The Steel Tower (Dragons of Midnight Book 2)

by Silver Milan

  “It’ll be our secret,” Michelle continued. Ariel heard her friend shifting in the upper bunk, and then her head peered past the edge to look down at Ariel. “I swear I won’t tell.” She extended a fist with the little finger crooked slightly. “I pinky swear.”

  “Pinky swear?” Ariel said. “I haven’t done that since grade school. It’s childish, and kinda makes me think you’re not serious.”

  “I am serious,” Michelle said. “Close friends do it, too, you know. The pinky swear originated in Japan, where if someone broke the promise, they were supposed to cut off their little finger. It’s that serious.”

  “You would know that,” Ariel said. Then she sighed. “All right, we’ll pinky swear.”

  She reached up and wrapped her pinky around Michelle’s and shook.

  “Okay, so you’ll tell me now?” Michelle said.

  “Wait, is your phone off?” Ariel asked.

  Michelle grabbed the phone down from where she had it charging on the headboard. A flash came from above, and then faded.

  “It is now,” Michelle replied.

  “Take the battery out.” Ariel grabbed her own Tower phone from the tiny nightstand and popped out the battery. “I don’t trust these Wayfarers not to eavesdrop.”

  “Just a sec,” Michelle said. “Okay, got it.”

  Ariel heard the soft thuds as Michelle replaced the phone and battery on her headboard.

  “Yes, it was him,” Ariel said. And she explained, very softly, what had gone on between the two of them.

  “Flying to your window, scooping you up in his arms,” Michelle said. “So romantic. I wish I had a man like that. Someone who would give up everything to be with me. Someone who’d visit me in the night, risking arrest at the hands of the Wayfarers.”

  “Is that what will happen to him if he’s caught?” Ariel said.

  “I don’t actually know,” Michelle said. “But I assume so. He is breaching their security to get to your room after all.”

  They talked a bit longer, but Ariel was only half listening. She decided she definitely wouldn’t allow Jett to visit outside of Friday’s and Saturday’s. The fewer visits he made, the less chance of getting caught. They’d just have to satisfy themselves with the weekends. She figured she’d probably be too tired during the week to see him anyway.

  She finished talking with Michelle and closed her eyes.

  She slept, dreaming of Jett’s hard body atop hers.

  15

  Saturday was a day off. Ariel spent the better part of her time lounging and sending texts to Jett. When night finally rolled by, Jett arrived and spirited her away to their favorite storeroom. The window was left ajar like the night before, thanks to his spy.

  After their lovemaking, Ariel cuddled against his naked body on the floor.

  “I think I’m going to visit you every night,” Jett said. “I don’t care what you say.”

  "No, weekends only," Ariel said. “It’s better this way. We’ll get caught if we push our luck.” Already she was glancing at the door, worried that it would open at any time.

  “But I don't think I can stand another week apart from you,” Jett said. If he noticed her anxiousness, he didn’t react to it.

  “You'll have to,” Ariel said. “Find something to distract yourself. Take the pride out to explore the city. Bring the families to the zoo. Get a job.”

  “A job?” Jett said. “I already have one. Alpha of Blue Hurricane. Besides, I’m a dragon. Working for humans is beneath me.”

  “Is it now?” Ariel said. “But if it distracts you, isn’t that worth it?”

  “I don’t think anything can distract me from you,” Jett said. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close, kissing her on the forehead.

  “Well anyway,” Ariel said. “I’ll probably be too exhausted during the week. I can see it now: you’ll come to my window, try to rouse me, but all you’ll get is snores in reply.”

  “They work you that hard, do they?” Jett asked.

  “During the week, yes,” Ariel replied. “And I haven’t even started my true lessons yet.”

  “Okay, at least let me come tomorrow,” Jett said. “Then the rest of the week is yours.”

  “No,” Ariel said. “I have to be awake early on Mondays. I can’t stay up into the wee hours having sex with you.”

