Chapter 11
~Evira~
Vaxan Canor was in my dorm room.
Sure, I’d invited him, but I hadn’t properly accounted for this.
For what had happened the moment I’d closed the door and basically kind of sealed us in this space away from any other people and distractions that usually served to dilute this…
undercurrent that I’d felt between us since that night in The Caverns where I’d accidentally eye-fucked him. Accidentally? All right.
I’d kept away except during the classes we’d shared, because I’d thought him being with Winter had made acknowledging this connection between us a no-go.
But I’d realized how wrong I’d been. Winter had seemed more than a little intrigued when he’d walked in on us sparring earlier, and seeing the intense turn it had taken.
He’d been into it. I didn’t know if it was the sharing aspect, or that he figured it would draw me close, but not too close, just through his connection with Vaxan.
And there was the whole thing with Zayn clearly having a thing for our Basilisk Lord too, something he was trying to tamper down, but hadn’t quite managed to.
Especially not from me. Whenever Vaxan walked by or came anywhere near him, Zayn would go rigid—in more ways than one—and his whole being would light up, like the way it did whenever he saw me or Winter walking into a room.
I shot a look over my shoulder at Vaxan sitting with perfect regal-like posture on my snowy white couch. Even in his workout gear of just a black tank and more casual pants, he somehow managed to pull that off. That commanding, easy authority. He was waiting patiently for me.
I’d just been a little delayed when a flurry of texts had come in.
Zayn: Flirt-fighting, huh?
Zayn: Well, I can see how it would be near-impossible not to feel the flirt when sparring with that hot fucker.
Zayn: Who won?
Zayn: He’s sly, but you’ve got a lot of raw power that you usually keep coiled up tight. Even when you battled Keuric, you held that at bay. If you let loose, I’d imagine even he couldn’t hold you off.
Zayn: Took him back to your room, I hear.
Zayn: How’s he kiss? All fire-and-ice passion like you? Or kind of measured and seductively hypnotizing?
I shook my head to myself, and began replying after reading through all of that.
Wow.
Evira: Seductively hypnotizing? What are you going on about, hellion?
I couldn’t help grinning to myself as he responded right away.
Zayn: Trying to be supportive, I guess. Sometimes brings out my awkward side.
Evira: I see. The idea of me getting it on with Vaxan turns you on, hmm?
Zayn: Still up for our date?
Evira: It wasn’t me who postponed it.
Zayn: Answer the question.
Evira: Of course I am. Been looking forward to it.
Zayn: Then all is well. And your answer is: yes, it does turn me the fuck on.
Evira: I brought him here to give him something.
Zayn: Give him something? Whoa. More than a mere kiss, then. Props to you. Guess I lit a fire in you. Enjoy, gorgeous.
Evira: I meant an object, not… that.
“Everything all right?”
I jolted at the sound of that smooth and sure voice of Vaxan’s.
“Sorry, just seeing to this,” I told him, gesturing to my phone. “Or it’s going to keep beeping.”
“I assume turning it off isn’t an option, meaning the sender is Zayn?”
He was good. “Yeah. Leaving him on Read doesn’t exactly go down well.”
“I can imagine.” He eyed me curiously. “Yet, you enjoy that intensity from him, yes?”
“He wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t.”
“He wouldn’t be, or you wouldn’t allow it?”
“It’s more than the second one now. He’s evolving. He’s trying really hard.”
“I know.”
I smiled, then told him, “Apparently word has already gotten around that the High Lord Heir of the Basilisk Kingdom is in the suite of the Dracoryn Realm’s Crown Heir, and it’s a whole thing.”
“Yes, you’re quite the celebrity around campus. Much like me.”
I frowned. “I heard some gossip and whisperings around me when I first got here, but that dissipated, and people barely look my way now.”
“Due to Zayn’s efforts.”
“What?”
“You must have informed him that you don’t care for the attention or special treatment.”
I had told him that.
“He’s seen to it that you aren’t bothered.”
“He… what? He didn’t say anything.”
He smiled. “Then he is trying harder than either of us even realized, isn’t he?”
“I don’t understand how… how he couldn’t be like this with Winter if Zayn was always capable of this?”
“There was no balance before you and me. The two of them alone together bred much toxicity when left unchecked. Largely because of Zayn, yes, and his own self-loathing, but also because Winter wouldn’t challenge that in him due to his gentle nature and his desperate need for him.”
I sighed heavily, as the pain of that reality for them cut into me.
Then I sent Zayn one last text for now.
