Chapter 24
Luther stood up from the couch, eyes on me, but I tried to ignore him, assuming he was simply in one of his moods.
Several of the other faces in our common room were puffy from lack of sleep.
Rush leaned against the sideboard in the common room, waiting for another pot of coffee to be brought in by the staff.
Dark circles hugged his eyes. We briefly made eye contact as I circled around the table piled high with pastries and fruits, toasted breads and jams.
He pushed forward, reaching for a plate just as I reached for the honey jar.
“Oh, sorry,” I said, drawing my hand back.
“Ladies first,” he said, shoving his hand in his pocket as he waited, the ghost of a smile on his lips.
I changed my mind and grabbed the jam instead, not able to bear his nearness.
My mind darted to the way his chest had felt pressed up against my back, his arms moving me to safety.
I cleared my throat, slapped some jam on my toast, and hurried toward the table where Vanya was already seated, sipping orange juice.
Luther walked into the dining area, stretching loudly.
“House Ruby,” he said, collecting everyone’s attention. “You have final exams today. Hatchlings, beat Sapphire. In something. Please.” A few chuckles sounded from the older students, but the first years all looked a bit shocked. “Or I’ll run you ragged all spring.”
He clapped Rush on the back as he passed. Then, to my surprise, offered me a quick nod.
Surely he was looking at Vanya instead. But then his fingers were pressing against our table, and he was leaning toward me.
“Yes?” I took a bite of toast, assuming he would leave me alone. But his stare only intensified. I glanced up at him, my mouth dusted with crumbs.
He poked his thumb at me and looked at Vanya. “I saw these two”—he pointed his thumb at Rush—“coming in near dawn this morning.”
Vanya sucked in a breath and dropped the croissant in her hands. It bounced off of her plate and rolled onto the table. Her eyes traveled to me and then to Rush.
I froze, as stiff as marble, my appetite suddenly gone. Luther bent his elbows, lowering his face closer to me. “That was not something I expected from you. But I guess you’ll do anything to climb the ladder.”
My jaw fell open at his words.
He stood up and turned back to Rush. “How was she?”
Rush’s eyes fled toward me, then back to Luther.
For the briefest moment, I saw my plans flashing before my eyes and drifting away like dandelion fluff in a gale.
Whatever Rush’s response, he held my future, my reputation, in his hands.
Shep, who had paused at the breakfast table, stared at me with wide, sad eyes and a slack mouth.
Rush coughed. “Her. No.” He said it with such easy disdain. An invisible knife carved through my stomach. “We got stranded together when the race broke up. She couldn’t afford the train ticket back.” He shrugged and took a bite of a muffin.
Every muscle in my body lit on fire, and I suddenly felt sick as my stomach turned flip after flip, my mind racing. He’d said the right thing, the nice thing, compared to what he could have said, but it still hurt. I was nothing to him. A poor girl with a dragon he needed.
He turned with his muffin in his hand and walked out of the common room.
Vanya stared at him until he was out of sight, then swiveled back around to face me. “What just happened?” she said, steepling her fingers and leaning over the table.
Luther tilted his head back and forth and shrugged. “Interesting.” He turned and loaded up his plate with enough bread to feed a small family, then went and slumped on the couch in the common room next to some of the other third years.
I slapped my head into my hands, elbows propped on the table.
“You spent a few hours with Rushland Covington? You have some explaining to do,” Vanya said.
But my attention wasn’t on Vanya. Over her shoulder, I watched as Shep stormed from the room, a weight sinking in my chest. Maybe Vanya was right about him, after all.
On the way to our history exam, I spotted Rush walking with Clarence and Prescott. I hurried my pace until I was only a few steps away.
I couldn’t call him Rush out loud, not after what Luther had accused us of—after what Rush had said about me. “Covington,” I barked, nearly ready to hit him if he tried to ignore me.
But he didn’t ignore me. He whirled around, a smile on his face that was too handsome for his own good, and stopped walking. “I found it. You left it on the train,” he said.
That stopped me in my tracks.
As I blinked in confusion, he added, “It’s in my room. I didn’t really want to bring a fur stole to class.”
Prescott knocked him with the back of his hand, and Clarence chuckled dutifully.
