Chapter 10: _ The Perfect Pawn

"You’re lying," I scoffed, leaning back into my chair and resting my boots on the edge of the table. "Raice doesn’t speak to people. He stares at walls, he breaks ancient wards, he punches Wardens, and he stands on dais steps looking like a majestic, blood-soaked lunatic. The man treats the rest of the student body like furniture."

Zev insisted. "He spoke to her, Ivar. I have three separate informants on the concourse. They all saw it. He stood beside her for ten minutes, whispering in her ear while his mother was executing Academy policies."

My mind fired through possibilities, cross-referencing every piece of intel I had on the High Rector’s sociopathic offspring. And then, like a rusted gear grinding into place, it clicked.

My boots slid off the table, hitting the floorboards with a thud. I sat up straight, a breathless laugh bubbling up from my chest.

"The nutjob is doing it again. He’s doing it again!"

"He is," Zev confirmed, a grim smirk touching his lips. "The exact same pattern."

I laughed, rubbing my hands together. "Unbelievable. Two years ago, nobody listened to us when we said it. The High Council swept the whole incident under the rug, pretended the victim was just ’mentally unstable,’ and protected their precious Fae golden boy. But now? He’s doing it right out in the open. On the Concourse. To a fresh initiate."

"That is precisely why I am here," Zev leaned forward. "This is our opening, Ivar. Remus, Ajax, and Raice have held the top of this Academy by the throat for two years. But Raice is the keystone. If we pull him down—if we expose what he really is before the entire student body—the Fae faction collapses. That’s one out of our three primary obstacles removed."

"And the dragonless girl?" I asked, tilting my head. "What happens when Raice finishes whatever game he’s playing?"

"Well, she’s the key to all of this. Before the girl dies, we use her."

I grinned, resting my chin in my hand. "Oh, Zevaranthius. I do so love it when you get ruthless. It makes your ridiculous scowl almost charming. Out with it then. What’s the blueprint? You’re always the one with the charts and the strategy."

"First, we manipulate her," Zev laid out, pacing toward the window, his black cape swishing behind him. "We get close, get inside her head, and turn her into our instrument before Raice completely disposes of her. When the inevitable end comes for her, her death won’t just be another quiet scandal... it will be the ladder we climb to take the top rank."

"You know you never have to sell me on bloodshed and psychological warfare. I am a creature of simple pleasures. But how do you propose we approach a girl who is currently being watched by half the Dragon Academy?" I chuckled, pouring myself another glass of liquor and swirling the crystal liquid.

"The Initiation Ball," Zev replied, turning back to face me. "It’s held in two days, as it is every year. Every initiate will be there, drunk on wine and high on their own inflated sense of importance. It’s the perfect chaotic environment to make contact without raising alarms."

"Two days," I mused. "Slightly tight timeline."

My friend pointed a clawed finger at me. "Which is why one of us needs to shadow her tomorrow. Trail her through her first day. Find out her weaknesses. Find out what she fears, what she wants, and most importantly, find out whatever specific detail sparked Raice’s interest in her. If we know what Raice sees in her, we hold the leash on both of them."

I scoffed, tossing my head back against the armchair. "Shadow her? Zev, please. We are princes of the realm. Look at me. I’m glorious. Our natural charm is more than enough to snag the attention of some poor, dragonless peasant girl without us slinking through shadows like common thieves. And as for her secrets or weaknesses? I don’t need a dossier. I can just compel it out of her."

Zev stopped pacing. He looked at me with that boring serious look again.

"I would rather shave my own fur with a rusty broadsword and jump into a pit of salt-water serpents than bank on your compulsion ability, Ivar."

I sputtered, nearly choking on my drink. "Excuse me? My compulsion is magnificent!"

"Your compulsion is a joke," Zev barked. "You slept with Cicily over a year ago and you still haven’t mastered how to make the control last longer than a day! Do you remember what happened with the Lion Warden last semester? You compelled him to give us the armory keys, and midway through opening the door, the idiot snapped out of it and tried to take my head off with a battleaxe!"

"I was distracted!" I protested, waving a dismissive hand. "She had a very complicated mana signature! It’s difficult to extract mind magic without leaving a few fraying threads!"

"Maybe you should go back to Cicily’s room and take a few more lessons," Zev sneered smoothly.

"She hates me and you know how dangerous the bitch is," I grumbled, taking a moody gulp from my glass.

"Literally everyone hates you, Ivar. That isn’t news."

"Who cares if the compulsion doesn’t last? The dragonless girl isn’t going to last long either!" I snapped, sitting upright, irritated at being reminded of my technical shortcomings.

I hated admitting when an extracted ability wasn’t operating at maximum efficiency.

Zev grunted, crossing his arms. "Fair point. She’s on a clock regardless."

A wicked thought crept into my mind, chasing away my brief irritation. I smirked, tapping my fingers against my knee. "You know... while I’m shadowing her and testing my charm, I might as well take her to bed. See what kind of latent power she’s hiding under that plain, unmarked skin."

Zev glared at me like I had just suggested we adopt a stray goblin. "That was not part of the plan. Furthermore, she is dragonless. She’s empty, Ivar. A blank slate from some slum in the Dragon realm. You’ll be wasting your time and getting literally zero ability out of the exchange."

"Only one way to find out, isn’t there?" I purred, winking at him. "Sometimes the most exquisite gifts are buried beneath the dirtiest soil. Imagine the look on Remus’s face if I end up extracting some forgotten dragon trait from a girl sitting in his own lower-tier dorms."

"Ugh. You are insufferable, my friend," Zev groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose again. "Fine. Do whatever absurd, degenerate things you want, but get serious about the objective. Tomorrow morning, you follow her. Use the invisibility you stole. Stay invisible, stay silent, and gather every scrap of information on her schedule, her room, and her habits."

"Invisibility," I sighed dramatically, stretching my arms over my head. "So unglamorous. So vulgar. Whatever happened to the good old days of direct confrontation?"

"Confrontation gets us noticed by the High Rector. We can’t let this trace back to us." Zev said flatly. "With all the intel gathered, we approach her at the Initiation Ball. We corner her, we lay our trap, and we use her to shatter Raice Ignis-Dominus once and for all."

"I do love a good party," I grinned, my wolf fangs gleaming in the dim sunlight filtering through the curtains. "Consider it done, my dear Zevaranthius."

"Don’t call me–" Zev cut himself off, rolling his eyes as he turned toward the door. "Just don’t be late tomorrow. If you miss her because you were busy stealing an ability from another gullible initiate, I will personally throw you into the feral beast perimeter."

"I am a professional, Zev!" I called out as he slipped out the doorway, slamming it behind him. "A deeply misunderstood, highly charismatic professional!"

The silence returned to my private quarters.

I sat alone for a moment, listening to the distant chiming of the Academy’s central clock tower. For sports, I flicked my wrist and summoned a miniature wall of blue, crackling frost across the surface of my desk

Dragonless girl...

I whispered to the empty room. A dragonless nobody who had somehow managed to catch the gaze of the Fae realm’s most dangerous, unhinged prince. A girl who was currently walking blindly into an executioner’s trap without even knowing she was on the chopping block.

"What are you, little girl?" I murmured, a predatory smile spreading across my face as the frost on my desk dissolved into grey steam. "And what sweet, terrifying power are you going to give me before you break?"