Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(33)

So far, my first day of school had not been a massive success.





Honor



The physician used magic to heal my broken nose. I wondered what kind of shifter he was because healing magic was rare among shifters. We were more the breaking it types than the fixing it types. I certainly got the feeling that dragon shifters were all about the breaking, very light on the fixing.

“I’m here until the dinner bell,” the physician told me, as if he knew that I was likely to require more fixing today. That certainly put me in an optimistic frame of mind.

By the time I headed into the hall, my shirt still soaked to my chest with blood, the entire academy was done beating each other bloody and was thronging the halls, moving on to magic classes.

Unfortunately, every kind of shifter had their own kind of magic, which meant that every kind of shifter had their own magic class, and I was headed for my second date of the day with the dragon royals.

I joined them in their classroom, which was far too small, with six large desks besides the teacher’s lectern, and tall windows open to let in the sea air.

I stepped over Arren’s enormous booted feet, sprawled in the aisle, and he glared at me, exuding murder. I managed to jump over one of the golden twin’s boots when he kicked one out to trip me and finally slid into my seat.

“How old are you?” I scolded. “Are you seven?”

“It is embarrassing,” Talisyn agreed. “Because he missed.”

“I’m so glad that the physician was able to patch you up,” Branok—or maybe Lynx—said.

I wasn’t really sure what to make of that, given that it was either him or his twin who had just demolished me. I couldn’t tell the difference between Lynx and Branok.

I’d soon find out that the other dragons had no issues telling them apart, but I had no idea how. To me, they looked the same—tall, well built, golden bronze skin, golden blond hair, piercing green eyes, and an extremely surly attitude. I mean that was fine if you were into that kind of thing.

On another day, if one of them hadn’t just tried to kill me, I would probably have been into that kind of thing.

Damyn walked into the room, pushing his sleeves up corded forearms. He glanced toward me and said, kindly enough, “Lucien, you’ll need to start at the beginning.”

He directed me to some books at the back of the room as the other guys snickered. I paged through the books, reading about how to ignite a flame in my palm while they practiced using dragons’ breath in human form.

These men exhaled breaths of smoke and fire that swirled around their handsome faces, making them even more impressive figures. I hated it.

I side-eyed Branok and Lynx as they casually threw flames back and forth, close enough to heat my face. When I finally looked back down at the page, a spark landed in my hair. I launched myself from the desk. Damyn looked up and saw my situation just as I was beginning to run around like a crazy person.

He threw a hand toward me, smothering the flames with his magic. I stopped with my heart pounding, reaching up to touch my hair. A few charred, brittle ends broke off in my fingers, and my scalp still felt hot.

“Who lit you on fire?” he asked, which was such a surreal question that I began to giggle, as if I were coming completely undone.

I knew damn well it had been one of the twins, but ratting them out wasn’t going to get me anywhere.

“I don’t know,” I lied. “Maybe I did it to myself accidentally, practicing.”

Damyn frowned. “I see already following in the footsteps of your new friends, just the very model of honesty.”

“That’s me,” I said cheerfully.

As we were leaving the classroom, Talisyn’s big shoulder bumped mine. “Don’t think that wins you any favor.”

“Oh, I wasn’t confused that it did,” I answered. “I’ve seen Arren glaring at me all day long.”

Talisyn glanced at Arren too. “Yes, he does that. It’s kind of creepy. We’ve told him.”

For a moment, Talisyn reminded me of the lord that I’d first met, a man who was definitely not sweet, but also not psychopathic, and not actively trying to murder me. I had liked that version of Talisyn much better.

But one of the twins gave him a hard look and suddenly Talisyn walked away from me.

I was starving for lunch. Being set on fire made me hungry. But when the bell rang. It didn’t just ring. Instead, an unusual deep tolling sound boomed across the campus.

Down the hall, Talisyn swore as he turned back toward me, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he waited for me to catch up. Despite his casual pose, there was tension etched through his muscles.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“That means we have Scourge at the gates.” Talisyn answered.

“Scourge, here?” My pulse was suddenly rattling, my mouth dry.

Damyn said calmly. “The rest of the academy will be locking down. You know where you all are needed.”

“Except for you, Lucien,” Jaik said.

“Take him with you,” Damyn snapped. “And I want him back alive. You can all return to tormenting him after we’ve dealt with the Scourge.”

“We don’t even know that he can fly yet,” Talisyn protested.

“He’s a dragon. Dragons can fly. Keep him close.” Damyn made eye contact with Talisyn specifically. “I’m making you personally responsible for his safety.”