Chapter Three
Caulder
Bechora Knight was going to be a problem.
My dragon perked up the moment she stepped out of the seedy strip club, and I caught her scent, pressing for control hard enough that smoke blew from my nostrils.
Two hundred and thirty-five years of control were the only thing that kept him in line when I touched her to pull her through the portal.
The electric current that shot through my body confirmed the tiny woman was my mate.
I stalked through the crowd of students toward the white brick building that held my office.
As if sensing the storm brewing under my skin, students moved out of my way, none of them daring to make eye contact.
My office door was open slightly when I arrived, further adding to my irritation.
Stepping inside, I scanned the room and found Vallynn sitting in my chair, his pristine boots propped on my desk.
“Get your feet off my desk and your ass out of my chair before I fry it,” I growled at the dark-haired fae.
“What’s got your tail in a twist?” He smirked, moving his feet to the floor.
“None of your fucking business, Vallynn. Why are you here?”
“That’s no way to speak to the crown prince, you overgrown lizard.” Dante, the Fae’s gargoyle bodyguard, spoke from beside the window.
I eyed the other raven-haired male, wondering if he was worth the trouble it would cause me to let my dragon eat him.
Before I could decide, Vallynn cleared his throat, drawing my attention back to him as he moved around my desk.
I moved to my chair and began sorting the papers he’d kicked around, ignoring the presence of both males.
The high and mighty Prince Vallynn would tell me why he was in my office when he was ready.
I’d learned early on that not even my dragon could scare him into speaking before he wanted to.
“Professor Waylon is missing.” He spoke after several minutes of silence.
“Yes, well, he always was a bit flighty,” I replied dryly. “Why is this news?”
“I have reason to believe my father had him taken.”
My eyes snapped up from my desk and scanned over Vallynn, really taking him in for the first time since I’d entered my office.
While he was dressed in the Academy’s standard black uniform, his tie was slightly askew, and there was a slight, nearly unnoticeable wrinkling to his white button-down shirt.
The fae prince was nothing if not always perfectly put together, with never a single hair out of place.
“What do you know about Waylon’s abilities?” Vallynn asked.
I leaned back in my chair, my brows drawing down as I worked to recall everything I knew about the missing professor. “He was an air mage. A powerful one at that.” I started, rubbing my hand over my
chin. “He also had the ability to manipulate other supernatural’s shields if I recall correctly.”
Dante hissed and moved to one of the empty seats opposite my desk, collapsing into it. The high-backed chair groaned under his weight in protest.
“Break my chair and I will eat you, Gargoyle.” I snapped.
“Try me, lizard,” he smirked in response. “I’ve heard stone is rather hard to digest.”
“How did I end up stuck working with such an impudent child?” I huffed, a puff of smoke blowing from my nose.
“Because you tried to storm the castle like an idiot after my father slaughtered your clan,” Vallynn replied. “You’re only lucky that it was Dante that caught you and not one of the other gargoyles that guard the castle. You’d be one very dead dragon otherwise.”
A low warning growl rumbled in my chest, but I forced my dragon to calm his temper.
Vallynn, the arrogant prick, was right. When I’d returned from the human realm nearly three years ago and found my entire clan slaughtered, their magic drained entirely, I’d followed the scent of their attackers back to the palace.
I didn’t have a plan, only sheer rage and grief driving me forward.
It had been reckless of me. If Dante hadn’t dropped on me from above and managed to bring me to the ground during my single-minded focus, I’d have been at the executioner's block for treason the next day.
Vallynn appeared shortly after the Gargoyle subdued me and gave me a new purpose to channel all of my anger.
I’d been in disbelief when the fae prince told me his father was behind the missing supernaturals.
That the King was draining them of their magic and slaughtering entire families to cover his tracks.
If Vallynn had not used his magic to show me proof, he never would have convinced me.
The disappearances were being blamed on the thinning veil and our people choosing the human realm over our own.
With the decline in births from all species and the lack of true mate bonds in the last century, it made sense that people would defect to another realm in hopes of finding their mate or building a family.
No one would believe their King was the true source of the disappearances.
I’d been working at the Academy ever since.
The position allowed me to meet with Vallynn without raising any suspicions, though the information he was able to pass along was becoming harder for him to obtain.
We were saving fewer and fewer of the King’s intended victims, and Waylon was a stark reminder of that fact.
“If the King has already taken Waylon, there isn’t much we can do about it,” I said, forcing my mind back to the present.
“I am aware of that.” Vallynn clipped. “But for someone to go missing from the Academy raises some concerns.”
I rose from my seat so fast my chair flew into the wall behind me and slammed my hands on my desk. “Why didn’t you tell me he went missing from the Academy before you started asking about his abilities? That is the sort of thing I need to know!”
An image of Bechora’s heart-shaped face surrounded by her wild, red hair flashed in my mind, and my dragon strained against my skin.
If people were being taken from the grounds, my mate was in danger.
That was something my dragon couldn’t abide; my need to maintain my position at the school to continue my work with Vallynn be damned.
Vallynn waved his hand, his magic wrapping around me and forcing me back to my seat.
