Chapter 16
BLAKE
I still couldn’t believe I was doing this. Pendragon would kill me. And honestly, after everything we’d done to her, she’d probably be fully justified.
Rodriguez had treated us all like chess pieces. But that didn’t erase the fact that Kage and I had made a choice to behave like pawns. Rodriguez had fucked up, sure, but he was still the only person who might understand what was happening to me. So yeah, I was doing this.
The hallway leading to his office was empty; classes were finished for the day.
Dinner was probably half over by now. I stood outside the door and rapped my knuckles against it, hoping he’d still be around.
I knew he kept a place in Veilmar, but that was a longer trek.
I also knew he spent half his nights sleeping at his desk.
No answer. I knocked again.
A clattering sound. Then the breaking of glass.
“Rodriguez?” I called. “I know you’re in there. I need to talk to you.”
A muttered curse came through the door. “Shit.”
Rolling my eyes, I twisted the doorknob.
I paused in the doorway: The office was a mess.
If Rodriguez was trying to hide the fact that he basically lived at the school half the time, he was doing a poor job of it.
Books and clothes littered the floor. The desk was piled with parchment and empty bottles.
Kneeling beside it was Rodriguez, picking up the pieces of a shattered bottle.
A red, shimmering liquid pooled on the carpet.
It only took a second for the scent to hit me: Crimson Ambrosia.
A narcoticinfused liquor—an expensive one, frequently consumed for fun by wealthy highbloods.
I knew Theo and Visha enjoyed its effects from time to time.
But when taken by a blightborn, the reactions were more pronounced.
Ambrosia could unspool a blightborn’s mind into nothing.
“Seriously?” I exclaimed. “You’re drinking that shit?”
Rodriguez glanced up. His eyes were bloodshot. Cheekbones sharper than they’d ever been. His shirt was half-unbuttoned and his dark hair looked as if it hadn’t been combed in days.
“Well, well,” he said, slurring his words slightly. “The high-blood prince returns.”
I stepped inside, shutting the door behind me. “Who else has seen you like this? Dammit, Rodriguez. Regan’s running the school, and you’re pulling this shit? Do you want to get fired?”
He laughed. “Only a matter of time, isn’t it? I can always find my true calling.” He yanked at the collar of his shirt, pulling the material aside, and I froze.
“Fuck,” I hissed. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Bite marks. Still healing.
“Did they … ?” I cleared my throat.
“Larissa was kind enough not to enthrall me,” Rodriguez said dryly. “She only took a few sips.”
“I’ll fucking kill her.” I curled my hands into fists. The girl was in my house, therefore she was my responsibility. “When was this?”
Rodriguez waved a hand and sat back on his haunches looking tired. He’d given up trying to pick up the broken pieces of the bottle. “Don’t bother. It’s all part of the new Blood Donation Incentive Program after all. Or, as I like to call it, B-DIP.”
I blinked. “Bee—what now?”
“Bee-dip,” he said, stressing the first letter. “Doesn’t it have a wonderful ring to it?”
“Not exactly.” Was Rodriguez losing his blooddamned mind?
“I agree with you. Regan didn’t think through the acronym when she came up with the program name. Now, if she’d put it to a vote, I might have suggested something like DIB-P.”
I stared blankly.
“Donation Incentive Blood Program,” he elaborated.
“Ah. Much better.” I came over and started picking up the pieces of the bottle of ambrosia, tossing them in the nearby waste-basket.
“So what the hell is really going on? You’re just going to lie back and let Regan and Larissa and every other highblood walk all over you?
That doesn’t sound much like the Rodriguez I know. ”
“The Rodriguez you know is a monumental fuckup.” He picked up a piece of broken glass and stared down at it.
“I made a plan. It went to shit. I failed. I thought I could steer this place away from the fire. Instead I poured out the oil and lit the flame myself.” The shard was cutting through his finger, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“I gambled. Thought I could outmaneuver Viktor. Thought I could keep people safe. But that’s life, isn’t it?
You can’t keep your hands clean and try to play the hero. ”
“Look, it wasn’t just you. We all made mistakes.” I gently took the piece of glass out of his hands and tossed it away, then pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket and passed it to him. “To soak up the blood.”
He stared at the blood welling up on his hand as if he were just noticing it but pressed the cloth against the cut. “You’re still standing.”
I clenched my jaw. “Barely.”
He raised a brow. “Is that so?”
“Why do you think I’m here?” I said quietly. “You’re not the only one whose life is going to shit.”
