by Lisa Daniels
“Right,” Isera said. “They're so cold-blooded, they practically freeze to death sitting on the mountains.”
“Can't they just walk up the path like I did and find it?” Seon wrung her hands, afraid of the idea of all the humans in this place being discovered and killed by those monsters.
“It has anti-wyrm magic on it. They shouldn’t be able to find it. But it does mean that if they suspect it’s here, they can just camp outside, so we can’t leave the grounds.” Isera tapped her foot thoughtfully. “Either way, not good.”
“Artiz thinks there could be traitors in the school,” Seon said. “It’s why he doesn’t want me to reveal my magic to anyone. Not even you. Sorry.”
“Don’t be. I understand.” Now Isera squeezed Seon’s hand, blue eyes crinkling. “And at least you’re alright. Just… be careful. Okay? If you’re as valuable as the teachers think you to be, then don’t do stupid shit.”
“Noted,” Seon replied dryly. Though she already knew it was a little too late for that. Isera grinned and sat there for a while longer, talking to Seon until leaving for her next lesson.
The medic came to check Seon a few hours later and announced her free to go to her quarters and rest. No lessons for the day. Only rest.
Seon obeyed reluctantly, not wanting to sit around and do nothing. She wanted to talk with the teachers more about what she experienced. She wanted to find out who the owner of the locket was, and what happened to her so long ago.
People would have loved and cared about that girl once. Maybe the hair belonged to a lover or someone close to them. Maybe when she fell, she hoped someone would save her, but instead froze to death in the snow. Would it have been blizzard conditions? Did people search for her? Did people weep for her?
The questions swirled like a blizzard.
Seon went to the library instead of her bedroom, and asked to see a record of past students. The librarian, a crusty old man with spidery veins in his hands, pointed to the back of the library. Shadowy stacks towered.
“Restricted section,” he said in a dull voice. “You need permission from a teacher to go through there.”
“She’s with me,” a deep voice declared. Artiz. He emerged from the Restricted section, clutching some papers. “Come on in, Seon.”
The librarian squinted suspiciously at them as she walked past, hesitant about entering the dark stacks. The smell of old, stale paper permeated the atmosphere, and an eerie hush seemed to settle over the shelves like a blanket. The scratches and rustle of paper when they brushed over them were as if the books had come to life, whispering their secrets.
Artiz handed her a ledger and they got to work together. It took her a while to get used to the format of the ledgers, in which were scribbled in tiny writing the names of students who had been permitted into the school, stretching back centuries.
It soon became apparent to her that looking at the names served no purpose. They didn’t tell Seon the physical descriptions of the students. Just their names, ages when they entered, and magical powers, along with if they graduated safely or not.
She closed the ledger and rubbed her eyes before starting on the next. Even without a physical description, she could find something fitting the name. She stumbled over an Arnold Winstace from eighty years ago and sighed, the brief excitement fading. By the time she finished the second book, her eyes were drooping.
Seon's drake companion observed her for a moment, seeing how she barely kept her head above the desk. “You’re still clearly exhausted from earlier. I’ll take you back to your room.” Artiz closed the ledger he had of former students over a thousand years ago, yawning. Seon rubbed her eyes, the lamplight flickering.
“I really wanted to find out who it was. It’s not right. Maybe if she has a living relative, we can pass the locket on.”
“I appreciate the sentiment. But it’s unlikely we’ll find a living relative. However, Seon, you did something amazing. You’ve freed her,” Artiz said softly. They passed a student in the corridor as they walked out the library and clattered boots along the stone. Their robes swished. “She might have been trapped there for a long time, and you freed her.”
Seon nodded, a lump in her throat. Her heart pounded faster when she considered Artiz with those vibrant gray eyes. That bent-in nose. That crooked smile of his, which held a roguish quality about it. Easy to let her thoughts run away, to think about him in certain scenarios. Easy to forget that he was a teacher and she the student.