“Calm the fuck down, Thrackborne. I did not mean he was taken from the campus itself; the wards only allow staff and students through. Not even my father can access the grounds without permission. He was, however, taken from his lodgings just beyond the Academy’s barriers. ”
“In case your lizard brain is failing to understand, those are the professor’s accommodations provided by the academy,” Dante interjected with a smug grin. I was definitely going to eat that fucking gargoyle once my work with him and the prince was done.
“Is the Dean aware of this?” I demanded.
“Yes, and no.” Vallynn shrugged. “There was a note claiming Waylon was defecting to the human realm. Same as some of the others we’ve been too late to save.
I was able to convince her to extend the warding, however.
It wouldn’t do for the crown prince to disenroll from the academy over safety concerns. ”
I rolled my eyes. Blackthorn Academy was the most prestigious school in the realm.
Their elitism was rivaled only by the royal court itself.
Dean Femirea would do anything the prince wanted just to keep him enrolled and protect the Academy’s reputation.
As much as Vallynn grated my nerves with his pompous entitlement, he wasn’t wrong.
“Fine,” I gritted out, barely managing to soothe my beast. “If the wards have been extended, what exactly is it that you want me to do?”
Dante’s smirk grew wider, and he leaned forward in his chair, placing his elbows on his thighs.
“Waylon was the head of Magus House. I’ve arranged for you to take that position so that we can, hopefully, prevent more missing people.
If you’re my head of house, I have more reason to be seen meeting with you.
With how difficult it’s becoming to even get the information before my father has abducted his targets, I thought this would allow us to act faster. ”
“How the fuck am I supposed to head a house of mages and fae?” I snorted. “You do understand, Princeling, I am a shifter, and the heads of house are supposed to mentor the students in their house.”
“Dragons really do have tiny brains.” Dante snorted. “You have more innate magic beyond your shifting ability, you idiot. We all do.”
I snarled at the gargoyle, letting my dragon break free just enough for my nails to shift into claws and dig into my desk as smoke poured from my mouth and nose.
“Enough!” Vallynn bellowed. “Dante, stop taunting the dragon. Thrackborne, I do not care how you mentor the students of Magus House; you can send them to their damned professors for help for all I care. But this is happening. There were over seventy disappearances over the summer. We cannot keep playing catch-up with my father if we want to stand a chance at saving any that are to come.”
The gargoyle paled and went still. If not for the rise and fall of his chest, I’d almost have thought he’d transformed into his stone form. Easing my claws free of my oak desk, I forced my breathing to slow and pulled my chair back toward me to sit.
“Have you gotten any closer to uncovering his end goal?” I asked.
“No,” Vallynn replied, his face tightening with anger. “But I did look into the missing we are aware of. They each had particularly powerful magic, and based on their locations, it appears my father is homing in on the Academy.”
“His inability to snatch anyone from the grounds aside, what would he want with a bunch of untrained children?” I mused.
“Really, Thrackborne? You can’t think of a single reason he might be moving to target the Academy?
Students leave with their magic bound all the time, not to mention those who go missing or die during the trials at the end of the year,” Vallynn answered.
“Second Year class alone has nearly thirty fewer students than we did our first year, and the trials only become more deadly as we progress through our studies. Then there’s the magic of the Academy itself.
You know as well as I that this place has a magic all its own that goes well beyond selecting names for admission.
If my father found a way to steal the Academy’s magic, who knows what he could do with it. ”
Gold and red scales erupted along my arms, and I struggled to maintain my hold on my dragon.
If the princeling’s theory was right, my mate was no safer here than she had been in the human realm.
My instincts were screaming at me to find her and steal her away somewhere we’d never be found, but that wasn’t possible.
She hadn’t seemed to feel the bond, and even if she had, I needed to be here to continue the work I’d started with Vallynn and his annoying gargoyle sidekick.
I couldn’t do anything that would cause the dean to suspect Bechora Knight was my mate, or I would lose my position.
The academy had strict rules around fraternization between staff and students.
While the Dean would never fault me for finding my mate, she wouldn’t allow me to remain on staff to prevent any interference in my mate’s studies.
I’d be banished from the grounds, and Bechora would be given the choice to continue her training or have her magic bound in order to leave the academy with me.
It would be better for both of us if she and the Dean remained ignorant of our connection.
At least until I’d help Vallynn expose his father’s misdeeds and placed the princeling on the throne in his stead.
“I am working on getting close to my father’s inner circle,” Vallynn spoke, pulling me from my thoughts.
“He’s growing more paranoid by the day, and it’s making it difficult, but I believe I may be able to turn one of his newer cohorts against him with the right leverage.
In the meantime, we have no choice but to stay alert and do our best to get to his victims before he does. ”
The Fae prince’s eyes flicked over my head, and he suddenly stiffened before shooting a glance at Dante.
“What?” I demanded, turning my head to look at the clock on my wall.
“We should go; the Dean will be on her way to inform you that you’re now head of Magus House any time now. It would be best if she didn’t know that Dante and I were here already.”
I gave Vallynn a tight nod and watched as he and Dante made their way from my office before turning my attention back to the papers on my desk. This year was going to be a nightmare.