  “Hey, we can cut it short,” Jett said.

  “I plan to be in bed by nine thirty tomorrow,” Ariel said.

  “That is pretty early,” Jett admitted. “Fine, then. I’ll do my best to stay away until next Friday. But no guarantees."

  She glanced at the door to the storeroom once more. “I should be getting back to my room.”

  Jett sighed. “All right.”

  She watched him dress, then pulled on the white robe. She noticed it was a bit dirty from lying on the floor.

  Yet another thing I have to clean.

  Jett kissed her, pulling her from her mundane thoughts. She almost wanted him to take her again, but she found herself glancing at the door once more.

  Jett shook his head. “No one’s coming. I’ll hear them long before they get there.”

  “I know, I can’t help it,” Ariel said.

  “I guess this is farewell for the week then,” Jett said.

  Ariel nodded.

  “Then let me kiss you properly, all right?” Jett said. “No breaking away to gaze at the door.”

  And so she did. When he finally dropped her off at her room, she was quite literally breathless.

  Sunday was also a day off, and Ariel spent the morning with her shifter friends. In the afternoon, she and the newcomers were walking through the inner courtyard when they passed a white-robed group playing Frisbee on one of the fields. They were all young men, their ages ranging from twenty to twenty-six by Ariel’s reckoning. Human: their frames were too small to belong to shifters, their eyes too normal. Still, a couple of them were gorgeous hunks.

  One of the sexy boys caught the Frisbee and waved at Ariel. He and the other members of his group approached. She couldn’t help but notice how his biceps bulged beneath the rolled up sleeves of his white robe. In fact the whole robe was tight-fitting, as if it was a size too small, emphasizing his wide shoulders and thick chest.

  “Hello, I’m Jacob,” the man said to her. “So you’re the latest batch of First Years?”

  “We are,” Ariel said. In the past she would have been nervous about meeting such a beautiful man, but Jett had jaded her, and she felt no nerves at all. Jacob was nothing compared to her dragon. Nothing at all. “I’m Ariel.”

  He extended a hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

  Names were exchanged and palms shaken across both parties. Ariel spotted bone half-rings on the fingers of some of them, worn inside so the accessories wouldn’t be noticeable to casual onlookers.

  “Why don’t you join us in a game of group Frisbee?” Jacob said, looking at her.

  Ariel realized that, for whatever reason, the man had assumed she was the leader. Now that she thought about it, she had sort of fallen into that role. Cliff had told her she would have to challenge him for the position of Second one day: her beast was that powerful. She guessed the other shifters were only organizing into what for them was a natural hierarchy. But this man was human. He would have had no way to sense the dominance of her inner beast.

  Then again, maybe it wasn’t her inner lioness that had caused her to fall into the leadership role, but rather her own dominance. Like Jett had said, she was always headstrong. Trained in martial arts, independent, never relying on any man to get what she wanted in life. And it showed in the way she carried herself.

  “I think we will,” Ariel told him. She glanced over her shoulder. “Come on, guys, let’s show them how it’s done.”

  Jacob grinned widely, and his team assumed positions across the field.

  “They’re probably going to cheat, you know,” Ked said quietly. “Didn’t you see the bone half-rings they were hiding under
their fingers? I don’t think they’re supposed to have those. Not without a professor supervising.”

  “So what are you saying, you want to snitch on them?” James told him. “Great way to make new friends. Besides, we don’t completely know the rules of this place yet. Maybe certain experienced First Years are allowed to check out small accessories during the day.”

  Ked frowned. “Just saying, they don’t want to play. They want to make fun of us.”

  When Ariel and her shifters were in position, Jacob threw the Frisbee toward her. She leaped for it, but at the last moment the disk swerved away and she missed. She heard giggles from the human team. Frustrated, she picked it up and threw it toward them.

  The Frisbee immediately crashed into the ground. She picked it up and threw it again. Once more it dove straight into the grass.

