Thunder and Ice

Chapter 1

Kai yelps at the knife that is tossed at him. It still knicks him in the side though. Aurora's aim was deadly. Her talent was only rivaled by Azrael's. How lucky he was to be friends with both. Aurora's green eyes glared at him.
"Just because I'm small does not mean my dragon will be," Aurora retorts. They walk towards the stables. Now that they were both twenty they could be chosen by their dragons.
Headmistress Vespertin was waiting at the door for them. Her gray hair was pulled back into a severe bun.
"Act wisely," she says before opening the door with the amulet hanging around her neck. The loud roaring of the dragons emerged as the doors swung open. A dark red one and a baby blue one were in the first stables. Kai walks over to the blue one. The color of its scales matched his eyes. The dragon's tail swings around and slices across his cheekbone. He was chosen. If only it was that easy for her.
She continues through the stables. She passes by an assortment of colors. Gold, green, black, more blue. She continues into the second corridor of dragons. These ones were even larger than the ones in the first corridor. She was starting to lose hope as she approached the end of the corridor.
Then she saw it. A huge silver dragon. Its gray eyes watch her as she approaches. She reaches out and its snout knocks against her hand. There's a flash and hot pain across her cheek. She was marked. She unlocks the cage and the dragon surges forward. It snatches Aurora and vaults out the window. It gains height until its wings brush the clouds
And then it drops her. She plummets through the air, her scream snatched by the howling wind. She lands on something hard. She opens her eyes to see silver scales. She sits up until she's sitting on its shoulders. Astarot. A voice whispers. That was it- her- name.
Astarot dips and Aurora squeezes the dragon's neck tighter. They come to a soft landing in front of the stables for the claimed dragons. Astarot walks in front of her through the stable. She glances towards an open stable before shaking her head as if in disgust. She comes upon the next empty stall before deciding this was good enough for her. Aurora could already tell she was going to be a handful. She plops down in the hay and looks at her expectantly. They stay like that for a while before Aurora realizes.
"Oh!" She goes over to the bins of raw meat and picks up a few pieces with a pair of tongs. She tosses it in front of Astarot. Smoke coming out of her nose was the only warning. A large burst of flame erupts from her jaws. The heat scorches her skin and singes her clothes. The meat was charred and Astarot gobbles it up. She tilts her head towards the exit in dismissal.
Kai was leading his dragon in as she was walking out.
"How did you beat me?" He asks.
"Astarot decided to take me out for a test ride." Her clothes had black singed spots around the edges. She would need a new pair of clothes before heading to the dining hall. She walks up to her dorm on the fifth floor of the Keep. Her roommate Tamarline was sitting on her bed stitching up holes in her trousers. She looks up at Aurora's entrance.
"How'd it go?"
"Just fine," she grumbles and stalks towards her wardrobe.
"I'll fix your clothes after supper," Tammy ties off her thread. She stands up and stretches. Tammy was also a Jade, her abilities were superspeed and unnaturally keen eyesight. She used her talents to help most of the other Demigods fix their clothes. Aurora never asked why she wasted her talents in such a way and she never told her.
In the dining hall, they sit with Kai, Mira, and Daisy. Aurora was closer with Kai and Tammy then the other two, though she supposed it was the same with Daisy and Mira.
They were talking about the Winter Solstice Ball when Tammy and her sat down.
"Who are you going with, Auri?" Kai asks her.
"Oh, I don't know, I haven't asked anyone," Aurora had never really been interested in relationships like that.
"Well, would you perhaps go with me?" Kai's wintery pale complexion reveals nothing. "As friends," he adds after a second. She had been considering not going at all considering you had to have a partner in order to attend due to some old tradition, but since the opportunity had arisen, she might as well.
"Okay," Aurora agrees. Kai's lips quirk up into a blindingly bright smile.
"Well that's good considering you and Az are the only ones in the whole Keep without a date," he says. Then he wouldn't be there. Good.
Daisy yawns in the dimly lit dining hall, lot only by a few candles spread evenly on sconces.
"I better go to sleep. Got a Dragon Care test tomorrow," Daisy gets up and Mira and Tammy follow with her.
"See you guys tomorrow," Mira says. The two of them sit in awkward silence until he cracks under the pressure.
"I should go now too. Can I walk you back to your dorm?"
They walk down to the cold stone corridors.
"Your dragon is beautiful, just like you," Kai's words send small flutters to her stomach. A pair of boys approached down the hall, neither of them were paying attention to the approaching two.
"Your's matches your eyes," Aurora offers. The larger of the two boys knocks shoulders with her.
"Freak," he mutters. Even amongst the other Demigods her hair color was unnatural and she remained unliked.
There's a thud behind her, and Aurora looks over her shoulder to see the two in a pile of ice. Within a millisecond one of the boys was fighting Kai. A well landed blow hits him in the face. Black blood spurts from his nose. The other boy makes his way over, but Aurora sends him flying with a burst of her magic.
Aurora looks over at Kai. He was unconscious, but his opponent's arm looked broken and a few fingers looked frostbitten. The boy crumbles from an unseen force.
There's the sound of footsteps. She glances over to see him walking down the hall.
"Holy fuck," he mutters, taking in the sight. He crouches down next to Kai, taking stock of his injuries. Azrael Thanatos runs his fingers over Kai's nose and the break heals over perfectly. Healing was one of his gifts- all Demigods had at least one- his other one was inflicting pain.
"I'll bring him back to our dorm. You take the other two to the infirmary," Thanatos says.
Aurora begrudgingly does as he says, even though she would rather just leave them there.
After floating them to the infirmary and heading back to her dorm, she plops down on her bed.
"That took a while," Tammy says slyly.
Aurora sighs, "got into a fight with a pair of assholes." She pulls the blanket over her head.

Aurora wakes up to a scream. Reflex has her reaching for her knife. She tucks into her sheath. She grabs her sword before heading out. Other Demigods were peeking their heads out of their dorms. The scream is replaced by loud sobbing, so Auri follows the noise. She sees a crying Daisy being comforted by one of the Professors. She turns the corner of the hall.
The first thing she sees is the blood. It was everywhere. It dripped from the walls and in a large puddle around the body. Her attention focuses on the body surrounded by Professors.
"Such a terrible thing," Professor Marilee whispers.
The body at their feet was almost unrecognizable. Almost. But after a few seconds, it was painfully clear that it was Kai's twin sister Mira.