Chapter 26: _ There is a Catch

"Drastically? What is that supposed to mean?"

Commander Clement didn’t answer me immediately. He took a step further into the cell. Up close, he was striking.

Sharp-jawed, with light silver-grey hair cropped neat at his temples and eyes the pale blue of winter ice.

"It means, Miss Elira, that you have managed to land yourselves squarely in the center of a mess far larger than your petty dorm squabbles," He clasped his hands behind his back. "This Academy is packed to the brim with predators. Real ones. Not just arrogant high-bloods, but monsters who hunt their own peers for sport, for power, for survival."

He paused.

"The previous security administration did a pathetically incompetent job. They swept things under the rug until these... errs became rampant in the lower sectors. But I was appointed Head Warden three days ago. And I do not tolerate vermin in my halls. I won’t stop until every last one of them is put down."

Well, it is refreshing to see that someone in this Academy is willing to act like a normal person and do their job.

Miriel gasped for air. "C-Commander! Please! Look at us!" She held out her dirt-caked hands. "We are first-years! It is only our second day at the Academy! Whatever crimes have been committed down here, it wasn’t us! We are innocent!"

"It really isn’t us," Bren chimed in, taking a defensive stance beside me, her eyes narrowed at Clement with open distrust. "We were dragged down there under false pretenses!"

"I agree. If you’re looking for a culprit, you’re interrogating the wrong room." I added.

For a long second, Clement stared at us. Then, his chest heaved, and a small laugh echoed through the tiny holding cell.

"Of course I know you aren’t the culprits," Clement said, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "I am a Warden, ladies, not an idiot. The initiate who filed the high-priority report specifically stated that three female first-years were being held against their will by a Sylven rogue."

My breath hitched. The confusion hit all three of us at once.

"Wait..." My mind raced back to the dark corridor, the blinding flash of light, the thunder, and the sudden retreat of the vines.

Was it the person who reported it who scared Tobin off? Did they fight him?

"Who reported it? Who was down there with us?"

"I am not at liberty to disclose the identity of high-ranking initiates," Clement replied, dismissing my question with a wave of his gloved hand. "What I am here to do, however, is apologize."

Miriel blinked. "Apologize?"

Clement’s humor was replaced by a deadly seriousness. "Yes. I am apologizing for the terror you experienced due to our administrative failures. And I am here to take your official report on what happened down there."

"Why?" Bren crossed her arms, glaring at him as if he were a snake waiting to strike. "Don’t your guards handle reports?"

"Not for this. There have been multiple predators operating in the dark sectors for months. We knew that much. But no victim has ever survived an encounter long enough to speak."

He looked at each of us. "You three are the very first to make it out alive."

Miriel pressed a hand to her mouth, her face draining of what little color it had left. Bren’s jaw tightened, and for the first time since I’ve met the Redmere Dragon, genuine fear crossed her features.

We explained everything.

"This is significantly more complicated than I anticipated," Clement murmured, pacing a small line across the floor. "A predator with the ability to steal abilities by killing his victims... gods above."

He stopped, turning back to us. "For all we know, this Sylven could be the one responsible for the shapeshifter Tiger found dead last term. If he stole his magic before killing him..."

Clement’s eyes narrowed in thought. "He could be anywhere right now. He could have shifted into a student, a servant, or a guard. Let’s pray he still assumes the Academy’s security is as blind as it used to be, and doesn’t suspect that someone reported him or that this conversation is happening."

Great. It gets better. We are royally fucked. Thank you.

"Please..." Miriel dropped to her knees. "Commander, I beg you, do not stop until that bastard is apprehended! He’s going to find another hiding spot! He’s going to lure more unsuspecting students down there and murder them!"

"Why not just raise a general alarm?" Bren demanded, taking an aggressive step toward Clement.

She clearly hated the way he commanded the room, hated his smooth demeanor, and hated being at his mercy.

"Warn the student body! Raise awareness so people know not to go into the lower sectors!"

Clement looked down at Bren with a condescending tilt to his lips. "Initiate, one of the first hard truths you will learn here is that the Academies are in constant, ruthless competition for crown funding and nobility enrollment. The Dragon Academy cannot afford a public scandal of that magnitude. It would ruin us."

I couldn’t believe my ears. Disgust flared in my chest.

"Students are dying!" I shouted, taking a step toward him, ignoring the way his guard shifted slightly behind him. "They are being hunted in your basements, and all the Academy cares about is its reputation?!"

"That is the order from above, Miss Elira. That is how things are done here. However... there is a way you three can help us resolve this cleanly." Clement replied, evidently unbothered by my anger.

"What do you mean?"

"The Sylven is a hunter. And predators like him—predators who have never failed a hunt—hate leaving loose ends. You three got away. His pride, and his fear of exposure, will drive him insane. He will come back to finish the job."

Wow. And I thought it couldn’t get any worse. Really?

Was I really doomed to die in this place? It felt like every step I took inside the Dragon Academy brought me closer to an early grave. My mind flashed back to the concourse, to the fleeting, impossible sight that had made my heart stop.

The boy from eight years ago.

I had thought I saw him in the crowd. I had thought I saw those striking silver eyes with red slits.

Was he ever coming for me as he promised? Or was I losing my mind so thoroughly that I was hallucinating ghosts while my life crumbled around me?

"You want us to be bait?!" Miriel shrieked, jolting me back to reality.

"I am offering you protection," Clement corrected. "The Academy will provide a discreet, distant guard detail for the three of you at all times. You will go about your classes as normal, drawing him out into the open where my Wardens can eliminate him once and for all."

"Oh, thank goodness," Miriel breathed, clutching her chest and letting out a hysterical laugh of relief. "We’ll be protected! We’ll be safe!"

I was skeptical. Distant protection meant there would be seconds... precious, lethal seconds... where we would be entirely alone with a killer before a Warden could intervene.

I looked over at Bren. She wasn’t celebrating like Miriel. She was staring at Clement with pure distrust, her eyes fixed on his handsome face.

"Protection. Right. And what’s the catch, Commander?" She asked.