Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(35)

“Branok,” Jaik shouted, and Lynx moved to intercept the Scourge attacking his brother, but it was too late. One of the Scourge drove a knife into Branok’s ear.

The dragon reared back and roared before trampling the Scourge beneath his feet.

“You’re fine, shake it off,” Jaik shouted at them, and Lynx growled at Jaik. His horned head bumped his brother’s protectively, the two of them checking on each other, accidentally stepping on the Scourge over and over until it was just a bit of rotten jelly squished across the floor.

As the noise faded, as the last of the Scourge fell, for the first time I truly wanted to just be one of them. Even though I couldn’t yet fight alongside them as quite their equal, I could imagine myself being a part of their team.

“We’ll need to go through the tunnels and make sure there are no Scourge left,” Damyn said. “I’m calling down a cleaning crew.”

There were dead Scourge, finally put out of their misery, scattered all around us.

“Lucien, with me,” Talisyn said, his voice resigned.

“Just the two of us?” I asked, looking down the long deep tunnel. I couldn’t even see the other end as it vanished into darkness. There could be Scourge hanging from the ceiling for all I knew.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you,” Talisyn said, his voice thick with disgust.

That tone made my spine snap to attention. I refused for him to see me as weak. I was stuck being Lucien Finn, which meant it was time for Lucien Finn to redeem himself.

I didn’t know how I would make up with Brandon and Lynx. But I was going to have to try, and for right now I could show that even though I’d been a dragon shifter for less than a day, I still had the heart of a warrior.

“Lead on,” I said.

He flicked his fingers and a ball of fire appeared in his palm that lit his way.

As the two of us made our path down the long tunnel, a Scourge came flying out of a side passageway.

Talisyn snatched the Scourge away from me and murdered it, setting it on fire, and then murmuring a word of a spell. The Scourge burnt so hot that it was almost unbearable to be in the tunnel. I took several steps back as the heat beat against my face, and the Scourge crumbled away to nothing but ash, leaving a heavy acrid smell of smoke in the tunnel and char marks on the ceiling.

“Can you teach me how to do that?” I needed to learn the magic these men had.

Before Talisyn could answer, we were attacked by more Scourge.

The two of us ducked and fought. Talisyn grabbed one, set it on fire, moved swiftly to the next. The Scourge stumbled around windmilling their arms, scattering flames everywhere. I had the distinct impression that I was about to be set on fire again, and really no one should have to deal with that more than once per day.

Talisyn seemed to feel he had everything under control, even without my help. But then, he was attacked from behind by another Scourge, who had a long, wicked knife that he drove toward Talisyn’s kidneys.

“Look out!” I shouted. Talisyn turned, but I had the feeling he wasn’t going to make it in time.

I threw myself forward, intent on pushing the Scourge away from Talisyn, tackling him, so that Talisyn would have time to adjust. By then I was sure he would come to my rescue with his very useful flame hands, I really needed flame hands of my own.

Talisyn whirled faster than I would have thought possible, and sent out a blast of flame, just as I slammed into the Scourge. The two of us both slammed into the ground, and we were both on fire.

Talisyn grabbed me and yanked me to my feet. The flames igniting across my clothes flickered and died. Cool air brushed my skin as the two of us faced each other.

My heart stumbled every time Talisyn locked eyes with me. No matter how much my brain knew better.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“I’m fine.” My voice came out remarkably level, given that I was facing my childhood nightmares.

“Just for future reference, we try to kill the Scourge, not get killed.”

God, what an asshole. “I was trying to protect you.”

“I know. It was cute. I assume, with time, you’ll get better at it. Don’t be discouraged.”

“If I get another chance, I’m going to just let them murder you.”

“No, you won’t,” Talisyn said, sounding as confident as ever. I’d never met such a cocky guy in all my life.

But he slapped my shoulder as we headed back up the tunnel. “Surprisingly adequate, Lucien.”

He was such an arrogant ass.

I made sure he didn’t see me smile.





Honor



That night at dinner it was surreal to be surrounded by the chatting, laughing students when I knew how close we’d come to having Scourge storm the academy.

Despite the fact that Lynx had broken my nose earlier, I decided to be forgiving. Or foolhardy, depending on your perspective. But I’d always considered forgiveness to be a foolhardy act to begin with.

I sat beside him. The long wooden tables were laid with family style meals, which was much nicer than the way we ate in the servants’ quarters, where food was pretty much thrown at us for lunch, and we ate it on our brief break between dusting, mopping, and scrubbing sessions.

“Why are you sitting here?” Lynx demanded.

“I know you don’t like me,” I said, which was answered with enthusiastic nodding. That was the most enthusiastic I had ever seen these guys. “But I want to talk to you about what happened today.”