Wild and Out of Control

|chapter fifteen|

"Accusing a Wingleader of wrongdoing is the most dangerous of all accusations. If you're right, then we've failed as a Quadrant to select the best Wingleaders If you're wrong, you're dead."

 - MY TIME AS A CADET: A MEMOIR BY GENERAL AUGUSTINE MELGREN

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|xaden|

"Wingleader!" an unfamiliar voice breaks through my carefully crafted shields, nearly startling me as I sit at my desk finishing a report for the leadership meeting coming up.

     It's not Sgaeyl, and it's not Danica. 

     "What is it, Azare? I'm a little busy." I fold the paper and place it into the envelope. "If you want to talk, go talk with Sgaeyl. Just leave me out of it if you decide to get physical."

     "My rider is being attacked in her room as we speak," he growls in my head. I pause, the envelope halfway to my mouth."So I suggest you get unbusy and go deal with those rule-breaking unbonded!"

     Danica is being attacked?

     "What are you talking about?" I ask, but I'm already up and out the door, the report be damned. If the unbonded were attacking Danica while she was asleep, then it could mean that they could get the upper hand and—

     No, she would not allow that to happen, if I knew anything about her. I knock on Garrick's door, telling Sgaeyl to inform his dragon to tell him about the current situation, not having the time to wait for him to answer the door.

     "Some of the unbonded broke into her room and attacked her." If he was here, he would be snarling those giant teeth at me. "What do you think I meant, Wingleader?"

     "I think he knew what you were talking about," Sgaeyl interjects, her voice cool and controlled like it always is, "it's just that he couldn't comprehend the idiocy of some humans."

     "Not helping."

     The hallway is dark and quiet as I sprint toward the First-year quarters. How the hell could the unbonded get into her room? It doesn't matter. All that matters is that I get there in time to stop them from hurting her—or worse, killing her. I race down the stairs, skipping the last five as I jump down, then fly down Danica's hallway. I reach her door, slamming it open forcibly, the wood splintering as it slams against the stone wall.

     Six people are standing in the dark room, and I can see from my position two slumped figures on the ground. That's my Danger. I snap my fingers, and the room illuminates, the mage lights hovering above us. Danica's the only one who's facing me, her eyes widening as she takes in my arrival, a stream of blood streaming down the side of her head as Oren has a dagger poised at her neck. "You're all fucking dead."

     Every head in the room turns.

     "Riorson!" An unboned man whips around and stares at me with shock and fear scrawled on his face. Oren Seifert, as I recall; the one that tried to kill the little golden one and Sorrengail. He drops his dagger and raises his hands as it clatters on the floor.

     "You think surrendering will save you?" My tone is lethal, promising a painful death to those who tried to harm Danica. "It is against our code to attack another rider in their sleep."

     "But you know he never should have bonded her!" Oren's face drains of color as I take a step forward. "You of all people have reason enough to want the weakling dead. We're just correcting a mistake."