Chapter 28
Itook two steps forward before halting.
“Hi,” I said awkwardly, clasping my hands at my waist then dropping them back to my sides. Rush smiled—not his characteristic smirk, but a real smile—as I walked forward, and a tiny flame crackled to life inside me. “I thought you’d be with your family tonight,” I said.
A laugh escaped his nose, and he glanced at Myth. “And get in the way of them enjoying their party? They won’t miss me.”
My chest pinched at the words. “You don’t go to the parties?”
“I made an appearance.” He lifted a hand, twirled it in the air. “But I thought you might be here.” Then he stood. “Looks like you had fun.”
“I did,” I muttered, struck by what he’d just said. Now that I no longer felt Myth’s warmth, a violent shiver rocked my body. I was itching to tell Rush about Myth’s flight.
“You looked at home up there,” he said, voice softer.
My teeth pinched my bottom lip. “Thanks.” I told him about the race course, about closing my eyes. Rush stood beside me, arms crossed, watching Myth, who was turning small circles as he tried to find a comfortable position.
“The race course? How’d he do?”
“He did great.” I couldn’t contain my smile. “I think he enjoyed it. He only touched the ground once. It was amazing. And terrifying.”
Rush shook his head slightly, one side of his mouth curling up. “Most people crazy enough to enter night races have been riding dragons since they could climb in the saddle.”
My chin lifted. “Are you saying I’m crazy or I’m special for trying it?”
“I’m saying he is.” He jerked his head toward my dragon, his lazy smile stretching into a mischievous grin. Then his smile faltered. “Ari, when my father finds out about him…”
His words stung like hot oil. I stormed over to Myth and started unfastening his saddle. “I know,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “When your father finds out, we’re both dead. But let me believe, for one moment, that I can change this wretched world we live in.”
Rush didn’t reply, only began unfastening a leather strap on Myth’s other side. Shortly, we had the saddle off. Myth shook his whole body like a dog in the rain and pranced into the lair.
I chuckled as I watched him go. Rush insisted on carrying the heavy saddle into the lair, and by the time he walked out, my body was shaking violently from the cold.
“You should get warm,” he said. Moonlight limned his pale hair in a silver light. He didn’t have to let me stay here. He didn’t have to help me. He didn’t have to come spend Rending Night here. But I didn’t want him to go.
I lifted my hand toward the house. “Want to come in?” I teased.
It was foolish, and I was a complete hypocrite for the way I’d felt about my sister being at that rich kid school, but in this moment, I didn’t care, didn’t want reality to come marching in and ruin the way Rush was looking at me right now.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and offered me a quick nod before walking around me.
“I'm sorry I didn’t plan for guests tonight.” I darted up the steps after him, trying to keep the mood light but sensing it crashing to the ground anyway. Inside, when the wind could no longer claw at my body, I sagged with relief.
Rush peeled through the house, toward the grand dining room. When I entered, I stopped short. Two plates sat on the table. On each plate was a simple slice of chocolate cake.
“I assume you like chocolate.”
Stunned, I moved for the nearest plate. “Yes.” I slid into the seat and took an eager bite with a small fork made of silver.
Rush casually walked to the second plate at the head of the table.
“I came here to warn you that there’s an Avencian family in town, the Corzos, who are trying to break into the dragon-racing business.
Well, they’re in it already, but they’re not as powerful here as they are back in Avencia.
They’re on to my father. He’s been too bold, won too many races.
They’re watching all his properties, but at least for now, they think this one is unoccupied.
I knew you’d be visiting the area, alone, and I… thought you should know.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, feeling my cheeks heating.
“They’re trying to get at my father any way they can.
They’ve tried capturing his car, mugging him on the way out of the bank, and even sneaking into our estate.
Every single man who’s tried has ended up dead, but they haven’t stopped yet.
” He took a bite of cake, leaving me with some bleak mental images.
“But I think it’s more than just a power play.
I think they know why he wins. Or else they’d have given up by now. ”
“You think they’re after magic?”
He shrugged. “I’m pretty sure it was them who searched my room.”
“At school?” I balked at the idea that the walls of Cardan Lott couldn’t hold back the gangs of Treston.
A piece of cake wavered on his fork. “The staff, perhaps. My father is hard to get to. My father warned Reggie to increase his personal security. Fortunately for me, most people who know my father well enough know that threatening me won’t be much of a bargaining chip with him.
” He stuffed the cake into his mouth. “I think they were looking for clues about how he wins.”
My eyes flicked away from him, heartbeat ticking faster. What would he think when he learned I’d been sent to Cardan Lott for those exact clues? It wasn’t just the Avencians hunting for the truth. “Do you think they’d come here?” I asked, peering over my shoulder.
“No. They know his schedule, where he eats, where he takes his afternoon whiskey. I don’t think they’d come here.”
But he felt the need to warn me anyway.
As we ate the next few bites in silence, I agonized over what I could possibly have to say to him. I'd already told him about my ride, and other than talking about my dragon, I had no idea what Rushland Covington, the son of a powerful duke, would want to talk about.
“How was your time at home?” I said, stumbling over the words and feeling a stab of guilt in my chest at the thought of not being at home when Evie returned. But that would be several hours still.
