Dragonrider Academy: Episode 1

to figure out what race he might be.
What was fiction? What was real? Could he be a vampire? I leaned in to get a look at his teeth while he talked. They looked perfect to me, so not that. Unless he was like the vampires in the books where the fangs could pop out like switchblades. Or maybe he didn’t have fangs at all.
Or maybe he was a shifter of some kind. He had that dreamy look to him that would make all the cheerleaders at my school go bonkers.
My thoughts were interrupted when Jasmine started shouting again, this time while she grabbed me and yanked me out of his embrace. “You need to send her back, you moron. Are you trying to open up a rogue tunnel by bringing her here? Earth is a hotspot with wild dragons gaining territory every day. What kind of damage is her presence doing right now? Did you even think about that?” She jostled me again as she glared, looking into my eyes. I wasn’t sure what she saw there, but she didn’t like it. She faced Killian again as she shook me. “Are you just lonely? Is that it? You’re tired of me rejecting you, so you think you’re going to make me jealous with this little twig of a female?”
Killian snapped his fingers and a jolt of energy traveled through the cord that bound us, making Jasmine shriek and jerk away as she released me. Her dragon shot its head up and its nostrils flared while a strange rumbling sound built in its belly.
“Tell Emerald to chill out,” he said, his words stern but gentle. “If she burns up the new recruit, you’re going to be on tunnel duty for eternity.”
Jasmine ground her teeth while she glared. My stomach dropped and I finally found my voice enough to protest. “What the heck is wrong with you people?” I shrieked, yanking against the magical bind between myself and my captor. Killian didn’t budge. “You’re talking about me as if I’m not even here.” Maybe I was used to that back at my high school, but this place was supposed to be different.
I definitely wasn’t the only freak here.
“It doesn’t matter because Killian is going to send you back and reset your memory,” Jasmine insisted, taking out a dagger from a leather strap at her side. I stiffened, but didn’t move as she swiped down, severing the magical bond. Killian allowed it as he watched the exchange. “If you’re smart, you’ll run right back in that ocean and go back home,” Jasmine said, pointing at the distant waves.
“She’s not going home,” Killian insisted, his intoxicating gaze falling back to me as his voice changed again, growing sultry and kind. “Because you want to be here, don’t you?”
He wanted me to make my decision. He’d given me my mother’s letter, even knowing what it said.
But he said that he knew me, which meant he knew that I had nothing waiting for me back home. No friends other than a stray bird. No real family other than my mother—and if I had read her signals correctly, she’d come find me eventually.
What I had if I stayed was a real chance at figuring out what happened to my father… and maybe finding out more about myself and what was wrong with me before my mother arrived and got me out of here.
And maybe, what I’d find what I’d been missing all along. I’d find meaning for my life, hope, and purpose.
I looked back to the campus with the drifting dragons, the magical shimmer in the air and the sense of wonder that felt like I’d falling head-first into one of my favorite fantasy novels.
“I’m staying,” I said with finality.
Because whatever craziness I’d gotten myself into, running wasn’t the answer. I’d been running all my life.
It was time to take a stand.
Jasmine’s jaw flexed while she considered her response. “Well, then, I guess we’re going to have to do this the hard way.” She offered her hand for me to shake. “Welcome to Dragonrider Academy.”
When I went to take her hand, she retracted it and tapped her dagger, causing it to shimmer as it extended into a long elegant weapon. She crouched into a fighting position and raised the blade.
“I hope you brought a sword, because I challenge you to a duel.”
“Jasmine,” Killian complained as he rolled his eyes.
“No, you said she’s not leaving, so we’re going to play by Academy rules. I challenge her to a duel.”
He frowned. “Then I volunteer to fight on her behalf.”
“No,” I snapped, making them both to turn and look at me. “Nobody fights my battles,” I said, and I crouched and curled my fingers into fights.
I probably looked ridiculous as I bent my skinny legs and faced off with a legitimate female knight in my bathing suit, but I still had my pride.
Sort of.
Killian smirked, seeming pleased as he took his dagger from his belt and pelted it into the sand. “Very well, recruit. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
I took up the blade and shrieked as Jasmine launched in to attack, her massive dragon lazily watching the exchange as it rested its maw on its legs.
What had I gotten myself into now?

I’d never fought a day in my life, but I’d read plenty of fight scenes in my favorite fantasy novels and that counted for something.
And coming here… it had changed something in me.
Adrenaline made my heart thunder in my chest as I dove out of the way and blindly swiped with my blade, but my movement felt guided by an external force that thrummed through my veins. I knew I wasn’t going to hit my target that way, but that guiding instinct told me this was how I’d get her off guard. I regrouped as I did a somersault roll to get in closer to the female. Daggers were short-range weapons, but the last thing I needed was to be out of her reach where she