Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Briony
“Any luck?” I ask Fly and Clare when I find them leaving my old tower, Clare clasping a notebook and a pen in her hands.
“Not really,” she says. “A few vague feelings that maybe someone they once knew could have had powers.”
“But nothing concrete,” Fly finishes.
Disappointment cascades into my stomach and settles there heavily. “Maybe Professor Cornelius is wrong, then. Maybe Naomi was mistaken about Esme. Maybe there are no more lumomancers. Maybe I won’t be the spark that sees the light awaken in others. Maybe I am the only one of my kind.”
Clare isn’t buying that theory, though. She believes in libraries, professors, and finding all her answers in the pages of a book. She can’t possibly fathom that an expert like Professor Cornelius – despite his old age and that sometimes-straying-into-senility thing – could ever be wrong.
“You’re special, Briony,” she says. “That’s obvious, isn’t it?”
“It is?” I say, as Fly gives me one of his unimpressed stares.
“Of course you are,” he says. “You have four powerful fated mates who are crazy in love with you and willing to sacrifice their lives to protect you.” He ticks this off on a finger, then ticks the next one.
“You have a dragon.” He ticks another finger.
“You have light magic that hasn’t been seen for hundreds of years—”
“That’s what they tell us,” I interrupt. “Others may have had it, and others may have been killed.”
“And that brings me to my final point,” Fly says, ticking off his thumb. “You’re the only student that’s been targeted by the Empress and Bardin who’s actually escaped and is still walking around to tell the tale. That definitely makes you special.”
“Exactly,” Clare says, nodding and clearly happy that for once Fly is in agreement with her.
“Okay,” I say with a bit of a grin, “maybe I am special.”
“Which is why I think Professor Cornelius is right. You are the light wielder who will ignite magic in others. We’ve just got to find those others.”
“Which is obviously going to be harder than we imagined.” I sigh dramatically.
Clare tucks a loose piece of hair behind her ear and adjusts her glasses. “You didn’t seriously think this would be easy, did you, Briony?”
“No, I suppose not, but you can’t blame a girl for hoping.”
“Hope’s a dangerous thing,” Clare warns. “I prefer to stick to facts and reality.”
“How about visions of the future?” I ask her. Both my friends look at me. “Beaufort,” I explain. “He’s had one of his visions. And this time he saw firestones. Firestones in Slate Quarter.”
“You’re not thinking of going there, are you?” Clare asks.
“Well, yes.”
“But you’re safe here at the academy. It’ll protect you. We’ve made sure of that. If you step outside—”
“We’re not going to win this battle with just us, though, are we?” I say. “Me, the Princes, Fox, a handful of shadow weavers and another handful of teachers.”
“Plus one fierce dragon,” Fly points out.
“Exactly. If we had more dragons, we’d have more of a chance.”
“Even if you found the stones and hatched them, dragons that teeny won’t be any use to you for months and months. The battle would be fought and lost or won by then.”
“But we can’t afford to let those dragons fall into the Empress’s hands either, can we?” Fly says. “Didn’t she question you about the firestone you found? I bet she’s already out there searching for more.”
“I don’t like it,” Clare says.
“I think Fate wants us to. I think that’s why she sent Beaufort this vision.”
“I dunno,” Fly says, shrugging one shoulder. “But I wouldn’t mind a trip to Slate. I’d kind of like to see the place.”
“Really?” Clare says, astonished.
“I’ve seen the best of the realm. Now I want to see the shittiest.”
“And what will your boyfriend say?” I ask teasingly.
“What? Oh, you mean Jack?” He grins.
“Yeah, is he going to be happy with you flying off into danger? I mean, he seemed pretty relieved when you escaped death at the hands of Sterling.”
“You know,” Fly says, still grinning, “I think it helped. The idea of losing me and all that shit, made him realize just how much he likes me. So this trip to Slate Quarter might make him realize that he really, really, really likes me.”
“Isn’t that a little cruel?” Clare asks.
“Love is cruel,” Fly responds.
“If Fly’s going, then I’m coming too this time,” Clare declares.
“Really?” Fly says. “You didn’t want to come to Onyx to visit the palace, but you want to go to Slate.”
“Yes. It was horrible being left behind last time and worrying about all of you. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. Even the library didn’t cheer me up like it usually does. The only consolation was having Damien nearby.”
“And will Damien let you go?” I ask her.
“Briony Storm,” Clare says, “I’m an independent woman, and I do not need to ask my boyfriend for permission to go off on a life-threatening, probably actually quite suicidal, mission.”
