12. Mine
TWELVE
mine
Arcane
She stumbles, and my dragon purrs in her failures. His tail flicks away to release her wrist, and her boots are pounding over tile in seconds. And he only revels in her fear even more.
My sight is diluted when I turn on prowling steps that aren’t entirely my own. The walls feel far away but too close, all at the same time. The light shining in from the arching window blurs my vision. I see her shadow racing down the long corridor, and my lips twitch into a smirk.
He loves to play with his food.
Just our food? An annoying voice growls from the back of my mind, but I shake him away.
My pace is casual as I stalk her. Smooth metal lockers meet my fingertips, and I rattle the locks on each and every one as I gain on her. The darkness isn’t there to aid her, and her own clumsiness gets in her way more than anything.
Because of all the moments she’s had to run away from me, from Aelix, and this fucking academy in general, she just can’t seem to get it right: she falls just before she reaches the stairs. Like a fucking lamb ready for slaughter.
And in a flash of movement, I’m on her.
Sharp nails sink into fighting wrists. As she kicks erratically against the floor, her hips thrust up against me. Another hungry purr hums through my chest.
“You should have done better, Haunting.” Big green eyes search my face, but I know she doesn’t recognize the beast that’s about to devour her. “He likes to play with his food, you see. Let them think they’ve got a chance at survival when there’s not a creature alive that’s crossed him without walking away with fresh scars.”
“Get off of me,” she shrieks with a huff, her chest pressing hard against the thin material of her shirt to distract me with how perfect her body always is.
My fingers slide down her arm, basking in the feel of her smooth, soft skin that’ll soon be bloody ribbons on the floor. But the thing inside me seems to have other plans. He leans in, and just when I think he’s about to rip out her throat . . .
He inhales softly.
What. The. Actual. Fuck.
From the corner of my eye, I watch her flinch away from me as her soft scent fills my snout. A heady sensation hazes my mind, and just as his tongue slips out to taste more, I shove away from her.
And she’s running once again.
My hand shoves through my hair, and I try to shake him out and claim my messy mind as my own. He’s still prowling after the pretty pet he’s so determined to claim. I follow slowly up the stairs. Her limp slows her down. I hear it in the drag of her rushing footfalls. She barely makes it to the fourth-floor landing when he’s picking up his pace, refusing to let her put a locked door of safety between him and her.
MINE! he growls through my mind, and I flinch away from his claim.
We make it to the bottom of the last stairwell, and big fearful eyes peer back at us. His legs extend, shoving me out almost entirely as an enormous dragon fully transforms, scraping spreading wings across narrow stairwell walls. She stumbles once more at the fifth floor. The morning sunlight casts around her from the window that frames her small, fragile figure. Her failure shines once again. His claws extend to their full violent length. He reaches for her before he lunges.
And I fuck him over with a harder press of my muscles against the tile floor as he leaps.
She ducks in fear, crouching down into a ball of utter fucking helplessness. She’s lucky.
Real fucking lucky.
Because we’re leaping over her. Glass shatters around us. The morning air catches my wings, and a snort of aggravation is in our lungs as he looks back at what he almost had.
And she’s there, looking up at me as I soar higher and higher into the sunlight. After all that, it’s the awe in her glossy eyes that enrages me more.
Stupid fucking girl.
You should have just stayed dead.