I blushed so hard I thought my cheeks had caught fire.
“You watched me fight?” I’d done my best to pretend the cameras and castcrystals weren’t there while I was in the ring. The only person I’d hoped would see me was my mom, and her only because I’d thought she might come to one of the fights. Niddhogg’s admission that he’d seen so many of those fights made me want to crawl into a hole and die.
“Everyone watched you fight.” The dragon chuckled and jerked his head toward the School. “Kitchen’s open. Let’s get you some breakfast before the initiates arrive for their induction. Anyway, after what happened in Singapore, your ratings went through the roof.”
Singapore.
My stomach tied itself into a knot at the memory. The contender with the jinsei weapons hidden in the folds of his gi. Those twin blades of pure sacred energy had stabbed straight for my heart.
I’d never been so scared.
Or so furious.
“There were some good contenders.” I pivoted the conversation away from that horrible day. “A couple of them almost took me down.”
“Bah.” The black dragon scoffed at the idea. “A few of them made you chase them around the ring. None of them really had a chance, champ.”
Champ.
I had something in my eye again.
“Who else is here?” It was time to talk about literally anyone else. My cheeks would burst into flames if the dragon said anything else nice about me.
“The Disciples of Jade Flame showed up a couple of days ago with their new initiates. Resplendent Suns showed up yesterday morning with the new headmaster. Most of the Shadow Phoenix upperclassmen came in last night,” Niddhogg said. “Including Hagar.”
That name made my blood run cold. She was the warden who’d nearly killed me, then exposed my misdeeds to the world. If she’d had her way, I’d have been bounced out of the School and straight into prison. She, and the rest of the Shadow Phoenix clan, hated me for refusing to bow down to the people who wanted me to fail.
Thinking about the warden and what she’d done threw me into a foul mood. A hunger took root inside me, and I knew the buffet wouldn’t satisfy it.
“Sorry, Nidd,” I said to the dragon. My voice was tight and sounded unnatural even to my ears. “I need to take a rain check on breakfast. I’m not feeling great.”
“Ah, man,” the dragon pouted. “I knew I shouldn’t have said anything about Hagar.”
“It’s okay,” I lied. “I never really adapted well to portal travel, and all the jumping around has me off my game.”
The miniature black dragon eyed me for a moment, then shrugged.
“Suit yourself, kid,” he said. “If you change your mind, I’ll be in there stuffing my belly with bacon.”
“Sure.” We’d reached the School. I gave the dragon another scratch on the head, then opened the heavy front doors. “We’ll catch up later.”
“Take it easy.” Niddhogg flapped his wings and floated past me toward the dining room. He glanced over his shoulder as he went, and I gave him a fake smile and a little wave to send him on his way.
I bolted out of the main entryway the instant the dragon turned his attention away from me. My muscles cramped and my molars ground together. Reckless thoughts tumbled through my head, and it was a dark test of my self-control to resist them.
The urges had been coming closer together since Singapore.
Worse, they were getting stronger. I needed space to gather my thoughts and get the urge under control.
I willed myself to find a courtyard, and the School’s shifty architecture twisted around me. Instead of leading me outside, the hallway funneled me down a rickety set of stairs and into a narrow stone corridor. The only light came from narrow slits of windows up near the ceiling, and most of that was obscured by thick blades of grass. I was underground, somewhere below the School. I’d never been there before, but there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of other places in the School’s sprawling campus that I’d never discovered.
A curious chittering sound plucked at my attention. A black rat, fat and juicy, emerged from a hole in the wall. It perked up on its haunches and stared at me.
My Eclipse nature surged to the fore of my thoughts. Its hunger made my jaws ache and my stomach growl. I knew what it wanted, and I struggled to refuse its demand.
“Go away,” I pleaded with the rodent. “Please, just go away.”
The creature had other ideas. It sensed something familiar about me and scampered down the tunnel, sniffing the air as it bounded along. The little beast was so excited. It must have been one of the rats I’d bonded with last year. We’d been friends. Now it was coming to play.
I wanted to run away from the little guy before he got too close. My darker nature, however, had other ideas. The ache in my core cemented my feet in place.
When the rat was fifteen feet away, I crouched down and held my hand out to it. The urge was too strong for me to resist.
“Come here,” I whispered in a shaky voice.
The rat stopped and reared up on its hind legs as if sensing danger. Its whiskers twitched, and it licked its paws nervously. The black marbles of its eyes were glued to mine.
For a moment, I hoped it saw the Eclipse nature that stirred within me. If the rat ran away, I could resist the urges. I could do that much. If it got any closer, though, I wasn’t sure my willpower would hold out against my core.
The rodent dropped back to all fours and rushed toward me. Its bounding steps carried it to me like a puppy eager to beg treats from its master.
My Borrowed Core
