Chapter 6
Fairfax choked on his tea. “I beg your pardon?” he sputtered, setting his cup down, but not before I noticed how badly it was shaking.
My pulse quickened, and a fresh wave of sweat bloomed on my skin.
Staring at his teacup, I recalled the sensations I’d felt in the woods with that dragon.
Choosing my words carefully, I said slowly, “In one of the books I took from the Belleville library, it talked about the nature of bonding, and how it’s…
this connection that doesn’t really make sense until you feel it.
Today, when I was on my way here, I saw the same dragon from the Covingtons’ lair yesterday. He…I think he might have—”
“That wild dragon?” he interjected, brows rising toward his hairline.
I bit my lips and nodded.
Fairfax rested his chin in his hand and said nothing for several minutes. “Where did you see him?” His eyes were fierce, far from his easygoing manner he’d displayed since I’d met him. A flicker of fear coursed down my spine.
“He found me in the forest.”
“When?”
“This morning.”
Fairfax’s knuckles had gone white as he gripped a handle of his chair. “What happened?”
I described the way the dragon had mimicked the beat I’d played at the Covingtons’ lair. Fairfax listened with wide eyes.
“And then, I felt…” I wrung my hands in my lap, unsure how to word it. It sounded foolish in my head.
“Happy?” he supplied.
“Yes,” I breathed, a smile playing at my lips.
Fairfax slapped his knee. “You bonded to that wild dragon, Miss Mireaux.”
“I…I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“It’s not supposed to be.” He shook his head.
“But, then again, neither is the ability for a bottomsider to bond.” A smile cracked across his weathered face.
He was an odd man, but his smile was contagious.
“I knew you could. As soon as I laid eyes on you, tapping that spear into the stone, I knew you were meant to ride.”
Blinking rapidly, I stared up at the bright sky, as if I might see the dragon coursing by overhead. “What happens now?”
“Now,” he said, “the real trouble begins.” He rubbed a hand over his mouth. “I had hoped to send you to that school with a pedigreed dragon, one they couldn’t deny was born to win. Now…we’ll have to make other arrangements.”
I stiffened. “I won’t be attending Cardan Lott?”
“Oh, you will. But as soon as those people catch a whiff of the truth, that your dragon is wild and not born from one of their breeding programs, that’ll be it.
They’ll expel you, and they’ll kill the dragon, and our hopes of creating change will be over.
They’ll likely strip me of my title and lands, as well, just for fun.
” He shrugged. “I’d get out of it easier than you, my dear.
Once you bind, you can never bind again. ”
“Are you bonded, sir?” I blurted.
“Ah,” he said, dropping his chin. “I was not able.” A quick shrug.
“Such is the case for many of us. Dragons choose whom they will.” He offered me a small, forced smile.
“Which is one reason I knew bonding couldn’t be limited to the godborn.
It never made sense to me, how dragons were supposed to be able to sense the vestiges of power in our veins. ”
Merlon Fairfax was starting to make more sense to me now. A noble who was never chosen by a dragon was an outcast among his peers and yet still above the station of people like me.
“But you rehabilitate dragons, don’t you? I’ve read about you in the paper.” I omitted the fact that most of what the papers had to say was unfavorable.
He chuckled softly. “I buy the dragons who do not bond. After two attempts, you know, the dragons are deemed useless and many of them are executed, unless someone comes along and buys them.”
“Like you.” My heart swelled at the thought of saving all the dragons doomed to die simply because they never chose a rider. He remained silent a long moment, the still air in the courtyard starting to feel more like a furnace as the morning sunlight ricocheted off the hotel walls.
Breaking the silence, I said, “So, what am I supposed to do?”
His gaze seemed to snap from a faraway place back to our little table in the sun. “Fly anyway. Train anyway. We’ll forge the papers for your dragon and pretend like it was bred in a program in the south. Avencia, maybe.”
“But the dragon doesn’t look pure Cevnal. I think he’s part Rivic.”
“No one will question it if he comes with papers. Avencians race Torrels, a breed similar to Rivics, so it’ll all line up. It’s not that part I’m worried about.”
Visions of sparks flying from the dragon’s mouth filled my mind. “His flame,” I whispered.
Fairfax nodded. “Indeed. If we take an adolescent dragon of questionable heritage to a draconarian, they’ll know he’s wild.
