Chapter 38 Slater #2
Anxiety clawed into my gut at the lack of sight of Rune.
All the way back was a group of enforcers, or guards, or whatever they were called, blocking off another entrance.
I strolled up to all of them with a grin. “I have to report an omen!”
The guards at the velvet-blocked archway looked like they were born frowning. Four dragons wore golden half-plates with the Dragon God seal on them.
“An omen?” One raised an eyebrow mockingly. “What kind of omen would the Dragon God bestow on a lowly demon?”
Chaos slicked my palms as my magic combed the air and slunk into a slender coil of darkness. Snakey floated between us with his belly softly aglow as if lit from the inside.
“Behold!” I said dramatically, hoping they didn’t know the difference between a female and male snake. “The Dragon Goat—shit, God, has spoken! Prosperity. Fertility. Favor upon this very doorway.”
The nearest guard leaned in despite himself, eyes glittering. “Fertility?”
“It seems so, doesn’t it?” I answered with a question to seem more seer-like. “I must pass now.”
Three guards stepped out of the way, but the fourth lingered.
“I don’t trust anyone to be a prophet except for Roak,” he stated. “And favor upon this doorway? No way. That’s stupid.”
I jerked my head toward the guy, and Snakey bit him. “Oh, no! The Goat God—shit, Dragon God—is angry with you!”
The dragon looked up as he turned gray from the pain plundering his muscles. “You…”
“Ooo. That looks infected.” I winced sympathetically, already palming the tassel. “There’s definitely anti-venom in…uh, the healer’s room or whatever you call it.”
“Dude, don’t insult the Dragon God like that,” one murmured.
“Yeah, man,” another agreed. “Don’t you know Roak’s interested in a basilisk right now? He’s trying to create a venom-drake.”
My heart dropped, and I swept the velvet aside and slid through as it shut behind me.
“This omen must be a blessing!” the other dragon cried out.
Dumbasses.
A corridor of dark wood stretched ahead, lit by candlelight. Very different from the grandeur of the other room.
My pulse pounded like a drum as Snakey wrapped around my neck.
I crushed it, but now I needed to find—
“The basilisk,” a drake’s voice drawled from ahead. “She’ll make a fine drake with Roak’s seed, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps,” another said. “If the creation of a new drake could happen, I am sure it will be from this joining. Maybe Roak will let us have a turn if he doesn’t succeed.”
My vision shifted red as my demon form burst out of me.
I didn’t think; I moved. I ran down the corridor and into a damned cult chamber with drakes all over the place.
Rune stood in the middle of them, dressed in a long gold silk evening gown that hugged her curves. She wore a fucking collar that made my hands itch to tear off her.
One drake reached to touch her cheek with two fingers like she was a fucking sample for him.
Snakey struck forward and sank his fangs into his wrist before my brain caught up with my body.
The drake grunted in pain as he took a knee.
“Ooh.” I faked a wince. I wanted to rip his fucking heart out. “That looks bad. There’s anti-venom in the healer room. You should check that. I was sent to grab her for the big guy.”
Chaos magic exploded from me, sending the entire room into a tizzy. I was already at Rune’s side, palm at her back.
“Walk,” I told her, lowering my voice.
“Slater—” she hissed, looking at me with accusatory golden eyes.
“Walk,” I snarled.
She stumbled, following my lead until I brought her into a side corridor and then a powder room with way too many fucking mirrors.
I shut and locked the door behind us before I finally allowed myself to breathe again.
She was safe now.
She looked at me as if I were crazy. “You almost blew your cover back there! And mine!”
“Those fucking drakes looked at you like you were theirs.” My magic was sparking around me as I caged her against the wall and slammed my hand against it. “You’re not!”
She went still. The air between us was filled with static. Carefully, she placed her hand on my chest, right over my heart. “I’m not,” she agreed. “They aren’t even real, Slater. They’re simulated drakes.”
“Next time,” I growled, swishing my tail back and forth behind me, “I kill them all.”
“You’ll fail the sim if you do that,” she chuckled breathlessly.
“Worth it for you.”
She huffed but leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to my lips before pulling back. “I’ll be okay, but I have to complete my mission.”
“It’s like my soul is trying to tear out of my skin to get to you when I sense that you’re in danger.” I let out a ragged breath, cupping the back of her neck and tugging her against me. I inhaled her midnight orchid scent as if it were a drug. “Please don’t fault me for that.”
“I could never fault you for that,” she whispered softly as she pulled away and placed a hand on the doorknob. “I’ll see you in a few, okay?”
“Be safe,” I choked out, feeling cold now that she was out of my arms.
