Chapter 17 #2
Vanya was hurling clothes into a pile when I walked in.
“I can’t believe him,” she said, not glancing up at me.
Her extra wool blanket was tossed on the edge of her bed.
I noticed a fur stole and a full-length fur coat piled on the bed.
She wouldn’t be cold tonight. I gathered up the wool blanket on my bed and the spare from the armoire, my pillow, and my warmest jacket, fighting the bleak memories that knocked in my mind of the only other time I’d had to sleep outside on a cold night.
“Is that all you’re taking?” Vanya asked. At my look of surprise, she picked out one of her fur stoles and draped it over the blanket in my arms. “At least take this.”
Finally, we were all convened in the hall, our pillows and blankets in our arms, our warmest clothes wrapped around our bodies. Vanya looked comical with her floor-length fur coat and fur stole wrapped around her neck. She scowled as Luther eyed her up and down.
We followed Luther through the halls, up several flights of stairs, to a place in the school I had not yet visited.
We reached a narrow staircase where we had to walk single file up, up, up.
We reached a little door and then marched out into the cold, bitter wind that whipped across the roof of the school.
There was only one space wide enough for us all to lie down, and as the boys spread out their blankets on the stones, several of the girls froze in horror as they realized how close we would all be.
Scarlett scoffed and turned back to confront Luther, but he was already walking away, chuckling as he went.
“See you in the morning, hatchlings.”
“This is preposterous!” Scarlett shouted, even as she dropped her blanket on the stones.
The boys whistled and laughed as the girls spread their blankets on the stones and sat on them.
“I hate Luther,” Vanya muttered.
“I needed to work on my paper tonight,” I said as a shiver coursed down my shoulders.
“You’ll have time; it was only assigned today,” she said as she tucked her fur coat around her neck. It wasn’t below freezing, but I knew from experience that even a night well above freezing could send cold deep into your bones.
Vanya’s warm fur around my neck helped more than I’d thought it would, and my muscles relaxed. She scooted next to me, and we pressed our shoulders together, huddled against the wind. It was going to be a long night.
My eyes found Covington only a few steps away.
His back was to us as he sat on his blanket, and I found it curious that he was the only one not catcalling or making eyes at the girls.
Then he lay down, lacing his fingers behind his head to stare up at the sky.
I followed his gaze and looked up. Though it had been an overcast day, it was now crystal clear, and the stars shone brightly.
Conversations died out after an hour or so, and we all settled down for a miserable night.
I felt like I’d only just fallen asleep when something jostled my shoulder.
Fear coursed through my body, jolting me awake. Suddenly, I was a little girl once more, being kicked awake by a grumpy constable.
In a heartbeat, I sat up, eyes pinned on Covington’s mouth as he held a finger over his lips. He was perched on his toes, squatting beside my pillow.
My face contorted in several confused expressions as I blinked away my exhaustion.
He mouthed, “Come on,” and waved me up from my shivering repose. Gray tones of night painted everything in shadow.
“You can’t be serious,” I mouthed, already scooting back down into my blankets.
But his gestures became more aggravated, and his eyes, which were as good as weapons, drilled fear into me.
I climbed out of my blanket, wrapped my arms around my body, and followed him to where the flat part of the rooftop met the milky, translucent glass ceiling of the indoor solarium, a greenhouse filled with trails and benches for our use in the coldest months of the year, and also where we’d learn to grow some of the most essential herbs in dragonkeeping during our second year as students.
Covington stepped out onto the small walkway beside the gutter. My heart jumped into my throat.
“What are you doing?” I hissed, keeping my voice barely audible. Was he going to push me off?
He waved me forward, but I shook my head violently.
The wind pushed his hair into his face as it whipped up the sides of Cardan Lott. “I need you to see this.”
“Not murder, then?” I stepped forward, wheezing a little at the long distance to the ground only a faulty step away. To my surprise, Covington held out his arm, as if to steady me should I lose my balance.
A few steps. I’d rather be strapped to a dragon saddle and hanging upside down than this.
Covington turned, unfazed by the ledge, the sheer drop, and the whipping wind, and pointed at the forest. “Look.”
“At what?” I squinted into the night, at the dark shape dipping low over the trees. A flip of curiosity and the familiar feeling of soaring delight filled my chest. It was Myth, out hunting.
Then a faint orange glow illuminated the night around Myth.
I clapped a hand over my mouth to cover my gasp.
Covington nodded, a condemning gesture.
“What if someone saw him!” I nearly lost my balance and gripped Covington’s arm to keep from falling to my death.
“You have to make him stop,” Covington said, voice low and gruff.
“From here?” I hissed, releasing his arm like it was a poisonous snake.
“In the morning, I bet the headmaster will announce another hunt for a wild dragon, spotted on the grounds at night.” His words stung like slaps. “They won’t suspect it’s one of their very own dragons.”
“And you won’t tell them?” I asked, dumbfounded.
He shook his head. “No, I won’t. I haven’t done what I wanted yet.” He ushered me back toward the roof where our classmates slept. From behind me, he said, “I want to try something different.”
Too unsteady to turn around as we edged along the roofline, I hissed over my shoulder, “Try what?”
“I don’t have to answer your questions.”
I stepped back onto the flat part of the roof where our classmates slept and spun to face him, jabbing my finger at him. “You can’t keep pretending like whatever you’re doing with my dragon is none of my business. If you don’t tell me what you’re up to, I’ll tell Myth to never flame for you again.”
He coughed a little and glanced down, amused, at my finger, as if daring me to be bold enough to actually touch him. “Fine. But if you were smart, you’d trust me when I say getting involved in this is not wise.”
I jammed my finger against him. “I don’t trust you. Not one bit. And you decided I was getting involved the moment you decided to pester my dragon.”
To my surprise, he pressed his eyes shut. “You’re getting too loud, Arivelle.”
I’d never heard him use my first name. It rattled me. My hand fell to my side. In a furious whisper, I said, “Is this better?”
He opened his eyes again. “I have an idea of how to better test Myth’s flame. But we can’t do it here.”
“Oh, really? Where exactly can we go to get my dragon to flame without getting caught?”
“My family’s townhouse.”
“Excellent idea. Let’s take him to the man who’s been hunting him for months.”
Covington sighed. “The townhouse is empty this time of year. No one will see us.”
“Oh.” I shivered in the cold breeze.
“The next night race is in a month. We can go then.”
I nodded, ready to be back under my blanket. “So, you mean you won’t force me to stay awake for a whole month? How generous.”
He cocked a sly grin at me. “Don’t get too excited, Miro. I still want to practice getting him to flame.”
“You will not wake me up again. For at least a week.”
Covington’s brows rose. “Is that so?”
I crossed my arms. Another shiver rattled my bones.
“Fine. We’ll take a break. I need to do some more research anyway. But in a month, we’ll need to know he can do it when we ask him to.”
“We? I’m not your partner here.”
He leaned forward, the wind dusting his hair across his forehead. “You were the one just begging for answers. Seems like maybe you need to figure out what you want.”
My scoff was lost on the breeze as Covington moved me aside with both hands and marched back to his pallet on the roof.
Falling asleep again took entirely too long as I lay awake screaming in my head for Myth to stop using his flame, certain he couldn’t hear me and afraid someone besides Covington had seen him. I might have made a terrible mistake bringing Myth here.