“The mind must be like a blade,” Dracus announced to the empty gym.
I glanced around. Theo wasn’t here this morning, citing some excuse. But even when it was just me and Dracus, he was giving prone to giving grand speeches. Royalty. I sighed, bent over already at the waist, and sweating wildly. He ignored me and continued, “Sharp and ready to strike, Fiona. That’s the goal.”
I didn’t want to bring up the fact that the brain was an incredibly soft organ. Dracus seemed to solely talk in philosophical terms when it came to the art of Dragon Fist. I didn’t want to piss him off.
He approached me. We’d been practicing block strikes. He was a drill sergeant. I could barely feel my arms anymore. He handed me a water bottle. “Let’s take a short break.” Could he see my legs shaking?
I collapsed onto the mat beneath us, and he sat elegantly.
“Thank you,” I told him. His hawkish face turned towards me. I pulled myself up, trying to ignore the fact that I must look like a sweating fool. “I know it’s an honor to learn Dragon Fist. I’m grateful that you’re teaching me.”
Dracus didn’t smile. I thought he was close once. Last week, Enrique tried to tackle Theo from behind, but Theo had stooped down to tie his shoes at the last minute. The lion-shifter crashed right into a divan. It was satisfying. Theo laughed, heartily, for five minutes straight. (I might’ve chuckled.)
Dracus’ face changed at this moment. It wasn’t quite a smile. More like watching a peacock be complimented. His lips spread. He was showing his feathers. With a solemn nod, he said, “I’m happy to teach it. I believe that it will be of help to you.”
We sat in silence for a moment. Me, trying to catch my breath; Dracus, existing easily and checking his watch.
“I will demonstrate one of my favorite moves for you,” he announced suddenly. I stared at him, a sinking feeling hitting my stomach. He helped me up; I didn’t like the mischievous air around him. Perhaps a compliment had been too much. “We call it the Peaceful Dragon. It’s useful for defending another person against an opponent. We utilize the striking force of the opponent to stop their attack.”
“Utilize…striking force…okay,” I muttered, trying to process what he said.
“I want you to punch the air,” he said, he slipped on the side of me, making us perpendicular. Without realizing it, he’d traced his fingers along my arm to point out the muscles.
I practically fell over. My heart thumped excitedly against my chest. No! Not with Dracus too. My cheeks burned. Never, never, never. I could never have butterflies about our stuck-up leader.
“Punch the air,” I repeated. I did as he said. With a powerful movement, I threw out my arm as if to strike an opponent.
Dracus struck like a serpent waiting in the brush. His hand came to grasp my forearm and pulled forward. His firm grasp tugged on my moving body, and I tumbled to the mat with a startled cry. It was so quick and smooth that I’d scarcely realized what happened. He beamed at me, in his own aloof way, as he hovered above me with an outstretched hand.
“That is Peaceful Dragon.”
“Peaceful,” I wondered aloud and let him help me up. My lower back ached, and I rubbed it. He checked his watch and then caught my movement.
“Are you hurt?” he asked and came towards me with a stitch of worry between his furrowed brows. His elegant fingers touched my lower back. Unconsciously, I curled my back up like a cat. It hadn’t been the pain. It was the electric shock that his touch had caused. His eyebrows scrunched tighter together. “Is it bad?”
Oh, you have no idea. It was him! I cleared my throat and shook my head. “No, no, it’s fine. I’ll put some of the muscle cream that Theo gave me on it.”
He stepped forward, and suddenly, beneath the lights, his beauty seemed dangerous. He ran a finger along his sharp jawline in contemplation. I could already see the thoughts of throwing me in a bed with Nurse Greta. These Council boys were the worse than any helicopter parent in existence. I threw my hand up to stop him from getting any closer.
“You’re growing hot!” he argued.
Gods. I was so glad Theo wasn’t here. I was going to die from embarrassment. No, no, no. I cleared my throat. “I’m fine.” It took every bit of strength to keep my tone even.
“If you’re injured—”
I stared at him. If he wasn’t going to stop, I was going to have to pull out all of the stops. “Dracus. Don’t worry. It’s that time of the month soon. Cramps.” It wasn’t a lie. I was due to start in a few days.
In a second, his elegance snapped back into place. “Ah. Very well.” Beneath the calm air, I could see his jaw clenching. I’d flustered him. Ha! Served him right. Perhaps this was a valuable piece of information to use against the other Council boys when the time came for it. “Let’s wrap up today.” Something shadowy passed beneath his calm exterior as we came up the elevator. I worried my bottom lip on my walk back to my room. Had I missed something?
After a long, hot shower, I got ready for school. Dracus wasn’t in the dining room for breakfast. It was odd enough for Enrique to comment on. He and Theo had shown up to shovel down biscuits and gravy before class. The air smelled a tad different today. Everything seemed…stronger.
“The old man never misses a chance to remind us who sits at the head of the table,” Enrique said with a chuckle. I watched him closely as he ate. I’d never noticed how high the placement of the blonde’s cheekbones was before today. He turned suddenly to me. “What?”
A surge of heat came over me. No. Fiona! What was wrong with me? “Nothing,” I sputtered. Theo chuckled sneakily.
“You have gravy on your cheek!”
Thankfully, Enrique did. I looked gratefully towards Theo. Had his curls always looked this lovely? His boyish face seemed more manly lately. I gripped the sides of my chair beneath the table. Seriously. What was happening?
