Dragons and Destiny (Animage Academy Book 1)

by Michelle Wilson

  “Not really, I don’t think. My dad started the Faction because he was frustrated there was no one to oppose the Council. If it takes revealing the supernatural world for us to live free, then yeah, that’s what we want. But there could be a middle ground somewhere we haven’t explored. And that’s the goal of the Faction, to put pressure on the Council to listen to the demands of the people they’re making the rules for.”

  That didn’t sound so bad, really. A world where I didn’t have to hide my magic, or my dragon sounded nice. It also sounded too good to be true.

  “You know, Simon mentioned the rumor going around his school is that the Faction was behind the break in at the faerie school this summer.”

  It was Kylee’s turn to stand up and walk around the room.

  “You don’t think anyone would have a reason to spread that rumor? The Faction is not a radical group. We are just political. We’re not interested in going against the Council. Our goal is to work with them and change the laws.” I held up my hands in surrender.

  “I’m not accusing, Kylee. Just trying to understand. All I’ve heard all my life is that the Secrecy Act keeps us safe.”

  “But at what cost?”

  “That’s the same question I’ve been asking myself.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  I fingered the pieces of the glass doe scattered on the table and the floor. It was shattered beyond even magical repair. The figurines were supposed to be presents for family and friends. I could see now that Willa didn’t consider me either. My vision blurred as I picked up the pieces and let them fall like rain into the trash can. So much for that.

  A knock on my door had me frantically wiping my eyes with a napkin.

  “It’s open.” Penelope came in holding a flyer.

  “Have you seen this? They’re hosting a winter ball in two weeks!” She waved the flyer in front of my face until I snatched it from her hand. ‘Join us for a fairy tale masquerade ball’ it said across the front.

  I grunted and handed it back to her.

  “I’m not sensing the appropriate amount of excitement here. Are you telling me you don’t want to get dressed up and don a sparkly mask and kiss your true love at the stroke of midnight?” She draped herself over the armchair.

  “What are you on?” I shook my head at her as I went through my messenger bag to make sure I had all my books and homework for class.

  “Oh, come on, you have to have at least one romantic bone in your body.”

  “I guess I’m just not in a fairy tale mood.”

  “So, are you saying if someone asked you to the ball you would say no?” I snorted.

  “No one’s going to ask me to the dance.” Penelope sat up and gave me a sly look out of the corner of her eyes.

  “I know a particularly yummy faerie who is smitten with his little dragon.” I paused putting a book in my bag. Penelope giggled.

  “I thought so. So, if Drew asked, would you go with him?”

  “I don’t know. We’ll just have to see if he asks.” Penelope shook her head at me and hauled me out of the room to go to breakfast.

  “You’re such a temperamental little thing.”

  If I hoped things would go back to normal after the break, it was a waste of time. We had three days of classes, and so far, day three was shaping up to be just as miserable as the last two. Willa, Gracie, and even Hudson avoided me. No, it was more than avoiding. They were acting like I didn’t even exist. I was like I was starting all over again. In each class I had to find new places to sit, new people to hang out with. At least I had Drew in defense.

  Wednesday meant I didn’t have to go to shifting class. It was dragon lesson day. My father and I hadn’t spoken since Willa’s mother was arrested. My stomach was a ball of lead as my feet led me to the admin building. But when I arrived at Mrs. Winnifred’s desk, I stopped. My gut twisted with the thought of what I was about to do.

  “Sophie, can I help you with something?” Mrs. Winnifred asked.

  “Yes. Would you please tell my father that I’m not coming?” Before she could reply, I was gone. Lessons with my dad were over for me.

  The sun shined a little brighter, and the air was more pleasant as I walked back across campus. One of the beautiful things about the academy was that if you didn’t attend or work there, you weren’t allowed outside the admin building. Dad could send a professor or the headmistress after me, but I would just tell them the same thing. What were they going to do about it? It was time he figured out he couldn’t control me.

