Dragon Knight (The Collegium Book 3) by Jenny Schwartz

built up and around. Built into a spiral that—
    “Sorry. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I stayed up late and the portal’s alarm had a hell of a time getting through to me.” A tall, lanky black man charged down the stairs, taking them three at a time. “Hope you weren’t waiting long. It would be just like Aunt Emmaline to make you suffer to punish me. That stone floor is cold.”
    He paused for a breath, stuck out his hand. “I’m Riaz.”
    Lewis shook hands. “Lewis Bennett.”
    “President of the Collegium, which is cool.” Riaz grinned. “So you need to get back to New York?”
    “Yes.”
    “Will Paul what’s-his-name, O’Halloran? Will he be expecting you?”
    “He’ll wake up.” The Collegium paid him enough. Porters tended to set up alarms that alerted them to incoming travelers, but there was no necessity for them to do so. They didn’t have to allow anyone through their portal.
    “Yeah, but you’ve got the right to use his portal?” Riaz pushed.
    “Yes.”
    A beaming smile, interrupted by a yawn, answered him. Riaz flapped a hand in apology. “Why wake him up? I’ll walk the in-between with you. I need the practice.”
    “You don’t need to hand me off, porter to porter?”
    “Not if you have Paul’s permission to use his portal, and as the Collegium president, I bet your name’s on his register. I’ll make sure you don’t get lost on the way, and you just step out.”
    No other porter had ever offered Lewis that way of travelling the in-between. But the kid was a trainee. Enthusiastic.
    “Thanks.”
    Riaz held out his hand.
    Lewis took it.
    Physical contact was the only way for non-porters to safely traverse the in-between. Usually that meant being handed from one porter to the next. So, Lewis had expected to grip Riaz’s hand while stepping through the portal, only to grasp Paul’s hand and be hauled out. Space behaved oddly in the in-between. It seemed to collapse.
    Without Paul to haul them out, Lewis counted seventy one heartbeats before Riaz pushed him through the New York portal.
    He emerged into the empty basement and swiftly took the stairs up and out, glad to avoid Paul.
    New York had its own beauty at this early hour. The streets had traffic. Cabs, trucks and cars cruised them, getting ready for the day, but the sidewalks were clear of all but a few people intent on exercising. Walking to his apartment in the quiet, he called up the silver light and saw it as a spider web spinning through skyscrapers and swirling into pools. He’d have to ask Morag to interpret what he saw.
    He’d be taking lessons from a dragon.
    The thought brought a small smile as he swiped his security card to enter his apartment building.
    “You’re looking happy.”
    Lewis turned as a man stepped out of the shadows.
    Shawn Johnson, one of the guardian babysitters that Kora, commander of the guardians, insisted Lewis needed.
    “Waiting for me?” Lewis gestured for Shawn to enter with him.
    “Kora was…perturbed.”
    Kora didn’t get to run Lewis’s personal life, not even his fake one. However, that was a discussion to have with her, not Shawn. It brought back the information that Morag had given him, that he’d been three times bespelled. And that brought back his rage. He didn’t let it show as he hit the elevator’s call button. “I’ll be at the office in forty minutes. The board meeting is at eleven. I want an additional option added to the restructure recommendation report.”
    Shawn was a highly trained guardian. He didn’t roll his eyes. But it was close. Of the three guardians protecting Lewis, he most resented the office work involved in the role.
    But a moment later, he forgot his frustration in shock.
    “Add in the option to disband the Collegium,” Lewis said.
    “Pardon?”
    Lewis stepped into the elevator. He mightn’t have magic, but he knew the timing of the elevators in his building, and how to play an audience. The elevator doors closed without him saying anything