Chapter 37 Jesper
jesper
. . .
“You know I can’t say no when you ask me to do something,” I answered easily, stretching my arms over my head with a yawn. I’d been out late on a mission in the Bizarre. The fae have been…taking liberties with the seasons there for some reason.
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I was in charge of monitoring any changes or fae activity. I had to go back tonight, but Sabine had said Thorn would take this mission over after that since he was fae. I’d had very little sleep last night.
Still, I couldn’t pass up the chance to help Gavin out when he asked.
Gavin Bloodwyne was more than just my mentor. He’d become a father figure to me in ways I hadn’t expected. He’d taught me everything I knew about protecting others. I was seventeen when I went into a blind rage and killed the man who was my sperm donor, but I hadn’t understood calculated combat.
I’d gotten lucky that I won, and I thanked the Fates every day for my strength that allowed me to protect my mom that day.
Gavin had to teach me from the ground up how not to let my anger take over to the point of blacking out when I fought. It left me vulnerable. He’d worked through the trauma of killing my biological father with me. I owed him a lot, and I knew that.
“I’m proud of you for how much you’ve grown, Jesper,” he said softly, striding over and fiddling with the holographic control panel.
My chest swelled as I smiled at the back of his head. “Thanks to your guidance. Most students won’t expect a full-scale draconic tantrum in the middle of a simulated cityscape, you know. You sure the rest of the classes are ready for that? The first class had six students fail.”
When I had this class years ago, the final included a werewolf rampage on the full moon in the city—but not a dragon. It was an interesting lesson to test this early, but it was a much-needed lesson for aspiring agents, regardless.
“Exactly.” Gavin’s grin grew. “You’re not just there to fight them.
You’re there to test how well they can take down a dragon, protect civilians, and keep the peace during the attack.
Those six in squad three clearly weren’t prepared.
Besides, we usually have half of the class fail on these simulated missions.
You’ll be surprised by this class, and it’s not just because my daughter is in it, either. ”
“Rune’s in this class?” I blurted, and he turned to look at me with surprise at my eagerness in asking that question.
The door swung open, and the second class of the day came in.
A powerful scent of midnight orchid filled my nose, and I instinctively looked over to see Rune and her squad walking in.
My heart tightened as I realized I was utterly into my mentor’s daughter.
I’d never been into anyone before…but with Rune, it was inevitable that I would have feelings for her. It just felt right.
“Whoa!” Gavin’s voice kicked up a notch. “What happened to Eleanor?”
It took effort to divert my gaze from Rune to the deer shifter barely standing on her two feet. Eleanor wasn’t standing so much as leaning against the bear shifter next to her, propped under his arm and swaying on her feet.
It had to be the poison.
Intel said humans had developed something new in their labs, and the supernaturals who’d gone missing lately had shown the same kind of sickness right before they vanished. The few who didn’t get sick before going missing were found later in terrible shape—much like Eleanor looked now.
“I’m okay,” Eleanor squeaked, sniffling. “I have to pass my final.”
“Come on, Pops,” Rune said, golden eyes cutting to Gavin with a glint that was equal parts charm and daughter-related pressure. “You can’t send her to the infirmary and bar her from the exam. That’s a one-way ticket to getting kicked out of the academy. Don’t do that to her.”
Gavin’s gaze slid to Eleanor, then to Lorian, then back to Rune. He sighed. “Very well.”
He turned his back on the control panel, the simulator’s acoustics echoing his voice around us. “Strike and Subdue Final: Urban Extraction Simulation. The scenario,” he continued, “is a high-value supernatural gone rogue. In this case, the target is a dragon.”
Everyone’s gaze, including Rune’s, landed on me.
Gavin’s gaze flicked over to me for half a second then back to the group.
I should’ve torn my gaze away from Rune, but I couldn’t. Her nostrils flared as she held my gaze.
My heart hammered against my ribs harder as we maintained eye contact.
Fates, help me.
“Agent Wyvernheart,” Gavin announced, “will play the antagonist in your mission. He’ll be shifted in a densely populated neutral city within Fate Hollow.
” His hands clasped behind his back. “Your squad must locate, subdue, and extract the target, Agent Wyvernheart, without triggering civilian panic or causing mass supernatural collateral.”
Rune lifted a perfect green brow at me.
I swallowed hard.
