Azure Dragons (Supernatural Shifter Academy #2) - G. Bailey Page 0,5

my head spin. I was never a very romantic person before coming to the Academy—chalk it up to years of moving from place to place; I guess—but the kiss I shared with Silas seems to have awoken something in me, something as alluring as it is dangerous.

Fuck. Who would have thought university would end up being this complicated?

“Look,” says Landon, nodding, and the rest of us follow his gaze to the raised platform at the front of the room. The setting sun casts a bright glare through the side facing windows, illuminating the poised figure of President Hawthorne as he makes his way onto the platform and clears his throat. Something about his presence is always enough to instill a sense of awe and dread, in spite of the fact that he’s only human, and today is no different: a hush falls over the assembled students as they realise he’s waiting for them to quiet down.

“Great,” mutters Shade, “this ought to be good.”

“It’s good to see so many smiling faces here tonight,” Hawthorne says, clapping his hands together with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Before you get started on your meal, I wanted to address something with you while I have you all here today. This will save you from having to go to an assembly before class tomorrow morning, so bear with me.”

I exchange a look with Silas, who seems just as concerned as I am. The last time Hawthorne made an announcement to the school like this, it was to tell us that we were going on lockdown until further notice. There’s nothing quite so ominous as watching the guy speak, and a chill runs up my spine as his gaze sweeps the dining hall. “I’ll keep this as brief as I can,” he continues, putting his hands behind his back. “We are witnessing something of great concern for both the student body and the shapeshifting community as a whole, something I fear could have dire consequences for everyone at this school - faculty and students alike.”

My heart sinks, my stomach drops, and my mouth goes dry, but not because of the words he’s saying.

It’s because, in that moment, Hawthorne’s eyes have settled directly on me. And no matter what I do, I can’t seem to pull my gaze away.

Chapter 3

I nearly jump at the feeling of a hand on mine, and my eyes are wide when I look to see Silas watching me with a concerned expression. “Boots,” he whispers, “are you okay?”

Wordlessly, I nod, swallowing hard as I return my gaze to Hawthorne. Whatever ominous spell he had me under seems to have broken, but the silence in the room is nearly oppressive, and an uneasy murmuring passes through the crowd of assembled students.

Hawthorne shakes himself and clears his throat. “We take great care to not cause unnecessary panic when a situation like this arises,” he continues, “but it’s also important to acknowledge the gravity of what is happening outside this island.” He takes a breath, moving back a step. “Some of you may have heard of a certain level of… unrest between the shifters of the world and the humans who know about their existence. Obviously, the human-shifter coalition exists in order to help keep this a secret from the general population, but there are subsets of humanity who know the truth about shifters.” There’s something I don’t like under his words, and it feels as though they carry a double meaning.

“These groups have been causing a bit of a stir amongst shifter communities around the world of late,” Hawthorne continues. “I can’t speak to any talk of a so-called ‘uprising’, other than to assure everyone here that they have nothing to be afraid of. That said, though…” He straightens his dark jacket. “This isn’t something to be taken lightly. Skirmishes in shifter communities are increasing, and more and more humans are beginning to buy into conspiracy theories about the existence of magical beings. We’ve seen it here, too, at this very school - the incident involving a missing student and one of our faculty members has been treated with the utmost severity.”

I catch a glimpse of Shade rolling his eyes, and Hunter elbows him. I can’t blame him - if the Academy administration thinks for one minute that I’ll buy this being an isolated incident, they’re sorely mistaken. They had a whole underground testing facility, one that seemed incredibly active and state-of-the art, in spite of Hawthorne’s claims that it was