The way he tenderly looked at her conjured a smile on her lips.
I wonder what kind of lover he'd be? She knew of many, and few put the effort in. Would he be like them? Or would he take the time and worship her body, help bring her to orgasm with lip and tongue, legs and arms?
She shivered at the notion, and desperately grasped for a subject to keep her thoughts from veering in that direction. “Did you mean what you said earlier?”
“Hmm?” He appeared distracted when looking at her, as if his thoughts lay elsewhere. “I said a lot of things. What do you refer to?”
“That you worried about me. That you were afraid for me.”
“Ah.” They walked around one corner, passed a classroom where two witches crackled lightning between two metal rods. “Yes, I did. Of course I’m afraid for you. Why wouldn't I be?”
“As a valuable student, or as a person?”
“I value all my students. I know where they all come from, I know what they strive for. Even you – you stay here not because you like it, but because you thirst to find out more about your powers. Even if you don’t like your powers at this stage in time.”
Seon shook her head, disappointed. Not the answer she wanted to hear. The hot flush hit her cheeks, and she no longer wanted to be in his presence. “Never mind.” She began to walk faster, as if trying to escape.
“Wait.” He reached to grab her elbow. “Please.”
“What for?”
Artiz gave her a sheepish, almost embarrassed grimace. “I know I’m avoiding your question. And the answer to it, Seon, is that I do care for you. I found you. I took you. I trained you. I watched you endure. And I had to steel myself to it, because it’s necessary for your training. But truthfully, I hate seeing it.”
“And yet you don’t have a problem saying mean shit to me,” Seon retorted before she could stop herself. Instantly, she mentally started berating herself. Artiz was trying to be nice. To reveal something to her. And what did she do? Snap back. Maybe she was just a little too much on edge with everything.
Artiz winced. “Yes, in hindsight, it wasn’t very wise of me. You deserve better than thoughtless remarks. Can you forgive me?”
They stopped outside Seon’s door. Electricity hummed in the air, and it seemed to pull them close together. Her green eyes examined Artiz’s gray ones. They trailed over his blond hair and crooked nose. Part of her wanted to just go fuck it and take him by surprise, drag him into her room and rip off all his clothes. See where the winds blew on that particular front.
She tried to remind herself that she didn’t like drakes, but struggled to remember why that seemed so important. Besides, all the students here thought she was a whore anyway, even Artiz – so what did it matter?
She bit her lip, reigning in the flare of arousal, instead resorting to a quick peck on the cheeks. “Thank you, Artiz.” Her hand lingered upon his waist for a moment. She wouldn’t have sex with him, she decided. Just tease him. She could maintain a cool distance. It wouldn't be too much of an issue. She'd be fine.
That plan didn’t work out so well. No sooner had she stepped into her room when Artiz followed her right in.
“You know I can smell your arousal, right?”
“Get out–” Seon started, before Artiz closed the door and seized her lips in his. She gasped against his mouth, at first trying to push herself away, before melting into the kiss. Melting into his touch. Her body shivered like a nervous animal, and fires ignited within.
Perhaps... it h
ad been too long. She never realized just how much she desired this, or perhaps desired any kind of intimate contact, until he had her trapped within his lips. Emotions swelled like a flooding dam. Water crashed through her veins. Through all that, her nerves seemed to crackle in excitement, yearning for him to keep going, to never stop.
He groped at her and kissed hard. She heard his heartbeat through the palm she pressed against his chest, felt it. It must be even faster than hers.
“Fuck it,” she whispered against his mouth, before pulling him out of his robes. He did the same to her, his hands eager, almost clumsy in their desire to take everything off. They slowly started backing towards the bed, their clothing leaving a conspicuous trail. Under those robes lay a broad, lightly furred chest, with a mix of blond and dark hairs. His nipples hardened under her touch as she kept caressing over his front. She loved the roughness and the way it tickled her palms.
