Sniffing, I blinked fast. It shouldn’t hurt like this. He’d chosen, and he hadn’t picked the silly, gullible outling girl. No, he’d made it clear he wanted—
“You came,” he said softly from behind me, his voice slicing through my defeat. “I wasn’t sure you would.”
I spun and caught him stepping out of the shadows at the base of the tower.
Turning my head away, I quickly wiped the evidence off my face. “Maybe I shouldn’t have.”
“I’m glad you did.” His measured strides brought him closer until he stopped a few feet from me.
The moon had been playing a game of hide and seek with the clouds all night, first beaming down to energize the dandybucklions then yanking the clouds over its head like a baby nestling under a blanket.
Shining as it did now, it could expose my vulnerability.
I shouldn’t be melting inside at the thought of being near him. Of having the chance to breathe the same air as him. He was a boy. More than enough of them at the Academy.
None who could compare to my dark princeling, however.
“I was…getting worried,” he said. “When you didn’t show.”
“I know the feeling.” No hiding the bitterness in my words.
“I’m sorry.”
“You said that already. Too many times.” Why couldn’t I maintain the anger that had grown inside me like an invasive weed, thriving on my bruised feelings? I should be storming at him, telling him he’d blown me off one too many times, that we had nothing further to say to each other.
“But I didn’t say sorry the last time. While you were waiting. Niles did.”
I cocked one eyebrow at him. “You’re saying Niles mindspoke to me while pretending he was you?”
“Yup.” He sighed. “Would you let me explain?”
“I guess? I didn’t blow you off tonight, by the way. I was delayed.” I flicked my hand out. “You know how it is. Dandybucklions. Council Seekers. Dragonsworn.”
“Dragonsworn,” he breathed. “Where did you hear that?”
Interesting that he’d focused on that word and not the others.
“The Headmistress.” Plus, Alex, who I had not yet mentioned to Donovan. “What does it mean?”
“Long ago, Dragonsworn symbolized a pact between the dragons and the fae.”
Dragons. Like the one living in the forest? “Tell me.”
“It’s said that, in a time of great need, the crystal dragon will come to life, take wing, and defend the one it cherishes most.”
“Who’s that?”
He shrugged. “No one knows.”
“Someone…” Alex, that is, “told me the time could be coming soon.” Justine had, too.
“Perhaps.” He walked past me, his sneakers scuffing on the asphalt roof, but he turned before he reached the edge. “I’m sorry. I need to explain why I didn’t—couldn’t—answer your pings. Meet you here on the roof like I said I would.”
“You acted like I didn’t exist.” The sting came through in my voice.
“I’m sorry about that, too. But…”
Here it comes. We’re done. My brother means a lot to me, and he asked me to ditch you. I agreed.
“I’m bespelled.”
My body swayed. “By who?” A growl rose in my throat. “Your brother.”
“He told me to choose. Him or you and I chose…” His throat moved with his swallow. When he shrugged, his hands lifted at his sides. “I chose you.”
Funny how the gloomy shades of night can light up, suddenly revealing sapphire, onyx, and mossy green. A midnight rainbow shining on my soul.
Happiness bubbled up in my throat. “I imagine the king was pissed.”
“And then some.” Donovan’s tight posture loosened, and he rubbed his hair. “Said he’d find a way to make sure I’d never see or speak with you again.”
“Yet, here you are.”
“Can’t say he didn’t try, but I found a way around his spell.”
“I thought, once you were bespelled, that was it. You were stuck.” Fortunately, few wizards seemed capable of controlling others with their magic. I’d assumed the ability was something granted only to those who would choose authority. What if it was a skill like any other? A skapti. “Is this something your brother can do?”
“He employs wizards for most tasks, but he has a Court Bespeller. One of two known to possess that skapti.”
“I see.” Stepping closer to him, I drank in the way the moonlight glinted off his hair, the indigo blue of a sunlit raven. “How did you get around his spell?”