Evira: Get to class, hellion.
Zayn: Seeing as though you asked so nicely, how can I resist?
I smiled, then put my phone down on the coffee table in front of Vaxan.
I swiftly walked to my left nightstand. “Sorry about all that,” I spoke over my shoulder to Vaxan, as I swept a glowing ice-blue palm over the drawer that I’d magically sealed.
“Not at all. I understand,” I heard him say, just as the lock clicked and the drawer pushed open a little.
I pulled out the shimmering pastel-blue river rock that I’d stored inside, and walked back to him. “You’re always that, you know?”
He arched an eyebrow.
“Understanding,” I said, as I sank down beside him on the couch.
He shifted to face me. “I find that approach more conducive to fostering cooperation and redirecting the behavior of others in a favorable way.”
“Cooperation through compassion and tolerance, rather than aggressiveness or striking a good offense and throwing your power around?”
“Well, there is a line. And I’ll draw it if I have to. Just like you will, hmm?”
“Yeah. Just like I will.” I lifted a shoulder. “Comes with the whole draconic heritage thing.”
“Draconic instincts lean predominantly toward might and enforcing that through challenge and aggression. But draconic leaders do what you are able to do—walk that line between the need for might and diplomacy. You see the bigger picture, you see a great deal more.” He smiled.
“Much like your father and grandmother.”
I started at his observations. His way-too-accurate observations.
Of course, he noticed my reaction and questioned, “You don’t wish to be that leader they expect of you as Crown Heir?”
“I… right now I’m here at Loxley Academy to explore and experience a whole bunch of things.”
“I see. You view your expected role as an infringement upon your freedom.”
“And you don’t? We’re in a similar situation. Our roles and lives were decided for us at birth.”
“Yet we have the means to transcend that. When we take power we can affect change. Even before if we’re smart about it.”
“I… maybe.” I shifted my weight on the couch. “Let’s not… that’s not what I brought you here for.” And it was definitely not something I wanted to get into. It didn’t exactly facilitate my bubbly, positive outlook that, despite the Keuric situation, I’d managed to maintain here.
I held out the river rock to him. “This is what I wanted to show you.”
“It’s truly stunning,” he uttered, taking in the shimmering pastel-blue object that was fused with glacial magic. The surface was like stars floating through frost.
“It’s neutral to the touch,” I assured him. “No freezer burn sensation for you.”
“I’m aware,” he said with a smile. “I can sense it.” He reached out and ran his fingers lightly over the smooth surface. “Besides, when your magic battled against mine earlier, it was very far from being unpleasant.”
I had to suck in a breath as our gazes clashed, the intensity rushing over me.
His eyes glinted as he felt it too—a primal pull between us. One that didn’t want to be denied.
He looked away, then dropped his gaze to the river rock. “So, talk to me about this, why you wished to show it to me.”
I cleared my throat. “This was forged in the glacial torrents of the Ice Dragon Quadrant in the Dracoryn Realm. It’s also fused with Elyrren Vortimer’s magic.”
He arched an eyebrow, that deeply curious look of his blazing forth. “It’s imbued with a powerful enchantment? I can’t feel it. Not at all.”
“Yeah. That’s intentional on her part. It presents itself as a pretty rock to look at, the sparkling aspect just coming off as an art piece.
It’s similar to what you said before about leaders not always being about might.
She’s more about careful calculation and not always showing her hand.
This river rock fits in with that in a way.
” I gazed at it in wonder as I told him, “When activated, it envelopes the user in a dome of the strongest draconic ice-frost fusion in existence. It also has the ability to not only defend against magical attacks, but to absorb said magic into the dome and further strengthen it. The only exception would be Celestial magic that could penetrate and harm its integrity. It can guard against supernatural might.” I eyed him pointedly. “And even sunlight.”
He started. “You wish to gift this to me?”
“Yeah. It can help you. If your Sunveil Crown fails or isn’t charged for whatever reason, you call this forth and it’ll protect you, shield you.
It can even be called, the dome erected, through anything.
In fact, my grandmother gave this to me after I buried myself beneath several tons of my own ice when I was younger.
” I winced. “The source of my claustrophobia.”
“This is extraordinary.” He laid his hand on mine over the stone and beamed out at me. “Alas, I cannot accept it, Evira.”
“Why not?”
“This was created for you by your grandmother. It is a familial object. Yours and yours alone, a draconic magical entity crafted for the protection of you.”
“So, objects created by one species can’t be shared among others?”
“That isn’t exactly—”