Vanya’s stole! I’d lost it after the race, and it hadn’t even crossed my mind until now. I’d forgotten I’d been wearing it. How had he remembered? How had he found it? I definitely hadn’t left it on the train.
Everything inside of me was fireworks and explosions as he stepped closer and said, “I’ll get it later.”
Prescott whistled as he walked away. Rush shot him a wide grin and followed him into the classroom, where Professor Enplencourt was clacking away with her chalk as she wrote on the board.
Inside were three piles of papers on the front desk.
On the board above each pile, she’d written three categories: less than satisfactory, satisfactory, and excellent.
My shoulders sagged. I didn’t want to know my score before taking our final exam.
I’d thought we’d get these essays after the break.
She’d never told us they would come back today.
Everyone could see everyone else’s papers as they flipped through for their own.
Enplencourt’s small green dragon, which she’d named Luck, cooed at her from his perch on her desk, which was quickly becoming too small for him. His tail now draped all the way to the floor.
Vanya rifled through the middle pile, snatching hers out and scanning it quickly. She sighed with relief and smiled at me. “Satisfactory, finally.” Then her smile drooped. “I didn’t see yours.”
Rush was flicking casually, arrogantly, through the small pile under the word “excellent.” I moved to the large pile at the other end of the table and held my breath as I thumbed through them.
“What?” I barked when I realized he was staring at me.
“Just wanted to see how long you’d take to notice.” He was holding out a paperclipped essay toward me.
My eyes dropped to the essay. My name was on the front.
“Oh.” I took the essay from him and stared down at it. Very well done was scrawled across the front.
As I took my seat beside Vanya, I glanced at Rush in the row behind us. He didn’t make eye contact, but the sides of his mouth twitched.
Vanya whirled around in her chair with a wide grin. “What did Enplencourt write on yours?” she asked Rush.
He hooked one arm over the back of his chair and didn’t prevent Vanya from grabbing his essay.
Vanya pointed at the front of his paper. “‘Well done, Mr. Covington.’” She clicked her tongue. “Tsk, tsk. Ari got ‘very well done.’ Looks like she’s going to give you a run for your money today, Rush.”
“I’ll take that bet,” he said.
Vanya waved away his words and turned back toward the front, but as she did so, I caught the faintest wink from Rush. Heat filled my veins, and as I bent over my final exam a few minutes later, I found I wasn’t tired anymore.
The idea of beating Rushland Covington had an altogether intoxicating effect.
When our physical training test was over, I tried not to hang like a mosquito behind Rush, but I wanted answers and I couldn’t wait much longer. Scarlett, who was clinging to him as usual, sent me a few scathing glares but otherwise left me alone.
Finally, he pried himself away from her and said he was going for a swim in the lake behind the school.
She complained that it was too cold. This was my chance.
Fuming, I paced in an empty classroom for a few minutes, then headed out a side door and slipped down the gravel path toward the small lake perfectly framing Gray Mountain in its dark waters.
My sweat from our training had started to dry, and I was barely fighting off the shivers when I made it to the lake. But one glance at Rush and I wasn’t cold anymore.
Ender, help. I spun halfway around, trying not to look at him as he finished a lap and turned around.
“Hey, it’s the gambler!”
Fists forming, I turned to him. He bobbed in the water, a glistening smile on his face. I crossed my arms and pointed at the dock.
He saluted me and swam toward the dock. I forced myself not to watch as he climbed out, but when I assumed he’d wrapped up in a towel, I whirled back around, only to be faced with a full view of his abs.
His laugh sent my blood from simmering to boiling. He rubbed his towel on his face and then, annoyingly, down his stomach.
I huffed and turned aside.
“Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“I hate you.”
“I’ll take that as a resounding yes. Tell me, prickly little cactus, why are you uncomfortable?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. I have a dragon who can torch your pretty face off any day I want him to.”
“But you do think I’m pretty?” He chuckled and tossed a shirt over his head.
I stole a glance at him while he pulled it down.
I tried to remember what he knew, what he could do with one word to Headmaster Vaughan if he chose to turn me in.
According to his words to Luther this morning, I was nothing more than a charity case, useful to him only as long as my dragon was helping him toward his own goals.
But part of me didn’t believe he only cared about finding his answers, not now.
Not after he’d doctored my wound. Not after he’d tried to save me from Myth’s flames.