Chapter 1
The Mirrorroot Elixir smelled like mint, iron, and every terrible decision Tessa had made to get this far. She stared into the silver-rimmed cup.
Was that it?
She had spent years searching for a way back to the century where her biological parents had died. Night Moonveil kept restricted histories and chronomancy knowledge she could not find anywhere else. If there was even a chance of reaching their era, the answer was behind those wards.
The problem was getting inside.
Tessa Monroe could not walk through Night Moonveil’s gates as herself. The ruling order had spent generations searching for the missing female heir of the fallen royal line, and Tessa matched that description far too well.
Theo Monroe did not. He was male, a warlock, and ordinary enough to be ignored. Apparently, her grand infiltration began with magical mouthwash. Across the worktable, Morgana checked the potion again.
“You still have time to change your mind.”
Tessa glanced up. “And waste all this dramatic preparation?”
Yes, that was definitely the problem. Not being exposed, arrested, or recognized as the woman people had been searching for since before she was born. The clock above Morgana’s shelves clicked, stopped, then jumped forward.
Four seconds vanished.
Tessa went still. Oh, come on.
The clock resumed ticking as if it had not just misplaced part of the evening.
“Tessa?”
“It skipped again.”
Another clock was doing something clocks had absolutely no business doing around her.
She would deal with it later because if she stopped every time time itself behaved strangely, she would never reach the one place that might explain why.
Chronomancy was still her only chance of reaching her parents’ era.
Morgana slid the cup closer. “Be inside the Keeper’s House before midnight.”
“I know.”
“No second dose if it starts failing.”
“I know.”
“Tessa.”
There it was. The voice that meant Morgana had forgotten Tessa was twenty-two and perfectly capable of ruining her own life without supervision.
She sighed. “Keeper’s House. Before midnight. No heroic improvisation.”
A dry rustle came from Ed’s perch.
“Your confidence is touching.”
“It is experience,” the owl said.
Of course the traitor had opinions. Tessa lifted the cup before anyone could offer another reason not to do this. Cold hit her tongue. Then heat ripped through her bones.
Her balance shifted so suddenly that she gripped the table. Her shoulders broadened, her fingers lengthened, and her clothes pulled tight across a body that suddenly occupied more space. She swallowed, and the startled sound that escaped her came out low.
Well, that was horrifying.
She faced the mirror. The face in the glass had short dark hair, a sharper jaw, smoky-gray eyes, and a lean frame nearly half a foot taller than hers. She knew exactly who she was.
Apparently, the mirror had not received the message. Morgana had somehow transformed her into exactly the sort of man Tessa herself might have made several regrettable decisions around.
Outside, the evening bell began to ring.
Theo Monroe stared back at her. Now she only had to convince Night Moonveil he was real.
By the time Tessa reached Night Moonveil as Theo, she had discovered three things about being nearly six feet tall.
Her stride was longer, doorways felt suspiciously lower, and walking naturally required far more concentration than anyone had mentioned.
Wonderful. Nothing screamed ordinary male warlock like having to remember how to use her own legs. The first Veil Bell faded as the last human visitors moved toward the outer paths. Then the second rang.
Night Moonveil changed.
Wards shimmered awake across stone and glass. Blank walls unfolded into shadowed corridors, and silver-lit windows appeared where there had been only ivy. The campus seemed to reveal itself as the sun disappeared.
Tessa wanted to stare. Instead, she counted exits. It was an old habit and, tonight, possibly a life-saving one. One wrong reaction could make Theo memorable for all the wrong reasons.
By the third bell, students were moving toward the academy’s protected sections. Her enrollment record waited exactly where Sarah had promised.
Theo Monroe. Male. Late-awakened warlock. Ward of Sarah Monroe.
Perfectly respectable and completely fabricated. The entrance ward swept over her. Tessa kept breathing as the magic passed over her face, shoulders, and chest—then stopped.
Her stomach tightened.
Every instinct told her to move, talk, do something. Exactly the sort of thing guilty people did. So Theo stood there with the bored patience of a man who had nothing to hide.
The ward pulsed once. For one awful second, Tessa imagined it seeing past the face, voice, and body Morgana had given her. If it found Tessa beneath Theo, getting inside Night Moonveil would be the least of her problems.
Then glowing letters appeared.
ACCESS GRANTED.
Tessa stepped through before the academy could reconsider.
She was inside. Night Moonveil had accepted Theo Monroe. Years of planning, hiding, and searching, and the impossible part had taken less than a minute.
Tessa allowed herself one breath of victory. Then she turned too quickly and walked straight into someone.
A hand closed around Tessa’s forearm before she could hit the floor. The grip was strong and hot.
She looked up.
Oh, hell.
Zoran Ashencroft.
She had never met him, but years of researching Night Moonveil had made the Dragon Heir impossible not to recognize.
He stood close enough that she had to tilt her head back to meet his eyes. Up close, he was all black hair, broad shoulders, and the kind of controlled stillness that made everyone else’s movements seem unnecessary.
Night Moonveil contained an entire campus full of supernatural students, and of course she had collided with a dragon.
Worse, this dragon.
If anyone here had senses sharp enough to notice what the entrance ward had missed, it would be Zoran Ashencroft.
“Careful,” he said.
His hand remained around her arm. Tessa became painfully aware of every place his fingers touched, which was ridiculous. She had more important things to worry about than the fact that he was unfairly attractive at close range. Like the fact that he still had not let go.
“I’ll add walking to tomorrow’s study schedule.”
One dark eyebrow lifted. So Theo became sarcastic under pressure too. At least some things survived magical reconstruction.
Zoran’s gaze sharpened. Then his amber eyes flashed molten gold. The change lasted barely a second, but Tessa saw it. She also felt his grip tighten.
Her stomach dropped.
Dragons had senses witches did not. Morgana had warned her about that much. Mirrorroot had fooled the entrance ward, but that did not mean it could fool a dragon standing close enough to touch her. So why was Zoran staring at Theo as if something did not fit?
His nostrils flared once.
Wonderful.
Tessa resisted the urge to smell herself.
“Name?”
Not Are you all right?
“Theo Monroe.”
His attention moved over her face with enough concentration to become insulting.
Tessa pulled lightly against his grip. “Do Dragon Heirs usually interrogate everyone they catch, or am I getting special treatment?”
Something flickered across his expression, maybe surprise, and his mouth curved. He finally released her. That should have been the end of it. Instead, Zoran stayed where he was, studying her.
Tessa fought the urge to retreat. Theo Monroe was a late-awakened warlock with legitimate enrollment records and absolutely no reason to panic because a dragon had looked at him strangely.
He was supposed to be ordinary. Tessa had been inside Night Moonveil for barely ten minutes, and the one student she had known to avoid was already looking at Theo like he was anything but.
Excellent work.
Zoran’s gaze narrowed.
“You smell wrong.”
It was her first night, barely ten minutes in, and she was already screwed.
