Shadowborn Queen - G. Bailey Page 0,34

surface.

I don't even say anything when I step over the threshold. I simply walk up to him, slide underneath his arms, and hug him. He pauses for a moment, then he tucks my head under his chin and embraces me.

"I failed them," he whispers, his voice breaking. "I was so focused on freeing my brother that I forgot about my students. Benjamin. Oliver. Yanya. So many wonderfully talented pupils... gone."

I tighten my arms around him. "We're going to get through this."

He kisses me on the head, and something wet splashes my hair. "I love you, Miss Dawn."

I grin into his chest, my heart skipping a beat. "And I love you, too, Professor Mune."

"Hate to intrude, but I figured you'd wanna see this," Axel says.

Scott cranes his neck and I peer around him, smiling when I see Axel standing in the doorway with his hands behind his back. Slowly, he pulls out a bow and arrow, and he flashes me the widest smile I've ever seen him give. I'm so amazed and thankful for the gift that I'm stunned into silence, so Axel continues talking.

"The others are waiting for us in the training room." He looks at Scott, his eyebrow lifting. "Luke found you a sword. Think you can wield it?"

Scott's expression lightens, almost like the sun breaking up a bunch of storm clouds.

"Let's go have some fun," he says, winking at me.

Fun is definitely what we need right now because tomorrow, we're setting off to find the last key, and then it's war.

Chapter 18

Staring down at the cold water of the rippling river, I take a deep breath. My hand flitters to the sword strapped to my hip, hidden under my thick dark green cloak. A sword isn't going to defend us long if we get caught by any of the guards in Vasili. Half the city has been destroyed, but the places near the castle in the centre have not, and will not be touched because Eva would have wanted them safe. I know it.

Why rule if you have no people left to bow to you?

"Can you feel something changing in the forest?" Axel asks me, softly placing his hand on my back, knowing how nervous I must be. Gold looks up, his hands sunk into the river as he maps out our journey through the water, a rare gift for dragons. His gold eyes flash in the moonlight, deep magic blasting off him in waves and making us feel uncomfortable from the pressure of being near the power.

Clearing my throat, I look away to the water. "Yes. The forest knows a battle is coming as much as the people of the forest fear it."

"It is time," Gold states, standing up and holding a hand out for me. "We will arrive in a small stream by a safe house. We will head inside of the house straight away."

I nod, trusting Gold. Whoever is in this safe house, he trusts them completely or we wouldn't be heading right for them. We have to find the key, and that means we need to be in the city and find a way to sneak around it.

"If anything goes wrong, find a way back into the water and meet at the academy," I tell them all, making sure to meet Axel's, Luke's and Scott's eyes.

"Deal," Axel says before running and diving into the water. I take Gold's hand and he pulls me into the deep water, both of us sinking under instantly. The water glows, coming to life almost instantly even as I keep my eyes closed, feeling Gold holding me to him. Seconds drift into a minute and I finally open my eyes. Above me is a man leaning over the water, looking down and it takes me a second to realize it's Axel.

Gold pulls me up with him and we break out of the river, gasping for air as I cough out some water. Axel helps me climb the bank and I suck in deep breaths of the bittersweet air of the city of Vasili. Sweat mixed with a tang that reminds me of blood.

I shiver, and not from the cold sweeping into me from my soaking wet clothes.

Scott breaks out of the water next, followed by Luke. The dark streets are empty, eerily silent and full of small houses that cramp the edge of the riverline.

Gold doesn't wait, grabbing my hand and rushing us to a small wooden door of a white bricked house in front of us. He bangs