t feel victorious.
Rodriguez moved to step past me, then paused at my shoulder. “I suppose I might ask you the same thing, Miss Pendragon,” he said softly.
I glared at the shape of his back as he moved away. Fucking Rodriguez. Taking a deep breath, I turned to the door. For a moment, I stared at it. But I wasn’t going to get any answers that way. I knocked.
Jia Shen answered the door with a book in her hand, of course. “Oh, Medra! How lovely to see you.” The librarian pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose and gave me a warm smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I hope you had a good first day back.”
I forced a smile. “It was … interesting.” Jia had to know that Regan was our new headmistress. I wondered what the librarians all thought about that. “I was wondering if Florence was here.”
Jia’s face fell. She bit her lip. Once again I was struck by how much she looked like a slightly older version of Florence.
They might have been mistaken for sisters, not mother and daughter.
Jia was just a tad shorter than Florence, a little thinner.
But they both had the same long black hair, the same intelligent dark eyes, wore the same dark-rimmed glasses, favored the same bookish yet softly feminine clothes—like the dovegray dress Jia now had on, with small pearl buttons down the front.
I glanced at Jia’s sleeves. Sure enough, one was smudged with ink.
She’d obviously spent her day in the library, working hard.
Harder than her highblood colleagues probably did.
Jia played with a strand of hair that had come out of the knot she’d pulled her long hair into. “I’m afraid not, Medra. I haven’t seen her all day.”
“She wasn’t in any of her classes,” I said quietly.
“Oh?” But Jia wasn’t all that great at lying. Her face told me she already knew.
“Well,” I said, already starting to turn away, my heart sick with disappointment. “If you do see her, tell her I miss her. Our room … it’s not the same without her there.”
There was a scuffling, snuffling noise at my feet, and I looked down to see Neville trotting past. He went straight between Jia’s feet and into the apartment behind her.
“Well,” I said hollowly, “good night, Jia.”
“Good night, Medra dear,” Jia murmured.
I’d taken a few steps down the hall when I heard the door of Jia’s suite close behind me. “Medra,” a voice hissed. “Wait.”
I turned around. Jia stood there, one hand on the handle, her face anxious.
My lips twisted in a smile. “At least she’s letting Neville in to see her. I suppose I should be glad of that.”
“Neville puts her at ease when even I can’t,” Jia agreed, not bothering to deny that Florence was inside the apartment behind her. She studied me, compassion in her eyes. “Medra, you brought her back to me. You saved her life. I’ll never forget that—never. She might have been lost forever.”
A lump formed in my throat. I knew there was no point in reminding Jia that I’d actually lured Florence into danger.
Danger she’d never have been in if she and I hadn’t become friends.
But Jia had made up her mind about me, and there was no changing it.
Part of me didn’t even want to. I was grateful to have her in my life.
Grateful for her calm, kind heart, for her loyalty—even if I didn’t deserve it.
“She’s not lost,” I said carefully. “But I feel like I’ve lost her.”
Jia nodded understanding. “I know. Give her time. She’s going through something … Something even I don’t understand.”
I wondered just how much Florence had told her mother about how we’d saved her life, what we’d done that night. I’d only given Jia the briefest of explanations. No wonder she felt gratitude towards Professor Rodriguez, too. She didn’t know the full story.
Jia took a small step closer, her voice still low. “She’s afraid of what’s happening to her, Medra. She wants to … deny it. Have everything just stay the same.”
“I’m not sure that’ll work.” I thought of Nyxaris, of trying to deny him—and he and I hadn’t even been bonded to one another. I had no idea what the depth of his connection to Florence was like, but surely it was even stronger.
Jia shook her head. “I don’t think so either. But she needs time to process all of this.”
“I understand. Well, good night.”
Jia stepped towards me, slipping her slender arms around me and pulling me into a gentle embrace. “I’ll tell her you were here. I’ll tell her I couldn’t fool you. You’re still her dearest friend.”
I tried to smile. “Thank you. I appreciate that.” But as I walked away, I knew the truth.
I wasn’t Florence’s dearest friend. Not anymore.
She blamed me for what happened to her—how could she not?
I’d nearly stolen her life. And then, to give it back to her I’d had to sell her, body and soul, to a creature I knew she was fascinated by, yes, but also utterly terrified of.
A dragon.