  My exhiliration was enough to get me through the rest of the day’s classes. Willa, Gracie, and Hudson could continue to act like I didn’t exist. My dad could demand my allegiance. It didn’t matter. I didn’t need them. From now on, I would determine my own destiny.

  A screeching brought me out of a deep sleep. My dragon roared inside, sensing danger from my wildly beating heart.

  “All students please report to the gymnasium immediately.” The magically amplified voice was so loud I clapped my hands over my ears. That couldn’t be good. As quick as possible, I tucked my nightgown into a pair of jeans, stuck my feet in some boots, and grabbed my jacket. When I came out of the bedroom, I caught sight of the back of Willa going down the hall. It was the first glimpse I’d had of her in our room all week.

  Penelope was standing at the door to the building with a clipboard, marking students off as they passed her. “Everyone out on the pathway! Go straight to the gym as fast as you can.” I filed in with the rest of the female students to get through the doors. Lamp posts that were normally dark this time of night illuminated the cobblestones beneath our feet. Professors stood on the side of the path, ushering us along.

  I hung back as much as I could. The fear and nervousness of all the nearby students hummed in my mind so loud I could barely hear. I couldn’t block it out. My dragon retreated further inside of me, away from the feelings of fear and despair. Sweat broke out on my forehead. Black spots clouded my vision. I pulled my jacket off and let the cold air hit my skin. It wasn’t enough. I darted off the path and vomited on the lawn. Amid the chaos no one noticed me.

  My body quivered so hard I couldn’t get off my hands and knees. Warm hands calmed the back of my neck.

  “It’s okay, Sophie. I’m here.” Hudson’s earnest voice relaxed me. As the students got further away, the humming in my mind faded. Magic flowed from Hudson’s hands through my body, stopping the quivering and steadying me.

  “Thank you.” I managed to sit up on my knees. “How did you do that?”

  “All werewolves can do that to members of their pack. I’ve never tried on anyone else, but I thought it was worth a shot when I saw you.”

  “It really helped. I’ve never been swept up in that much fear before. It was paralyzing.” A shiver ran down my spine. “Thank you for helping me.” Hudson grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet.

  “Sophie I—”

  “Shhhh.” I held up my hand to stop him from talking. As I was working to block out the feelings of the students, something else pricked in my senses. Something different. I concentrated, trying to identify what it was.

  “Someone’s here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Someone broke in. They’re in the admin building.” I trotted down the path. Hudson followed me.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To find them.”

  “Are you crazy? We need to find a professor.” The fear and distress of the students was still a dull ache in my mind. I was going to find this person and punish him. No one threatened my school.

  “Then go find one. They’re all in the gym. I can feel it.” Hudson grabbed my arm and spun me around.

  “Sophie, I’m not letting you go all vigilante on your own.”

  “Hudson. Let. Go.” Heat flared through my skin. Hudson gripped tighter. The temperature continued to rise, but he didn’t let go.

  “No.” His voice rumbled in his throat.

  “What�
��s going on here?” We both jumped as Drew appeared out of the dark. He was eyeing Hudson from head to toe. Hudson tensed, but he let go of my arm.

  “Someone broke in,” I told Drew.

  “Well, let’s go find them, then.” I shot Hudson a victorious look and continued my walk to the admin building. Both Drew and Hudson followed me. We entered the admin building as quietly as we could. I could sense the person was there, but some kind of magical interference kept me from pinpointing their location exactly.

  We crept from door to door. I put my ear against each door to listen in before moving on. We were descending a flight of stairs to the lower level when Drew tapped me on the shoulder.

  “I was wondering,” he whispered. “Do you want to go to the dance next week with me?” I stopped so quickly both Drew and Hudson bumped into me. I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out.

  “Is this really the time?” Hudson snapped.

  “No time like the present, puppy.” Drew gave Hudson’s arm a playful punch. Hudson looked murderous.

  “Yes,” I finally managed to get out. “Yes, I would like to go to the dance with you.”

