Thornhill Academy (By Sheridan Hartin) novel Chapter 57

Kael

“So,” I drawl, lacing my fingers behind my head and sinking deeper into her ridiculously soft bed. “You gonna tell me what the hell happened out there, or do I have to bribe it out of you with embarrassing childhood stories?”

Evander shoots me a look from the edge of the bed, the one that says you’re pushing it, but I just grin. He sighs, long and deep, like it hurts and runs a hand through his hair. “You can’t tell anyone. Not a single person, Kael. Not even Tessa. Not even if you think it’ll help

her.”

I roll my eyes and slap his arm. “Dude, I haven’t told anyone how you shit yourself last year when you decided to try that ‘clean eating’ thing. I’m pretty sure your secrets and hers are safe with me.”

His glare could melt iron. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Absolutely not,” I chirp. “Now spill it, golden boy.”

He hesitates for a long second before the words tumble out. “She’s a siphon.”

That wipes the grin right off my face. I sit up straighter. “A what?”

“You heard me,” he says quietly, glancing toward the bathroom door like she might appear any second. “When she fought in the woods, she must have taken from me. My dragon’s magic. That’s why he recognised her. When she was bleeding out, she siphoned my power to heal herself. And then, during training, she fed again. Took more. Enough to shift.”

My jaw drops. “You mean she…she shifted? Like a dragon?”

Evander nods once, his eyes distant, almost reverent. “It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, obviously. Bonds don’t snap before the Moonlight Festival. But when she shifted, it… clicked. I felt it. Like the universe carved her name into my bones.”

I whistle low, leaning back again. “Damn. That’s… huge.”

He gives a quiet, humourless laugh. “Yeah. Tell me about it.”

“Let me get this straight,” I say, counting off on my fingers. “Your girl can siphon power, she accidentally drank up dragon juice, turned herself into a full-fledged shifter, and now the universe says she’s yours?”

Evander’s mouth twitches. “Something like that.”

“Shit,” I mutter, running a hand over my face. “When you fall, you really fall hard, don’t you?”

His eyes soften just slightly, golden and thoughtful. “Yeah. I think I do.”

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I grin despite myself, but it doesn’t reach my chest. Something tight and uncomfortable twists there instead. Because I get it, I get it too

well.

That same pull that drags his dragon toward her, it’s been gnawing at me too. From the first time she looked me dead in the eye and told me to fuck off, something inside me shifted. It’s not love, hell, I wouldn’t even know what to call it, but it’s there. That same invisible

thread tugging at me, whispering mine in an echo of my consciousness. If her bond to Evander snapped because she siphoned from him…

then what happens if she takes from me? If she fed on my hound’s fire, my chaos? Would that same bond form? Would she have two

mates? The thought hits like a punch to the gut. Not jealousy exactly, more like confusion and dread tangled together. I take a slow

breath, trying to shake it off, to think rationally. But the more I turn it over in my mind, the more it claws at me.

Finally, I clear my throat. “Ev…”

He looks up from where he’s fiddling with his fingers, already tense.

“I’ve been thinking,” I start carefully, tone measured. “If her bond snapped into place after she fed on you, then maybe…”

“No.”

It’s sharp, immediate. He doesn’t even let me finish.

“Just, hear me out,” I say quickly, sitting forward. “If the siphoning connects her to whoever she takes from…”

“I said no,” Evander growls, standing now, eyes blazing gold. “She’s my mate, Kael. Mine. Not yours, not anyone else’s.”

I raise my hands in surrender, but the words keep spilling. “You don’t know that! You said yourself this isn’t how it’s supposed to happen. What if her magic doesn’t follow the same rules? What if the fates picked more than one!”

“Stop!” he snaps, fire crackling faintly at the edges of his voice. “You think I’m just going to let you offer yourself up like some experiment? You want her to feed on you? To bond with you? Is that it?””

His tone is pure venom, protective and furious, and it hits the raw nerve in me dead on.

“That’s not what I said!” I bark back, heat rising. “I just…fuck, Ev, I feel something, okay? I don’t know what it is, but it’s there. And maybe if you weren’t so blinded by your damn dragon, you’d see that this is bigger than just you.”

He steps forward, close enough that I can feel the heat radiating off him. “You’re not touching her,” he snarls. “Not for power, not for proof, not for anything.”

I square my shoulders, refusing to back down. “Maybe it’s not up to you.”

My fists clench and unclench at my sides, the heat beneath my skin sparking like wildfire. My hound paces restlessly just below the surface, claws dragging against my ribs, his growl rumbling in my chest. I take a step toward the door, but the words boil up before I can stop them.

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I turn back over my shoulder, jaw tight, voice rough with the effort of keeping control. “You know what, Evander? I don’t give a fuck if

she’s your mate.”

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