“Just to clarify,” Fly says, “I don’t have to ask permission either.”
“Or me,” I say. They both look at me as if they don’t believe a word of that. “What? I actually get my own way most of the time.”
“Because they let you,” Fly says.
“I may be their thrall or their fated mate, or whatever you want to call it, but I’m also not their doll to control and order about. I have my own mind, you know that.”
“It’s just… they’re so…” Clare shudders. “Dominant.”
“Yeah,” Fly says, grinning even wider. “I think that’s what she likes.”
“Actually, she likes it both ways,” I say. “Sometimes it’s fun to be the dominant one.”
“Oh jeez. You’ve changed. Both of you have,” Fly says, spinning his gaze from me to Clare and back again.
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
“When I met you both, you were two such sweet, innocent little things, and now… well, you’re both corrupted, dirty little—”
“Don’t say it!” Clare warns.
“It’s down to my influence,” Fly says, puffing out his chest with obvious pride.
“I don’t think it is,” I tell him.
“It isn’t,” Clare agrees. “We always had it in us. We just needed to discover it.”
Fly laughs, and we continue on to the next tower in our round of interviews.
Despite talking to scores of other students, we don’t find anyone with even an ounce of hidden magical ability.
Not that they’re aware of, anyway. And I believe them.
I don’t think it’s a matter of being too scared to admit the truth.
I think any one of these kids would love to have magic. It’s just that none of them do.
When we return to the Princes’ Tower long after lunchtime, we find it’s a similar situation with everyone else. And I’m even more convinced that Slate Quarter is where we need to go.
I came from Slate Quarter. It’s where I found Blaze.
It’s where Beaufort suspects other firestones may be lurking.
If I really am the light that will ignite powers in others, then I think I have to go back to where I came from, because I think that’s where the light started, and that’s where I’ll be able to grow it.
The problem, as always, is how we travel out to Slate Quarter without being captured by the Empress and her elite guards.
We think we’re safe here at the academy. We think the castle is protecting us. Certainly no elite guards have arrived to arrest us, and there has been no attack on the academy. In fact, the response from Onyx Quarter has been rather eerily quiet – not a crow in the sky or a wandering visitor.
But it’s unimaginable to think that the Empress will simply let us take over the academy in this way. There will be an attack. There will be repercussions. And if we step out of the academy, I think both of those things become more likely.
“I think we’ll have to displace,” I tell the others. “It’s not like Blaze can carry all of us on his back anyway, and a dragon is pretty easy to spot in the skies, especially a big bright golden one.”
“It’s probably not sensible for all of us to go together,” Fox says. “But I also think splitting up would be a mistake.”
“It would be,” I say. “We’re stronger when we’re together. Our magic most certainly is. We saw that with the border. We saw it when we were fighting Sterling and his men. We’re weaker when we’re apart. So we stay together.”
“But there’s no need for your friends to come,” Fox says, scowling at Fly and Clare across the kitchen table.
“We’re coming,” Clare says, her voice trembling slightly. My friend is not used to breaking rules or standing up to authority. She still finds Fox terrifying.
“Briony—” Fox begins.
“They’re coming with us,” I tell him. “It’s their choice, and they want to come.”
Dray groans. “Hardly going to be inconspicuous, then, are we?”
“No, we’re not,” I say. “But I think things will be different for us in Slate. There’s no great love for the Empress or the shadow weavers or even the realm out in Slate. And if we tell them what’s really been happening, I think they’ll be on our side.”
“Really?” Dray says skeptically. “They treated you like shit out in Slate Quarter. You really think they’re going to treat you differently now?”
“Yes,” I say, with a little bitterness. “Because I have magic. A dragon. And all of you.”
I want to leave almost immediately, but it’s not as simple as that. We’re leaving all the students behind, and we have a responsibility to them now.
Fox has them gathering in the Great Hall.
He stands on the platform facing them, and it’s clear to me that this is the man who should have been running the academy all along rather than lingering unseen in the shadows.
He’s powerful, commanding, and confident, and that confidence spreads among the students as he speaks.
He tells them they’re safe here at the academy, that the castle will protect them. He selects some students to be in charge and he promises them we’ll all return.
They’re already beginning to organize themselves as we stroll out onto the field, bags on our backs, supplies packed, to find Blaze curled up in the last splash of evening sunshine.
I tie another magical leash around his neck and we all link hands again, Fly and Clare joining our circle this time.
And then we displace away from the field in the Firestone Academy and out to the far reaches of the realm – to the wild, sprawling forest that runs the length of Slate Quarter.