“It’s our final,” she reminded me. “I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll crush it,” I croaked, watching as she slipped out of the door and walked straight back into the drake den.
My magic buzzed volatile in my veins at the thought.
And then, the door pushed back open.
“Stop it!” Rune’s voice hit my ears just before the same drake Snakey had bitten stormed through and shoved a dagger between my ribs.
“Fuck you for taking her for yourself! How dare you soil what is meant for Roak!” he rambled nonsense.
“I’m stabbed.” I coughed, feeling my lungs sputter as I sucked in air.
I was really stabbed!
“Shit.” Rune came up behind him and placed a hand over the guy’s neck, no doubt using her venom on him.
She shoved him to the side, dead.
“You killed for me.” I coughed harder, yanking the dagger out.
It clattered to the floor as I fell to my knees.
Snakey wrapped around me, pressing on the wound like a very sweet tourniquet.
“Hold still.” She kneeled in front of me, cupping my face as she kissed me. The stab wound was already healing from my demonic magic, but I loved that she cared enough to distract me.
My eyes fluttered as she pulled back.
I grinned up at her, my voice going low because the room seemed to go smaller when she leaned in. “If I’d known getting stabbed would get your hands on me, I’d have done it sooner.”
“You’re not getting out of this with flirting.” She licked her bottom lip. “Besides, my hands are on you a lot.
“I know,” I admitted with a big grin. “I love it.”
“Good.” She leaned in and kissed me again before standing. “Let me do my mission, okay?”
I hesitated.
“Slater,” she growled sternly.
I let out a heavy breath but nodded. “I promise to try.”
She rolled her eyes and walked away again, the door shutting behind her.
I turned the lock this time.
During my moment with Rune, everyone else’s missions had exploded some way or the other. Everyone managed to move forward. Koa had taken his mission to another level when he ended up dying and burning everything in the castle until all the drakes and dragons who were here had fled.
It showed how loyal they were to their ‘leader’.
I found a terminal in the chamber outside the wing Eleanor said Rune had disappeared into with Roak.
Snakey slipped into the screen with ease and guided me to where we needed to go; the feed came up clean.
Roak’s room was luxurious, exactly like I’d imagine a psychopath tyrant’s room to be: candles, claws, and an enormous bed with gold silk. He lay in the center, semi-shifted, green scales rippling over his chest, and pupils slit.
And my girl stood at the foot of the bed, looking like she had him exactly where she wanted him. There was a burning hatred in her eyes I’d never seen before.
Yet, the bastard looked at Rune like she was his altar.
He had no fucking clue death awaited him.
I briefly wondered if the real Roak had been that dumb.
She had changed from the gown and now wore a short golden robe that displayed that fucking collar around her neck, and her green hair was coiled in a ceremonial twist.
She laughed at something he said. I couldn’t tell what because rage funneled through my chest as she strode around and touched his wineglass on the end table.
Dimitri let out a low, undeniable snarl at my shoulder. I’d never seen the vampire so stiff before. He didn’t breathe or blink. “She’s the last one of us who needs to complete their given mission. She’s inside his perimeter.”
“I want to be the one to kill him,” I said. It came out conversationally; my tail swished behind me.
“Not yet,” Dimitri said, but I knew he wanted to, too.
My magic crackled around my fingers, and the monitor flickered as Snakey came out and wrapped around my neck, hissing at the screen.
Koa’s hair started smoking at the ends as he took in the screen. Heat flared off him in a pulse. The metal casing of the terminal warmed under my palm.
“I hate this,” Koa said hoarsely. “I hate this.”
“Get in line,” Zuko replied, scales rippling over his arms as he glared at the screen.
On screen, Roak spoke with a horrible, superior tone. “Your bloodline will be the future of venom-drakes. You’re the only one worthy of birthing a God’s heir.”
I gagged. “Fuck that guy. Kill him, venom baby.”
“Say that again,” Zuko muttered, leaning closer to the screen on the other side of me.
“I knew the fucker was delusional,” Dimitri bit out.
Rune smiled as if she agreed with him. “I’m honored,” she said, but her voice was a pretty lie anyone should have heard.
“She’s doing great,” Aura noted.
“Especially for dealing with that creep,” Eleanor agreed.
“Undress,” Roak commanded her.
Dimitri, Koa, Zuko, and I let out instinctual growls.
I planted my hands on either side of the keyboard because if I didn’t, I’d put them through the screen, and we had to be her back-up.
The feed shook anyway. My magic wanted out. It always did, but this was different; this was personal.
She was mine.