  She handed the Frisbee to Ked. “You were right, they don’t want to play.”

  Ked nodded, then the bear shifter growled and threw hard.

  As the disc arced through the air, Ariel watched Jacob carefully and caught the subtle hand gesture he made before the disk swerved unnaturally to the ground.

  Jacob and his friends broke out laughing.

  “What’s the matter, no one ever taught you how to throw?” Jacob called out from the other side of the field.

  Ked was opening and closing his hands into fists. “I wonder what the punishment for getting into fights is,” he growled.

  “It’s just a silly game of Frisbee,” Ariel said. “Let them have their fun. I’m sure they’re beaten up on by the instructors during the week, just like we are.”

  Ariel turned and led the shifters away.

  “What’s the matter, can’t handle a simple game of Frisbee?” Jacob called after them. “You’re going to be in big trouble then when they finally give you dragon bone.”

  Tina flipped him the bird and he laughed.

  “Now that’s an asshole if I ever saw one,” Tina said.

  The rest of that Sunday passed without incident. They did see Jacob and his friends around a table in the dining hall that night, and in days after, but they studiously ignored them.

  In the next week, Walter once again saw them through mornings of physical training and afternoons of menial chores. An obstacle course on the tower grounds was added to their morning routine: a special course designed specifically for four-legged shifters, where Ariel and the others were allowed to transform while Walter pushed them to the limit. They competed against each other to get the best times, the reward being that they could sit out the next run. Michelle was sent to a different obstacle course designed for avian shifters in the woods nearby, and when she got back she told Ariel how it was mostly a bunch of hoops placed awkwardly among the upper branches of the trees.

  On Wednesday of that week, for the first time they joined up with other First Years, these a mix of humans and shifters—thankfully Jacob and his friends weren’t among them. These particular First Years were tasked with cooking in the basement kitchens, and Ariel and the others donned aprons and worked under their guidance, learning how to prepare and bake the bread the tower ate.

  The scent of raw meat pervaded the air. Ariel heard a muted chopping, and when she glanced at a nearby doorway, she spotted men and women slicing large chunks of beef.

  “You smell that?” Brian said. “Wish we were cutting meat.”

  One of the apprentices, a nice girl who had introduced herself as Riley, looked up. “Oh no, shifters aren’t allowed to handle the meat.”

  “Why not?” Ariel asked.

  “Let’s just say,” Riley replied with a toothy grin. “When you give a shifter some meat to cut, odds are there won’t be very much left when she’s done.”

  When the bread was in the ovens, they joined the apprentices in the dining hall to eat.

  “We’re just leaving the bread in there?” Tina asked Riley.

  “Yup,” Riley said. “Today we eat the bread we made yesterday.”

  After dinner, they were assigned dishwashing duty.

  “You’d think with how rich the witches are, they’d be able to afford dishwasher machines,” Brian complained as he scrubbed at one particularly dirty plate.

  “Why waste money on dishwashers when you have all this free labor lying around?” Ked said.

  The week passed slowly, and Ariel couldn’t wait for the weekend. Meeting with Jett was her only relief on Friday and Saturday night, but her time with him passed all too quickly. She was constantly worried about getting caught, and found it hard to relax. It was only when she was in the grips of raw passion that she could really let go.

  On Saturday night, after their lovemaking, Jett turned to her and asked: “Would you like me to bring Flame next time? I can have him guard the door if it would make you feel better.”

  “No,” Ariel said. “I don’t want you dragging any more dragons into this.”

  “He’s already waiting at the car,” Jett said.

  “I know, but I wouldn’t want him listening in at the door anyway,” Ariel said.

  “What’s this, all of a sudden you’re concerned about privacy?” Jett said. “After hanging out with Blue Hurricane all that time, in a cabin with walls so thin that the entire camp could hear our lovemaking, I thought we beat the notion out of you.”

  “It’s a lame excuse, I know. But seriously, please don’t bring anyone else. I’ll try to relax more next time. Promise.”