Naked as well, she endured Artiz’s hard hands over her skin, which grabbed at her sides, her front, her breasts. She hitched a strangled whimper as he squeezed her there, before rolling the sensitive tips between two fingers which were splayed out against her.
“You’re just as soft as I imagined,” he whispered into her ear, before pushing her onto the white bedsheets. Smirking, she spread her legs before him, and he arched an eyebrow, before falling on top of her, kissing her neck before sucking hard at it.
She glimpsed his erection, standing to attention, bigger than she had expected, though she had no way of knowing what package lay there under the robes. The men Seon had seen had nothing particularly impressive there, but Artiz, well – he certainly had a lot of… length.
He lifted himself and stared at her body for a moment, admiring her trembling skin, the fluttering breaths escaping her throat, and the way her black hair fanned out about her.
He lowered himself again, this time pressing his erection against her entrance, deftly parting the folds there, before sliding all the way in. Seon moaned, bending her spine, rising from the bedsheets. She dug fingers into his shoulder muscles. She wrapped her legs around him as he dove into her, faster and faster.
The pleasure rippled through her, far better than when she got herself off alone, or with any of the men before. What made Artiz different? Was he a better lover, in the way he thrust into her, smiled at her, admired her? Or was it because he actually cared for her in his own way, and she liked him for it?
She didn’t have the answers. But she certainly didn’t want him to stop. It embarrassed her in a way when she felt herself climaxing before Artiz had released himself. She never came during sex. Ever. She needed to get herself off afterwards if interested in popping an orgasm.
Yet with Artiz, something about him triggered a chain reaction in her body. He made her gasp and cry out as she tumbled into orgasm. Her heart beat so fast, she thought it might burst out of her chest.
He continued to move in her after letting her ride out the apex of the orgasm, and she happily encouraged him along, her inner muscles contracting to form additional pressure down there. Really, she felt as if she were floating in a sea of bliss, with the drake guiding her right along.
When he came as well, sweat trickled down his body from the effort. She fixated on one trail of sweat as it slid from his neck to one of his pecs. He examined her in wonder, a smile upon his lips.
The other thing Seon wasn't used to either was the cuddling that happened afterwards. Usually, things became awkward as the guy dressed up and left. Some might try to ask for extra. Seon had also learned in those times to get her payment up front, because people tried to get away with not paying if they could. They also tried cursing and belittling when she suggested they do so, which meant to her that they never planned to pay in the first place.
Not that any of that mattered right now. Her mind wandered a little, even as Artiz wrapped arms around her and tugged her in close. They rested together for a moment, before he leaned over to kiss her on the forehead.
“I enjoyed that.”
Enjoyed seemed like an understatement to Seon. “Me, too.” Seon let out a short breath, slightly dizzy. Just as she considered reaching over to hug him back herself, Artiz peeled away, getting up to start dressing.
“I’m sorry, I have a lesson to get to. Or I'd stay longer.” He kissed her again on the lips, held her chin for a moment and gazed into her eyes. “Beautiful.”
She blushed, squirming in delight as he left the room, gently closing the door behind him.
She lay there for quite some time, wanting to preserve the memory of the moment. Wanting to relive it in her mind.
Chapter Six
Artiz acted as though nothing had happened the next day. He showed no sign of wanting to talk about it or engage her when she tried to bring up the subject herself. All she received was a chilly reception on that front, which made her deeply suspect she’d been used.
Well. She’d used him as well, so she couldn’t really complain. It dug at her, though. His friendliness, their getting closer… the afternoon they shared together, with the brief hug initiated by him... and then nothing.
Did it mean nothing to him?
Did she read him wrong? She honestly thought she saw something in him. Like the potential for a future relationship.
Funny, because she was the one who considered just using him for sexual gains. Nothing else.
I suppose I deserve this. Again, she plunged into harsh training. Her mind and body was forced to its limits. She trained until her muscles screamed in exhaustion, and her brain wanted to drop her body unconscious.
