Chapter 1 #2
“I look forward to going to Bloodstone Academy and being taught how to fight. I can stop the war that took my parents from me.” I say exactly what she will expect me to.
She smiles tightly. “Where is my sleeping shirt?” I swallow the panic when I notice I’m not wearing it.
Instead, I’m in silky pajamas that definitely were Melody’s, and she’s loaned them to me.
Melody rolls her eyes, but I see the relief she tries to hide.
I’m acting exactly how I should, and she can report to her sister that it’s going according to plan.
Just what I want her to say. “Yes, that ratty thing is in your bag along with your other clothes and books you favor. I packed for you; shouldn’t you thank me, Juniper? ”
“Thank you.” It feels like I’m thanking a monster for hurting me.
Her nails tighten slightly, and a normal person who feels pain might whimper.
I stay still. “Good girl. I am so happy you’re my daughter.
” But I’m not. “The whole thing was so romantic. Lock proposed to you just after you got your mark on your neck. You were so happy; you have everything you could ever want. Now you’ll join him at the academy. ”
Everything I’ve ever wanted? I’ve only ever wanted my bonded, even when I was taught it was wrong and forbidden to want them.
I’m a child of a shifter and witch, the very forbidden thing they teach us from the moment we enter the schools.
It’s all controlled by them. War has no place for love or loyalty…
Who would choose to leave behind their bonded, who they were in love with, to fight for the Umbral Authority?
No one. I bet that is what scares them. The enchantress would win the war in a heartbeat if shifters and witches were allowed to have relationships.
The door is knocked twice, and I sit up, pulling my arms around my knees as Lock swaggers in.
“Hope you don’t mind my walking in, fiancée,” he drawls, and I feel a thousand spiders crawl across my skin at his possessive tone.
I am not his, but I will pretend to be…so he doesn’t see the revenge brewing in my heart.
Lock is objectively attractive, lean and muscular, classically handsome features that most women would love.
His dark silk pajamas are cut to show off his body as he moves.
I hate myself for falling for him, even when I know it is because I was desperate for any affection and I would have liked anyone who wanted me.
Yet, as I look at Lock as he runs his hand through his soft brown hair, I only compare him to the men in my life who are breathtakingly handsome.
My bonded. There isn’t even a competition between them all, and I haven’t looked twice at Lock since I met them.
In every year, once I met my bonded, I have only seen them and only wanted them.
I need to know they are okay, that they weren’t punished for what happened.
Lock comes closer, running his fingers down my arm, and I swallow my instinct to bat his hand away, set it on fire with a hex, and watch him burn.
I’m good at spells and hexes, and it’s because I’ve spent so many years at the academy.
I’ve trained myself right under their noses.
My three years have left me with many, many spells, and I am very good at making new ones as it turns out.
I’m powerful too. I think the mix of witch and dragon magic heightens my abilities.
The hex I’m going to weave for him is going to tap into my power, and it’s the only thing that keeps me smiling.
Lock begins chatting away to me, his eyes fixed on my face. “How are you, my dearest love?” He kisses my forehead, and my hands clench together tight underneath the duvet. I need to bleach everywhere he touches.
“I’m good, Lock. Just hungry.” I shrug my shoulders and try to smile at him like I desire him. “I am looking forward to going to the academy tomorrow with you.”
“Yes. I’m going to be escorting you everywhere. My mother pulled some strings, and we can share a room at the academy. It means we can really get close to each other without our new bonded causing a problem. Whoever you bond to, that is.” He looks so happy about this.
“Oh, how lovely of your mother.” I swallow. Fuck, living with him?
“I’m so excited for both of you! My daughter has such a lovely match!
” Melody slides off the bed. “I’ll make sure to get you a contraceptive potion to have in your morning breakfast. We don’t want any children running around quite yet.
Not until you finish the academy and fight in the war for a few years.
Then you can get to baby-making.” Gross.
I try to hide my grimace at the idea of sleeping with Lock, let alone having children with him.
Children are cute and all, but I’d never have them in this brutal world.
“I’m sure my mother will not make us fight in the war.
We won’t go near the front,” Lock quickly corrects, and it takes me a second to realize why.
Of course, they’d never let me fight in the war at the front.
I might run into my mother, and then we might turn our backs on the monsters who stole me away and conditioned me to be their tool.
I need to get back to Bloodstone Academy.
The rest of my morning is filled with pretences, and I even drink my contraceptive tea.
Melody rattles on about how it lasts a year and I won’t have to worry.
Like I have any interest in sleeping with this motherfucker, who keeps staring at me like a love-sick puppy.
I eat my breakfast dutifully, which feels like it’s rotten the minute it hits my stomach.
“I’m going to shower,” I eventually tell them the second my plate is empty. They have finished eating too. It’s weird to have a full plate of food in Melody’s home. I’m used to scraps in the kitchen, only after I’d cleaned everything up.
“Want me to join you?” Lock whispers in my ear.
I shiver, which his grin tells me he has mistaken for lust, when it’s actually my body’s attempt to hold down the food rising in my throat. Maybe I should just throw up on him and claim to have a bug.
“Not in Melody’s house. Maybe another time?
” I push my chair out. I need to lock my bathroom door and spell it to make sure he doesn’t attempt to open the door.
I don’t know Lock at all, or how far he will take this ruse.
Would he sleep with me, knowing his mother stole my memories, feelings and bonds?
I’m sure he would, and it makes him more of a monster than I expected. They are all monsters.
The minute I get to my bedroom, I close my door and breathe a quick spell to lock it.
I need clothes for today, so I start opening the bags Melody packed.
My father’s shirt lies on top, and I trace the tattered collar, thankful it’s still here.
My finger feels a lump underneath, so I pick up the shirt and out falls the watch I was gifted by the small creatures at Bloodstone, with the broken glass front and the word on the back—Tempusfinis.
The old Latin for time, and it has been erased from the books we learn.
Why? It’s a mystery I need to figure out, so I add it to the list of my current problems.
After gathering today’s outfit, I run over to start pulling the floorboards up, sighing in relief when I find what I need.
I have hidden herbs and ingredients in here that I’ve gathered in the forest for years or been gifted by small creatures.
When I’ve got what I need, I carry it all and rush to the bathroom.
I spell the door to soundproof it so only the spray of the shower echoes after I turn it on.
As I lay the ingredients out on the counter, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror.
Do I look like the enchantress? Do I look like my father?
Did the people I thought were my parents have a plan to raise me and tell me who I was?
How did they get me when the Umbral Authority stole me away?
I have so many questions but no answers.
Not yet.
With the plugged sink acting as a makeshift bowl, it doesn’t take long to make up a considerably strong hex.
The potion shimmers purple and black as I look for the final ingredient in my pocket.
A hair. I picked it from Lock’s jacket at breakfast, pretending to stroke his back lovingly.
Idiot. I drop the hair into the potion, the purple fades away until it’s just black, and I whisper the last part of the hex.
The room fills with smog, and the smog moves to slip under the door to find Lock.
I close my eyes and wait, knowing he won’t be able to see or sense my hex.
He isn’t powerful enough, and my magic is in control.
The minute the hex finds him, it is done.
My eyes flash white for a second in the mirror as the steam fogs up the room, and I grin to myself.
Every time Lock touches me, his cock is going to burn, and if he keeps doing it, it will fall off.
I think it’s the perfect punishment for a betraying asshole cheater who thinks he’s trapped me.
Little does he know, you can’t trap the bonded of a dragon.
We’ll just burn everything to the ground and go back to them in the skies.