If we tell him he’s bonded to you, they’ll cut his throat instead of his flame duct, and you’ll never be able to bond with another dragon.
I might be able to find another bottomsider capable of and willing to bond with a dragon, but it’s taken me nearly ten years to find you.
I’m old already, and I don’t like that option. ”
Shaking my head, I said, “If this dragon bonded with me, how can everyone still believe wild dragons are incapable of bonding?”
A beat passed. A fly buzzed by.
Fairfax inhaled sharply. “We have been told that a dragon’s flame is what prevents it from bonding to a human, that only when the flame nerve is gone can a dragon truly feel a human’s heart and choose to bond.
But we have also been taught that dragons only choose those of noble blood, and yet, here we are.
” He lifted his hand toward me. “If you want to ride, Miss Mireaux, you will simply have to do it on a dragon who still has his flame. I realize that is putting you at great risk, even greater risk than I’d originally planned.
If you want to change your mind about this whole endeavor, I understand. ”
“No.” The word shot from my lips, quiet and sure, like a bird launching from a perch.
“Very well,” Fairfax said with a nod. “I figured you’d say that,” he added with a small smile. “Bonding is not something to be tossed aside. We can figure this out.” He finished his tea. “Will you let the flames stand in your way?”
I shook my head.
“That’s the spirit. That dragon looked young. I doubt his flame will be fully developed for at least another few months, a year at best. You have ample time to solidify your bond and teach him not to use it.”
For a moment, I closed my eyes and pictured my dragon. The word my sounded strange even to me when thinking of the dragon. It felt wrong. Impossible.
“I have a dragon,” I whispered, overcome with the reality of it.
I, of all people, the dreamer, the Bottomsider, the girl who loved dragons enough to shovel their refuse just to be near them. I had a dragon.
A dragon had picked me.
And he was as much an outcast as I was.
Then I cringed, struck by a thought like a blow to my temple.
“Covington’s son knows,” I blurted. Thanks to the papers, the entire country knew that the younger Covington boy was entering Cardan Lott this year, finally choosing racing as his future career, much to his father’s delight.
He’d failed out of his first year at university, and this was the best way to save face for the duke’s family.
He’d bonded to Azeron at nineteen—I remembered the reports of the party his family had thrown him earlier this year—and most people believed he’d go on to greatness in the arena.
Fairfax tilted his head. “Perhaps. He sees many dragons come and go from his lair as his father buys and sells them. He might not remember.”
I pressed my hands to my face, trying to force away the images of Rushland Covington’s blood-soaked shirt. I doubt he could forget that morning any easier than I could.
“We’ll just have to come up with a way to keep him silent if he does,” Fairfax added.
Slowly, my hands fell away from my face.
Don’t speak of this to anyone, Covington had told me.
He didn’t want people to know he’d been at his family’s lair.
His dragon would heal fast enough that no one might notice, and his wound was in a place he could conceal.
“Does Covington’s son know you saw us with the dragons? ” I asked, mind spinning.
“I don’t believe he does.”
“Then I think I can keep him quiet,” I said. “But how do we find the wild dragon now? He was injured.”
“Now that is the fun part.” Fairfax laced his fingers together and grinned. “If he chose you, my dear, you’d better believe he will not rest until he finds you again.”
The memory of the gunshots made me flinch. “He’s not safe in the city.”
Fairfax shook his head. “We will have to lure him out of the city.”
Ten minutes later, we had a plan to find my dragon and board him in a lair outside of Treston until the start of term in a little over a week.
It all felt rather like a dream, but I was too sweaty to be dreaming.
After Fairfax dismissed me from the courtyard, the hotelier hurried through the doors to speak with the nobleman.
I watched the exchange through the tall windows.
Fairfax’s expression flickered between concern and reassurance as they spoke.
Then Fairfax was standing, following the hotelier back inside.
A member of the waitstaff collected his teacup and darted indoors.
Huffing faintly, Fairfax caught up to me. “It seems, Miss Mireaux, that Duke Covington has issued a search for your black dragon.” His tone was flat, less melodic than before.
“Ash,” I breathed.
He eyed me sideways. “Yes. Well, the fact remains that your dragon is now being tracked by the Hunt, and their reputation is decidedly one of success. If the Hunt gets to him first, your dragon will die.”
“What do I need to do?”
“I’m afraid there’s no time to waste. We must draw your dragon out of Treston as fast as possible.”