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Growing up, Riddle was taught to keep his mouth shut.
Chirping, speaking, squawking, shouting, all of it was the same if he wasn’t being addressed first. Only speak when spoken to, his mother would repeat. Silence your beak, she would shout. For a few years, Riddle kept his mouth sealed in fear of punishment. She clipped his wings for flying, what would she do for speaking?
Riddle carried this habit of silence when he entered Night Raven College. He spoke, barked, and bellowed about the things that mattered; Rules, grades, manners, he was taught these were always to be his main priority and thus he was allowed to speak on them.
But when he heard the murmurs of tyrant and beast that students would hiss under their breath, Riddle’s jaws were molded shut. When his chest felt clogged and murky with blot, Riddle didn’t utter a word. When his freshman’s fist came flying at his face, Riddle let it happen despite naturally having enough speed to outmaneuver a simple punch from a human.
Maybe some part of him thought he deserved it. Maybe some part of him internally echoed the lessons his mother drilled into him because it wanted him dead the same way she did.
And then Malleus.
When Riddle was too afraid to open his mouth, Malleus wasn’t afraid to roar his words for him. He took the words that were caught in Riddle’s throat and voiced them for him, without a single complaint and only with a tender love and embrace that made Riddle feel heard in ways he never had before. Even when Riddle had no words that needed to be said, Malleus understood him in ways no one else did.
Malleus gave Riddle the courage to finally say the millions of things he wanted to say. He gave him the courage to admit his days were bad, to sneer at the students that would murmur insults when he passed by.
It’s because of Malleus that Riddle can freely sing once again.
But, oh, what a double edged sword it can be.
“You want to do what. ”
Because for every word that Riddle can speak to ease his own burdens, there are millions more that he could use to add to another’s.
How ironic that it’s only now, when Malleus isn’t here to comfort him and support his voice, that it comes out the most vengeful and acidic.
Silver and Sebek have gone still, their bodies frozen to stone by the sudden chill that washes over them. Idia looks startled, but hasn’t picked up on what made the retainers halt so suddenly as he turns to face Riddle.
Normally, Riddle’s anger feels hot, like a raging inferno hellbent on destroying all in its path. It started in his chest and clawed its way out through every crevice of his body, lighting up his nerves with molten rage. It was physically painful some days. The way it struck his feathers and made them stand on end, brought feral snarls and hisses from his mouth. Riddle felt more animal than fae when anger had its hold on him.
This is not the same.
A sense of clarity empties his mind of all distractions. He can only focus on Idia’s foolishly unassuming face. It starts at the tips of his fingers. Crystals of ice slowly crawl up his arms, infecting his veins and filling his blood with a venomous frostbite.
“Eh?” Idia intones, blue lips curling up into a smirk that’s much too playful for the situation at hand, “Sorry, did you want to do it instead, Riddle-shi? I don’t blame you. You really rolled horrible stats in that dream, I can’t imagine you’re very happy with Malleus-shi.”
The words are followed by a giggle and the frostbite injects itself into his teeth.
That god forsaken dream. Riddle had felt betrayed when he woke up. Not because the dream hurt.
But because he couldn’t handle that it wasn’t reality.
A life where he didn’t have to suffer in his mother’s cage. A life where he was free to fly as he wished, where Malleus didn’t have to help him relearn his song and flight. A life where they could have had anything they wanted, but needed for nothing else with one another.
A life where everything was perfect.
For a few, measly, pathetic moments, Riddle found himself wishing that it was real.
He found himself regretting waking up and not returning to the safety of a world where his pain didn’t exist.
But those moments ended when Riddle remembered.
“Is this a joke to you?”
Idia pauses as Riddle steps forward, claws clacking against the floor. Sebek and Silver give him a wide berth, unwilling to get between Idia and the wicked points currently scraping marks into the hard floor with each step.
“Huh?”
Riddle’s dream was perfect.
Too perfect.
By wishing for it to be reality, Riddle would be abandoning everything Malleus had done for him. All his attention, his feeding, his preening, his love , would be meaningless.
Malleus did everything for Riddle. If it helped him, pleased him , Malleus would gift the world on a silver platter unto Riddle.
Because Malleus cared. He cared in ways Riddle could not fathom.
Maybe Riddle is starting to understand.
Because even now, with the looming threat of his dearest’s overblot hanging above them like a guillotine blade ready to slice through flesh, Riddle would not choose to go back.
He will not abandon Malleus like this.
The sound of tearing fabric echoes in the chamber like a cry. Feathers are sent flying with a gust of wind as Riddle suddenly finds himself crouched on the table in front of Idia. The Ignihyde’s student’s eyes bulge as a hand with sturdy, deadly claws grasps him by the chin, sharp points digging into his cheeks.
