Dragonrider Academy: Episode Two Copyright © 2020 by A.J. Flowers
Cover Art by Rebecca Frank
All Persons Fictitious Disclaimer:
This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system.
Published in the United States.
CONTENTS
Also by A.J. Flowers
Blurb
1.
A Kiss to Remember
2.
Servitude
3.
Fight or Flight
4.
Time Out
5.
Rekindled
6.
Dragon's Blood
Blurb
A Note from the Author
Also by A.J. Flowers
ALSO BY A.J. FLOWERS
YA Fantasy Romance
Valkyrie Allegiance (A Complete Series)
Valkyrie Landing (Book 1)
Valkyrie Rebellion (Book 2)
Valkyrie Uprising (Book 3)
Daughter of Dragons (Standalone)
Dragonrider Academy (Episode 1)
Dragonrider Academy (Episode 2)
Dragonrider Academy (Episode 3)
Dragonrider Academy (Episode 4)
Celestial Downfall: Twisted Angelic Realms (Complete Series)
Fallen to Grace (Book 1)
Rise to Hope (Book 2)
Stand for Justice (Book 3)
Manor Saffron (Book 4)
GameLit
Reborn Online: Dungeon Worlds
Post Apocalypse
40 Days: The Atomic Fall Series
It’s funny how everything can change in an instant.
I went from being an invisible wallflower with no friends, no dreams, and no future to being thrust into a world of dragons and magic. I’ve bonded with Killian, my sexy-as-sin partner and my dragonrider mentor who has been in this world all his life. Together we will raise our dragons into adulthood and protect the realms from evil.
That was how it was supposed to go… anyway.
Nothing works as it should when it comes to me. After our first—and probably only—kiss, Killian hates me. The bond let him venture deep into my soul and what he saw horrified both of us.
There are secrets in my blood, secrets that might be best kept in the dark.
It’s too late to go back now. I’m a full-fledged student at Dragonrider Academy and there’s only one thing left to do.
It’s time to meet my dragon.
Dragonrider Academy: Episode 2
The kiss told me more about Killian than a lifetime of experience ever could.
In that instant, I knew that this was real, that I belonged here, and that Killian was my mate.
It felt as if I grew wings and I soared to new heights with Killian at my side. He’d lived a hard life, but he wasn’t much older than me at just eighteen. He grew up knowing what he was, that he would one day attend Dragonrider Academy and would be tied to the rider bond with a female he barely knew. His race was the most common one from which knights and dragonriders were chosen. They were called Nephilim, a hybrid between human and angel which made them the perfect protectors. They were strong, nearly immortal, and had enough humanity to be compatible with the rider bond.
Being what he was, though, he didn’t have a lifetime among the humans he was meant to protect. He envied that of me, that I had gotten to feel normal, but just like I explored his mind he explored mine. He understood that “normal” wasn’t how my life had been at all. I’d in fact been lonely, confused, and distant and it would have been better if I could have grown up with my own kind.
My race was all but dying out, however, the women of Avalon. I saw the mystical city through his memories of the stories of what it had once been. It was an island covered in fog filled with beautiful women who wore crystalline headdresses and spoke prophecies given by the goddess. Knights protected Avalon—but they had failed a hundred years ago. Wild dragons had destroyed it and the image in my mind changed the beautiful city growing dark as it flooded with water, all light and fires snuffing out as the crashing waves overtook the city filled with screams. It kept going, the dragons swarming in the distance until there was only muted silence underwater.
Those who escaped fled to other realms, and my ancestor was the only one who went to Earth.
A tear sizzled down my cheek as the thoughts and memories flashed through my mind, all the while I was still locked in a debilitating kiss with the beautiful Nephilim and dragonrider named Killian.
Still, I sensed something he tried to hide from me. Instinct made me seek it out as I searched through his mind. We were bonded, now, and there would be no secrets between us.
I found it and a jolt of cold washed over me. What surprised me was that this was my own secret. I had indeed called Killian, although I hadn’t been aware of it. He’d been met with a golden finch throughout his life, a spirit of wellbeing that he thought had been from Heaven. It had guided him to the Academy and promised him the perfect mate, one who would make him stronger and wiser and help his dragon thrive.
That had all been a lie. I had too much humanity in me. I needed him to help me bring my father’s murderer to justice, but that’s all I had ever cared about. I couldn’t keep his wyvern alive. I probably couldn’t even bring mine into the world. But if I bonded to Killian, I would inherit his power as a Nephilim and it would be enough for me to discover who had killed my father and to do something about it.
I’d never cared about saving the world. I’d never thought what it would do to Killian or his wyvern to use him like that. I’d only been a distraught girl who’d lost everything and wanted to make it right.
When I had created the golden finch I’d named Solstice, it had taken all my memories of that intent with it. Any innate knowledge that I’d had about my destiny had vanished because it took all of my strength to create that spirit that