“At first, I didn’t realize I was bespelled.” He released a half-laugh. “See, someone kept sending pings.”
“That would be me.”
“When I didn’t recognize the signature, I didn’t answer.”
“How could you not—”
He held up his hand. “Today, Niles had to leave for business. He’ll be back tomorrow morning. Fortunately, he took his Bespeller with him, which makes the spell…” His gaze darted away from mine. “It makes the spell weaken. When you pinged, I grumbled to Lilianne that someone wouldn’t leave me alone. She said, why don’t you just block her? Her. As if she knew who was trying to reach me. Flustered, she left the room, but I knew she was hiding something. That’s when I suspected I was bespelled.”
“Are you saying you didn’t know who I was?”
“I was bespelled to forget you ever existed.”
Uncontrollable anger ripped through me. “You didn’t remember me?” The back of my eyes stung. How could someone do that to a person they supposedly loved? Donovan should be allowed to live his own life, not one dictated to him by his brother.
“I kind of stumbled on a way to suspend the spell for a short time.”
I tilted my head as my fingers grew numb. “What did you do?”
His lips curled up on one side. “Jumped off a roof. Knew pain would buy me long enough to remember. And when I did, I wanted to kill my brother. His Bespeller, too.”
Pain? He’d hurt himself for me, to remember me?
“Knowing distance could make the spell weaker, I flitted as far as I could, to friends deep in the forest. But they couldn’t break the spell.”
“What will we do?”
His lips flicked up when I said, we. “Niles is leaving soon. He’ll take his Bespeller with him, to his palace on the other side of the world. The distance should be enough to weaken the magic.”
“And if it isn’t?”
He fidgeted with his collar. “I’ve got a back-up plan.” Why wouldn’t he meet my eyes? He was hiding something. “I promise. I won’t forget you, Fleur.” His words came out frantic. Urgent. “I won’t forget us.”
“Is that what you’ve been doing all along when you jump, breaking spells?”
“Nope. In case you’re worried, I jumped off a low roof today. High enough to snap my arm when I hit the ground, though. That hurt like hell.”
“Donovan.” The weight of my anguish came through in my voice. “You’re going to break your neck one of these days. You have to stop jumping.”
“Can’t. It’s in my blood. I won’t deny the call.”
What compelled this boy to endanger his very existence on a regular basis? If only I understood what drove him.
“Your arm looks okay now,” I said, my gaze drawn to it hanging loose at his side.
“Healers work wonders. Almost as good as new.”
“And the spell has weakened.”
“Yup. The second the healer released me, I pinged you and flitted here. I’m safe for tonight but I’ll have to stay away once Niles and his Bespeller return to the campus, until they leave for good in a couple of days.”
“Hope he won’t send a Seeker after you.”
“Think he did, actually. But I grew up in the castle. Younger brothers are often viewed as…competition. Someone to be manipulated or… Let’s just say I learned how to hide.”
I took a step toward him. Then another. Not
stopping until the rise and fall of our chests made us brush. “Where do we go from here?”
“Niles is leaving. Once home, he’ll be too busy running the kingdom to think about me. Planning his upcoming wedding.”
To the fairytale woman in the pale blue satin dress. Lilianne, who’d slipped up and handed Donovan the key to releasing him from the spell.
“Eventually, they’ll have kids, which’ll bump me out of line.” He huffed. “Then he’ll be the one having a hard time remembering I exist. Can’t wait for that day to arrive. By then, the bespelling will have weakened. Maybe faded completely.”
“So, bespellings are a bit like wards?”
“Yeah. Those with strong magic can create wards, which are temporary and don’t work well on people. It takes a Bespeller to manipulate an outling or wizard.”
I’d wondered about the difference between the two types of spells.
“I don’t like that you had to choose.” Families shouldn’t do this to each other.
