19. Aeron
Aeron
Icouldn’t sleep after dropping Quill off at his dorm, not after how wonderful our night had been.
I flew instead, shifting forms the moment I was clear of the wards once more and letting my wings carry me out over the dark forest. The night air was cool against my scales, but it did nothing to calm the restless energy thrumming through my body.
Mate. The word kept circling back, unavoidable as gravity.
I’d spent the entire evening with Quill flying him over the sleeping town, sitting across from him in that coffee shop while he talked about his family and his dreams…
And every second of it felt like confirmation.
This was right. He was right. We were right together in a way that defied logic or reason or better judgment.
But there was a problem, one that gnawed at me even as I soared through the starlit sky.
My grandfather didn’t know yet. And more importantly, Quill didn’t know we were mates. He had no idea what the mate bond meant, what it would mean for him to be tied to me for the rest of his life while I watched him grow old and eventually... eventually leave me behind.
The thought made my stomach clench painfully.
I should have told him. Should have found the words somewhere between the coffee and the stars.
But every time I’d opened my mouth to try, I’d chickened out.
What was I supposed to say? “By the way, Red, you’re my one true mate and we’re biologically hard-wired to be together forever, but also you’re going to die and I’m going to live for centuries, so buckle up for some serious heartbreak? ”
Yeah, that would have gone over great.
I landed on a cliff overlooking the mountains, my wings folding against my back as I shifted into a half human form.
From here, I could see the faint shimmer of the wards.
Somewhere in there, Quill was probably already asleep, his mind blissfully unaware of the cosmic joke the universe had played on us both.
And that wasn’t the only problem. I stared out at the forest, my mind racing with everything that was going on.
The Purity Front was still out there, probably still testing the wards, still planning their next move.
That much was clear from the breaches we’d been experiencing.
And my grandfather was worried enough to tell me to keep everything a secret for now.
The world felt like it was balancing on the edge of a knife, about to plunge into chaos.
But with Quill I felt better than I ever had in my life.
Despite all the danger surrounding us, I was happy and content. I never wanted it to end.
For now, all of that could wait. All I cared about was my mate and taking care of him in any way I could. Because, if I was being really honest with myself, it wasn’t just the mate bond at play anymore. I was falling for Quill. Hell, I might’ve been in love with him already.
I sat with that realization for a long moment, letting it settle into my bones like something inevitable.
Love. Real love, not just the biological imperative of the mate bond, but actual genuine feeling for the person Quill was.
His stubbornness and his brilliance, the way he cared so deeply about things even when he pretended not to, the vulnerability he only showed me in the dark.
I was completely and utterly fucked.
A sound from below caught my attention. The snap of a branch, followed by the low murmur of voices.
I tensed immediately, my dragon senses sharpening as I tried to pinpoint the source.
The forest floor was dark, but my night vision was excellent.
I could make out shapes moving between the trees.
Multiple shapes. Nobody was supposed to be out here.
My blood ran cold.
I shifted fully, my body expanding into my true form as I launched myself from the cliff. The wind caught my wings as I descended, silent as death, until I was close enough to see what was happening below.
Undead.
I could smell the rotting flesh immediately, wafting up on the breeze in a putrid cloud.
There were dozens of them, maybe more, moving through the forest in what looked like a coordinated effort.
Their movements were jerky and unnatural, their skin hanging loose on their frames like clothes that didn’t quite fit.
But how were they here in the first place?
Necromancy was a dead magic. There wasn’t a single spell book in existence that contained necromantic magic anymore.
My tutors only touched on it briefly during my studies, just long enough to say that it had been destroyed at the peak of the dark ages.
Since then, not a single dead creature had been resurrected by magic.
Until now apparently.
And they were moving toward Widdershins. Toward the wards. Toward Quill.
But I didn’t panic. Not yet. The wards were still up, the same ones my grandfather personally oversaw. And they’d held every attack at bay thus far. The undead were fragile, they would just shatter against the wards.
