Page 11 of Lucent Academy 2: Trinity Awakens
Soon, he landed on the arena floor before me with a grace that belied his size. He began to change, his form shrinking and reshaping until where the dragon had stood, there was now a man. Tall, broad, and muscular with midnight black hair that fell in a wild disarray around an obsidian face. His eyes were still gold, still blazing with inner fire, and when he looked at me with his predatory eyes, it was with a hunger that I was only starting to understand.
He cocked his head to one side and gave a smile that would melt any heart and turn most female knees to jelly. "Hello again, my lady. I have answered your summons." I wanted nothing more than to run into Vaerath's arms, to sample some of the delights my dreams had teased at, but I was very aware of the eyes on us and felt suddenly self-conscious. I could also feel the constant drain on my power, the cost of keeping him there. I had managed to summon him, but sustaining the connection, as well as performing the fire spell, was going to be a challenge.
Without looking anywhere else, Vaerath's eyes locked on mine, and it was as if the whole arena and everyone in it just fell away. He strode toward me and grabbed me into his arms without hesitation. Bending his head, he claimed my lips with his. They were soft, but insistent, ravenous with lust. With his arms clasped around my waist, he started to pick me up off the ground. "I wish to carry you away with me," he growled against my lips.
I wanted to say something, to make him aware of the fact that a whole bunch of people were watching us, but my mouth was still stuck against his.
"Perhaps later." A dry voice remarked, pulling Vaerath out of the happy daze that had consumed him upon seeing me again.
He put me on my feet and glanced at who had spoken. It had been Caleb, and he looked highly amused. Next to him, Tanwen poked him in the ribs. "Oh, hush, or have you forgotten how enamored we were with each other those first few months after we bonded?"
Vaerath looked around and realized we were in the school's training grounds. "Ah, a test of skill, I presume? And I don't see either of those pompous asses who think you are theirs!"
I was thinking how that statement was kind of like the pot calling the kettle black, but I kept my mouth shut.
"You don't need them, my love. I'm glad to be here with you. I am here to lend you my vigor, my very essence." And I did feel the exchange of power as Vaerath fell in behind me. His presence was giving me strength and a sense of safety. The physical summons of a mate generated an invisible Mana field around the summoner. The mate didn't consciously maintain it; it was a natural byproduct of a Pacted Being existing in the human world. The sense of safety I felt with Vaerath present was more than this. It was a feeling that he would move mountains or burn worlds to protect me.
Still, his presence was depleting my power. In time, as I became more skillful at maintaining the connection, as I had better control over my power, the loss of Mana it required to summon my mates would not be nearly as much as what I gained fromtheir presence. For now, though, I had to perform my spell before I was too weak to do it.
I turned my attention to the task of creating fire. My brow furrowed, and I grew still, trying to feel my own power, trying to draw on my fire elemental affinity.
I could feel it was going to work moments before it actually did. One moment, there was nothing, and then there was a flame, dancing merrily in the palm of my hand. Before that, I had felt myself draw on my inner reserves of manna, had felt the power flooding through me.
The moment the flame spluttered into life, my eyes flew open. A feeling of elation made my stomach do a flip, and the flame burned higher in response, then spluttered out. But I had done it!
I turned to Vaerath, wanting to share this moment with him. He stepped forward and kissed me again. By the time he broke contact, I was quite breathless, and the last bell of the day had just finished ringing.
Vaerath looked down at his hand and saw that he was fading.
"I'm sorry," I said, sensing his disappointment that the end of our time together had come so swiftly.
"It's alright," he assured me. "We'll see each other again very soon. I'm proud of what you were able to accomplish today."
His words were cut off as he faded away into nothingness, having returned to his own realm, but the feeling he left me with was like a warm blanket against the cold.
"Well done, all three of you," Caleb told us, and we beamed at our instructor. "You will have non-magical classes for thenext few days, giving you time to rest between our lessons. We convene here again when it's time for your next lesson."
Just then, a raven-haired woman appeared. She had a sharp, elven-like face and eyes the color of fresh honey. She seemed young, no more than 16, but I recognized her as one of the instructors. She had been paired with two students who had an affinity for mind magic and had the control to work on those kinds of spells. Having bonded with a Vampire Monarch myself, I thought that I would eventually be taught by her as well.
My eyes found her mate standing serenely next to her. He was tall and broad, with a caramel complexion and yellow eyes with slitted pupils. On his head, he wore a turban the color of sour green apples. His flowy, plain tunic and puffy pants were the same shade of green. So were the curly-toed shoes on his feet. He wasn't exactly handsome, but very compelling and had a distinct feline quality about him. I knew he was some sort of creature tied to the air nature element, but I couldn't quite guess what his type or ranking was.
"Ready to go?" Her question was addressed to Caleb. He nodded, and then he and Tanwen joined her and her mate. Before the woman turned away, she gave us a cold glance. The hostility in her stare took me aback, but it could have been directed at any of Caleb's students.
I was about to brush it off. Maybe I only imagined it. Then Amber huffed, "What the hell is her problem?"
"That's Trina Swift, " Oliver whispered. "Her mate is a Rakshasa. Very rare for one of them to answer a summons." When I shook my head, Oliver explained, "He's a Fiend. They look like humanoid tigers. Word around here is that Caleb and Trina grew up together in Glenburn."
Glenburn was the largest northern city, northwest of Hartwick. I knew of it only by name. Before the airship had whisked me off to the Academy, I had only ever been in the my town where I'd grown up.
"Yeah, so?" Amber asked impatiently. It dawned on me that students of the Academy welcomed gossip as if it were their favorite pastime. It reminded me to take anything Oliver told us with a grain of salt. I knew how facts could be distorted when passed from one person to another under the guise of information sharing.
"They were high school sweethearts. He was the son of a stone mason. She was the daughter of the postmaster. They had plans to get married after finishing school. Then BOOM! She discovers she's Manaborn and is whisked off to the Academy. His own magical gifts only became apparent a year later. Now, both of them have been bonded to mates from the Pacted Realms, and any hope they had of being together was left shattered in the dust."
Amber looked at Oliver wide-eyed. "It's amazing."
He nodded eagerly. "I know, right!"
"No. I mean, before today, I had no idea men gossiped so much. I thought that was just a thing moms do with their friends. If this Academy doesn't have a social rag, you should start one. You can write a daily gossip column giving everyone updates on everyone else."