  “Great!” Drew’s words echoed in the stairwell. I clapped a hand over his mouth.

  “Sorry,” he whispered. “Let’s get back to the thief hunt.”

  The sound of a splash echoed through the stairwell when we reached the bottom. The ground floor had a puddle of water everywhere. We were staring down a completely dark stone hallway.

  “This doesn’t feel like the start of a horror movie at all.” Drew was squinting into the dark.

  “Why don’t you go on ahead and be the first to die?”

  “You don’t split up in a horror movie, puppy, everyone knows that.” He scoffed and rolled his eyes in my direction. “Where did you find this guy?”

  Hudson grabbed the front of Drew’s shirt and backed him into the wall.

  “Call me puppy one more time.”

  Drew grabbed both of Hudson’s wrists. His biceps flexed against his shirt as he squeezed. A muscle in Hudson’s jaw twitched he was clenching his teeth so hard, but he didn’t move. The tension was so thick between them you could almost see it. I rolled my eyes and stepped in between them. They had picked a fine time to act like teenage boys.

  “Stop it both of you. The thief is down here, and I can’t sense him because there’s too much testosterone in the air.”

  They let go but kept glaring at each other with eyes full of angst.

  “Can we get back to what we were doing, please?”

  With that settled, I turned my attention back to the stone hallway. Until that moment I hadn’t known the hallway existed. My vision had adjusted to the darkness, but all I could see were stone walls and closed doors. Whoever broke in was close. His nervousness felt like a twitching in my mind. My own nerves were making sure all my senses were in overdrive. My dragon was close to the surface.

  “Settle down,” I whispered. “We can’t shift in here.”

  I reached out and placed my hand against the stone wall. Tingling vibrations of the building made their way up my arm. I pushed my magic through my hands and into the stone walls.

  “Come on. I know where he is.” We sidled down the hallways, pausing every time the building creaked. My breath was shallow and silent. My focus tunneled to the task at hand. The feel of the students, the sounds of campus, even Drew and Hudson behind me, it all disappeared as I homed in on the threat. Sweat prickled on my brow and down the back of my shirt. One thought cut through clear as day. This was thrilling.

  I threw my hand up in front of Hudson and Drew as we reached the correct door. Hudson opened and closed his fists. Copper magic pooled in both of Drew’s palms. He caught my eye and nodded. I put both hands on the door and shoved.

  The door flew through the air and shattered on impact with the far wall. We ran into the room. My dragon was roaring to get out. Fire bloomed in my chest and sent waves of heat through my body. I scanned the room. No one was there. There were only bookshelves and tables full of strange artifacts.

  “I swear he was—”

  “Get down!” Drew grabbed both Hudson and I around the necks and pulled us to the floor. Yellow magic hit the side of the door frame where our heads had been moments before. Wood splinters rained down on us.

  “Invisib—” Drew gasped. I risked standing.

  “Reveal yourself!” I put the weight of command behind my words. The air shimmered straight ahead of me, revealing an iridescent snake as large as a horse. Before I had time to register what I was looking at, it hissed and struck at me. I dove underneath one of the tables. No part of me wanted to find out if those fangs were venomous.

  “Shift back!” I commanded. It didn’t work. Something large and white passed by at the edge of my vision. Hudson in his wolf form barreled into the snake. The force knocked the snake back. I jumped back onto my feet, my heart in my throat. Hudson growled and tried to take a bite out of the snake, but his teeth bounced off the scales. Before Drew or I had a chance to help, the snake recovered. He slammed Hudson with his tail. Hudson flew through the air and hit the bookshelf with a crunch. My stomach twisted. Hudson stayed on the ground.

  My breathing was ragged. Why did we think a group of students were going to be any match for a fully trained supernatural? I scrambled underneath the tables, trying to find something to defend myself with. A magical blast from Drew ricocheted off the snake. My whole body tingled as the magic barely missed me. It blew apart one of the tables. I grabbed a jagged piece of the table leg and stood.

