Page 12 of Heartflame

It was a bit of a stretch, I knew that. But these guys were hanging on my every word. The witch on my left had her hand on my thigh, the werewolf now had his lips on my neck, and the fae guy, who hadn’t spoken much, was lying in my lap, his arm very obviously draped over my half-hard cock. I planned to fuck at least one of them tonight. And maybe all three if they were into it. Who was I kidding? Of course they were into it. Why wouldn’t they be? It’s not like dragons came to Widdershins very often. I was the opportunity of a lifetime.

“How about we get a little more comfortable?” I began, pulling them in close. “You can take turns sucking my⁠—”

A shrill siren split the air, making everyone nearly jump out of their skins. In an instant, the music downstairs ground to a halt and everything except that shrieking alarm came to a stop.

“THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH.”

It was Dean Thornfield’s voice, magically enhanced to echo across all of campus. They must’ve recorded it into the wards themselves to announce when something went wrong.

“I REPEAT, THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH,” it continued, the voice reverberating through the walls. “ALL STUDENTS ARE TO RETURN TO THEIR DORMS IMMEDIATELY. ALL ACADEMIC BUILDINGS WILL BE SEALED. ANYONE CAUGHT WANDERING CAMPUS WILL BE DETAINED. I REPEAT, THERE HAS BEEN A WARD BREACH.”

Before I could barely comprehend what I was hearing, the three people hanging on my every word were out the door, leaving me by myself. Panicked screams arose downstairs. I pushed myself up from the bed and glanced out the window, watching as students spilled across campus, sprinting for their dorm rooms. Security witches with their battle wands held high converged on a northwest point on the far side of campus.

The Purity Front was here.

For a moment, I almost started to panic. But then, ignoring the chaos around me, I stopped and took a deep breath. Grandfather said campus was protected better than it had ever been. He’d placed some of the wards himself. And there was more security on campus than the entire Elder Council had on staff. There was no reason to panic.

I reached down and zipped up my pants, my movements deliberately unhurried despite the chaos erupting outside. Security wouldn’t be detaining me for going slow. My face was far too recognizable to claim ignorance, and honestly, if there was an actual threat on campus, me being out and visible would probably be more helpful than hiding in some frat house. It showed that there was nothing to be scared of. Besides, my grandfather had trained me for situations like this. Not that I’d ever actually experienced a real breach before back at the estate, but the principle was the same. I had to stay calm, assess the situation, and not do anything in panic.

I made my way downstairs, pushing through the tide of students fleeing toward the exits. The frat house was emptying fast, people shoving past each other in their haste to get back to their dorms. Some were crying. Others were casting their own wards, the magic hasty and sloppy. The whole thing felt almost surreal, like watching a natural disaster unfold in slow motion.

Outside, the night air was crisp and cold against my bare shoulders. I’d put on my tank top, but hadn’t bothered with a jacket. The wards glowed faintly overhead, a shimmering barrier of protective magic that I could feel humming with power. Whatever had breached them, it hadn’t gotten far. If the wards were still intact, they had probably been vaporized the moment whatever it was tried to get through.

I spotted Dean Thornfield standing near the conservatory, his form unmistakably human despite the magical aura that surrounded him. He was directing security personnel with calm, measured gestures, his expression grave but controlled. The man had been running Widdershins Academy long enough to know how to handle crisis situations. I made a mental note to ask him later how he managed to stay so composed when everything around him was falling apart.

“All students back to dorms!” a security witch shouted at me as I approached. She was young, probably only twenty-five or so, with her wand held at chest height. “Move along, Mr. Pyre.”

“What happened?” I asked, not bothering to move. “How bad is the breach?”

“We’re still assessing,” she said, her jaw tight. “But it appears to be contained. Now please, get back to your dormitory.”

I could have pushed, could have used my family name to get more information. But something about the determined look in her eye told me she wasn’t going to tell me anything else regardless of who my grandfather was. So instead, I nodded and headed back toward the dorm buildings, walking slowly enough to observe everything around me.

Students were jogging past me in the opposite direction, their eyes wide with fear. A few of them did double-takes when they saw me, and I caught fragments of whispered conversations.

“Why isn’t he running?”

“Isn’t that Aeron Pyre?”

I wanted to tell them that running wouldn’t help. That if the Purity Front had managed to breach the wards, then nowhere on campus was truly safe until the breach was sealed. But they didn’t need to know that. What they needed was to see me, unbothered by the situation.

The dorm buildings loomed ahead, their harsh architecture rendered almost ominous in the flickering light of the emergency wards. I could see students pressing through the narrow doorways, their movements frantic and disorganized. A few security witches stood at the entrances, checking IDs and directing people to their assigned floors.

I made my way toward my building, my pace deliberately measured. The cool night air felt good against my skin, and I found myself oddly calm despite the chaos erupting around me. Maybe it was arrogance. Maybe it was the training my grandfather had drilled into me since childhood. Or maybe it was just the simple fact that I had faith in the Elder Council. Grandfather wouldn’t let me down. He never did.

As I approached the entrance to my building, I caught sight of a familiar flash of red hair disappearing through the crowd. Quill. He was moving quickly, his jaw set tight, clearly heading back to his dorm like everyone else. For just a moment, our eyes met across the chaos. There was a flicker of relief across his face before he turned away and continued walking.

Interesting. Even now, even with the Purity Front potentially on campus, he couldn’t help but react to me.

I pushed through the dorm entrance, the security witch barely glancing at me before waving me through. He knew who I was. Everyone knew who I was. The hallways were packed with students, all of them moving toward their rooms with varying degrees of panic. Some were crying. Others were trying to comfort their friends. A few looked almost excited, like this was some kind of adventure rather than a genuine threat.

When I finally made it back to my room and shut the door behind me, I breathed a sigh of relief. The noise outside was getting to be just a little too much. But the door, blissfully, muffled it to a dull roar. My duty was done.

Walking over to my desk, I pulled out my chair and sat down. In front of me was a small box that up until now I had yet to open. My grandfather gave it to me in case of an emergency. Although I wasn’t necessarily scared or worried about the breach, this did seem to qualify as at least a minor emergency.

I pulled the small box toward me, my scaled fingers careful as I lifted the lid. Inside was a crystal ball, its surface smooth and cool against my palm. I’d seen my grandfather use one of these before during official Elder Council meetings, but I’d never held one myself.

According to the instructions he’d given me before I left for Widdershins, this was a direct line to him that bypassed the regular wards. I took a breath and focused on the crystal, thinking of my grandfather’s face, his golden scales, the weight of his presence.