But before she’d even had ten minutes’ rest between training, Artiz yanked her up. “Self-defense, now.” Taking a sly glance around to make sure no-one was listening, he leaned forward to whisper, “I’m sorry. I can’t let anyone suspect what we did last night. I’ve already had some stern warnings from Graff about not getting too friendly with you. And they can see from the windows what we’re doing.” He indicated the school, and the windows three storeys above.
Oh. The wriggling despair evaporated in light of this reveal.
What a relief to know that her assumption he didn't care was false. Artiz was just acting like he didn’t want her.
He needed to show to everyone else that everything between them was strictly professional. Even if it meant basically wearing her out and breaking her down.
“Thank you,” she breathed back, before stepping aside, rubbing her knuckles. “I was actually worried I'd been used for a one-off, there. Anyway. Self-defense?”
“Yes. It may not help you against a full grown wyrm – but if you can get one before they shift, or a man or woman that doesn’t want to hang around and talk to you nicely – it’ll be useful. I’ll take you through some basics. Blocking.” He helped position her feet, taught her how to hold her arms, and how to react to certain blows. More importantly, he taught her how to see it coming.
“No matter how good you are at defending, it’s harder if you can’t figure out how your opponent intends to attack you. So now we’ll teach intention movements.”
Pain, pain, more pain. Artiz didn’t exactly let up with the training. Every failed block added to the bruises she accumulated all along her sides. And even when she blocked, her arms rang with dull pain as well.
Part of her honestly didn’t see how being beaten up on a regular basis would help strengthen her magic. She needed to discover about the soul she’d rescued, and how she did it. She needed to sit around and figure out how that happened. If it really was just imagining a pretty door, or whether she did something else as well, beyond what it seemed to her on the outside. Maybe she’d made a connection with the soul? Listened to it, talked to it, cared for it in her own way? The soul had been clinging to her. She felt fingers digging onto her skin. Impatience clawed at her.
Maybe the books in the library held the answers. Just a shame she could barely read. Struggling through the ledger names had been bad enough.
Artiz lunged to
wards her during a series of blocks. Taken off guard, Seon’s back slammed into the stone, with Artiz straddling her.
“You should have seen that coming,” he said. “Someone was distracted.”
The compromising position made Seon blush, though she fought past it and growled, “I’ve not done this before! You can’t expect me to get it right straight away.”
“Perhaps not,” Artiz said, eyes briefly trailing over her clothed body. Remembering the curves, the softness underneath. They darkened. It wasn't just her that did such a thing after all. Seon shivered from the heat that emanated from him. From the memories that stirred. For a moment, she thought he might break control and just lean in to kiss her anyway. Then, wresting command of his limbs, he stood up and helped pull her to her feet.
“Again.”
Seon groaned, preparing to get herself fully battered. She only hoped not too many bruises would show when she went to eat in the canteen.
She understood that he wanted her better prepared if something like the wyrm attack happened again. Though he didn't speak of it, the fear still clearly lingered inside him. He couldn't always be there to help her. And she didn't expect it, either. It made sense to defend herself.
But she wanted to focus on unlocking more of her magic. That seemed more important.
Finally released from being hammered by Artiz, she made her way to the canteen without assistance, and lined up to get her daily dosage of slop.
Her jaw dropped when she saw a couple of familiar faces at the table nearby where Isera sat.
Seated by the entrance were Anya and Kalgrin, with a girl that Seon didn’t recognize. Anya immediately began waving, beckoning Seon over.
What are they doing here? Seon had no idea they even knew about this place. She grinned.
Isera, who’d been expecting Seon to sit next to her, at first appeared upset, until Seon yanked her pouty friend by the arm along as well.
“Hey, Anya, Kalgrin! Isera – those are my friends from before, where I lived in Tarn!”
“We sure are!” Anya got out of her seat and dove into a hug. Seon laughed and hugged Anya back, while the others in the canteen stared.
