It would appear that time was not on my side at the moment as I rushed to untangle some of my long black hair as I was ushered by four very tall tree trunk-like warriors to the very heart of the palace that was the Magic Academy of Hiedel.

 Rin had been by my side when the summons had come the moment our feet touched the palace’s main ground level. Rin had looked at me with wide eyes from behind her reading glasses and her jaw dropped.

“Who wants to see her?” she asked in a strangled voice to the giant warriors who would be my soon to be escorts.

“The Headmasters, my lady,” said the tallest one, bedecked in a fine white tunic with silver stitching that matched his eyes. He was a rather handsome giant over seven feet tall, but his voice was too deep, too powerful for just a giant.

It made me shiver.

Rin continued to gape like a fool at the man and I felt a prick of the dark magic on the back of my neck.

“What do they want?” I hissed between sharpening fangs. Calm down, I commanded myself. Those blindingly sharp silver eyes turned to mine and there was a spark between the two of us.

 A battle of wills, a battle of power and rank. “The overseers of this school,” he replied coolly, “and they need to speak to you. Now.” The last word was a growl.

Then it hit me. Why this giant was being so rude? He wasn’t a giant, at least not fully, no, he wasn’t. He smelled of a Fenrir wolf. He was nothing more than a giant, monstrous wolf in a mortal’s body.

An evil grin twisted my lips as the spark of dark olc magic came out. “As you wish, Fenrir.”

The giant’s eyes narrowed; his lips twitched in a silent snarl. He grabbed me by the arm and hauled me up to face him.

My feet were felt daggling off the ground.

 “Keep that to you, Elf,” he snarled, and dropped me as Rin gasped. Rin rushed over to where I laid on the ground, sprawled out on the floor, glaring at the giant brute.

“You big idiot!” Rin seethed. “What do you think you’re doing to her? Do you have any idea who she is—?”

Pushing myself into a sitting position, I smirked. “Worry not. It is a natural reaction to have anger when you have fear. A dog will always fear those who are an alpha.” Dabbing at the corner of my lip, I saw it came away bloody. “Our races never did get along.” I licked the blood off of my hand.

 Rin pulled me up to my feet, and then stood in front of the warrior crossing her arms, glaring. If she stomped her foot she would have looked just like my old nursemaid when I was but a child, I thought with a faint smile.

“You will treat her as the royalty she is and the noble I am. Take her to the Headmasters, but I forewarn you. Do not anger her or enrage her. Insane she may be, but fire is what you shall have under your backside,” she said smartly and turned away from him.

She took my hands in hers and I noticed how they trembled. “Just listen and say nothing they should not know. And you might want to try and do something with your hair; it is a mess. I’ll be waiting for you.” And this is how I found myself being walked through the gigantic arched hallways towards the heart of the palace.

When they stopped before two giant arched doors, they ushered me forward. I dug my feet into the ground. I wouldn’t be forced.

“You may release me unless you want to be missing a hand,” I hissed. Just the touch of a man’s hand on my body brought the edge of my sanity crashing over into nothingness. They will do nothing to me here. These people are not Black Bloods, I killed all of them.

They promptly released me from their hands and the Fenrir walked forward in front of me. Just as I was about to protest, he glared at me with one eye over his shoulder, emitting a growl, “Stay silent.”

I closed my mouth with a snap, but let my nails grow into delicate small, curved claws and sank them into the Fenrir’s backside. He yowled with surprise and stared back at me, incredulous, then the door began to open, and he turned around to walk in, muttering about stupid Elves under his breath.

 Trying as I could to look around, I could not get even a glimpse through the wall of muscle surrounding me.

“Enter,” boomed a deep voice from the chamber beyond the door. Slowly the warriors parted around me, taking a knee and bowing before the doors. Only the Fenrir walked forward in front of me, his heavy leather boots echoing across the floor with heavy thuds. Blocking my view of the people seated at the High Table, I was forced to make do by listening to their now hushed voices, until I was permitted to look upon them. I had the distinct feeling that if I did something, anything, wrong in that moment that my new life that I wanted would slip through my fingers and smash into a million pieces and disappear.

Orbs of glowing light magic lit the high arched ceilings a hundred feet above our heads, yet cast no shadows. Tapestries hung on every wall we passed sporting the crests of every magical race known to the magic world and some that weren’t. When my eyes landed on the tapestry that glittered like snowy diamonds, my world seemed to close around that one point. And what creature other than a white dragon graced that crested flag blowing a cloud of fire and ice. It felt odd, seeing something that felt as if I should have known what it was, like part of my past.

 Each and every shimmering thread had a vision, either the past or the future playing within. I thought then that I had completely lost myself. Never had it been so bad that I had seen things that were not there. However, I saw the white dragon in a trance, and I caught my breath. He was even more beautiful as I watched him yawn; stretching back his mighty wings, the color of snow, before he settled down in field of flowers for a nap.

