Chapter 5
Breaths heaving, I tipped forward as the sound of wingbeats faded, my heart aching like a fish hook had just been ripped out of it. Bennett rushed forward, another man hurrying up the trail behind him.
“Are you all right?” He squatted beside me, placing a hand on my back. The echoes of the gunshots rang in my ears. “When I saw the dragon reaching for you, I thought you were…” He wiped his face with the back of his hand.
I lifted my head, staring up at the morning sky streaked with factory smoke. “He wasn’t…” I couldn’t draw a deep enough breath.
“It’s all right. You’re safe now.” To the other man, Bennett shouted, “Report it to the Hunt. Go.”
“Wait!” I shouted, reaching for the man who darted back down the trail. But he didn’t listen to me. His quick steps took him out of earshot before I could fill my lungs properly again. The pain in my chest was so severe I rubbed my hand over my heart.
Bennett helped me stand. “Let’s get you out of here.”
My dry throat stuck together as I tried to swallow. I moved with my brother as he led me down the path, my eyes raking over the claw marks in the forest floor. As we walked, my head swiveled around, scanning the sky for the dragon.
“You could have been killed,” Bennett said, holding me upright.
“But I wasn’t.” The dragon hadn’t wanted to hurt me. He had wanted to play music for me. The way I had for him.
When we were safely under a stone bridge, Bennett slowed and placed his hands on his knees.
On the bricks, a symbol had been etched with a blade that looked like half an arrow.
The gangs were always marking up our streets with their symbols and their code words.
After a moment, my brother stashed his pistol in a leather holster hidden beneath his jacket.
With his neck turned, I had a better view of his tattoo.
It wasn’t a dragon’s tail. It was a snake.
He caught me staring at it, and his expression hardened. All I could think about was the little boy who’d shouted profanities the morning we were woken by the constable for sleeping on the street. He’d always tried to protect us with bravado. Little good it had done then, and now.
“What?” he snapped.
My eyes flitted away. “I don’t need you to follow me.”
He scoffed. “You almost died. Besides, it’s Treston. The streets down here aren’t safe.”
“No, I didn’t! That dragon…” Was friendly. The words sounded wrong in my own head, against everything I’d been taught about wild dragons.
Bennett grasped my arm. “Wild dragons kill.”
Using both hands, I pushed my hair from my face, shrugging off my brother’s hand. “I am on my way to speak with Lord Fairfax.”
A laugh spilled from his lips. “What? That crazy loon?”
“That rich crazy loon has a job for me.” I lifted my chin. Job was the only word I could think of for it, though I hadn’t actually thought about how my family would eat if I went away to school. I couldn’t let them rely on Bennett. Not when he could lose every carand of his money in a single night.
When he realized I was serious, Bennett’s jaw twitched. “What happened to your prestigious job shoveling—”
“I was offered a place at Cardan Lott,” I cut him off.
His brows pinched. “That school for godspawn?” he spat.
Already walking away, I nodded.
Bennett jogged to catch up. “Whoa, whoa. Ar, you dream big, but Fairfax, Cardan Lott, dragon training? Did someone slip you something yesterday after the race? You’re talking nonsense.”
I stopped, fists forming at my sides, and steadied my breathing.
“Yes, I’m delusional. I know. But you are too.
You think those stupid cards you play every night will change your future.
You’re no better than Bev and her fortune-telling.
” I held up a hand to stop his rebuttal.
“And don’t talk to me about how it’s just math and how you’re going to beat the whole system and somehow come out of that gang unscathed and rich. If that’s true, then let me be.”
Bennett offered a curt nod and stepped back. “Fine. Run to the godspawn. See if they save you.”
I returned his nod and walked away, whispering to myself, “Don’t die, Ben.”
Fairfax had left me an address and a deadline. I was to give him an answer by nine a.m. sharp, and it took me the better part of an hour to walk across the city from my neighborhood to the high-rent district, where his hotel was located.
The man behind the tall, polished mahogany counter in the marble and velvet lobby bowed to me. “Of course. Right this way. He’s expecting you.”
I followed the man down a windowed hall topped with wide chandeliers that spilled their golden light into the hall even in the middle of the day. The plush carpet beneath my feet swallowed all sounds as we approached a patio full of iron furniture and sprawling green ferns.
The hotel man held open a tall glass door for me and pointed at the only occupied table in the small courtyard, where Lord Fairfax sat sipping a cup of tea.
I thanked the man and stepped into the hazy sunshine. Summer was ending and fall was around the corner, but this year, summer was not leaving politely, clinging to its reign a little longer. Sweat dampened my hairline and my undergarments.
Fairfax turned in his chair, then, spotting me, got awkwardly to his feet, bumping the table and spilling a little tea. “Good morning, Miss Mireaux.” He bowed to me.
I bobbed a wobbly curtsy. “Hello.”
He smiled at me and gestured to the table. The air was so steamy I dreaded sitting in that iron seat in the direct sunlight, but I nodded and moved toward the chair, heart racing.
Every movement felt significant as I lowered myself into the chair, fingers brushing the hot metal, eyes finally meeting the nobleman’s.
For a moment, he did not ask me any questions, did not fill the silence with small talk. He waited silently, brutally, for my answer.
“I…” My words halted and I swallowed. Then, before I could lose the courage, I said, “My sister. She’s too young to work, and my mother…
I’m the sole provider for them.” The money Mama made from her scarves wouldn’t come in until a few months from now, when the weather turned cool and people again reached for things to keep them warm.
And Bennett’s money was poison. It might fall out from under them one night, like a paper bridge.
Fairfax leaned forward, bushy brows moving like lively caterpillars on his face. “I will ensure they are provided for. Whatever your wages, I will double them. I want you to want to do this, or I want you to leave now.”
I bit my lips to keep from gaping. “My mother could use a job,” I said, pushing my luck. “Even with extra money, she will need something to do or she will…” Turn to shadow. “Get restless. Something respectable. A woman’s job.”
“Consider it done.”
Sweat trickled down the back of my neck. It was too good, almost like he was showering me with gifts before sending me to the slaughter. There had to be a catch I was missing.
He leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs. “What are you wanting to ask me, Miss Mireaux?”
I looked away, embarrassed. “It sounds like everything I’ve ever wanted, and that scares me.”
His long silence only made my heart beat faster.
Then, finally, he said, “Dreams do not come without sacrifice. I do not pretend to offer you the world on a platter. What I am offering you is the chance to change the world. To topple it from the platter where it rests, out of reach for people like you.” His smile faded.
“But the risk is that it will crush us both as it comes tumbling down.”
I nodded, unsure what to make of that. As I looked everywhere but at his face, every green leaf in the courtyard reminded me of the dragon I’d met in the forest. Of the elation I’d felt standing before him.
If it would help Evie, if it would help Mama and Bennett and every other bottomsider who ever dreamed of one day crossing the skies on dragonback, then it was worth it.
“I’ll do it,” I said, meeting his gaze.
His smile did not return like I’d thought it would. Instead, his chin sank almost to his chest and his posture slackened. “Ah,” he breathed, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. Then, his gaze rising, he added, “It is time to find you a dragon.”
My heart jumped inside me. “I…think I might already have.”