A dragon shifter novel Chapter 100

Thornhill Academy

Sparks In The Dark

Allison

Cage was nice again today, and that, somehow, is more terrifying than when he’s a jerk. He smiled too easily, his tone too even, his eyes too watchful. Every time he said sunshine, it sounded less like a tease and more like -test. By the time class ended, my skin felt too tight, my magic crawling restlessly under it. Kael and Evander were waiting outside the lecture hall, st like they always do now. Kael leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets, that lazy grin hiding the fact that he was scanning every face in the corridor for a threat. Evander was calm as ever, his shoulders squared, eyes finding mine first thing.

Kael’s grin softens. “You look like you’re plotting murder, trouble.”

“I’m considering it,” I mutter.

“Cage?” Evander asks, falling into step beside me.

1 don’t answer, which is answer enough. Kael lets out a low, humourless chuckle. “I’ll add him to the list then.”

We walk through the quad, the sun bleeding down over Thornhill’s spires, and for a moment, the whole world feels suspended between beautiful and dangerous. Students laugh in little clusters around the fountain, and I envy them. They get to worry about exams and dorm gossip. I get to worry about my pulse jumping every time one of my mates looks at me like I’m their universe, and about one who looks at me like I’m a puzzle to solve.

“He’s being… weird,” I finally say. “Like he’s trying too hard.”

“Manipulators usually do,” Evander says easily. “He wants something.”

“Let him try,” Kael growls under his breath. “We’ll make sure he regrets it.”

The fierceness in his tone makes my chest tighten. “You two don’t have to fight all my battles.”

Kael flashes a smile that’s more teeth than warmth. “Maybe not. But it’s more fun that way.”

By the time we reach my dorm, the tension has eased enough that I’m smiling again. Kael bumps my shoulder playfully, Evander holds the door open, and

the smell of tea and wood smoke greets us like home. Rhaziel materialises from the shadows, not even five seconds after we walk in, as if on schedule. I

strange how natural it feels, sharing the room, the space, the bed, with all of them. It should be overwhelming. It should feel impossible. Instead, it feels like

gravity.

Khaziel’s eyes find mine immediately. “Hummingbird.”

My stomach does a stupid little flip. “You’re early.”

“Your sadness from the other night has not returned. I wanted to be sure it stayed that way.”

Exander hides a anile, moving to pour tea, and Kael leans in close and murmurs. “Shadow demon daily’s punctual.”

Bhaier’s brow lifts. “I heard that.”

Kamily grins wider. “You were meant to

Their banter, fills the nim like background tool, cosy and arm, and I can fully other properly Diner is insa luptatumwon laughter –Kael recrunting a disastrous sparring match, Excider trying not to laugh while correcting him and Ratud kamming solily in sonnement. Later,

7750

12:55 pm Pppp.

Sparks In The Dark

when the plates are cleared and the lights are dim, the four of us end up tangled together in the massive bed that’s somehow become ours. I think Rhaniel’s arm is heavy around my waist, Kael is draped half over my legs, and Evander’s warmth is steady at my back. It should feel crowded, but it doesn’t It feels… safe

“Sleep, hummingbird,” Rhaziel mursaurs against any hair. “You’re safe here.”

Sleep finds me fast, thick and heavy. But somewhere in the middle of dreaming, I feel heat crawling up my throat, a afrange tickle that’s not unpleasant until it isn’t. I jolt awake to a flash of orange across the room, smoke curling lazily toward the ceiling, and Kael’s startled shout mixes with Evander’s curse Rhaziel just sits up, completely unbothered, shadows extinguishing the flames with a single flick of his fingers..

My heart pounds as I sit up, wide–eyed. “Did I just-

“Breathe fire in your sleep?” Kael finishes, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, trouble, You did.”

Evander exhales slowly, rubbing the back of his neck. “You fed from me tonight, didn’t you?”

I blink “Maybe?”

Rhaziel’s lips curve faintly, his voice deep and amused. “It would appear, my queen, that your body holds more than just affection when you feed.”

I drop my head into my hands, groaning. “Great. I’m a walking dragon hazard.”

Kael laughs, warm and teasing, and Evander just grins, already checking the scorch marks on the wall. Rhaziel reaches out and tilts my chin up, eyes gleaming like polished obsidian.

