Asher paled. “What do you think happened to the shifters?” he asked quietly.
“I imagine they were tortured or murdered. I don’t know what purpose such a thing would serve, but there is no doubt in my mind that they are all dead. Given Melody’s quiet desperation not to bond anyone, I imagine that she has been sent here to harvest stronger shifters to survive whatever it is that they do to them. Asher, I am afraid that by challenging Melody, you have placed yourself and her in grave danger.”
“You have to break the bond. I’ll request it formally, but I can’t go back to her compound with her at the end of term,” Asher said, desperately.
“Asher, you’ve seen what happens. If we break the bond again, it will kill her. Georgia is too stupid to temper it enough to allow Melody to survive. These geasen are about keeping her weak enough to be compliant. Georgia knew that she would resist bonding you all, and she’s made it impossible for Melody to disobey.”
“Well, if it’s a case of her dying, or me, I choose her. I would be stupid not to. Then the threat to others is gone as well,” cried Asher.
Provost Aer-Canticum closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Asher, I seriously hope that it does not come to that, but if necessary, I will break the bonds between Melody and any shifter that she has before I allow her to leave these grounds with them. I have a duty of care to the shifters who come here. However, there is a workaround that we are trying. If Melody is offered a position with another coven, she is free to accept it, without it being disloyal to Bestia. It is our first rule, that a witch is free to serve whichever coven she wishes.”
“So why doesn’t she just ask one and how does that stop the geasen?”
“Because,” interrupted Nick, sick of the idiot in front of him, “that would be disloyal to her coven. If she attracts an invitation from another coven, she can accept, but she can’t seek one out, and she can’t ask for help seeking one out either. We’re reading between the lines here, but we all believe that she would accept if offered a place elsewhere, no matter where it is.”
“And,” added the provost, “the geasen would break when she joined the new coven.”
“So that’s why she’s trying to beat everyone in all of her classes. It’s not about proving herself better, it’s about escaping her coven and keeping us safe? That’s why she does nothing but study and sleep?” Asher asked, incredulously.
“That’s it in a nutshell, Asher,” replied the provost. “She’s slaving away so that she can have the opportunity to save you all, because once she’s free from her coven, the geasen will break, and she’ll be free to accept or reject whomever she wishes to. But given what I know of Melody, she would not leave you all languishing here a day longer than necessary. She is your ticket out of here, gentlemen, but only if we can help her escape her own living hell.”
Asher looked around them all, wide-eyed. “This is why you were trying to stop me from challenging her. It wasn’t about protocol, or getting in there first, or shutting out the new guy, you were protecting me, and her.”
Nick nodded. Finally, the asshole got it.
8. Melody
Conversation stopped when they entered the dining hall the next day. It was no more and no less than she’d expected. Two weeks' absence with the shifters all hanging around her cottage was bound to draw attention to her, and now the student body waited to see what the latest drama was.
The rumour mill had a dozen different versions of what had actually gone on with Asher behind closed doors, but the fact that he followed her obediently, alongside Dean, did not go unnoticed. Or uncommented on.
Shawna and her bitches were loud in their criticism of her supposed sexual habits, and Trent was called several times to leave her. He didn’t even look their way, sitting as close to Melody as he could and ignoring everyone, barring her and the rest of the Apex. Shawna had even tried to lure Asher back to her clique, but it seemed that he had finally severed whatever relationship he’d had with her.
It hurt to see Carla sitting with them, even if she didn’t participate in the harassment. Instead, her friend chanced angry glances at her, toying with a silver bracelet that Melody didn’t remember, and turning her back to Quinn who looked just as miserable. There was something going on there, but Melody had too many of her own problems to follow it up right then.
Throughout breakfast, Melody didn’t say a word. She had barely spoken since she’d emerged from her room that morning. Her answers were short and concise, and she refused to let Dean and Asher touch her. Dean continuously tried to hold her hand, whenever she wasn’t using it, and when she rested them on the table instead, he put his hand on her leg. It was a gesture that Shawna didn’t miss, and there was quite a bit of loud discussion on PDAs and the kind of sluts who didn’t know how far was too far.
Melody shrugged it all off, including Dean’s hand. Asher was more subtle. He had merely moved his chair so that his leg touched hers. She couldn’t avoid him without crawling into Dean’s lap on the other side, so she ended up gathering her breakfast into the soft roll on her plate, and walking away from them both.
Trent was instantly by her side, as he always was when the larger predators gave an inch of space around her. Together, they walked to class leaving the others grumbling behind them. The two dragons went
