to a master’s student? What kind of charm are you using for that barrier?”
I snorted. “Yeah, I’m so going to tell you, idiot. And it’s not a charm, but my magic.” I shook my head when he tried to argue. “I’ve fended off council aides, dumbass. Keep up. You don’t think anyone’s tried this shit? We’ve been here and people have done this. This was my whole last year, and no one found out.”
“And a lot of us are tired of it,” Natalie said firmly as she stepped out from the now gathered crowd. “We were all ready to move past this bullshit and learn what we should. Instead, all of you assholes are ruining what should be a nice program to stop the class division. Screw what the elites see it as. That’s what this program could be. Instead, you’re all focused on Tamsin and what you might get.”
“Hope it was worth your shot to take classes here,” a dragon I didn’t know said as he stepped up too. “Because enough of us witnessed it as you also did it so publicly.”
The guy sneered at him. “Of course I did. She’s always guarded and—”
“Yeah, because of assholes like you,” I drawled.
“It ends!” Hudson roared from my right, and I doubted I was the only one who about jumped out of their skin. He was a very large man who sounded really scary if he wanted to. He moved forward and stared down the guy and group of exchange students behind him. “It ends, and not just with you getting kicked out of the program.”
The guy stupidly mocked him. “You have no rule here, Prince.”
“She has the protection of my family and all the dragon royals and leading families,” Hudson announced loudly. “A few stupid pranks weren’t something to get pissed about, but an upperclassman just openly used a magical attack because he has his council’s backing; he’s their pawn. So let me be clear for the next idiot who will try for her.
“They will not save you from our wrath. It’s not even about Tamsin, but our word as dragons giving our protection. We will not allow any doubt in the strength of those promises. The next student—exchange or otherwise—who tries anything underhanded with her—in class or outside of it—will deal with us. Your councils know this as they were warned.”
“It’s why they’re offering you the brass ring,” I told the students, appreciating the backup, but not wanting Hudson to speak for me. “You’re expendable. You fail and get eaten by my guards or stomped to shit by dragons, and it’s no skin off of them. They’ll disavow you or anything you tried.” I snorted when I saw his disbelief. “What do you think happened to the other exchange students who got booted?”
“They got booted because their councils didn’t back them up,” Natalie about purred, smirking when other people looked shocked. “Wake up, people! Our councils don’t care about us. They care about power and what they can get. Those councils denied everything and blamed the students as making it all up so they didn’t have any issues about crossing lines. They will do the same to you. We are all pawns to them.”
My eyes went wide as I heard in her mind that her council had tried to drag her in, but Geiger had interjected and told them that if they tried to drag a student off this campus without a valid reason and to another closed door meeting over his dead body. That man was seriously done with all the corruption and bullshit.
Good. More people should be. Enough!
“And the dragons aren’t the only ones on her side,” a female I sort of recognized said. “She got rid of Koch, who rooted all through our minds and fucked with our shields. She’s helped us see the corruption and protect ourselves.”
Office hours! She was one of the first to truly come to my mental shielding office hours asking for real help, even when she was done with the class. Rock on.
“So this ends,” Hudson declared. “If you came for the exchange program to get to her—leave. She is off the table, and you will piss us all off and incur the wrath of dragons. And before you give me some bullshit about student code of conduct, you’re breaking it going after a student, and dragon protections are exempt from those rules. That gives me free reign to eat all your asses. My dragon would love it.”
Oh, I just bet