Dragonrider Academy: Episode 1

tell myself that you’ll never read this letter.
If I’m being honest, and you are reading this letter, then I will say I know you are capable of anything. I feel your strength as you kick inside my stomach and I can’t wait to meet you, to name you and to spend my life making yours better.
Be strong, my daughter, and know that you’ve been brought to a powerful place where you’ll be tested over and over again—but you will survive, this I promise you.
And I will make sure you will never be alone, because my heart is with you.
Love, Mom.
My entire body trembled by the time I finished reading. My mother had said those exact words to me as part of the lyrics to a little bedtime song.
You will never be alone, because my heart is with you.
No matter what, I will find you. I will cross oceans and worlds to be by your side again.
You will never be alone.
She’d sung that to me because she knew I might one day read this letter and I would need to know that she would come for me.
My knees buckled as the realization of everything came over me all at once and I found myself caught in Killian’s arms. He held me with ease and his wyvern shifted open one eye to check out the disturbance. A brilliantly blue iris with a sliced lizard-like pupil examined me for a moment before it closed again.
“It’s a lot to take in, I know,” Killian said, his low velvety voice calm and soothing. “But you’re here now, so let’s get you on campus and to orientation and… oh.” He looked down at my lack of attire and chuckled. “Well, to the dorms first, then. You’re going to give half of the student body a nosebleed dressed like that. What part of Earth do you come from, anyway? I seriously need to visit this culture where the dress code is so… sparse.”
Shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself and took a deliberate step away from the warm male who made my insides do backflips. I’d nearly forgotten I was only wearing my bathing suit and how inappropriate that might be in this situation. “Yeah, clothes sound like a good idea,” I admitted.
I wasn’t getting back home like this. Even with a wistful look back at the retreating ocean, I knew that I couldn’t go the same way I’d come. Somehow, I’d traveled to a different realm, an entirely different world where dragons were real and so was the danger that had killed my father.
He hadn’t drowned from being trapped by an undercurrent.
He’d been murdered.
A cold chill swept through me as I rewrote all of my memories. Even if my father hadn’t wanted children, he’d loved me fiercely. I couldn’t remember much, but I knew that without a doubt. Something had brought me and my mother to the water when I was a child and he’d died to protect us—to protect me.
I turned back to face the impossible scene spanning out before me like a painting. The dragons I’d spotted earlier were larger now, and one in particular had broken off from the winding herd until I noticed the elegant rider atop its back.
My heart pounded in my chest when the emerald dragon began its descent. Large, glimmering scales swept over its entire body and made it sparkle like it held green fire in its belly. Smoke drifted from its nostrils, suggesting that the illusion wasn’t an illusion at all and I was in serious danger of being burned alive.
Killian didn’t seem too concerned, though, and casually draped his arm around my hips, bringing me in closer to him. The only hint that he’d tensed was how he briefly dug his fingers into my skin before relaxing them again.
The dragon landed and the ground jolted underneath my feet, making me want to scream or run or do anything other than stare at this creature from my position of weakness. Killian stood his ground and forced me to remain still, so I followed his lead. He’d expressed that I was of some value to him, so I held to that fact to keep me safe—for now. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me or he wouldn’t get what he wanted.
A female rider jumped from the dragon’s back, sauntering over to us as she glowered. She wore a feminine version of Killian’s uniform, except an emerald pin glistened at her left shoulder where he had a bronze one.
She turned her glare on me as she propped her hands on her hips, taking a moment for her gaze to dip where she noted Killian’s hand on me. “So, you finally found yourself a recruit,” she said with a sneer. “Where did you drag this one in from? One of the fae worlds? She looks so small.” She leaned in closer and her nostrils flared. “She smells like one, too. Like sunlight and stench. You really think she’s going to last two days here?”
“She’s human,” Killian said as he ran his hand up and over my shoulder as he covered my birthmark. I glanced up at him, wondering why he’d lie. My mother’s words came back to me.
I’m not entirely human, Vivienne, and neither are you.
The female’s eyes went wide, revealing striking emerald irises that rivaled her dragon’s colors. The beast folded its legs under it, thundering the ground again as it settled into a comfortable position. By the way it lazily narrowed its eyes and ticked back its ears, the beast thought it was going to be here a while.
“Human?” the female shrieked. “Are you insane?”
“It’s not your call, Jasmine,” Killian said, his tone flat. He sounded different when he spoke to someone else, as if his voice lost that sensual bite it had to it when directed at me. Maybe he wanted to mesmerize me, somehow, or control me through compulsion. If humans weren’t customary here, it meant he wasn’t human either, and I immediately started searching for clues