  “Next time,” Jett said. “A week away.”

  “I know,” Ariel told him. “Trust me, it passes in a blur.”

  “Not for me…” Jett said.

  “Them maybe you should seriously consider getting a job, like I told you,” Ariel said.

  Jett frowned. Then smiled. “Pleasuring you is the only job I’ve ever wanted. The only job I’ll have.”

  She chuckled. “I love you, my dragon.” She resisted the urge to glance at the door.

  “And I love you, too,” he said. He kissed her, and she managed to forget where she was long enough to allow him to take her again.

  16

  From behind the perceived safety of her desk, Gwendoline studied Mathis. He stood before her in the office of her estate in Midnight, deep under the mountain. She had planned to toy with him, but now that she was looking at that tanned, roguish face, and gazing into those eyes that usually glinted with mischief, with cunning, with life, but now shone only with sadness, she found herself unwilling to play. In fact, she just wanted him to go. This was far too painful.

  Don’t fall for him again.

  “So, Macleod,” Gwendoline told him imperiously. “Say what you came to say and then leave. And be quick about it. I’m granting this audience as a favor only because of the what we once had. If you take up too much of my time, I might just have to get in touch with the Wayfarers, and inform them you’re neglecting your duties to go gallivanting around the continent, getting in touch with old flames.”

  He gave her a hurt a look, but quickly masked it. He cleared his throat, and shifted from foot to foot nervously before he began.

  “Do you remember what happened in the final two weeks before we planned to flee the Steel Tower?” Mathis said.

  “How dare you ask me that?” Gwendoline said. “How dare you? A woman could never forget something like that.”

  The painful memories came flooding back, and she was certain he had done this only to unbalance her. She tried to push them away, tried to banished them to the vaults of her mind, but couldn’t.

  She remembered the days leading up to those final two weeks. They had been so in love back then. So frickin’ in love. She even broke the First Rule for him, laying with a non-dragon. Thankfully no one at Midnight ever found out.

  Thinking back, those naive times were some of the best days of her life. She and Mathis were inseparable. They were in most of the same classes and labs. Had the same group of friends. Nothing could have parted them.

  Nothing except her weakness in the Strength. It soon beca
me clear that the Steel Tower would expel her when the year was out, while Mathis would remain.

  In her final month, Mathis had hatched a reckless plan to run away with her. If they couldn’t be together, he would refuse the training and become an outlaw to be with her. Or so he said.

  She believed him and made plans to flee. She confided those plans to her roommate and best friend, Ephephany, who agreed to help.

  But then one day, two weeks before she was to escape, Gwendoline returned to her dorm late after a particularly difficult lab, only to find her roommate, Ephephany, had male company.

  Mathis.

  Seeing him rutting on top of her best friend like that, their naked bodies intertwined in the heat of passion, had destroyed her.

  She packed her bags and left the tower that very day.

  It was because of humans like Mathis that dragons had originally created the First Rule. Or at least, Gwendoline believed that, because breaking the rule and sleeping with a non-dragon caused only pain.

  “I’m sorry, I guess I’m a bit insensitive,” Mathis said. “I wasn’t sure you’d still remember, after all these years. I assumed you had many lovers since.”

  His words roused her from the agonizing memories, and she glared at him. “A thousand lovers could not make me forget.”

  Mathis lowered his gaze a moment, and when he looked up again, his eyes were wet. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”

  “Is that all you came here to say?” Gwendoline said. “You’re sorry?”

  “No,” Mathis said. “I wanted you to know, I had no control over what happened with Ephephany.”

  Gwendoline smiled grimly. “Of course not. Like most men, your brain is located in your cock.”

  Mathis exhaled sadly. “You misunderstand. Sure, Ephephany was a beautiful woman, and while I might have fantasized about her a few times, I would have never acted on those fantasies. You were all I ever wanted. I was going to find a way to make it work between us. I was going to marry you.”