  “Sophie!” An explosion of yellow magic was heading for me. Everything moved in slow motion. Hudson was back in human form, his arm outstretched toward me. Drew’s eyes were full of horror. They were both on the other side of the room. I didn’t have time to block it. There wasn’t even time to bring my arms up in front of my face. I braced for impact. The magic hit me. And disappeared. My necklace flared with heat.

  There was no time to think about it. The snake hissed and struck at me again. We fell in a tangle of bodies. As coils wrapped me tighter and tighter, I couldn’t breathe. My dragon roaring inside me, trying to get loose. I had to shift. Hudson and Drew’s faces flashed before my eyes. I couldn’t. It would bring the building down and hurt them. The sound of their voices yelling echoed in my ears, but it was getting further and further away. All I could see was black scales flexing, pulling tighter against me.

  Darkness clouded my vision. I thrashed. It didn’t help. The metallic taste of panic coated my tongue. The snake was wrapped all the way around my legs and arms. Magic hit one of the coils and jarred the snake. Cool air brushed against my hand. There was something else. The wood from the shard of table leg was rough against my palm. I had enough fire left inside me to set it aflame. I jabbed upward as hard as I could. The snake began to thrash, with me still inside his coils. The movement addled me. I couldn’t tell which way was up. I kept stabbing anyway. Something liquid hit my skin and burned. I barely registered the pain.

  My lungs gasped for air as the coils around me loosened. Racking coughs came one right after the other. Big arms lifted me up and pulled me free of the last of the coils. Hudson hauled me all the way across the room and stood in front of me. Drew had the snake’s head tight in his arms, holding its mouth shut.

  Black blood pooled on the floor around the snake. A flash of white light momentarily blinded me. When the spots in my eyes cleared, the snake had been replaced by a man. Drew dropped him into the puddle of his blood.

  “Sophie, are you okay?” I nodded. Hudson brushed my hair away from my face. I could see he had small burns across his nose and cheek where the snake’s blood had sprayed him too.

  “Is he?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

  “No. Just unconscious.” Drew had grabbed a rag from one of the worktables and pressed it again the bleeding wound in the guy’s belly. I walked over, Hudson a shadow behind me. His shoulders were rigid.

  There wa
s something shining by the man’s foot. I bent down to pick it up. It was a small piece of gold, shaped like a coin. I rubbed the smooth surface with my hand. There was an emblem of a bear track with a crown above it stamped onto both sides. Where had I seen that before?

  “That was really stupid,” Hudson said. I pocketed the coin.

  “But it was fun,” Drew pointed out. Even Hudson grinned at that.

  “What were you all thinking?” Drew, Hudson, and I were lined up in chairs in Headmistress Adiana’s office. She was pacing back and forth in front of us. Professor Sarah and Professor Vickers flanked her on both sides. All of them were still in pajamas and coats.

  “Three young and untested animages against a trained one. All three of you are lucky to still be alive. You better thank Professor Sarah for her excellent training.”

  None of us spoke. Between interviews with the Upholders and lectures from the other professors, we’d been getting scolded all night.

  “Headmistress, we train our students to fight and be suspicious of everything,” Professor Vickers said. “We tell them they are the strongest beings in the universe and then train them to make war. Why are you surprised when they seek it out?” I glanced at Hudson and raised my eyebrows. I had never heard a professor argue with the headmistress before. Even Professor Sarah’s tail twitched and as she looked back and forth between the headmistress and the other professor.

  “Charles, that’s enough. I know your feelings on the matter.”

  “Why didn’t you all get there first? I mean, didn’t you know there was someone on campus?” I tried to kick Drew under the table. He shrugged at me, completely nonchalant about provoking the headmistress.

  “No, we did not.” Headmistress Adiana’s tone was clipped. “The snake had magic working for him that shielded him from us. Our security alarms went off, alerting us to a threat on campus, but that was all.”

  “How did you all know?” Professor Sarah asked. Hudson and Drew both looked over at me. My face flushed.