I’d eaten half of my breakfast, but I pushed the rest away.
“What’s the rush?” Theo asked as I flew from the table. My protein shake would have to sustain me today.
“Gotta meet Priscilla,” I lied over my shoulder. “She’s coming to the house today, by the way. Best behavior.” I looked pointedly at Enrique, who smirked. A hot sensation pooled in my stomach, so I didn’t stay long enough to hear his witty reply. I flew through the kitchen, barely squeaking out a hello to Moony.
“What the hell is wrong with me?” I asked myself as I rushed through the garden.
“Great question,” a voice popped up beside me. I let out a cry as Ren appeared by my side. He glared at me. “Don’t be this noisy in the morning.” I squinted at him, stopping him by grabbing his forearm. To my surprise, he stood still.
“What are you doing, woman?” he asked as I searched his face. Ren didn’t look particularly more beautiful today than usual. I mean, the whites of his eyes seemed brighter than yesterday. His skin was radiant underneath the sun’s gaze. My gaze dropped down to his school shirt, opened up to the first two buttons, showing off a peek of his strong clavicle. If I touched it—
“Nope. Never mind,” I said suddenly. “Have a great day.” I rushed off ahead of him.
From behind me, I heard him mutter, “Weirdo.”
Something was very, very wrong. I was panting when I reached the castle. Priscilla caught me heading to the bathroom before our first class.
“Fiona?” she asked, putting a hand gently on my elbow. I leaned over one of
the sinks in the bathroom and groaned. We were the only students that early. All the stalls were empty. I sucked in a ragged breath. Even Priscilla looked dazzling to me today. Did she do something different to her hair?
“Something is wrong with me,” I told her. “All the Council boys are…”
She leaned forward, waiting with bated breath.
“Incredibly attractive.”
She nearly fell over the sink, laughing. “Of course, they are. They’re the most handsome boys in school and—” She stopped suddenly, seeing my face. “Oh, Fiona.”
“What?”
“You said your period is starting soon.”
“So what?”
She gently squeezed my hand. “Shifters and humans can be a bit different depending on our hormone cycles. You’re a late-shifter…I’m not sure if that changes anything, but remember when I told you to drink the dragon tea?”
I nodded. “I haven’t started my period yet. I’ll probably start it tomorrow or the next day.”
“Yes, but your hormones become extremely sensitive when around shifters when you’re not a shifter. Not a shifter, yet. ” She smiled. “Are those supplies from Nurse Greta on you?”
I nodded numbly. I hadn’t thought to take them out of my backpack after stashing them away to hide them from Jasper. She took the bag out of my backpack.
“Well, we don’t have time to brew any tea for you, so you’ll just have to go around forming crushes on everyone, ok?” She winked. “Don’t look so embarrassed.”
“Embarrassed? I’m mortified.” I covered my hot cheeks and groaned. “Even you look more gorgeous than usual today! Why is this happening?
She fluffed her hair with a playful movement. “Aw, thanks.” Dropping her tone back to a more serious level, she explained, “There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Human bodies are incredibly affected when they’re around such a large group of shifters. They mimic the shifter hormones, but you simply don’t have the same strength to deal with them yet. For early shifters, we learn quickly how to deal with nature’s desire for reproduction, just like our shifting. Handling desire is no different from handling anger, really.”
She unpacked a bottle of pills from the bag and handed me her water bottle. “Take one of those. It’ll conceal your scent as your hormones change. Nurse Greta won’t want you to run around giving off scandalous pheromones.”
“Pheromones,” I repeated and blanched. Mortified! Mortified, I say!
“Yes, it’s how animals are attracted to one another.” She placed both hands on my shoulders. “Seriously, Fiona. It’s no big deal. It’s like dealing with a headache.”
“I thought human schools were bad,” I muttered. I took the pill as she instructed and a calming agent on top of that, hoping it would help. Being sleepy for my class didn’t seem too bad if I could at least stop staring at everyone’s immaculate facial structures.
“Your rose-colored glasses will taper off once you’ve had some tea. You can train yourself to deal with it through the same Dragon Fist meditation if you don’t want to rely on the tea,” she said and smiled brightly at me. “When you’re a shifter, this will be child’s play for you.”
When I’m a shifter. I didn’t have the heart to confess to her that I strongly suspected that I wasn’t a shifter. Maybe I was something — a girl with strange visions and a human body being affected by shifter hormones.
Instead, I said, “Thank you.” What would I do without a friend like Priscilla? She eyed my uniform.
“Switch blazers with me,” she said. “You’re straight, right?”
I nearly choked the pill back up. “Um. Yes?”
She grinned. “Then you’ll want a woman’s scent on you. It’ll help calm your hormones. I would avoid any close contact with male shifters for the next few days. Especially in close contact with them or when your body is under stress.”
I thought back to my session with Dracus this morning. My body had felt like molten lava. He wasn’t at breakfast. Had he been able to tell? I’d told him it was cramps…but he was as keen as Priscilla. I tried to stop my face from boiling up.
“Thank you,” I muttered weakly. We switched blazers. The clock in the bathroom rang out with a small chime. It was time for class. She hooked her arm with mine and gave my forearm a gentle pat.
“We’ll sit together in our classes today,” she offered. “If you can keep your eyes off my gorgeous self.” With a giggle, she batted her eyelashes, and I laughed.
Make it through today. Get the tea. Avoid boys for a few days. Got it.