“That’s not the case though,” someone said, shuddering. She rubbed her arms. “I was rescued in time, but what you’re describing, that’s not it. I never got to choose. As soon as I was on my old mate’s back, it was over. I had no say. He’d just take as he needed, and I couldn’t go anywhere. If I could have, I would have jumped off his back even if it meant me dying.” She shivered, and another woman stepped up next to her, pulling the speaker into her side.
“Isabelle’s mate was not a kind mate,” the woman whispered and yanked her from the group. A sob broke out, only adding to my confusion.
“She had a mate?” I asked, confused. “But her hair?”
“The bond is breakable. It’s not easy to do it, but it is possible, especially if the two in question fight the bond. It’s also not something many survive from,” Kilven said, staring after the two left. “Once it’s broken, a Divine’s hair goes back to being white.”
“Once again, you’ve proven how you’re different,” Aylia said softly. “You are stronger than your mates, and not just one mate but three. You are strong enough to fight off three mates. They can’t take advantage of you. But the others who have found their mates, they weren’t as lucky.”
“I saw it happen,” a man said. “A dragon kept going even with his rider unconscious on his back. He kept going until he couldn’t breathe fire anymore, and it was only because his rider was dead.”
“Because we don’t necessarily get to choose who our dragon is, not all of them are nice or care about us. They just want the power,” a girl my age said. She gripped her dress, the fabric bunching up. “They can be abusive, not just by stealing magic but also in taking full possession of us, as if we are only things to be claimed rather than living, breathing people.”
More and more stories came out about how the riders would be trapped and pushed too far. How they’d be trained to use their magic over and over again until they had none left. The exhaustion of it all.
The horror stories poured out, and all I could think about was how lucky I was, that not only was I powerful enough to control my magic and keep it unless I said otherwise, but also because my mates weren’t like these others. They’d never treated me like trash.
Even Landers.
Sure, he was a rich kid, entitled, and definitely pushed the line, but at the end of the day, I loved him. While I hated how he approached things, I didn’t hate him for it. He was rough when it came to women because he was too used to getting what he wanted.
But even he was learning.
And all these stories left me with a bigger question: How had this been able to stay hidden from everyone for so long?
7
All those horror stories—all that fear—it all ricocheted around in my head as I laid in bed back in my room. Not even the cloud I was stretched out on could distract me nor could the exhaustion from using so much magic. After the stories, Aylia and Kilven pushed me some more, wanting me to do it again. I couldn’t make the target explode, but I was hitting it now at least.
I lifted my hand and stared at it. It was hard to imagine that I’d done all that. Never did I think it was even possible. I also had a feeling that I would have never learned this at the academy. I hadn’t seen any of the more experienced riders do this in training, nor had I seen anyone do it in battle either. Riders relied on the bow and arrow while atop their dragon mates. They were amazing snipers, and they did do something to their arrows so that they could explode on impact. Still, I never outright saw them toss magic into the chaos.
It was game-changing knowledge.
Everything I’d seen here so far contradicted what I’d been taught, even what I’d seen in Fyre. Yet it felt too much like the Fae and other Divines had shoved me into this protective bubble meant to only show the good. And it was working, confusing me so much. Tempting me to fall deeper into their trap for more information.
I could see why this place was a safe haven.
But I could also see why it felt too much like a prison. All this beauty—all this amazingness—wasn’t enough to hide the darkness in the shadows or obscure the dangers. Fae guards did patrol around here a lot, and they had a weird interest in the riders, always watching them. There was no slipping away and disappearing with how many guards were around the castle, like they didn’t truly trust the riders.
I moaned, rolling around on my bed, as I tried to wrap my head around my situation. The Fae training grounds were a place to learn, truly learn, but also a place I never wanted to come to. I was in the hands of the same people who had killed my father, but they were also the same people who apparently had saved multiple riders from a terrible fate at the hands of their dragon mates.
A place to grow stronger but why? There had to be more. It felt like there were too many big pieces still missing.
I shifted to my side and stretched out my arm along the bed. A moment later, my hand filled with white, crackling lightning. I made a fist, and it dissipated. Then, I did it again. Over and over. I didn’t understand it all, but I learned enough.
But what was the right answer?
I couldn’t stay here. I had mates. And I loved them, truly loved them. I could feel that same love from them too. There had never been anything deceitful about them. They’d only ever had my best interest in mind, only worked to protect me.
How much I missed them grew tenfold as I laid there, and I curled into myself, trying to keep a sob in. I didn’t want to cry, not here, not surrounded by so many people I couldn’t trust. I wanted to be wrapped in the arms of my guys, to feel safe, and to talk all this new information out with them.
They’d help me separate truth from fiction, to understand my position better.
But I didn’t even know where I was or how to get out of here. I was stuck in my room, the door locked once again. The window too.
There was no way out.
Suddenly, a dangerous thought came to mind, and I sat up in bed. While Aylia had only taught me the lightning magic today, there was another, wasn’t there? People at the training ground had been tossing items around with their minds.With telekinesis.