Protect, protect, something in the back of his head repeats in a mantra. One of Mine in danger, it hisses in a furious, protective rage.
There’s a threat.
Riddle gets a full view of the terror in Idia’s eyes as he’s faced with a predator ready to fight for what’s theirs.
The chilling, biting cold claws its way up Riddle’s throat.
“Destroy his horns, you say,” He begins, voice deceptively calm. Sweat beads up on Idia’s brow. “Is this all a game to you, Shroud? ”
“Of course it’s not- Hurk-!” Riddle jerks the third year back against the chair he sits in, a strength Idia could only ever dream of defying presenting itself as he holds him down.
“Then, tell me,” Riddle spits shards of ice, “ What about the idea of destroying my beloved’s crown makes you smile in such a manner? ”
Idia wisely keeps his mouth shut. Riddle’s grip flexes as he sees his own pupils expand in the reflection of bright, vivid eyes.
“Riddle, wait-”
“Stand back ,” Riddle snaps, twisting his head to stare in Silver’s direction. He sees the trepidation in his and Sebek’s eyes. They don’t like the idea either, they want to oppose it.
They were too slow.
“Fae are often warned of the cunningness and brutality of humans,” Riddle goes on, turning his head back in Idia’s direction. If his skin weren’t already sheet white, he’s certain it would be now. “Are you truly such a cruel beast that you find destroying the one thing most important to a dragon fae funny? ”
Idia blubbers a denial, panic crawling into his gaze as he tries to deny the words Riddle had heard only moments before. A misunderstanding, he says, it’s just an option.
Riddle can hardly hear the words spoken.
He can only focus on the way Idia’s throat bobs as he swallows nervously. The human’s pulse drums under his fingers, flesh soft and stretchy against his claws.
His gums ache, bitter cold seeping into the pointed canines that expose themselves as his lip curls.
“R-Riddle-shi, wait-!”
Idia shrieks as Riddle all but tosses him off the chair, leaping after him and landing in a prowl. His wings spread out behind his back as Idia scrambles to right himself.
“Riddle!” “Riddle-senpai!”
The twin calls are so far away as Riddle stalks closer to the threat.
Despite the alarm in their voices, neither Sebek nor Silver are willing to interfere.
Not when Riddle’s eyes are blown wide, his feathers puffed in a clear attempt to make himself look bigger. Not when his teeth clack and a growl reverberates from his lips, when his claws tear against the floor.
Idia swallows as Riddle’s wings loom over him, the feathers over Riddle’s face almost seeming to multiply and expand. The skin of his face wrinkling as he snarls.
“Shit-” Idia gasps, looking ready to bolt.
Malleus has always been prideful of his dragon roots. It’d been one of the many, many things Riddle adored about his beloved. He hoped he could feel that way about his own heritage and blood the way Malleus did.
Riddle was proud of Malleus’s blood because Malleus was. His scales were beautiful, his claws marvelous. His fangs and flames were to be treasured and admired.
And his horns…
Malleus’s crown.
The one thing that connects Malleus to the things he lost before he even hatched.
And this human wanted to destroy it.
Blood spills on the floor.
Riddle’s claws and teeth sink into soft, tender flesh. It’s rancid, it tastes like rotting meat. Tendons rip apart and bones snap between his jaws.
Protect, a vicious voice hisses. Eliminate threat before it reaches Mine.
Exterminate the human wanting to hurt Mine.
Riddle eats and eats and eats . He rips flesh and muscle, tears into intestines and mushy flesh. The burning scent of bile and stomach acids cloud his vision.
Consume the pest.
Riddle will protect His.
“ Riddle !”
Strong hands tug his wings and Riddle is knocked out of his own head as he’s forced back.
Idia lay petrified on the floor, nursing the long scratch that spans across the bridge of his nose to his chin. Crimson glides down the planes of his face in rivers. He tries to cover it, to stop the pleading, but head wounds never seem to stop.
Something hot and wet drips from Riddle’s finger.
Riddle twists his head back, meeting auroral eyes of purples and blues.
“That’s enough,” Silver affirms, expression hard.
Riddle considers jumping at him too.
“Let go of me,” He orders instead. Silver does so and Riddle shoves him back another step as he stands to his feet.
He spares one last glance to the pathetic heap on the floor, before turning and stalking out of the room.
He lifts his hand to inspect the scarlet color now staining his once pristine claws.
He cleans it with a long lick as he tucks his wings back against his sides and back, ignoring the shredded state of his shirt where he forced the limbs out.
They’ll find another way to save Malleus.