Chapter 130 130- Do Not Complain About Claw Marks On The Table
LEXI
The door swings open, and for a split second, my brain refuses to process what I’m seeing. Professor Cage. Standing right there. If I wasn’t already frozen in place, I would be now. Fear spikes through me, sharp and immediate, my thoughts scrambling. I have no idea what to expect. Is he here to help me… or is he part of this? Is this just another layer to whatever is going on? I don’t know. I don’t know. He glances past me, his gaze flicking over my shoulder, taking in the entire situation in a single, quick sweep. His expression tightens, something sharp and calculating flashing across his face.
“Help me!” I blurt out, the words tearing out of me before I can stop them. At the same moment, the spellcasting professor turns, spotting him. His eyes narrow instantly, his entire posture shifting as he lifts his arms, probably preparing to cast a spell. Professor Cage reacts faster. He jumps sideways, ducking straight back out into the hall, disappearing from sight in an instant. My heart drops. Shit. So much for that. Maybe he’ll call someone? Maybe he’ll get help? But by then… It might be too late. The professor lets out an annoyed sound and stomps toward the door, clearly intending to chase after him. Panic flares in my chest, my body still shaky, my thoughts racing too fast to keep up. I can’t move properly yet, can’t think fast enough to do anything useful. And then something small and fast darts past me. I barely register it at first, just a blur of motion, until the professor shouts in surprise and throws up his hands, blasting magic toward it. The spell misses, slamming into the wall with a sharp crack. It’s Professor Cage. In his fox form. He moves fast as a fox, faster than I would have thought possible, leaping up onto the desk in one smooth motion. His paws skid slightly on the surface as he lunges forward, shoving at the glowing orb with his nose. It teeters for half a second. Then rolls. Then falls. The moment it hits the floor, it shatters. The sound is sharp and final. And instantly, my legs are mine again. The numbness vanishes so suddenly that I don’t have time to adjust. My body lurches forward, balance completely gone, and I collapse straight to the ground in a graceless heap.
“Damn it, NO!” the professor yells, his voice full of fury. He lunges toward me, but before he can reach me, Professor Cage darts between his legs, clipping him hard enough to throw him off balance. The old man stumbles, then goes down, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. For a second, everything feels chaotic, too many movements, too much happening at once, but Cage doesn’t hesitate. He shifts back almost immediately, the fox form flickering away as he reappears in human form beside me.
“What the hell are you still sitting there for?” he snaps, urgency cutting through his voice.
“Come on, we need to go!” he yells as he grabs my arm and yanks me to my feet, not giving me even a second to recover.
I stumble as he yanks me through the doorway, my legs barely cooperating as I try to keep up with him. The hallway spins slightly, the world tilting just enough to make every step feel uncertain. He doesn’t slow at first, just keeps dragging me along like I weigh nothing, like I’m not half–conscious and
bleeding all over the place.
“What were you thinking?” he snaps, not even glancing back at me.
“Walking around here alone at night. Are you an idiot?” He demands. For a second, my mind just… blanks. Because he sounds… Concerned. Actually, genuinely concerned.
“Uh… sorry?” I mumble, my voice weak and unfocused.
“Oh… I wasn’t alone. I was with Ellorie… I don’t know where she is…” I add. That thought hits harder than everything else for a moment, cutting through
the fog in my head. Ellorie. She was right next to me and now she’s just… gone. He stops abruptly, turning to look at me properly for the first time. His eyes
narrow as he takes me in, really looks at me.
“Your eyes are unfocused and your head is bleeding, I think you have a concussion.” he says bluntly.
“Yeah… probably,” I agree vaguely. He sighs, long and irritated, like this is the exact outcome he was trying to prevent.
“This is exactly the situation I was trying to avoid,” he mutters, then starts moving again, but slower this time, adjusting his pace so I can actually keep up without face–planting every three seconds. If I had made a list of people who might rescue me tonight, Professor Cage wouldn’t have just been at the bottom of it, he wouldn’t have been on it at all. And yet here we are.
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8:04 am
- MM.
Chapter 130 130–Do Not Complain About Claw Marks On The Table
Where are we going?” I ask, trying to focus on something practical, something I can actually control.