He let that sink in for a moment before continuing, “Complications you should expect will include civilian interference and the usual teamwork frictions. Scoring criteria will be subdual efficiency, civilian safety, and team coordination.”
I cleared my throat and forced myself to look at Gavin rather than his daughter. My hands laced behind my back, and my suit-clad feet aligned on the simulation floor’s faint pulsing runes.
“Questions?” Gavin asked.
The squad shook their heads.
His eyes went back to Eleanor with concern. “Eleanor, you will be removed if your condition worsens.”
“Yes, sir,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry, Pops,” Rune assured her dad with a thumbs up. “I gave her some purgegut venom so she won’t get any worse.”
My eyebrow raised.
What the Fates was purgegut venom?
“Rune.” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Never mind. Good luck, Squad One.”
The lights of the simulator bled away as Fate Hollow’s largest city rose around us. Simulated civilians flowed through the streets as they went about their day. They would be the collateral.
The final had begun.
Magic curled down my spine just before the familiar change spread through my body.
I didn’t fight it. I let the shift roll through me.
Green scales skittered over me. The city shrank as my bones lengthened and locked.
My wings unfurled with a wet crackle. My joints popped, spine arched, and then my dragon form was fully out.
I beat my wings and took flight, my talons scraping the cobblestone roads as I pushed off the ground and landed hard on the roof of one of the tallest buildings in the city. Tiles broke under my weight.
Screams shrieked instantly as Squad One scrambled. I launched again, flying two streets over, then punched back down on a shorter building’s rooftop in a flicker of speed.
I should have been watching the entire squad, and I was, but the moment I found Rune, I forgot to focus.
She was a precise line of motion as she climbed, not to my roof but to the arched bridge that spanned the canal below.
Her hands clutched the stone, and she performed a fluid vault, landing in a crouch that looked more agent than student.
Pride uncoiled in my chest the longer I watched her.
Slater was the first to strike against me. He was the chaos demon with red hair who was constantly smelling of Rune and Rune of him.
Oddly enough, that didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.
He flung a chaos manifestation up the wall toward me. It was a large black serpent made of crackling chaos magic. If I focused on it, the outline of it fuzzed.
I let it crest the edge, then snapped my tail across the rooftop, hitting it.
Slater’s conjuration hit the populated street with a sound like thunder.
Civilians wailed as panic ensued.
Somewhere below my rooftop, Slater swore.
One down.
Eleanor ghosted from rooftop to rooftop in a flitting scatter of bodies. A sparrow to a bat to an alley-cat to something I couldn’t name. They were animals that didn’t match a deer shifter at all. Sick as she’d been, she still moved, but she didn’t attack.
Still, it was impressive.
Hawk attempted crowd control at street level, where Slater’s chaos manifestation had flattened a few by-passers. He tossed out low, gut-deep growls intended to herd the civilians, but it backfired; the press of bodies surged in the wrong direction.
He adjusted, pushing supernaturals back away from where I was, but it didn’t work. They scattered in panic in all directions.
Dimitri used his vampire speed and loud, booming voice to draw their attention and try to corral the civilians away from me.
He did it in a much better style than Hawk did.
Above me, Koa hovered in phoenix form, his fiery wings burning against the sky, heat obstructing the edges of the air.
He made a show of challenging dives, buying time.
He was my biggest threat—except for Rune.
“Koa!” Aura screamed. “We have hurt civilians!”
Koa hesitated a beat before diving away with a predatory screech toward the injured civilians.
Easy enough.
Zuko slid along the roof in his basilisk form. For a heartbeat, his coloring made me pause: sunset scales, yellow through orange into ember red. It was unique and dangerous. I’d never seen coloring on a basilisk like that.
His fangs flashed as he struck, taking advantage of my momentary lapse.
My wings flared, and I kicked off the roof, dropping like a boulder as I slammed onto the bridge in front of Rune.
Pavement cracked under my talons, webbing out in a bloom.
“Woah, you’re big,” she muttered under her breath, placing her hands on her hips as she stared up at me.
My chest tightened.
Zuko slithered down behind me and struck. His fangs were bared as he aimed for the soft line under my jaw. I flicked a talon and swatted him sideways into a building.
He went through the structure, but his venom still seeped into me from the contact of hitting him away.
Hot pain threaded my muscles, stiffening a wing joint.
Manageable enough.
I gritted my teeth through the agonizing lances.