It's your first day at the academy.
A demi-human academy.
As a human.
The distinction is impossible to ignore.
Nearly ninety-nine percent of the students here are demi-humans. Wolves, foxes, cats, birds, snakes, bears, insects, mythical species, and everything in between.
You are the exception.
The scholarship recipient.
The human who somehow earned a place at one of the most prestigious universities in the country.
Your parents couldn't afford the tuition. Not even close.
So when the acceptance letter arrived with a full scholarship attached to it, there was hardly a question of whether you would accept.
Of course you would.
Even if it meant being the only human on campus.
Even if everyone here had something you didn't.
An animal form.
Species instincts.
Physical abilities.
“Okay, so…”
The rabbit demi-human walking beside you glances down at the orientation map in her hands.
She is small, cheerful, and almost aggressively friendly, with soft brown ears poking through her hair.
“Your dorm is this way, the main lecture hall is there, the cafeteria is—”
She stops.
Her ears twitch.
Once.
Twice.
And, apparently, a very specific set of rules you hadn't learned yet.
You look at her.
“What?”
The rabbit's eyes slowly lift toward the sky.
Her whole expression changes.
“Oh.”
“What?”
“Oh, no.”
She takes a step backward.
Then another.
You follow her gaze.
At first, all you see is sky.
Then a shadow passes over the courtyard.
Huge.
A pair of enormous wings cuts across the sunlight.
The sound comes next.
A deep, powerful rush of air that bends the trees and scatters loose papers across the pavement.
Your guide goes completely still.
“That's a dragon.”
You blink.
“A dragon?”
“Yes.”
The rabbit's voice suddenly sounds very small.
“Very much a dragon.”
You look up again.
And this time you see him.
A massive black dragon circles above the academy, scales catching the sunlight with dark bronze flashes. His wings stretch impossibly wide, his long tail cutting through the air behind him.
He is enormous.
Not large.
Enormous.
The dragon banks sharply over the central courtyard.
Your guide's ears flatten.
“Oh, we're moving.”
She grabs your arm.
“Come on.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere else.”
She starts dragging you toward the edge of the courtyard.
But you're still trying to understand what you're looking at.
The dragon dives.
Students around you scatter at once.
Some run.
Some duck.
And then something strange happens.
The rabbit beside you disappears.
For half a second, you don't understand.
Then you see a small brown rabbit sprinting across the grass.
Your mouth falls open.
“Wait—”
The rabbit doesn't wait.
She runs.
You stare after her.
“You've got to be kidding me.”
A roar shakes the courtyard.
You look up.
The dragon is coming straight over the academy.
You finally understand why everyone is moving.
You step sideways.
Not far enough.
The dragon sweeps overhead.
A blast of heat rolls across the courtyard.
You instinctively throw an arm over your face.
Then—
FWOOM.
Heat flashes past you.
Your clothes snap violently in the wind.
Something catches.
You look down.
The front of your top has been scorched and partially burned away, the fabric hanging in ruined pieces.
You stare at it.
Then slowly look upward.
The dragon has already passed overhead.
He circles once.
And lands.
The impact makes the ground tremble.
Students immediately begin backing away.
The dragon's body shifts.
Scales retract.
Wings fold inward.
Bones reshape.
And within seconds, the enormous creature becomes a man.
Tall.
Broad-shouldered.
Dark-haired.
His clothes are slightly disheveled from the shift, and faint traces of bronze scales remain along his neck before disappearing under his skin.
He looks around the courtyard with complete indifference.
Until his eyes land on you.
He stops.
His golden gaze moves from your face…
to your ruined top…
then back to your face.
For the first time, his expression changes.
A flicker of surprise.
“You're human.”
You glance around the courtyard.
Every demi-human is staring.
Your rabbit guide is nowhere to be seen.
You look back at him.
“Apparently.”
The corner of his mouth twitches.
Not quite a smile.
His eyes remain on you.
“You should have moved.”
You look down at your half-burned shirt.
Then back at him.
“I tried.”
A beat of silence.
Behind you, someone whispers:
“She's talking back to him.”
Another voice answers:
“She's human. She doesn't know.”
Sarrath's gaze sharpens.
He takes one slow step toward you.
And suddenly you understand something the orientation pamphlet failed to mention.
You didn't just arrive at a university filled with demi-humans.
You arrived at a university where some of them are powerful enough to make everyone else instinctively afraid.
And apparently you have just managed to get one of the strongest ones to notice you.