Dragon Fire Academy 1 First Term an RH academy romance - Rachel Jonas Page 0,84

to us—the ones he charged with Noelle’s wellbeing—but it didn’t make sense that he’d have a stake in her staying here. Especially if she cited the safety of the island as the reason she wanted to leave.

Was it really that important to him that he make a good impression on the mainlanders?

Or … was it something more?

I wouldn’t bother Noelle with questions about it now, but if she came through this—when she came through this—I’d need clarity.

“We’ll worry about that stuff later,” I told her, securing my grip around her as I gained speed.

Bone shifted over bone, cracking beneath both my palms as I held her. She cried out in response, and the sound echoed off the trees. I felt completely helpless, useless—which was familiar for reasons I didn’t care to revisit.

Noelle was drifting again when the pain got to be too much.

“Talk to me.”

At the sound of my voice, her eyes flittered like before.

“I can’t,” she mumbled. “I don’t have anything good to say.”

For some reason, the response brought a laugh out of me. “Well, tell me anything. Something bad if you have to,” I urged, trying to keep her focused.

“I’ve been having dreams,” she uttered against my ear.

“Ok, good. Tell me about them.” She was fading again, and I nudged her forehead with mine to bring her back. “I need you to keep talking. Tell me about these dreams?”

The hazel irises that made me feel all twisted in knots came into view again when she peered up, groggy.

“There was a woman,” she revealed. “I didn’t see her face, but she spoke about the Darkness.”

“What about it?” I was interested, but mostly wanted her to stay conscious.

“She told me to be careful who I trust here, because it wants to claim me.”

I fell silent for a moment, despite my efforts to keep this conversation going.

“What else?” I pressed. “Did she say more?”

“Only that she’ll do everything she can to protect me, but that she’d always put the island first.”

When Noelle finished speaking, I glanced up at the raging storm, and couldn’t help but to wonder if this had less to do with Noelle’s magic, and more to do with Spirit putting on a show as it neared our realm, prepared to take whatever action it had in mind should things not end well tonight.

Apparently, I didn’t respond quickly enough, because the next sound I heard was an exhausted laugh that moved against my ear.

“You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

I shook my head. “Nah, not at all. It’s just that, as far back as history has recorded, Spirit has only chosen one person to commune with in any given generation. And for ours, that’s always been Kai.”

Noelle shrugged. “Well, you know what they say. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

She had a point; however, a different theory crossed my mind. It was entirely possible this was another trick of the Darkness, posing itself as Spirit when visiting Noelle. For now, there was no way of knowing for sure.

‘Guys, you hearing this?’

‘Loud and clear,’ Kai answered.

‘Unfortunately,’ Rayen popped in.

‘One more thing to deal with,’ was Paulo’s fitting response, because it was true. Our plates were already so full.

Noelle’s discomfort was apparent when the shivering started again. I tried to brush off how worried I was for her, but that didn’t quite work. Yes, I was worried for my people too, but also for the girl who was so much more than I had been willing to admit, so much purer at heart than I ever realized.

The rest of the journey was a blur. High atmospheric winds made flying nearly impossible, so I had to run, moving as fast as I could. We made it to the mouth of the cave, and I set her down while lighting two torches someone else had left here before us. With the small fires glowing from where I wedged the handles between stones, the space was marginally brighter, giving me the chance to take a good look at Noelle.

Her lips stammered, and a loud crack of more bones breaking made her cry out. The hollow cave only amplified the sound, and my sympathy for her. I’d heard the first shift for a wolf was insane, but seeing it firsthand was a whole other story.

Noelle’s back arched off the ground, and her hands squeezed into tight fists. Large veins in her forehead bulged beneath her damp skin, and there was nothing I could do to help her, no way of telling whether all of this was