Fang And Claw (Nocturne Academy 2)

“So…you say they have lots of people like me in the human world?” Jalli asked, swirling one hand through the bubbles. She was looking at me from the corner of her eye, as though she wasn’t sure what I might say.

“We do but mostly in countries where they can’t get good medical care,” I told her. “We have doctors in my world who can cure club foot—I mean, they do an operation to straighten the foot out.”

“Really?” Jalli’s large dark eyes went big and round. “They can really do that?”

“Absolutely.” I nodded. “But I’m surprised your people don’t know about that—you have a connection to the human world, after all. To my world, I mean.”

“You mean the rift?” she asked. “It’s mostly only the hidalgos—or noblemen—who fly through the rift into the human world. And not that many of them go—just the kids from the upper and royal families and then only for a few years before they come back here to settle down.” She sighed. “I wish I could go.”

“Why can’t you?” I asked. “You’d probably like Nocturne Academy. There’s a place for everybody there,” I added, thinking of my wonderful Coven-mates.

“I wish I could.” Jalli sighed again. “But I’m not supposed to be too visible. I’m living proof that the Alpha Drake didn’t keep the law of the land. And besides, a deformed female isn’t supposed to show her face in public.”

This was exactly what I had been afraid of and hearing it said aloud didn’t make me feel any better.

“That’s probably going to be a problem in my case,” I said, looking down at my scarred arms and hands.

“Probably,” she admitted. “But I’m glad Ari chose you for his queen—I like you.”

“I like you, too,” I said, smiling. Though honestly, the whole “queen” thing was starting to freak me out a little. I had never imagined when Ari asked me to come to the Sky Lands with him that he would be introducing me as his bride-to-be and the future queen of the entire place. No wonder people were upset—I was the wrong kind of Other and I was visibly scarred. I just didn’t understand why he had picked me.

“I just don’t understand why Ari picked me to be his queen,” I murmured to myself, voicing my thought aloud.

“Well, he didn’t, silly!” Jalli exclaimed. “His Drake did—that’s how these things work.”

“His Drake?” I asked. I remembered Ari saying that his Drake had chosen me and that his heart had followed his Drake’s, but it hadn’t really sunk in before now. “So…his Drake fell in love with me first?” I asked, frowning.

“It might be better to say his Drake claimed you,” Jalli corrected me. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. When a Drake decides you’re his treasure—his L’lorna—he almost never changes his mind. That’s what happened with my parents, you know.”

“Really?” I looked at her in surprise.

“Uh-huh. My father was supposed to choose from among the daughters of the hidalgo but his Drake was flying a patrol over a lonely mountain village and he saw my mother hanging the washing out to dry.” Jalli smiled. “My father always says that the minute he and his Drake laid eyes on her, they were both smitten. He carried her back to the palace and told my grandfather point blank that she was his L’lorna and he would have no other.” She shrugged. “So they were bonded, of course.”

“Of course,” I murmured, thinking of how Ari had been so forceful in declaring me as his L’lorna in the Audience Chamber in front of his father and the other Drakes as witnesses. Maybe such bull-headedness ran in the family. I wondered if it would make his mother feel any more kindly towards me…and guessed it probably wouldn’t. After all, even if she didn’t come from noble blood, at least she was still of the Drake people. And I was betting she didn’t have really visible scars all over her body either.

“Anyway, you can soak for a while,” Jalli said, standing. “I’m going to go find you a robe to wear—and maybe some insects for Mr. Seahorse.” She grinned. “Will you be okay here alone?”

“Oh, sure.” I nodded. “I’ll be fine. I like this, uh, bubble bath you put in,” I added, nodding at the pink bubbles. “It’s very soothing to the skin.”

“I thought it might help your scars,” she said honestly. “It always makes my foot feel better when it aches.” She looked down at the appendage in question wistfully. “Sure wish I could go to the human world and get it healed, like you talked about. But I would never be allowed.”

“I don’t see why not,” I said, indignant on her behalf. Why shouldn’t she go to my world and have the operation to heal her foot? Looking around at the huge, richly decorated marble palace it was clear her parents could afford it. “I think you should! Like I said, you’d fit into Nocturne Academy just fine.”