Chapter Five #2
I look up to see light streaming through a skylight high above.
For a second, vertigo overtakes me, and I feel dizzy.
Reaching out, I steady myself on a chair and let my eyes lower to the walls again.
I could sit in here reading for an entire lifetime and never finish even a fraction of the volumes in this place.
The thought fills me with awe and joy in equal measure.
I walk along one wall, my footsteps echoing in a subdued way in the huge chamber.
Other students are perusing the rows of shelves or staring up at the skylight or walking the walls, like I am.
Pausing at a row of books, I hook my finger into the spine of a dusty grey-green thing, nothing left of the title but flakes of gold paint. This one has been well loved.
Pulling it out, I make out an inlaid serpentine dragon on the cover.
I can tell it was once covered with gold-leaf like the title on the spine.
Flecks of gold remain in the clothbound cover.
I flip it open to the first page. It details Wysongue’s dragon types and lineage.
I close the book and slide it back into place.
“Not interested in our kingdom’s illustrious clans?” asks a voice from nearby. Startled, I look up to find Sharp Tooth watching me from the end of the stacks. His forearms rest on top of one of the long rows of shelves.
“You mean their kingdom?” I ask.
“After you’ve been here a couple years, you start to think of the dragon kingdom as your own.”
I notice his teeth look more blunt today, and I wonder if I imagined their sharpness.
The commonly held belief is that dragons only trust humans to become scholars of their troves—with the exception being other dragons.
They have to make sure no one is superior to them in knowledge, after all.
I hope he’s not a dragon, though. I don’t want the only dragon I know—and possibly the only dragon I ever meet—to be a creep that gives me seriously bad vibes.
As if he read my thoughts and took them as a challenge, the guy walks down the stacks, blocking my path. I can’t help but think it’s intentional.
“I was just looking for a good story,” I mutter, trying to edge past him.
He leans into the bookshelf, somehow taking up all the available space. “You won’t find a better story than that.”
I try to step past him, and he draws up to his full height, again blocking my path.
My attempt to get away has backfired because he’s now even closer.
His thick, red hair has a slight curl to it, giving it a tousled look, and his skin is dotted with a thousand freckles.
His bright, amber eyes hold a spark of menace as he smiles at me. “Aren’t you going to take the book?”
“No. I came here to study history, not politics,” I say, holding up my chin. “Excuse me.”
“Why do you need to be excused?” He grins, showing off straight teeth that are definitely not sharp. Again, I wonder if I’m imagining his menace right now the way I imagined his teeth as sharp. Whether or not I am, the guy needs to fuck off.
“Move out of my way. Last warning, and then I kick you in the testicles.”
Dragon or no, I’m done with this conversation and having him hulk over me.
“Alright, first years,” calls the professor, his voice echoing through the towering building. “Let’s assemble at the center of the room in two minutes.”
Sharp Tooth—I can’t think of him as anything else, even if his teeth are blunt—finally steps out of my path, and I rush past him and toward the center of the room.
I haven’t made it around a quarter of the first floor, but I’m relieved to head back and join my new classmates in the group of chairs.
I glance around, taking in all the new faces.
They have a range of skin tones, genders, and body types.
Somehow, I get the feeling that in this short time, they’ve already cliqued up.
Maybe I missed some kind of new student mixer.
There’s a group of two, three, and four, each taking a table in the sofa area.
I’m so bad at this. Pax always did this for me.
Socializing is effortless to him, and I just go along for the ride.
The only group that has any space available is the group of two.
I steel myself and march over, head held high, pretending to be confident.
When I ask to join, they’re agreeable enough, but they make no effort to include me, and continue their conversation as if I’m not here.
“As I’m sure you all know because you definitely took the time to memorize your schedules, this is your lecture on curatorial basics,” the professor says from the center of the circle.
“We meet here every day until you specialize. At that time, you’ll start working one-on-one with a scholar who specializes in your chosen avenue of study.
Think of me as the gatekeeper to treasure.
You want to play with gold and gems, you have to get past me. ”
He gets a laugh for this. I notice more than a few of the other girls are making eyes at him like they wouldn’t mind getting bent over a table by him, either.
“I’m Professor Sinetar,” he says in that same rich, velvety voice tinged with an accent I can’t place.
“I’m a visiting scholar. I’ve taken over for Professor Mitchel while she’s on sabbatical.
Think of this library as your kingdom.” He smiles and gestures around the room at all the books.
“Obviously, there are more books here than you’ll find at the human libraries you’re undoubtedly accustomed to.
Some of you may never have read a book written by anyone outside the human race.
I encourage you to branch out, study the different ways each being uses to record history, literature, and scientific study.
You are welcome to use this hall at any time. The building is open all night.”
His gaze finds me and lingers on my face. “Since for many of you, this is your first time in the library, I’ll take it easy on you,” he says, speaking directly to me. “But don’t expect me to be gentle every time.”
Warmth coils in my belly, and a flush of excitement rises to my cheeks.
The image of him rutting into the woman in his office flashes into my mind, the way she was grabbing onto the desk as if she was afraid of falling off it, the way she moaned as he hastened his pace, and her scream and collapse at the end.
His roar as he locked eyes with me while he impaled her with his enormous, raw, aubergine cock.
I shudder with a fierce hunger like I’ve never felt before. It was so… Obscene.
“There’s so much I have to teach you,” Professor Sinetar says, lowering his voice to a sultry purr. “But don’t worry. I’ll make sure you enjoy it too.”
The girl on the sofa beside me leans closer to her friend. “You’re right,” she whispers. “It was definitely her making all that noise upstairs.”
“I told you,” the other girl says with a giggle, cutting her gaze toward me. “She came down right before him. She’s totally sleeping with our professor.”
The other girl sighs and mutters under her breath, “Lucky bitch.”
“Hey, if he hooks up with students, we have a chance,” says the other girl with another giggle. “He must be good. Did you see how flushed and out of breath she was when she came down from fucking him?”
“I heard her screaming bloody murder,” says the first girl, rolling her eyes.
Well, damn the demons. Clearly that woman’s sounds of ecstasy did carry down to the other students who were waiting in the library, and then I came running down all hot and bothered, and Professor Sinetar came in right after me…
Fuck me with a moon dragon’s second dick. I’m making a great impression on my first day at university.
The other groups of students glance my way.
It’s obvious the whole class thinks I’m fucking the teacher, and Professor Sinetar clearly doesn’t care to correct them.
I don’t know if this open flirting is normal for professors at a supernatural academy, or even if it’s normal for him, but I know that my human schooling in the village has not prepared me for this.
I’m not about to show any of them that I’m rattled, though.