That depends. Do you know where your damn dragon is?” he grumbles. I frown, blinking slowly as I try to gather my thoughts.
“No, but I have this compass thing to try to find him, but since the Academy hasn’t already sent him running over here, I have a feeling that he might be off
campus.” I say, fumbling slightly with my words. Then, because apparently my brain has no filter right now, I continue.
“And you don’t need to be so mean to him.” I add. He lets out a sharp, annoyed breath.
“Yes, I do! It’s his fault you’re even in this mess!” he snaps. I blink at that, genuinely confused.
“You’ve never spent time around magic until you came here,” he continues, his voice low and angry now.
“And in a matter of weeks, you were exposed to enough magic to trigger your shift. Who do you think was around to expose you to that much magic? Because it sure as hell wasn’t me!” he hisses out the words angrily. I stare at him, my thoughts struggling to keep up.
“You think… the reason I finally shifted is because I’ve been spending time with Blake?” I ask slowly. He rolls his eyes like that should be painfully obvious.
“Obviously,” he says.
“I tried to warn you, but you just assumed I was an asshole.” he complains.
“You kind of are,” I point out automatically.
“Probably,” he shoots back without missing a beat.
“BUT I’m not an idiot. And I’m not much of a fighter either, which means we need to get you somewhere safe.” He continues and we turn down another hall.
“But anyway, asshole or not, I knew that the longer you avoided shifting, the safer you would be. If you’d stayed away from him and practiced your magic properly, you MIGHT have been more prepared for this shit.” he lectures. I frown, something about that clicking into place in a way I don’t like.
“Wait,” I say, my voice sharpening slightly despite the dizziness.
“The only reason you’d try to stop me shifting is if you knew what I was the whole time.” I point out. He hesitates for a fraction of a second, then sighs.
“Yes… well. I had a suspicion,” he admits.
“But I didn’t want to say anything because I couldn’t be totally sure. And I knew you’d tell Blake, and I wasn’t exactly confident about how a dragon would react to finding a unicorn.” He reasons. I open my mouth to argue, to defend Blake, but the image of his mother flashes through my mind. The way she looked at me. The way she talked about me. A treasure. Something to trade. I close my mouth again. I know Blake isn’t like her. But… Cage didn’t know that. especially not back then. I don’t like how Cage handled it, but… if what he’s saying is true, and as far as I can tell, it is, then he DID mean well. In his own terrible, frustrating way.
“How did you know?” I ask instead, trying to focus on that.
“You hadn’t even spoken to me. Blake spent ages trying to figure it out, and he actually knows me.” ! point out. Cage exhales slowly, like he doesn’t particularly want to answer.
“Because… I met one once… A unicorn.” he says finally. I stop walking. Completely. The movement yanks him to a halt with me.
“What?” I breathe.
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8:04 am
CNM.
Chapter 130 130–Do Not Complain About Claw Marks On The Table
“I was a kid,” he continues, glancing around briefly like he’s checking our surroundings even while talking
“Maybe thirteen? I was out in the woods, quiet area, nowhere special, and I didn’t realise at the time that unbroens were posed to be extins the posses his expression tightening slightly.
“But i met one. About your age, actually. He shifted before he realised I was watching And… well, You’re the splitting image of Estes Me conferes. My boner
stutters
“You… you met ” My voice catches.
“You think you knew my…” I can’t even finish the sentence. He nods once.
“Yeah, I guess,” he says.
“But we really need to keep moving.” he says evasively.
“And you didn’t tell me?” I demand, the shock twisting into something sharper. He sighs again, clearly frustrated.
“What difference would it have made?” he snaps.
“I don’t have anything useful to tell you. I met a man when I was a kid. You look like him. That’s it. I exchanged maybe three words with him when he asked me not to tell anyone I saw him. I didn’t want to get your hopes up over someone I didn’t actually know!” He says firmly. I hesitate. Because.. that does make sense. I don’t like it. Not even a little. But it makes sense.
“Now please,” he adds, more urgently this time, grabbing my arm again.
“You can ask me all your damn questions later, when we’re not running for our lives.”
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we need more than 1 a day…
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