“You are magnificent,” he says simply.

Something inside me is changing…I can feel it humming beneath my skin, restless and hot, like my magic is trying to tell me something I’m not ready to hear. The boys tease me for a while longer, Kael calling me “fire hazard,” Evander insisting he’s going to install a sprinkler system “just in case.” Rhaziel stays quiet through it all, amusement glinting in his dark eyes, but I can feel the way his energy coils protectively around me. The air itself seems to hum with it, shadows shifting to match the rhythm of my breath. Eventually, things settle again. Kael flops back against the headboard, Evander stretches out beside him, and Rhaziel slides down until my head is resting on his chest. It should be easy to fall back asleep, surrounded like this. But my mind won’t stop wandering…It drifts back to the one who isn’t here. Cassian. The image of him in that office–head bowed, voice rough when he said I can’t–plays on repeat behind my eyelids. The professor with his steady hands and calm eyes, who held himself like the world might fall apart if he let go. I hate that it still huges this much. I hate that just thinking about him feels like pressing on a bruise that won’t fade. He said the Council denied his petition. That touching ne could cost him his life. But the bond between us doesn’t understand words like forbidden ge execution. It just aches. Constantly, Rhaziel’s fingery move absently through my hair, the steady rhythm of it tugging me back to the present. He doesn’t speak; he doesn’t have to. He knows I’m thinking about another mate, and somehow, he doesn’t seem jealous. If anything, his purr deepens, softer, as if he’s soothing me for someone else’s sins. Evander shifts beside me, murmuring something sleepy about closing his eyes before I accidentally light him on fire again. Kael snorts quietly, and the sound makes me smile, just a little, But when the laughter fades and the quiet returns, I stare at the ceiling and let myself whisper his name in the dark, just once.

“Cassian.”

The bond hums family in response, a soft pull somewhere deep in my chest. I curl closer to Rhaniel’s warmth, closing my eyes against the ache. I have the

of

my mates here, wrapped around me, hearts beating in time with mine and still, a part of me is somewhere else, trapped under a Council that wantı la broken. The thought burns just as hot as the fire did

213

12:55 pm pppp.

Sparks In The Dark

Comments

Jessi Michelle

Wonder why she hasn’t fed from the demon king yet..? And when he’s going to mark her.

7 days ago

39

Share

5 Comments >

623 4

33

12:55 pm pppp.

Thornhill Academy

The Girl Who Kept Running.

Allison

6:00

1 slipped out of bed once I realised sleep wasn’t coming for me again. The candles on the table have since Borned low, the wicks drowning in their own wa The attic feels smaller at night, as if the shadows have pressed closer, just to listen. My tea had gone cold about an hour ago, but I’m still sitting here with my fingers wrapped around the cup as if I could wring warmth from it by force.

“I’m fine,” I whisper to no one.

“You are not.” The voice slips out of the corner of the room, but I don’t startle. I already hear him getting up. Rhaziel steps from the darkness, all quiet grace and impossible stillness, the lamplight painting his horns in soft gold. He doesn’t speak again right away, just studies me, head tilted in that way of his–half curious, half afraid to intrude.

“You felt that, huh?” I ask, nodding at the bracelet. “Sorry. Guess I was… broadcasting.”

He moves closer, the floorboards barely creaking under his weight. “I do not mind feeling you,” he said softly. “Only when the colour is sorrow do I become concerned.

Something in my chest cracks. “It’s nothing, really. Just–thinking too much.”

Rhaziel’s tail sways once behind him, in a restless echo of concern. “What are you thinking of?”

I try to smile, but it comes out crooked. “Everything. Everyone. The fact that somehow I have all of this“-I wave a hand at the tiny room, the bed tangled in sheets, the mugs lined on the shelf, the faint snore from Kael-“and I can’t make myself believe it’s real.”

Rhaziel doesn’t move, or push or ask for more than I’m willing to give. I find comfort in the fact that he understands my darkness and what it needs.

“I wasn’t always here,” I begin, the words tumbling out before I can stop them. “Before Thornhill, before the festival, before all of you… I was just…. running”

His eyes flicker, the faintest glow catching. He takes a seat beside me, close enough that our knees brush, but not so close that he’s crowding.