But, then, look at my mother…
“It was my decision.” His gaze drifted down my face but returned to my eyes. “Wasn’t hard to make at all. You…you know I like you, Fleur.” There was no denying the husky emotion in his voice.
Or my response to his closeness. Or the aching need to touch him rising inside me.
Inching forward, I cupped his shoulders and stared up at him. “I like you, too.”
His arms slid around my waist, and he let a healing silence stretch between us. “I missed you, Fleur.”
Biting my lower lip, I nodded.
“And you asked, where do we go from here?” Stepping back, he took my hands and tugged me closer to the edge of the roof. “The world is ours. But first, I need to share a secret.”
“You have secrets?”
“One big one. I…hope it doesn’t piss you off when you see what it is.”
“I’ve been a yo-yo the past week, but we’re here. Together. I don’t believe anything you say could piss me off.”
“I’m asking you to believe I’d never hurt you on purpose.”
I narrowed my brow as he stepped up onto the short wall encircling the roofline. “What are you doing?” Did I really want to know?
“Join me.”
“Not jumping, Donovan. I’ll go splat.”
His soft smile called to the wildness deep inside me. “But what if you don’t?”
I stepped up on the edge and teetered with my hand clutching Donovan’s. My head spun, and the ground seemed eager to suck me down. In the distance, a flock of rainbow wilty-sparks danced near the western forest, oblivious to my eminent demise.
“This isn’t a low roof,” I said. “I’m going to break more than an arm.”
“I won’t let you fall.”
Hysterical laughter shot from my mouth. “Not sure how you’ll stop that from happening if we jump.” It was inevitable. We were three plus floors above the ground. The moat waited below us, dubious safety considering Sirra would never release me if I fell into her clutches. If I missed the moat, the driveway would provide an unforgiving landing.
“You ready?” he asked.
“No. I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for this.”
“I want you to climb onto my back.”
I grimaced. “Then you can splat before I do unless you twist and I’ll splat before you?”
“Not gonna splat.” He tapped his shoulder. “Come on. It’ll be fun. I promise.”
I did trust him. But jumping off the roof?
“I’m scared,” I whispered.
“I was the first time, too. If it helps to hear, it gets easier each time.”
After taking a deep breath, I forced out my panic with the air. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
By the fae, I was about to die. Sweat trickled down my spine and my heart thundered behind my ribs.
He turned away from me and I hopped onto his back. I clung to his shoulders and, closing my eyes, laid my cheek on his back.
“I…um, I’m re—”
His hands extending, he leaped off the roof.
Chapter 30
“Donovan!” I screamed as his plunge turned into a spiral dive. The wind clawed at my face and my tears were torn from my eyes.
He twisted, and a heavy, muted groan erupted from his throat.
My eyes popped open as the ground grew closer. He wasn’t going to break his arm—my arms—he was going to break our heads. Our brains would splatter across the driveway. They’d scrape up what was left of us tomorrow with a shovel.
Rearing back his head, Donovan’s eyes bulged as his spine tightened. And elongated…
What was happening?
His body rippled beneath me and his arms snapped out at his sides. Hard appendages erupted from his back, shoving me up. The new limbs shot out and flapped beside me.
Flapped?
“Ahh!” he gasped. “Hold…” His words were cut off with a roar.
I knew that sound, this shape beneath me.
Renatt was Donovan. Donovan was Renatt.
Adrenaline spiked through me, and my breathing stalled. I couldn’t believe it. It was wild and incredible and beyond awesome.
His wings flapped harder, pulling us up out of our tailspin. We surged into the sky, conquering the night, before he turned toward the forest.
Of course. He’d take me to the meadow where I’d first met him in this form.
But he didn’t land in the pasture. He passed it and kept flying west, his wings moving steadily as the Academy rooflines faded behind us.
I still couldn’t believe it. Donovan, a dragon. Questions rose from deep inside me, eager to burst free, but I held them back. He couldn’t answer and yes or no would never satisfy.
