Before the stick could come in contact with him, he grabbed it with one of his hands and wrapped the other on Gwen's elbow, pulling her towards him.
Gwen looked up into his narrowed eyes, her arm holding the mop stretched outward and the other arm confiscated by this irritating existence in front of her.
She pulled back the stick, only for him to pull it away even further. It was her turn to narrow her eyes.
"Don't you know how dangerous I am?" He hissed out, making Gwen roll her eyes.
"Danger is my first name, boy," she hissed back as his lips pulled up in a feline grin.
Why was it that as soon as this guy showed up, her private parts began screaming in dire need of attention?
"As you wish, danger," he teased, that sparkling glint returning in his eyes. Jerk.
Refusing to cower in front of him, she pulled on the stick, but the infuriating asshole just wouldn't budge. It was her turn to narrow her eyes.
"Didn't you have anyone educate you about not sticking your bothersome nose in other people's businesses?"
"Didn't you have anyone teach you not to hit a Thorndyke with a mop?" He looked rather confused at her daringness.
Who would be crazy enough to strike a general's son with cleaning equipment? Ding Dong. Gwen was the most manic person she knew.
She adamantly pulled on the mop again and this time, he pulled it with such a force that she was sent crashing to his front.
"Leave it," he gritted out.
"Make me," she dared.
"You stubborn little—" he cut himself off with a growl that her demonic little brain entertained way too much as he pushed her back into the wall behind her. The impact made her fingers loosen on the mop, and he had the perfect opportunity to snatch it from her and throw it away.
She groaned as she glared at him, and the man had the audacity to glare right back.
Stifling the urge to slap that gorgeous-art-of-work face of his, she lifted her chin in defiance. Hell better freeze over before she ever bowed down to this guy.
He raised his brow amusingly, "Aren't you a venomous little thing?"
"I believe that 'courageous' would suffice just fine," she smiled at him, all teeth, that made that annoying smirk return on his lips.
Oh, what she wouldn't do to rip that expression off his face.
She placed her hand on his chest with the intention of shoving him away, but a sudden zap of current made her halt. It seemed that he felt that too because his gaze snapped at her hand that was hovering over his chest.
She moved to touch him again but he suddenly grabbed her hand, his expression hardening.
"Clean the floor, girl. You don't want to be sent to Lorath for slavery, do you?" he backed away and turned, exiting the room and leaving her all riled up in overwhelming anger.
She was pretty sure that God had a sense of humor, and He used most of it when He decided to give such a breathtakingly handsome face and equally attractive body to someone who didn't deserve an inch of it.
"Once I bond with a fire-breather, he will be the first one to be reduced to ashes," she grumbled as she took the mop and looked at the messy floor.
"I'll kill that beautiful asshole!" she stomped her feet before she began cleaning the floor angrily.
———
After another two hours of furiously wiping the dirty water off the floor, she went back to her room in the basement. She was about to lay on her makeshift bed when she heard a couple of voices.
"Have you heard about Steinforth?"
"What about him?"
"He killed another bonded guy this morning."
The other person gasped, perhaps in surprise.
"No way!"
"Shhh. Tone down. If someone hears us then we will be in deep trouble."
"Who was the guy?"
"I don't know. I heard he had bonded a Forestfang during the Pledging and the dragon is willing to bond again."
"Do you think we will get a chance?"
"We should. Although, I feel like Steinforth may not like it if someone else got his prey."
"Yeah, you are right."
The voices slowly begun drifting away and a series of thoughts whirled in Gwen's brain. Steinforth? She had seen him a couple of times before. The guy was muscular with a dangerous demeanour and scars all over his face and body. At the very first glance, she knew not to mess with him and had kept her distance.
She had also heard that many unbonded candidates had already begun their hunting and massacre just to get a chance to bond with one of the fire breathers. She didn't prefer to swing that way, though.
Even if she was more than desperate to be given a chance to bond, she didn't want to do it by killing someone who had struggled to survive just as much as anyone else.
Just as she was about to lay down Alisa, the janitor, came marching down her room. Gwen winced and stifled a groan before she slowly turned to face the middle-aged woman.
"Restock the combat gears from the armory," she turned to leave.
"The armory...?" Gwen asked, hoping that she heard wrong.
Alisa turned and rolled her eyes looking ever so irritated, "What else?"
She turned, leaving Gwen in utter dread. The armory was just across the bridge on the cliff. In the days that she had been in the Academy, she heard rumors and whispers of the dreadful incidents on that bridge. Cadets were found dismembered and burnt there. She heard that a monster resided in the cliff and preyed on any unlucky soul that dared to cross the bridge alone.
She tried to stop her hands from shivering. She could do it. She had survived two of the three most dreadful mountains in all the lands of Vadonar. She could surely handle a small man-eating creature.
Right?
She grabbed her only dagger that she managed to bring with her from the infirmary. It wasn't much, but she was pleased to feel a bit protected.
She hid the dagger in her boot and went out of her room, followed by her trek up the stairs and outside the fort doors.
As soon as she stepped outside, evening air greeted her making gooseflesh erupt on her skin. It was dark. The perfect companion to the creatures lurking in the night. There may be some hiding in the shadows watching her every move as she stepped toward the bridge.
No.
She would not be fearful of the dark. The dark was her companion and the night lurkers were her only friends for so many years. There was no use in being scared now. She could handle anything thrown in her way.
She stepped on the bridge, the cliff ending with a ditch on either side of her as she gathered up her courage and walked on the path.
She shrugged of the feeling of being watched, blaming it on the dread whirling inside her brain. She gazed at the shadows on either side of her and silently willed herself to relax.
The shadows are my friends. The shadows are my friends. The shadows are my friends. The shadows are my friends.
She kept on chanting the mantra in her head, however, she remembered the most unexpected thing at the most unexpected moment.
"Resist the whispers... lace of the night..." she recited, trying to distract herself from her surroundings.
"I know it, you know it... she knows it," she finished as she frowned. It didn't make sense. "But who is she?"
Gwen tried to remember any detail that she missed but nothing else would ring a bell.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" a very familiar voice crooned behind her as she whirled around just to see Atkins with another guy she didn't recognise. Ignoring the wave of panic emerging in her chest, she lifted her chin.
"We meet again," she backed away a few steps when he began stalking towards her.
He laughed, the sound loud and needled, "It's too late to be scared, chick."
They revealed their daggers and ran towards her, making her bolt. She knew it was a bad idea to be alone on the bridge.
She made a few steps before she was pulled back by a force and slammed to the ground. All the air whooshed out her lungs due to the impact.
She didn't have the time to recover before Atkins crushed her with his weight and begun choking her with his elbow. She tried to reach the dagger in her boot but the other guy grabbed both her hands and pinned them above her head as he kneeled opposite to Atkins.
Panic so pure began tugging at her before she tried her last resort. She pulled her knee to kick Atkins in the groin but he pinned her legs on the ground with his weight.
"That trick won't work this time, you bitch," he snarled in her face, his elbow leaving her throat before she sucked grateful amount of air.
However, the relief was short-lived as Atkins begun slamming his fists on her face. The consistent punches filled her mouth with a metallic taste as black dots begun appearing infront of her vision. She tried to struggled against him but the force of his body led her immobile.
Just as she thought she was about to black out, she heard a loud beating of wings before the air around them grew thicker.
Atkins halted in whatever he was doing and turned his head in the direction of the sound. Soon enough, her hands were freed but Gwen didn't have enough energy to move.
All she heard was a pair of loud shrieks and a blinding light in her peripheral vision before she passed out.