“I don’t remember much of my childhood,” I say. “Not really. Just flashes of the forests, roads and people’s faces. There were good ones, sometimes, Like this woman who traded me bread for mending her coat, and this man who let me ride in the back of his wagon until the next town. There were little glimpses of hope every now and then that I’d met someone who would stick around, but mostly it was just me.” The memories crawl up my throat le smoke. “Most nights, I slept literally wherever I could. Under trees, behind barns, in old train stations, if I get lucky. I learned to listen for the bad kind of quiet, you know, the kind that means someone’s watching you? When you’re constantly in fight or flight mode, you just learn to wake at every sound. You learn that if

someone offers help, they usually want something in return.”

Rhaziel sinks slowly to one knee beside my chair so that we’re at eye level. He makes me feel like he’s hanging off every single word that I give to him. Her doesn’t touch mit, but the air shifts around us, his shadows feeling like a gentle coolness brushing against my skin.

There are people out there,” I go on, staring at the candle’s flicker, “who wait until you fall asleep to press a knife to your throat. Others webu jauh ma

toward danger hit to buy thepielves a head start. I got good at running. I got good at hiding. But I never got good at stowing” My v

Khazial reaches out then, carefully and cautiously, his hand closing over mine. The contact is cool and sprouting

You survood,” he

sly “That is small thing

312

12:56 pm P ppp.

The Girl Who Kept Running

Texisted,” I whisper. “There’s a difference.”

He looks down at our joined hands. His claws trace the edge of my knuckles without scratching. “And yet here you are. Existing still. Learning to live.”

I laugh once, a shaky, humourless sonsul. “It’s hard to believe any of this will last… That you’ll all stay. I’ve spent so long being the person people leave behind that I don’t know what to do when they don’t.”

Rhaziel’s gaze lifts to mine, soft and strange, as if he’s memorising every word and assessing what each word really means to me.

“Every creature of the shadows knows loneliness,” he says finally. “But you were never meant to stay there.”

The tears that I usually try to withhold come before I can stop them. Hot and silent. He rises, slow and careful, and when he gathers me into his arms, I melt into his touch. His chest is cool against my cheek; his heartbeat, steady. His tail coils lightly around my ankles, like he wants to hold me close too.

“I’m sorry,” 1 mumble into him. “I don’t mean to keep falling apart.”

“You are not falling apart,” he murmurs. “You are learning how to rest.”

Something deep inside me loosens at his words. The constant, invisible tension I’ve been carrying since the day I arrived at Thornhill eases just a little. He rests his chin on the top of my head, and the faint vibration of his purr fills the room, low and soothing.

“You run so long that you forget what stillness feels like,” he says. “Rest here, hummingbird. You are safe.”

I believe him. For the first time, maybe ever, I realise that I am safe. That he won’t hurt me, he won’t leave me alone. We stay like that for a long while, saying nothing, breathing the same quiet air. The candle burns down to its base, the flame flickering blue before dying out completely, and the room sinks into shadow.

His voice is a whisper against my hair. “You fear losing control,” he says, soft as a promise. “Then perhaps it is time you learn what control truly feels like.”

Comments

R Visitor

he was just in bed with her so why did he come from the shadows?

7 days ago

38

<Share

2 Comments >

02 02

142

12:56 pm Pppp.

Thornhill Academy

Crown of Shadows

Rhaziel

0490

She looks so small in my arms, so fragile for a creature who has survived a world that would have devoured her whole. The candlelight trembles across het face, gold and blue and weary

“You fear losing control.” I whisper against her hair, and she nodsa sound like a sigh caught between us,

“Then, 1 murmur, pulling back just enough to meet her eyes, “perhaps it is time you learn what control truly feels like.”

Her gaze lifts to mine, bright and uncertain. “How?”

I reach for her hand, tracing the line of her wrist with a claw careful enough not to break skin. “Feed from me,” I say softly. “Take only what you need. Let me show you that your power is not a curse.”

She hesitates, her breath catching. “Are you sure?”

I nod once. “Always.”

