Thornhill Academy (By Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 50

The words hung between us, strange and sharp. I blinked at her, trying to reconcile them with what I’d just seen-bones reshaping, golden scales, wings in the sky. It didn’t make sense.

She must have seen the confusion in my face, because her voice dropped to a thread, so quiet I almost missed it. “You can’t tell anyone… I’m… I’m a siphon.”

For a second, the forest stilled. Even my dragon went silent, stunned. A siphon. She had shifted, flown, glowed like my kind, yet she was confessing to being something almost no one survived being. My hands stayed on her face anyway, thumbs still brushing her skin, my dragon still pressing his warmth into her chest through mine.

“You…” The word left my mouth before I could stop it. My mind was already stringing the flashes together-the punch that knocked me back like she’d been training for years, the impossible strength in the sparring field, the golden fire in her shift. My hands stayed on her face, steady but not trapping. “You siphoned my power,” I said slowly, like naming it might make it less impossible. “That’s how you hit me. That’s how you… shifted.”

Her breath caught. She flinched, her body drawing back a fraction, but I slid my hands down to her shoulders, pulling her gently but firmly back into the circle of my arms. “It’s okay,” I said low. “Really. It’s okay.”

Her eyes flicked to mine, wary, waiting for disgust or anger. All I let her see was certainty. “Did you take from me yesterday?” I asked quietly. “When you were injured?”

The answer was there in the way her throat worked, in the tiny tremor under my palms. She didn’t even have to speak.

“Ally…” My voice softened even more, my forehead tipping against hers again. “It’s okay. You can take from me any day, any night you

need. I don’t care.” My thumb stroked a slow circle against her skin. “I just-” I exhaled, my dragon pressing its warmth against her like a

promise “I think that maybe that’s why the bond snapped into place early because you siphoned from someone who was destined to be

your mate. Someone with a beast. It’s normal for our beasts to be more in tune with our mates.”

Her eyes flickered, searching mine, torn between disbelief and hope. I could feel her dragon just beneath her skin now, watching me through her. My own beast purred in satisfaction at finally saying the truth out loud, at finally making sense of the impossible.

“You merged our magics,” I said softly. “You took a piece of me and my dragon inside of you.”

‘You can’t tell anyone… no one can know, they’ll take me away.”

I pulled her impossibly closer to me. The warmth of her cheek on my chest calms my dragon.

“No one will take you from me. Ever. But we will do this our way, okay? We’ll keep this between us until the moonlight festival, so it

doesn’t draw unwanted attention.”

“Okay…” She says softly. “I’ll trust you.” and those three words hit harder than everything else. My mate trusts me. My mate.

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12:47 Tue, Dec 30

Thornhill Academy.

Just A Little Longer.

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{37)

“We have a lot to talk about,” I whispered into her hair, the words almost swallowed by the forest itself. “But we should probably get back

to the academy before we’re deemed missing…”

That’s when I felt the shift in her, the moment she realised just how bare we both were. Her gaze flicked down, and the flush that painted her cheeks spread fast, blooming pink across her pale skin. She crossed her arms instinctively, trying to cover what little she could, and the sight was so innocent, so human, I couldn’t stop the low chuckle that escaped me.

“Your body is beautiful, pet,” I murmured, letting the truth sit heavy between us. Her eyes snapped up to mine, wide and disbelieving. I tilted my head, softer now, letting my knuckles brush the side of her jaw. “And I do plan on learning every inch of it.” My lips ghosted over her cheek, the briefest kiss. “But only when you’re ready.”

Her breath stuttered, but she let me help her to her feet. She swayed slightly, her body still weak from the shift, so I kept one hand steady at her waist as I crossed to where I’d shed my clothes earlier. Truth be told, there wasn’t much left to offer, my shirt had been gone before training, what remained was a single pair of black shorts and my underwear. Not exactly a wardrobe.

I pulled on the briefs, the elastic biting into my hips, then held out the shorts to her. “Here,” I said simply.

She hesitated, eyes darting between me and the fabric, before tugging them up her legs. They dwarfed her, hanging low on her hips, and she had to bunch one side awkwardly to keep them from sliding straight back down. The sight was endearing, almost comical, and yet all I could think about was how much I hated anyone else seeing her this vulnerable.

“Everyone should be in the food hall by now,” I said, scanning the treeline and listening for voices. “If we’re lucky, we can sneak across the training field and into the change rooms before anyone notices.” My gaze raked over her again despite myself. The shorts did little, her long hair falling like a veil across her chest, the only thing saving her from full exposure. Too much. Way too much skin exposed for anyone else to see. My dragon snarled low in my chest, the protective instinct sharp enough to taste on my tongue. I stepped closer, brushing a damp strand of hair from her shoulder and letting it fall back across her.

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