Forbidden Honor (Dragon Royals #1)(39)

The dragon shifters had their own wing, which seemed a little ridiculous; they owned the very top floor of the west wing of the academy. I knew how small the other rooms were and that everyone had a roommate. But my new, enormous room looked out over the training yard far below and had an expansive balcony. There was a fireplace surrounded by empty bookshelves and an elaborate four poster bed.

I didn’t have anything to put in my room at the moment. Lucien Finn understandably wouldn’t have had a lot of his belongings. I had to be grateful that Lucien was an orphan just like I was. At least he wouldn’t have parents to miss him.

Even though he’d been foolish, and his demise had probably been inevitable, I didn’t like the fact that I was linked to it now.





Honor



When I left my room, Talisyn was waiting in the hall.

“Finally,” he said. “What were you doing?”

“Just trying to get my head on straight.” My literal head. I was really worried I was going to forget one day which face I was supposed to wear.

“Good luck with that,” he said. ‘You seem to be like someone who’s perpetually lopsided.”

He pushed open a door at the end of the hallway, and I went up with him to the rooftop.

“You know,” I mused, taking in how close it felt like we were to the stars, how hard the wind tugged at my hair, “This seems like a terrible place to begin learning.”

“It’s a great place,” Talisyn disagreed, with his customary confidence. His tousled hair was flying in the wind above his sharp-planed face. “The higher the stakes, the lower the learning curve.”

“The greater the likelihood of me ending up as a splat on the training yard far below,” I said. “You don’t want to permanently traumatize the undragons, do you?”

He winced. “I’ve been trying to stop them from calling the other shifters that.”

“I’d definitely avoid it, assuming you want them to watch your back in battle.”

“To be fair.” He smiled as if my suggestion were slightly ridiculous. “We pretty much just rely on each other.”

“Must be nice,” I said.

“Yeah. It’s hard to imagine us beginning to rely on you. But maybe it could happen in time, if you can win Branok and Lynx over.”

“I hope so,” I said. “That’s hard to imagine right now.”

“Yeah, it is,” he agreed. “You’ve got to find a way to begin to make up what you did to Alina.”

“Yes. Yes, I certainly do.” I had no idea who Alina was or what I’d done to her, though, so that was going to be a challenge.

Maybe I could ask Calla. She’d talked about how the servants had their goss. Maybe the goss could actually be useful to me.

I thought Talisyn and I were having a nice conversation.

But it ended pretty abruptly when he shoved me off the edge of the building.

I definitely should not have a crush on that man.

For a few seconds, as wind streamed past my face, blind panic ripped through me. The training yard seemed to rush upward blindingly fast.

Pain washed through my body as my wings rippled out. I tumbled, jerked to a stop, tumbled more as the wind caught my wings. I clawed through the air, my legs windmilling, and then my wings caught the breeze and it bore me upward.

Suddenly I was soaring.

I desperately wanted to tell Talisyn what an asshole he was. But it became impossible.

“Oh, come on. I’m not that bad,” Talisyn said into my mind.

The words hit me with a wave of shock, overcoming the sudden exhilaration of flight. It sounded as if he’d spoken to me. But obviously we couldn’t speak to each other at the moment.

“It’s the power of communication that we all have,” he explained. “Just one of the many things that makes us superior in battle.”

“Did you really just say that? No wonder no one likes you.” But my thoughts were reeling. If they could hear me, then they could hear all my secrets. Hopefully Damyn was right that the spell Talisyn’s father had put on me would prevent them from knowing I was Honor.

“There is a way around that,” Talisyn said in my head, as I tried desperately to think of anything else. Unfortunately, what came to my mind to keep from accidentally revealing my secrets was just what I thought about Talisyn. And it wasn’t that he was a jerk.

Even in his dragon form, Talisyn’s shock radiated from him.

“That’s okay. It doesn’t hurt my feelings, Lucien,” he said. “I know I’m a beautiful man.”

Maybe arrogance was part of the dragon shifter package.

He explained to me that there was a way to put up walls in your mind so that the other dragons could only hear you when you wanted them to. “That’s a very important skill because of the elders.”

“Tell me more about them.”

“I don’t think you’re ready for that conversation.”

“There’s a lot going on around here that I’d like to understand.” Focus on my question. Not my secrets.

“What secrets do you have? The worst things that you’ve done are already well known by the royals.”

“I don’t think you know the half of it,” I said before realizing that was exactly the wrong thing to say.