Why hadn’t I seen this? Or had I known deep inside?
He’d said he was trying to fly when he jumped off the roof. I’d thought he was joking when, all the time, he’d been as honest as he could be while still keeping his secret.
Did his brother know?
The tall peaks of a craggy mountain range cut through the darkness, and we approached a cleared area near the top of one of the hills. As we drifted lower, I spied wooden buildings sheltered beneath broad trees with wood smoke drifting from chimneys. Caught by the wind, it swept up and dispersed, leaving no evidence behind.
We flew in close to a flat granite platform, and Donovan lifted his upper body, his back legs extended, and his claws unfurled. As he dropped down onto the stone, his claws added new gouges to those made by centuries of dragons who had landed here before him.
I slid off his back to the ground, and he transformed back into the boy I’d fallen for. Clothing including which…Okay, I wasn’t too sad about that.
He stood with his head lowered, his arms flat on his sides. “Are you now?” he finally said.
“Am I what, now?”
“Pissed off at me?”
To think he’d shared this with me, exposed his vulnerability knowing I could scorn him. Or reveal it to the world.
“I know.” His words rushed out. “I should’ve told you sooner. After we met in the forest. But I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That you’d reject me like my mom did me and my father once she found out. That’s when she killed him.”
I gasped. His mom had killed his father?
“She would’ve killed me, too.” He gulped. “But my stepfather—” He swallowed deeply as if a huge lump had wedged in his throat. “My stepfather stopped her.”
“How?”
“She came at me with the knife saturated with my father’s blood and he jumped between us. They fought. She fell on the blade.”
How horrible this must’ve been for Donovan. He’d seen it all. “What happened to your stepfather?”
“He was put to death for murdering the queen. Don’t you see?” he pleaded. “He was only trying to protect me and she betrayed him. Betrayed all of us.”
“Did he know about your dragon?” Wait. I wa
s reminded of my dragonfly, Alex’s words about perites being nearly extinct, though a few still lived in the forest. The rest worked at the palace, which might be where Donovan’s mom had met his father. “Your father was a perite, wasn’t he?”
He nodded. “My blood, too.”
“Most were killed.”
His growl rose in his chest. “Murdered. Hunted.”
“Why?”
“The fae believed dragon bone could give them endless power. Wasn’t true but that didn’t stop them from killing my family to grind up ours.”
A shudder rippled through me. “That’s horrible.”
“That’s why there are wards in the forest. To keep out everyone but those who don’t intend harm.”
I was deemed worthy. Perhaps I’d passed a test with Alex. But then I’d helped the dragon when he was wounded, solidifying my right to be there. I’d helped Donovan, that is. “Your stepfather didn’t tell?”
“He took my secret to the grave when he could’ve told everyone what really happened and saved himself. He made me promise not to tell anyone, and I couldn’t be like my mother…” His voice broke. “I couldn’t betray him, too. I’ve lived with the guilt of what happened ever since.”
“How old were you?”
“Eleven.”
“Still a child. There was nothing you could’ve done.”
“There must’ve been. If only I’d…done something.” Lifting my hand, he trailed his fingertip along the palm. “Will you forgive me for not telling you?”
I stepped forward, into his arms, and stroked the shaggy hair off his forehead. “You shared when it was the right time to tell me. There’s nothing to forgive.”
The tension eased from his frame.
“Is this it?” I asked.
He tilted his head, frowning.
“You said secrets. More than one?”
“Oh, the others aren’t anything compared to this.”
I lifted my eyebrows.
“Okay. Here’s one. I hate pizza.”
“That’s a violation of everything sacred in life!” No hiding my laughter. “But you’ve shared pizza with me at least three times for dinner.”
“Just want to make you happy.”
I poked his chest. “No more pizza for you, then, because I want to make you happy, too.”
Crystal Wing Academy- The Complete Series Page 44