Rodriguez didn’t answer right away. Instead, he hauled himself up, leaning against the desk for support, then slumped into the chair behind the desk, looking a little green. I took a seat across from him warily, half expecting him to pass out.
He looked at me, his eyes—bloodshot as they were—focusing and assessing. “I’m going to go out on a limb here and take a wild guess. You’re changing.” He leaned forward. “Tell me, Blake. Do your eyes go red when it happens?”
My back stiffened. Even though I’d planned to tell him, I hadn’t actually expected him to figure it out on his own. At least, not this quickly. “What makes you say that?”
He didn’t answer right away. Just studied me for a long moment. Giving me a look that said he knew. Knew. More than about just me.
“Well, shit,” I said finally.
“You know, back in the good old days—” he was clearly being sarcastic “—there were two kinds of dragons. The ones who were born,” he paused and I found myself holding my breath, “and the ones who were made.”
My throat went dry, even though I already knew where he was heading. “Made?”
“Blood,” he said simply. “The wrong kind. Or the right kind.” He shrugged. “Depends on your perspective, I suppose. Throw in a little light blood magic, and there you have it.”
I thought of Pendragon’s blood. The way it burned through me, filling me with a sense of power, making me feel invincible.
Dragonlike.
“For some, rider blood isn’t just powerful. It’s catalytic. Especially when you were already bound. Something inside you wanted to change.”
“I didn’t want this,” I said swiftly.
“But there are some perks,” Rodriguez said meaningfully.“Aren’t there?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Power?”
He nodded. “If you can get it under control, learn to work with Nyxaris …” For a moment, he looked almost optimistic.
For a moment, I let myself believe it was possible. Then I blanched. “Bloodmaiden … Am I going to have dragon babies?”
Rodriguez blinked at me, then laughed. No, full-on howled, his entire body shaking. “Oh, Blake,” he wheezed. “Not unless you’re planning on fucking another dragon.”
I scowled. The pickings were rather slim in that regard. “No, thanks.”
Rodriguez wiped his eyes, still chuckling. “I don’t think you need to worry about it, then.” He shook his head. “Fuck, I needed that.” He was still smiling.
“Glad I could be of service in stopping your existential spiral,” I muttered. Then I thought of something. “Wait. You said there were two kinds of dragons …”
Rodriguez’s smile turned grim.“That’s it. Put the pieces together.”
Part of me didn’t want to.
Rodriguez leaned forward, clasping his hands. “Blake, the answer is literally staring you right in the face.”
“Nyxaris, Molindra, the others …”
“Molindra hatched from an egg. We have her birth records.” He sighed, taking in my expression. “You don’t want to go there yet? Then, we won’t. So tell me, how’d you lose your eye?”
I didn’t answer. My mind was still tossing over the last revelation. I didn’t want to put the horror I was feeling into words. Didn’t want Rodriguez to confirm what I’d just guessed to be true. Because if it were true, then what were the implications for me?
“Viktor,” Rodriguez guessed. “I take it he didn’t offer any help on how to deal with your new … condition.” He shot me a look of admiration. “Of course, you didn’t exactly leave him unscathed. He looks like shit. Good for you.” He tilted his head. “Almost makes me pity Regan.”
“Don’t,” I snapped. “She got what she wanted. All she cares about is power and rising to the top. As for Viktor, he thinks I’m fucked.
He couldn’t take me down, and I couldn’t kill him, so we’re at a standstill.
For now. And the way things are going …” I shook my head.
I wanted to destroy Viktor. But first I had to get control before I took another stab at it.
“It’s not looking good. Either I’m going to lose control and wind up accidentally offing myself, go feral, or … ”
“Or?”
My face hardened. “Or maybe it’ll all work out. I’ll become something powerful. But if Viktor manages to control me first …”
Thrallweave wouldn’t work if I was in dragon form. I suddenly wondered if the bond that Pendragon and I had offered me any similar protection. But based on how easily Viktor had managed to manipulate me the last time, it didn’t seem like it.
“A fleet of dragons with you at the helm,” Rodriguez mused.
Belatedly, I remembered something important. “Of course, you could always put me down yourself,” I said coldly. “After all, you said your order turned Nyxaris and the others to stone.”
Rodriguez smiled. “I wondered when we’d circle back to that.”
“I suppose I’d better watch my back,” I said bitterly. “I was an idiot to think—”
“To think what—that I might help?” He leaned back. “Blake, I’ll tell you a little secret that it seems even Nyxaris has forgotten. When those four dragons were turned to stone, it was done willingly.”
I stared at him. “What?”