I could still feel the mate bond pulling at me, demanding that I go back, that I protect what was mine. But I forced myself to stay still, to observe, to understand what I was dealing with.
The undead moved with purpose, their rotting stumps carrying them closer to the academy.
My stomach twisted. It had taken no small amount of magic to raise these creatures from the dead.
Someone had paid a terrible price to work that much necromancy at once and had sent them here specifically to test the wards again.
Or worse. To break them.
I needed to report this to my grandfather immediately. But first, I needed to know how many there were and what direction they were headed. If they managed to breach the wards while Quill was asleep in his dorm, if they got anywhere near him...
The thought made my scales prickle with rage.
I counted as many as I could from my vantage point.
There were at least sixty, maybe more hidden in the deeper shadows of the forest. They wore the tattered remains of clothes, and some of them still had wounds that should have been fatal.
Whatever necromancer had raised them hadn’t bothered with making them subtle or even remotely human-looking anymore.
Whoever was leading the charge was getting bolder. More desperate. And they’d brought far greater numbers this time.
I launched myself back into the sky, my wings beating hard as I raced back toward campus. The flight that had felt so peaceful just moments ago now felt agonizingly slow. Every second I was away was a second the rest of those things were getting closer to the wards.
When I landed at the northern perimeter, I shifted back into my half human form and stepped through the wards without an issue.
I needed to call my grandfather, to let him know what was happening.
But the crystal ball was still in my room and I had maybe five minutes before the creatures reached the wards. I had to make a choice.
Alert my grandfather or Quill.
I chose Quill before I even had a moment to think.
I ran.
The dormitory halls were empty at this hour thankfully, because I didn’t have time to explain myself to anyone, especially not an RA.
My heart hammered against my ribs as I took the stairs two at a time, my half-shifted form making me faster and stronger, though I was mostly propelled by my need to protect my mate.
Quill’s dorm was on the third floor. I reached his door and didn’t bother knocking. The lock gave way easily. It was a small spell, barely a whisper of magic that broke through the metal mechanism.
Lysander was asleep in his bed, didn’t even stir as I moved through the darkness. But Quill... Quill was already awake, sitting up in bed with a confused expression as I crossed the room toward him.
“Aeron?” he whispered, his voice rough with sleep. “What the hell—”
“We need to go,” I said quietly, keeping my voice low so as not to wake his roommate. “Right now. No questions.”
He blinked at me, clearly still half-asleep and trying to process what was happening. “It’s the middle of the night. What’s going on?”
“There are undead in the forest,” I said, and watched his face go pale. “A lot of them. They’re heading for the wards and I need to get you somewhere safe before they arrive.”
That got him moving. He threw off his blankets, his earlier confusion replaced by the sharp clarity of someone who understood danger when they heard it. “How many?”
“Sixty, maybe more. I couldn’t get an exact count.” I moved to his closet and grabbed the jacket he’d worn earlier. “Get dressed. Warm clothes. We’re leaving campus.”
“Leaving?” Quill’s voice pitched higher. “Aeron, the wards—”
“Will hold,” I interrupted, though I wasn’t entirely sure that was true anymore. “But I’m not taking any chances with you. Come on, Red. Move.”
He was pulling on pants now, his movements quick and efficient despite the shock. I could smell the spike of adrenaline in his blood, the fear he was trying hard not to show. He grabbed his shoes and started lacing them up.
“What about everyone else?” he asked, glancing toward Lysander’s sleeping form. “Shouldn’t we warn them?”
“My grandfather will handle it,” I said, which was true. I hoped. “Security will activate the emergency protocols. Everyone will be fine.”
It was a lie, or at least a half-truth. I had no idea what my grandfather’s contingency plans were, and right now I didn’t care.
All that mattered was getting Quill away from here, away from the danger that was creeping closer with every passing second.
As a dragon, I could protect him. But holed up in a dorm room?
That could cut us off from any real escape route.
“Okay,” Quill said, grabbing his jacket. “Okay, let’s go.”