The thought of his talons touching her made something in me try to rip out of my chest.
On-screen, Rune’s lips curved as if she were the one in control. She let the robe slide off one shoulder and lifted her chin as if offering her throat to a fucking predator, which he was.
Every line of her body said surrender; but I knew it was her trap.
I forced my hands open.
Koa’s flames surged as Lorian stumbled back from him. He was shaking; it made the heat ragged. “She can handle it,” he said, like he was reminding himself more than us, but I appreciated it.
“She can,” I agreed. “I hate it. But she can.”
Zuko nodded, jaw tight. “This is her mission.”
Dimitri’s jaw ticked. “If he goes too far—”
He didn’t finish. He didn’t have to. I had a list of creative endings for Roak that started at dramatic and went to illegal in several territories. Okay, fine. They were Zuko’s ideas, but I helped him come up with some.
Roak reached for her. “Come.”
Rune listened, walking closer until his hand wrapped around her wrist.
My fingers dug into the console. The casing squeaked.
The collar at her throat glowed faintly where it chafed her skin. I was going to take that thing apart with my teeth before kissing every inch of her it touched.
He leaned forward and breathed, “Your magic knows mine. This is going to be a blessing from the Dragon God.”
The monitor flickered again before my magic pulsed. A hairline crack chased across the corner.
I took a deep breath. “Over my dead body.”
“And his,” Zuko growled.
“He’s not real, remember?” Hawk reminded us dumbly.
“Hold,” Dimitri murmured. “She’s more lethal than anyone I know.”
“True,” Zuko said softly. “But if she needs us—”
“We’ll be there,” Koa finished.
But she didn’t need us.
Not for this.
She leaned in, and Roak smiled.
She placed her free hand over his.
“I think this is more of a blessing from the Fates.”
He groaned before he started to choke.
Her venom lashed through him, and she pulled away easily, fixing that stupid robe to cover her shoulder again.
Her disgust for him was now fully painted over her expression.
He gurgled, “You…you were supposed to—”
“Submit?” she guessed, raising a brow. “Yeah, I don’t do that. Guess it’s not your lucky day, you sick piece of shit.”
He died with his expression contorted in pain.
I was already moving before the door burst open in front of me. Rune stood victorious in the doorway.
Roak’s corpse lay behind her on the bed.
“You know, even though this is a realistic sim, I feel like he’d be way worse in real life.” She shivered dramatically.
“I knew you could do it,” Koa murmured, unable to take his eyes off her.
Zuko crossed the space and kissed her like he’d been holding his breath for a year. Twice. Three times.
“Fates, pretty little poison, that was so fucking hard to watch,” he mumbled against her lips.
Four times.
“It is a literal simulation,” Rune reminded him against his mouth, tugging the robe more closed.
“Who cares?” I grabbed her, pulled her in, and hugged her because I needed to feel that she was okay. “If this weren’t fake, I would’ve killed him myself.”
“If it weren’t fake, I still would’ve killed him first,” she giggled into my neck. “But I like that you wanted to.”
“We all did,” Dimitri admitted, his gaze boring into her. “You did good.”
“Apparently, everyone did,” she noted with a smile, staring at all of us.
“Not everybody,” Hawk muttered sourly to himself, and I hadn’t even noticed him coming up.
The simulation fell, and Professor Hunting clapped her hands.
“Some of you passed with flying colors. Some of you failed segments but still passed the class. One failed. Remember, failing a segment does not mean failing the course. It means we find where you fit. To the one who failed, you’re on academic probation as of now. ”
A holo-ledger unfurled in the air.
Names flickered, each with a neat little verdict.
Rune—passed on all segments.
Eleanor—passed on all segments.
Dimitri—passed on all segments.
Slater—passed on mission, docked for removing a squadmate from their mission.
Koa—passed on mission, docked for unnecessary collateral.
Zuko—passed on mission, docked for prolonged torture.
Raze—passed on mission, docked for inability to resist murder.
Hawk—failed; inability to neutralize five out of five threats.
Lorian—passed on all segments.
Aura—passed on mission, failed in ability to stay neutral.
Relief punched through me that Rune and I landed on the right side of the ledger, but something uncomfortable still gnawed at my ribs.
I needed a night with her pulse under my skin to ease this feeling.
And I knew this simulation would give me nightmares in my sleep…
the collar around my mate’s throat, the gold room, and the way that monster looked at her.
I rubbed the hollowness behind my sternum, and I knew I’d always throw myself into danger to get Rune out of it. I just had a feeling she was the type to dive headfirst into it, so I’d have my hands full.