The air between us stills, and my heart races. It’s finally happening. My mate will feed from me. I suck in a deep breath when I feel the first tingle in my power. It is not visible when she draws, but I feel it. I feel her in my essence. The way my magic stirs like a tide turning toward her. My shadows stretch, reaching, tasting the air. And then she is there, her presence brushing against mine like the first breath before a storm. It is not taking. It is communion. Her darkness touches mine, and the bond between us sings happily. I can feel the edges of her fear softening, the frantic thrum of her heart easing as she drinks from me. My shadows curl around her wrists, coaxing, guiding, whispering enough, enough, though I would let her take all of me if she asked. It’s as long as her magic is greedy for mine, as though she can’t get enough of the taste of me, and it makes me proud and dizzy at the same time. Then I see it…The change begins in her skin with a shimmer and a ripple, as if moonlight itself is waking beneath her flesh. The soft human hue fades into luminous blue, deepening with each breath. Sigils bloom along her collarbones and arms/ tracing down to her fingers in patterns that mirror my own. Her hair lifts, caught in an invisible current, and the shadows move with her, swirling slowly and reverently. Horns rise from within her hair, smooth and curved, catching the dim light like polished obsidian. Her eyes gods, her eyes–shift from their gentle blue to something vast and endless like midnight skies. Then her

hands form claws, sharp and deadly, and I hear the unmistakable tear of her pyjama bottoms before a long, sleek, black tail with a razor end flicks happily

across the floor. My knees nearly give way.

Every shadow in the room bends toward her. My realm answers to her presence even here, in this attic room that suddenly feels like a throne ball. My magic

recognises its queen before my mind can even name her. She stares down at her hands, breathing hard, awe and disbelief tangled in her expression

“Rhaziel,” she whispers, voice low and rough. “What is happening?”

“You are, I breathe. “You are happening.”

I step closer, slow, not wanting to break the spell. Her shadows part for me, and when I reach out, the sigils along her skin glow brighter beneath my timch mirroring my own sigils behaviour.

“You are the first,” I tell her quietly, “to wer hold my power without burning.”

Wer ligh is small, almost disbelieving. “So what does that make me?”

I can and smile, “Me

Her lips barf, but stall comes out. I watch her chest ise il fall, the slow rhythm of one still caught and wonder I have lisad

dys, oled skälgitam tunged is darkness, but have never felt shis, the trembling beauty of something

eyes. Her poet Backers gun, and the students. I take unther step, doar engh to feel bes bocah against

12:56 pm Pppp.

Crown of Shadows

Allison, mitmu. Her name tastes like warmth on my fongue. “May 1… kiss you?”

Her answer is a small nod, but her power says more than words ever could. The sigils pulse once, glowing bright, and then fade to a gentle light as she leans in. My hand comes to the small of her back, her warmth spreading through me like wildfire as I move the other through her hair, tilting her head further an I lean down. My eyes flick from hers, those endless night skies, and then down to her lips. The kiss is soft at first. Her lips are warm, and I swear the shadows themselves sigh when they meet. The world narrows to the sound of our hearts and the feeling of her, my mate, my queen, my hummingbird. Allison. I could stay in this moment forever.

When she finally pulls back, her forehead rests against mine. Her breath trembles as she whispers, “You don’t need to ask…when you kiss like that.”

“I would rather ask,” I say, voice rough, “than take what is not freely given.”

A quiet laugh spills from her, and something shifts at our feet. Her tail, sleek, dark, tipped in faint blue light, slides forward, curling lazily around my legs.

I glance down and chuckle, unable to help myself. “Ah. It seems part of you is getting attached.”

She follows my gaze, mortified for half a heartbeat, before the faintest smile curves her lips. “Huh. They really do have a mind of their own.

I grin and let my own tail coil gently around hers, the two winding together in a slow, silent knot.

“Then it seems our instincts agree,” I murmur.

She laughs quietly, the sound like music echoing through shadow, and for the first time in centuries, the night itself feels alive. Our tails stay tangled, unwilling to let go, even when the candles burn out and the world outside falls to silence. And I know–no throne, no crown, no realm has ever been more beautiful than this moment.

Comments

V Ness C

1 Comments >

I’m loving the juxtaposition of a Demon king whose all about shadows and darkness bringing Allison and us readers lightness and joy. His love and soothing care is out of this world

7 days ago

47

Share f