His eyes locked onto us with a steely gaze. “Bloodwing demands excellence. It will draw excellence from you like fangs draw blood.”

A titter of nervous laughter rose from the crowd, but only, I noticed, from the highbloods. None of the mortals were laughing.

Headmaster Kim smiled thinly. “So, strive to be the best or face the consequences. Sangratha is no place for the weak or unworthy. If you cannot meet these expectations, you will find yourself cast out.”

I glanced at Florence. Did he mean cast out from Bloodwing? Or from the kingdom itself?

But the dark-haired girl was staring straight ahead, her lips tight. I looked around at the other blightborn students. They looked as nervous as she did. And these were students who were already supposed to be the best of the best. They had fought just to get here. I was here by random chance. So how should I feel?

As the headmaster continued speaking, I felt a prickle of unease across the back of my neck. It wasn’t metaphorical. The sensation was palpable. A cold, invasive pressure bearing down upon me like a vise. With effort, I managed to turn my head. Sure enough, Regan Pansera was smirking at me from across the crowd.

My limbs gave a sudden jerk. Florence turned to look at me but my lips were frozen shut.

I took a step back, then another. I bumped into a student and they snapped at me, but I couldn’t even apologize.

My body was no longer under my own control.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 9 - MEDRA

My feet moved without conscious volition as I turned around and walked towards the back of the crowd. The sea of students parted slightly to make way for me. I felt their strange looks. A low chatter was beginning as I stubbornly pushed my way to the edge of the crowd.

I approached the black stone dragon. Unable to even lift my head to look upwards, I could nevertheless feel its fierce visage gazing down upon me.

I moved around the statue to the back and stretched out my fingers. The rough texture of the stone scraped my skin as I started to climb, every movement propelled by a will that was not my own.

My body might not have been my own but my feelings were. And with every desperate grip and foothold, my sense of humiliation deepened, the weight of my predicament pressing down on my shoulders like a physical force.

The crowd’s murmurs grew louder as more and more students began to notice my ascent up the dragon’s back. Regan wouldn't permit me to move my head a muscle beyond where she wanted it, but I could still hear the snickers bubbling up from the sea of faces below me. My cheeks burned with shame as I climbed higher and higher.

The dragon’s black basalt head loomed closer as I dug my fingers into its cold and unyielding surface. My hands were covered with scrapes from the rough stone and my fingertips were cracked and bleeding by the time I reached the top.

As I mounted the dragon’s head, even Regan’s unnatural control couldn't keep me from feeling a wave of nauseating vertigo. The entire courtyard was visible, a sprawling expanse of stone and students. Over the walls of the cloistered courtyard edges, I could see the open sea in the distance. A gust of wind suddenly swept over me and the pressure of it pushed me sideways. But I couldn’t even gasp out the terror I felt as I scrambled to grip the stone tighter with my bleeding palms.

Now this is a truly ridiculous mess. Get down this instant. You’re humiliating yourself. The woman's voice in my head sounded furious.

I would if I could, I said, hearing the echo of what I’d already said earlier that same day. I would if I could.

You can and you will. I command it. Whatever this girl is doing to you, it must cease.

Make it stop then. Use your power if you're so mighty, I shot back. Don't you think I've tried? I don't even know what she's doing to me.

There was a pause. Some form of compulsion, that much is clear. A very precise kind as no one else seems affected. Powerful, too, as you're like putty in her palms.

Thank you for that astute observation, I said drily. Can you get me down or not?

Another pause. There's a way to counter it, certainly, but such spells take training. You could learn. But it would take time.

I don’t have time, I said, frustrated. What spell?

An anti-compulsion spell, of course. It's magic of a sort. Some form of coercion. Vampire-specific, I'd assume. She paused. If they all possess this, I'm impressed. It’s quite a handy skill to have.

Handy? It’s not handy. It’s disgusting. No one should have the ability to do this.

I thought of the other blightborn students down below. If the highbloods could turn this power on them at any time, make them do whatever they wanted... It was too horrible to consider. It shouldn’t be permitted. How could this be the way of things?

I felt a command from Regan’s mind to mine go through me and dropped to my knees on the dragon's head, the rough texture scraping painfully against my skin.

My heart sank as I saw hundreds of eyes boring into me. I had the crowd’s full attention now.

What would Regan make me do?

Before I had much time to wonder, a deep, guttural roar erupted from me.

I sounded like the world’s most pathetic lion. Or dragon.

Laughter rippled through the crowd of gathered students. I saw highblood faces sneering up at me with derision, dismissing me as if I truly were an animal or something they might wipe off their shoes at the end of a day.

Headmaster Kim’s voice cut through the cacophony of laughter with icy authority. He was not amused.

“Cease this at once,” he commanded. “Whoever is doing this, I command you to stop. Medra Pendragon, you will get down from there this instant.”

And then he was in my head right alongside Regan.

For a moment, I could feel their powers warring against each other. Two wills fighting for control over my body, Regan’s and the headmaster’s.

Then Regan withdrew. She was gone as quickly as she’d come, unseen and unannounced. The coward.

The headmaster was in control of my body now. The sheer power of his authority threatened to overwhelm me. I felt choked with it.

I’d been broken free from one bondage only to be trapped in another.

Slowly, I stood upright, my body tense and rigid.

Far down below, I saw Theo Drakharrow looking up at me with wide eyes. He’d moved closer to the edge of the crowd. As our gazes met, he gave a little shrug and mouthed the word “Sorry.”

“Get down now, Medra Pendragon,” the headmaster commanded again. He sounded impatient. “The Blood of the Pure compels you.”

My body could not resist.

I leaped from the dragon’s head onto the stones below.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 10 - MEDRA

I woke up with a groan, my eyelids fluttering open.

Everything hurt.

I looked up at the ceiling overhead. It was familiar.

Dark blue with silver stars.

I was in my room.

I tried to push myself up but a hand settled on my chest, gently pushing me back down again.

“Not yet, Medra. Rest.” Florence. Her voice was gentle.

I managed to turn my head and look at her. “What happened?”

She chewed her lip for a moment, thinking. Probably of how to tell me something bad in the nicest way possible.

“The healer just left,” she said finally. “You’re supposed to stay in bed, at least until tomorrow morning. They’ll be around to check in on you at seven o’clock. Then, if they say you can get up, you’re to go and see Headmaster Kim in his office at eight.”

I groaned. “Wonderful.”

Florence rose to her feet. “Are you in pain? Is it bad? The healer left a tea for you with some herbs for the pain. I can give you a dose, but it will make you drowsy.”