Of Death and Dragons: A gothic academia fantasy romance (To Tame a Shifter) by A.K. Koonce

Author:A.K. Koonce [Koonce, A.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

EMERGENCY ASSEMBLY IMMEDIATELY

Time: High Noon

Place: The Great Dining Hall

Agenda: TBA

My eyes scan the large parchment nailed to the first-floor double doors that lead into the dining hall. Roaring laughter and yelling spills out from the thin crack between the two enormous slabs of dark glossy wood.

“It says immediately, but then it says high noon . . .” I murmur.

“Shifters take their breakfast very seriously. Trying to address several hundred hungry dragon shifters is too dangerous,” Lila explains casually as she hugs her own mating journal against the smooth buttons of her white shirt. The urge to word-vomit everything that happened last night burns up my throat, but I force myself not to mention it.

What would I say? Your fated mate is a narcissistic shifter-hole who tried to murder me?

Doesn’t feel like the kind of small talk that’ll do good things for our friendship.

Her small hand presses to the door, and she pushes it open with ease, leading the way into the crowded room. A long buffet of scrambled eggs, blueberry muffins, thick bacon, steaming sausage, plump strawberries, sliced melons, and fluffy pancakes are splayed across a table at the back. Both of us turn immediately to the wafting smell of hot, fresh food.

“Fates, it smells good,” I whisper.

My first taste of real food. It’s a moment that’s long overdue.

“The chef at Death Rider Academy is the highest-paid position just under the headmaster himself,” Lila says while scooping large spoonfuls of strawberries onto a white plate. “He’s very vital to our learnings.”

My brows pull low over my stare, but I just nod along like that makes perfect sense.

With a scoop of fluffy eggs, a huge blueberry muffin, and two round sausage patties, I follow after her petite frame. She nearly gets swallowed up among the pushing men and the bumping shoulders all around us. She walks ahead as two bodies move at just the right time, their backs meeting just slightly. And then she’s gone.

“Li—” I step around the two men, but I’m deterred as a girl comes rushing by, spilling a bit of my egg to the rocky ground as she goes. I’m turned this way and that before my breath catches in my lungs, and I want to scream. Before the anger comes out, a warm hand presses to my back. The others step back from me and the air reaches my lungs. My clenched lashes open slowly, and dark stormy eyes look down on me. His nearness is closer than normal with his chest nearly touching mine but not. Arcane’s features are serious as he studies every inch of me with a careful sweeping assessment, searching my body like I might be more hurt in this cafeteria than I was in the bottom of a tomb just last night.

A beat passes before I realize I haven’t said a word.

“Hey,” I whisper up to him, remembering the accidental inappropriate fondling that occurred just an hour earlier. I clear my throat hard and take a breath.

He tilts his head to the side and gestures for me to come along with him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.