Dragonrider Academy: Episode 1

in and rested his forehead against me, closing his eyes as he drew in a long breath through his nose. “I feel it too,” he said, his voice lowering as if we shared a deep secret.
“What does that mean?” I asked, the human part of me feeling terrified, overwhelmed, and panicked. This was all too much, too fast, and the rational part of me said that all of this was impossible.
But when Killian drew away from me and tucked my hair behind my ear, I knew this was real. I felt something that tugged me toward him, that made me want to get to know him, to trust him, and to listen to him.
The human part of me? Yeah, she wasn’t having it.
He leaned in and brushed his lips across my cheek, making the battle surging in my chest explode.
I shoved him, my mind reeling back to the memory of Max forcing himself on me. “Get off me!” I screamed.
The wyvern under his nest flinched, poking his tail out to pull up the blanket a moment to look at me. Killian waved him away, so the beast snorted and draped the cloth over himself again, falling quickly back to sleep.
“Sorry,” Killian said, giving me space as he leaned away. “I thought you felt it too. The rider bond is a romantic one and you called me to you, but I forget your situation is unique.” He stood up and turned from me, the muscles along his back shimmering with the blueish-white tattoo that I’d seen before on his arms. Without his coat, he just wore a simple white t-shirt—which he pulled off as he walked away and my jaw dropped open.
Scars lined his back where the tattoos disappeared, making me wonder who exactly it was I was dealing with.
“What do you mean… romantic?” I asked, stunned by that revelation. “Is this some kind of arranged marriage thing or something?” Everything about this place was a bit medieval, so maybe I had inadvertently found myself betrothed to this guy.
I mean, he wasn’t hard on the eyes, that was for sure, but if he thought I would be his dragonrider bride when we barely knew each other, he didn’t know me very well—which was exactly my point. How could a relationship work on a foundation like this?
He opened up his closet and rummaged through his clothes, pulling out a chainmail shirt. He glanced back at me and I blushed, realizing I’d been staring at him this entire time. He smirked. “You need me to define what romance is to you?” he asked, his smirk growing. “It would be much easier to demonstrate.”
My face enflamed until I was sure that I’d turned beet red. “No. No demonstration is needed,” I insisted as I tugged his coat around me, making sure none of my skin between my knees and my neck would be on display. “I just mean… why did you try to kiss me?”
“Because we’re bound together,” he said matter-of-factly as he approached me again. I tried not to stare at the incredible hard lines of his body and I desperately wished he’d put his shirt on so my brain would unscramble, but I had a feeling he was doing this on purpose. He knelt and offered me his hand. He waited until I took it before he spoke again, all the while brushing his fingers over mine to give me the warmth my cold body craved. “Dragons require parents—two of them, to be exact. Male and female. Both offer different benefits to the dragon and I’ve been raising Topaz on my own for nearly a year. He’s been getting sick.” He glanced back at the nest before looking back to me. “I’ve been waiting for you, but I couldn’t risk it any longer. I received help from the Lady of the Lake and put events into motion to bring you here—a place you belonged already.”
“It’s your fault I’m here?” I said, my voice rising in pitch as I yanked my fingers away from his. That irritating cold seeped into my body without his contact, but his coat seemed to provide enough warmth to keep me from shivering. It was an odd feeling, because I’d never gotten cold before, not even on a snow day.
“Yes,” he admitted, his eyes almost as translucent as his wyvern’s wings keeping his gaze locked on me. “And if you wish to break the bond, my wyvern will die and yours will never hatch, but I will never force you to do something you do not want to do.” He leaned back and twisted his shirt over his head, giving me some reprieve from his otherworldly beauty. “Our relationship doesn’t have to be physical to be close. We’ll get to know each other, for now, and we can exchange energies that our wyverns need by simply holding hands.”
“What kind of energies?” I asked, even though my body already recognized what he was talking about. A strange force surged through me every time we touched and I craved to put my hand in his again. I curled my fingers into fists, digging my nails into my palm to resist the urge. “Never mind that,” I whispered, realizing he’d referred to us both having wyverns. “I get a dragon, too?”
He grinned, that familiar mischievous glee in his eyes making my stomach do backflips. “Yes, if you seal the rider bond with me, I will take you to orientation where you will meet your dragon.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. The human part of my mind tried to rationalize what was going on—and the choice I had to make. If this was a dream, what was the harm in playing along?
And if this was real… hadn’t I always imagined riding a dragon of my own? Hadn’t I wished that my fantasy novels were real and I could live a life of adventure and magic? I wouldn’t have to live as the invisible wallflower at my school anymore. I could discover