“I’m sure one could, Mr. Darkheart,” the Headmistress snapped. “But I’m in no mood to have such a case put before me right now. Ari is supposed to go and Kaitlyn is supposed to stay.”
The fact that the nearly unflappable Headmistress had slipped and called Ari and me by our first names let me know exactly how upset she was. I felt sorry for her, but also scared for myself.
“Why should Kaitlyn stay?” Ari demanded. “To get eaten by the Guardian? To be starved to death with no blood to drink? Or perhaps you’d like to let that vrota, Nancy have another chance at killing her some other way?”
The Headmistress’s eyes narrowed and she drew herself up and looked at Ari.
“I’m sorry you are worried about Miss Fellows, Mr. Reyes,” she said in icy tones. “But may I remind you that the safety of the students in this school is my purview, not yours? Now that I know Nancy Rattcliff is involved, I will take extra measure to make certain Miss Fellows is safe. And I will find her someone else to drink from while you are gone to the Sky Lands.”
Ari’s face grew dark with fury.
“I do not want Kaitlyn taking any blood but mine! I don’t want to leave her alone here—she is mine!”
“That will be quite enough of that, Mr. Reyes,” Headmistress Nightworthy said tartly. “You cannot own another student.”
“You don’t understand!” Ari’s eyes were going from amber to gold with passion. “It isn’t only that I own her, it is that Kaitlyn owns me. She has my heart and the heart of my Drake. Once a male’s Drake settles on a mate, you cannot part them!”
“Oh, yes I can,” the Headmistress said coolly. “You are excused, Mr. Reyes. Please return to the Sky Lands where your father is waiting for you. As for the rest of you…” She turned to survey the rest of my Coven-mates. “I’d like you all to stay here this weekend with Miss Fellows until I can make other security arrangements.” She looked at me. “Under no circumstances are you to leave Nocturne Academy, since that would involve crossing the lake, Miss Fellows. We will work this problem out in time, but for now, I want you to stay put.”
“Yes, Headmistress,” we all said—all except Ari. He turned stormy eyes on Headmistress Nightworthy and then looked at me and I saw that his eyes had gone pure gold.
“MINE,” he growled again in that deep, thunderous voice I knew belonged to his Drake.
I couldn’t help myself, I flinched back at the intensity of his glare and the possessiveness in his voice.
Ari said nothing at my swift movement, he only studied me as though memorizing my face, and then turned and stalked out of the Headmistress’s office.
I watched him go and wondered if I would ever see him again.
59
Ari
I was so angry I knew I had to leave. My Drake was too close to the surface and he, too, was angry—enraged, in fact, at the idea of our L’lorna being given to another in order to feed.
“No one! She must touch no one else—feed from no one else!” he roared, so loudly my skull ached.
“She won’t,” I promised, though I had no idea how to keep my word. “We won’t allow it—somehow we’ll stop it.”
But how?
I didn’t know but right then I knew that I was not going to leave Kaitlyn behind to the tender mercies of Nancy Rattcliff. That vrota had already tried to get her killed twice—once by the jaws of the Guardian and once by an angry mob.
I had half a mind to let my Drake burn her to a crisp—that would have been the penalty for attempted murder of a male’s mate in the Sky Lands. But I knew things didn’t work the same here, in the human world.
Reluctantly, I decided I would have to leave the punishment of Nancy Rattcliff to the Headmistress.
But that didn’t mean I had to leave Kaitlyn to her as well.
I felt my determination rising as I stalked down the stone hallway. I wasn’t sure how I would manage it but I swore to myself that my little L’lorna was coming with me…
All the way to the Sky Lands and beyond.
60
Kaitlyn
“Hey—you wanna talk about it?” Megan sat down on the battered old blue couch beside me and put a comforting arm around my shoulders. We were back in the Norm Dorm and I was trying to get myself together after the scene in the Headmistress’s office.
“Hi Megan.” I looked up from my contemplation of the fire. “There’s nothing to talk about, really—he’s gone.”
“I know. I’m sorry, hon.” Megan gave me a squeeze and I sighed and let myself lean against her.
“You’re a good friend. I know all this messed up your weekend plans.”
“Don’t be silly,” Megan said briskly. “Our only plans were to cook and eat dinner with Aunt Delli. She was going to teach Griffin how to make her famous goulash.”
“So you see, I must thank you for keeping us here,” Griffin remarked, coming to sit on the other side of Megan. “Otherwise I would be cooking human food at this very moment.” He made a face and I had to laugh.
“All right now, you brought this on yourself, you know,” Megan remarked, looking at him pointedly. “You’re the one who said human food was like eating dirt or sand.” She looked at me. “I told my Aunt Delli he’d said that and she was horrified. She wanted to know how in the world he was going to cook for our children if we ever have any.”
“Um, can you have kids, though?” I asked. “I thought it wasn’t certain when you mixed two kinds of Other.”
Megan shrugged. “I’ve been