Why did this dragon seem familiar? Suddenly the dragon turned its great head and stared at me. I felt my eyes widen like the moon and my mouth part like the sea before a storm in a breath of amazement. The dragon then winked at me and gave me a widening toothy grin as he realized I could see him.

The smile didn’t stop till I could see each and every one of his fangs.

“By all the bloody—!”

“Hear us child!” thundered a deep voice from the front left in the group of people. The vision in the tapestry snapped back to painful reality and my eyes snapped to the serious elder mage in green robes, standing just behind the High Table. I responded to his demand by pursing my lips and raising a brow in question.

“Heed my words, young mage woman, and listen well.” He spread his hand before himself on the table and leaned forward. “You were not meant to be here, but fate has something planned for you here. But before we teach you anything, we must know who you are and what you are.”

The long haired dwarven woman next to him nodded in agreement. Leaning in further, he beckoned to me to come closer.

 “Tell us where it is you come from. Tell us who you are, what you are and why you came to be with us.”

They wanted my story? This was not something I could give them; I had to think of Dare. Had he told them anything? I paused for a moment to let them think I was thinking on how to answer and then, taking a deep breath, I bowed my head.

When I looked up it was to look in the old mage’s eyes. He flinched, for I had changed my eyes for those of my dragon form.

Silted eyes, both gold and spiked with violet, like a snake’s eyes, stared at him, making him edgy. I was free now and no one would command me, not even to answer a question.

Taking a graceful step forward I asked, “You think to tell me, no, demand me to tell you? Shall I tell you now that I will never be commanded to do anything again? Because I won’t.”

Anger flashed in his eyes with fear. “What are you?! Why you insolent cur—!”

“Yes, why me?” I cut in. “Because you have no right to my past.”

A thick hand wrapped around my upper arm and gave me a shake. I looked up at the Fenrir giant. “Never take that tone with Master,” he growled, low in his throat.

I growled back with a dark spell and his hand was ripped from my arm as he was sent flying into the wall. Fenrir hit the wall with a cry of pain at the force of it and fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. He had fainted from the pain in his head and back.

The tingling of dark magic could be felt as it crawled  itself along my spine. The olc magic inside me wanted free; I wanted it free. No, I cannot free it, I commanded myself.

Free me, it crooned, it is who you are. Do not pretend to be good when you are evil. Let me free…

I screamed as its dark fang sank into my mind, struggling to get free. My scream shattered all the glass in the room until it fell to the ground in glittering clouds of glass rain.

“Stop this at once!” demanded the dwarf woman. She was looking terrified.

“That is enough, Hazelin,” said a voice that came up next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I looked up after I had stopped screaming into Dare’s face. Winced trying forcing the dark magic back into the deepest part of my soul.

“Yes, Father,” I whispered, pained.

“Dare! Who is this dark creature you have brought upon us all? She cannot stay; her kind of magic will never be welcome here. If she does not leave immediately, then we will have to Invoke her,” the mage said harshly. “She is no different than the Black Bloods. We must get rid of her before she kills anyone. As if a so-called dragon wasn’t enough today.”

While the mage had thrown his words at me, Dare’s hand had tightened into a fist on my shoulder. “Do not ever compare her to the Black Bloods. She has more worth than those things did when they were normal mortal wizards,” Dare snapped.

I watched as the mage’s expression turned from furious rage after his words to shock after Dare’s words.

“W-what?” the old man stammered. This situation was just like the one that had been on the ship on the way to the Isle. It would appear in my father’s life that he had been a very serious and very quiet man, never one to upset the balance around him.

He was not one to overstep the bounds of reason. He’s better this way, I decided, with the way my mind is still messed up, I could not understand any other way.

“I said never compare her to those things again! Her blood that runs in her veins is the last of a long-rare line, two if the fact was to be known properly. As far as her insanity, it is the Black Bloods doing, not hers.”

Recovering from his shock first at Dare’s bold defense,  the mage asked, “What are you speaking of Dare? Explain it to us all why you defend that monstrous girl.”

“This girl is Hazelin Feya Feylin de Dragos, Crown Princess and heir apparent to the throne of Annwin. She is also the High Princess of the Sidan Kingdoms of the Elves, and she is my only daughter,” Dare announced in his clear baritone.

There were six gasps in the room including mine. I turned to see that Ellie had come to the room only to hear that part and was pointing at me.

I knew she was going to start in hysterics so I did the only thing that I could do that would make her go away and make me feel better. Sending her a death glare, I threw a fire ball at her, and her eyebrows went up in flame at contact.

She ran out screaming, and I knew she would not say a single thing about what she heard.

Great, I thought sourly.

Things were not gin smoothly and now more problems were about to start.