We slipped out of the dorm as quietly as we’d come in. The campus was eerily silent, that deep quiet that comes in the middle of the night. But they wouldn’t be asleep for long.
And we’d be long gone before they woke up.
I led Quill toward the northern perimeter, the same route we’d taken just hours earlier when I’d shown him the stars.
The wards hummed with power as we approached, and I could feel them beginning to strain.
Whatever spell was driving those undead forward, it was pushing against our defenses with increasing force, preemptively weakening them before the undead arrived.
“Hurry,” I urged, taking his hand and pulling him toward the shimmer of the barrier.
“Aeron,” he said, stopping dead in his tracks. “We… We can’t just walk away and not warn everyone.”
“I told you, security will handle it. The wards will hold.” I tried to urge him forward, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Then why are you so terrified?” he asked. “Why do you want to get me out of here so badly?”
“Because I love you,” I said simply, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “Because if something happened to you, I couldn’t survive it. Because you matter to me more than anything else in this world, and I won’t lose you to some necromancer.”
His eyes widened, his mouth falling open slightly. I could see him processing my words, could smell the confusion and fear spiking in his blood.
“Aeron, I—”
Another tremor ran through the ground, stronger this time. In the distance, I could hear the first impacts against the wards. The undead had arrived. The barrier above us flickered, just for a second, but it was enough to make my blood run cold.
The alarms began to sound.
“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD brEACH.”
“No time,” I said, gripping his hand tighter. “We have to go. Now.”
“I REPEAT, THERE HAS BEEN A WARD brEACH. ALL STUDENTS ARE TO RETURN TO THEIR DORMS IMMEDIATELY. ALL ACADEMIC BUILDINGS WILL BE SEALED. ANYONE CAUGHT WANDERING CAMPUS WILL BE DETAINED. I REPEAT, THERE HAS BEEN A WARD brEACH.”
This time, he didn’t resist. He ran with me toward the shimmering barrier, and I could feel the magic already cracking. The wards were being actively attacked, their integrity compromised by whatever dark magic was driving those creatures forward.
However, the moment we got close, a bolt of electricity shot out of the wards toward us, striking the dirt near my feet. I skidded to a halt, throwing an arm in front of Quill to protect him. The air was filled with the scent of smoke and ozone as I took a step back, forcing Quill with me.
“What the fuck was that?!” he cried, holding tightly to my arm.
“Defensive spells,” I replied, watching diligently for the next bolt. “The wards are stopping anything from going in or out.” I took a few more steps back before I turned to him. “We… We’re trapped in here.”
My mind raced as I stared at the flickering barrier before us. Trapped. We were actually trapped inside the wards with an army of undead bearing down on them.
“Your grandfather,” Quill said urgently, gripping my arm. “Can he do something? Can he lower the wards for us?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted, hating the uncertainty in my own voice.
The mate bond was screaming at me to protect him, to find a way out, but every solution I considered seemed to crumble the moment I examined it.
“The defensive spells are automated. They’re designed to keep anything from breaching during an attack.
My grandfather would have to manually dispel them. He’d have to be here.”
Another tremor shook the ground. The wards flickered again, more violently this time. In the distance, I could hear the sound of impact. Something massive just hit the barrier with enough force to make the earth itself vibrate.
“How long will they hold?” Quill asked, his voice steady despite the fear I could smell radiating off him.
“I don’t know that either,” I said, turning toward him. “But I’m starting to think it won’t be long.”
Another boom followed by another shrill screech.
“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD brEACH.”
Another boom.
“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD brEACH.”
Screeching from all directions.
“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD brEACH.”
“By the gods,” I whispered, staring up at the wards as visible cracks in the magic arched across the sky. “They’re attacking from every side.”
Boom. Boom. BOOM.
I pulled Quill close to my side as the first piece of the ward fell away, like glass crumbling under a hammer.
Light filled the sky as the wards disintegrated in seconds.
The alarms went silent along with the Dean’s voice.
Widdershins Academy was, for the first time in a century, visible to the entire world under the stars.
That’s when the screams started.