His fork hovered over his cake for a moment, his gaze fixed on the table. “Same as ever,” he said, taking a quick bite.
I set my fork down and stared at him. “Do you always evade meaningful conversation? Or do you only do that with me, because I’m not worth the time?”
He drew his fork slowly out of his mouth. “What do you want to know?”
“Something. Anything,” I fumbled. “Tell me something fun.”
His face fell. “There’s not much fun in my life.”
“Sure there is. You have all the dragons anybody could ever want. You have everything you could ever ask for. Everybody likes you. You’re smart, in the top of your class—when you want to be.” His eyes widened as I spoke, and I realized I was heaping compliments on him.
He laced his hands over his stomach and lifted his feet, crossing them on the table. “Well, you already know plenty, then. Let’s not talk about me.”
“You came here,” I said, voice sharper than I’d intended. “You want me to prattle on about myself, about how grateful I am that you let my dragon hide here, mooching off of your family’s fortune? Well, I won’t.” My fork clinked against my plate as I stabbed another bite.
His blue eyes flashed as I spoke, then he uncrossed his ankles, lowered his feet, and leaned forward, fingers still linked across his middle. “That’s not what I want, Ari.”
Echoing in the silence was the question I couldn’t voice… Then what do you want, Rush Covington?
I stiffened. “But somehow I feel like this is all a cruel joke, and I’ll wake up one day to find out you’ve turned Myth in.
” I couldn’t place why I was so uncomfortable.
Why suddenly I felt the need to snap at the boy who’d known Myth’s secret all semester and yet hadn’t said a word.
In a quieter tone, I said, “You don’t have to tell me your deepest secrets, just…
your favorite holiday or cake or something.
” I fixed my eyes on the dark crumbs on my plate.
His expression never flinched, never wavered, but his eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my palms sweat.
“When I was eleven, my father took my brother and me to his favorite gentlemen’s club and told us it was time we learned to be men.
He poured whiskey down my throat and taught me to play poker.
Reg was already good at it—he’s good at everything—and he could hold his liquor by then, but I couldn’t.
I vomited on myself, and everyone laughed.
That night, my father bet my first dragon, Terramon, and told me to win or I’d lose my dragon.
I’d always hoped to bond with Terramon when I got older, but I lost him that night. ” A muscle in his jaw tightened.
My brows pinched as Rush spoke. “I’m—”
“Don’t say sorry. I learned that night that anything I value is a liability, and I can lose it like that.
” He snapped his fingers. “So I learned to play poker, better than all of them, and I learned to put on a face no one could read. If I’m always smiling, then it’s impossible to know what I’m really thinking. ”
I nodded, too shocked to reply.
“And my favorite holiday is Armistice Day,” he continued in a lighter tone, “because every year, my mother and I would come here, and the weather was always warm, and my father would remain at the estate until after the holiday, conducting whatever sordid business he pleased. And our cook, Gretta, always made the best cake in the world on Armistice Day.”
“What cake?” I whispered, struck nearly silent by his confession.
He squinted at me. “That kind of proprietary information comes at a price. You must first share something about yourself.” Rush leaned forward, his elbows resting on the table.
My cheeks heated, and I stared at my lap. “You know enough about me.”
Rush laughed, a sound that tugged at the corners of my own mouth. “All I know about you, shovel girl, is that you’re stubborn and half-crazy. Tell me what made you so prickly. I told you what made me an actor.”
His words thrummed my nerves like a harp.
I swallowed and met his gaze. “My father gambled away every bit of my family’s living, leaving my mother, sister, brother, and me to live in complete squalor.
And to make it even worse, my mother is old-fashioned and berated me for working what she called men’s jobs.
All she did was knit her stupid scarves while I scraped us up enough to eat.
And my brother still thinks he can win back what we lost by gambling.
He joined a gang, and he believes he’ll rise to glory.
” My hand on the table curled into a fist. “When Pa died, I told myself I’d never gamble, but every time I look at Myth, I feel like I’m playing the biggest game of chance in the world, and I hate it. ”
Rush’s blue eyes drilled into me like stakes driven by a hammer. “For the record, I think Myth is a risk worth taking.”
For a long moment, I let his gaze hold me in place, as if the world around us was spinning and if I looked away, I’d lose my balance.
Too soon, he stood up. “Well, Arivelle Mireaux, I’ve had a lovely evening.” He bowed, his blond hair falling slightly with the motion.
I stood, hating how much I wanted to run my hands through his hair. I curtsied. “It was nice meeting the real Rushland Covington.”
He smirked. “You still don’t know my favorite kind of cake. It’s a little bold to say you know me.”
“Then tell me. I answered your question.”
We’d both stepped closer, and my entire chest lit with heat, despite the cold room and the snow now falling softly outside.
“Strawberry.”
“Mm,” I muttered, fighting a smile. “I like chocolate and you like strawberry. I guess we can still be friends.”
“Is that what we are?”
My chest tightened, and I looked up at him, mouth ajar.
“Happy Rend—”
Just then, a crash and a flash of light outside.
“Saints,” he spat, running for the door, me on his heels. “What was that?”
I smelled the smoke before he yanked the door open.