Chapter 24: _Busted

Elira No-One

...

My head was spinning. A nauseating, high-pitched ringing echoed in my ears as if someone had struck a gong right beside my skull.

He almost defiled me.

The thought knocked the oxygen straight out of my lungs. I squeezed my eyes shut, my chest heaving as the memory of Tobin’s hot breath against my neck flared in my mind.

The dark green vines. The sickening way he had pinned my limbs flat against the iron grate, looking down at me like I was a piece of meat he was about to butcher.

He was going to violate me, kill me, steal whatever stupid magic he stupidly thought I had, and toss my corpse into the drainage slops like trash.

A wave of disgust surged up my throat. I reached up with a trembling, filth-covered hand, aggressively wiping the skin of my neck where his mouth had trailed. I scraped at my own skin until it burned red, desperate to erase every trace of his touch.

But then, my fingers paused.

Right over the base of my throat, extending up toward my collarbone, the skin didn’t feel cold or dirty. It felt... warm.

Not the disgusting heat of Tobin’s plant magic, and not the prickly, uncomfortable sting of my own stress. It was a sort of soothing radiance. A gentle warmth that sank straight into my nerve endings, quieting the wild panic clawing at my ribs.

I frowned, tracing the contour of my neck with shaking fingertips. It felt divine. It felt so completely, impossibly good that I knew, with absolute certainty, it couldn’t have belonged to that filthy Sylven.

So how did it get there?

I shook my head, my hair falling over my shoulders as I forced myself to pull away. "You’re losing your mind, Elira," I whispered to the empty air. "It’s just the shock."

I dragged myself onto my hands and knees, trying to piece together the blur of the last few minutes. My brain felt heavy, like someone had poured thick sand over my memories.

What happened? What scared him off?

My mind hit a blank wall. One second Tobin was leaning over me, whispering about taking my core... and the next, a blinding flash of light had exploded in the center of the room. A crack of thunder, a musky scent, and then... nothing.

He was gone. The vines had withered, dropping me to the floor.

Something had terrified him enough to make him bolt.

What the hell was it?

A higher-tier predator? A Warden patrol?

I couldn’t remember. The harder I tried to reach for the memory, the more my temples throbbed with a heavy ache.

My hand moved up, my fingertips brushing the center of my forehead where the tingling was strongest. It felt almost like... a touch. A press of lips.

"A press of lips. Yeah, right. Seems the Sylven did do some damage to my mind, after all." I sighed.

A groan reverberated across the stone floor, cutting off my spiraling thoughts.

"Elira...?"

Bren stirred in the mud a few feet away. She pushed herself up onto her elbows, her hair matted with grime.

"Where is he?" Bren’s voice shot up, breathless with panic. She scrambled backward against the wall, her hands wildly slapping at the stone around her. "Where is that filthy green bastard?!"

I crawled over to her, grabbing her arms to anchor her. "He’s gone. Bren, stop. He’s gone. Tobin fled."

Bren grabbed my shoulders, her fingers digging in so hard it bruised. "What do you mean he fled? What did he do to us? My magic—I feel like my chest is empty–"

"Oh please, don’t be a Miriel, Bren." I rolled my eyes. "He didn’t take it. He was interrupted. Something scared him off before he could finish. We’re fine."

"Fine?" Bren choked on a hysterical laugh, wiping a smear of black mud from her cheek. "Elira, he lured us down here! He had us pinned like cattle! We need to get out of this wretched pit before whatever scared him off decides to finish the job."

"Surely, there can’t be anything worse down here than him," I muttered bitterly, though the warmth on my forehead whispered otherwise.

Still, she was right.

"Help me get Miriel."

We turned toward the third form sprawled across the floor. Miriel was still flat on her back, her chin tilted up toward the ceiling as if she were still trying to look down her nose at us even while unconscious.

"Miriel," Bren hissed, shaking her shoulder. "Miriel, wake up!"

A heavy voice suddenly resounded from behind us. "Leave her. She doesn’t need to move. You’re all staying right where you are."

Three tall figures stepped out from the darkness of the archway. They wore dark gray plate armor reinforced with dragon-scale mesh, the silver crest of the Dragon Academy Warden Guard gleaming on their pauldrons.

"We’ve done nothing wrong!" a shrill voice piped up from behind us.

Bren and I looked back. Miriel was sitting straight up, her eyes wide with terror, face pale as a sheet.

Typical Miriel to make a dramatic comeback.

"We were attacked!" Miriel scrambled up, her hands waving as she pointed an accusing finger at me. "She brought us down here! It was her! I told her not to come into the lower sectors, but she dragged us into a trap!"

WHAT?

I rose to my feet despite the tremor in my legs. "Miriel, shut your mouth! I didn’t drag anyone anywhere! Tobin tricked all of us, and if I hadn’t figured it out, we’d all be dead!"

"Silence. All of you," the lead Warden ordered. He didn’t even look at Miriel. His visor remained locked on me.

"We received a high-priority report of unauthorized violence in this sector. The report came directly from an upper-class initiate."

Bren frowned, stepping up beside me. "An upper-class initiate? We were the ones being attacked! A Sylven named Tobin tried to steal our cores! We’re the victims here!"

"You can explain yourselves to the Proctor," the Warden said flatly, stepping aside and gesturing toward the corridor with a gauntleted hand. "Move. Dragon Academy Security Building. Now."