Chapter 34 #2
The unreasonable side of me, the reckless one, didn’t care.
He’d flown across town to rescue me. Maybe he thought of me as a liability, considering I knew too many of his secrets now, but if that were the case, he could have pushed me off Myth as we’d flown over the rooftops and he certainly wouldn’t be here, beside me, right now.
By the eight o’clock bell, I was jolted awake, not by the resonant tolls echoing over the grounds, but by Vanya’s hollering across the room.
“Oh. My. Sun. Above.”
I jerked in alarm, shoulder grazing Rush’s arm. Sunlight burned my eyes.
“You have been lying to me, Arivelle Mireaux.” Vanya’s arms were crossed over her nightgown and she stared at me—us—with wide-eyed wonder. She clicked her tongue several times.
She grabbed her school uniform and blazed out of the room, declaring she would dress in the bathroom but that afterward, I had better be ready with answers.
I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes. Beside me, Rushland Covington rolled over with a loud groan. His arm flopped, landing across my waist.
I leaped up, face burning. I couldn’t believe I’d fallen asleep. Next to him.
“Wha…what’s….” Rush’s words were muffled by the pillow—my pillow. His eye opened and squinted in the sunlight. “Ari?”
I watched in horror as his hand raked down the bed where I’d just been lying. How had I been stupid enough to do that? I hadn’t even been sleepy when he’d burst in.
“Still warm,” he muttered, hand still on the sheet. “Why’d you get up?”
I grabbed Vanya’s pillow and chucked it at his head. He lazily swatted at it but missed.
“You’re still drunk.”
His head lifted partway off the pillow. “No, prickly little cactus, I am not.” In one smooth movement, he sat up and swung his legs over the side of my bed. His hair was a mess, his shirt half-undone and fully untucked. His suspenders drooped at his waist.
I nearly forgot to breathe.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, a twinkle back in his eye that made the hairs on my arms stand up. “Am I really that arresting in the mornings?”
I scoffed at him and reached for the pillow that had fallen onto the floor. This time, he blocked it, batting it away.
“Arrogant aristocrat.”
He grinned and stood up. When he stretched, I looked away, but not fast enough. The bruise on his hip was already turning blue. He lifted his shirt hem and examined it. I kept my gaze pinned to the floor.
“Ari,” he said, waiting until I looked at him. “I’m sorry about last night.” He eyed my attire, and I swatted at him with my hand this time. He turned around.
As electrifying as it was that he was in here, my heart sank as I glanced out the window. Sunlight struck the snow-topped roof of the school. “Your father will have tested Myth for his flame by now.”
Rush nodded, still not looking at me. “I’m sorry, Ar.”
Spinning around, I almost forgot I was wearing a nightgown. I grabbed my blazer from the back of my desk chair and tossed it on. “How did this happen? How could I have let him go like that?”
He glanced sideways at me, spotted my blazer, and turned to face me. “If he’s as smart as I think he is, there’s a chance he didn’t flame, even when provoked with pain.” At my cringe, he stepped closer. “If you had tried to stop my father yesterday, it would have only been worse.”
My heart tore free from whatever held it in place. “If he flamed, he’ll die today. And I can’t stop it. I can’t stop it!” I pressed my hands to my face, as if that could stop my tears.
Rush closed the distance between us and wrapped me in his arms, and I relished the way he crushed me to himself.
“If Myth flamed, then my father will know he’s a source of magic.
You can bet he won’t waste that.” When I stiffened and looked up, he nodded down at me.
“But if he didn’t flame, then he’ll think one of two things: either Myth can flame and chose not to or he can’t flame and you’re godborn.
A bottomsider who can bond? That would turn our world upside down, and my father doesn’t love when the world changes without his permission.
” When my quiet sobs started again, he tucked my head against his neck.
“You are the bravest person I’ve ever met.
No one has stood up to this world the way you have. ”
“But it was all useless.”
He tilted my chin up with two fingers. “Not useless.” For a moment, he held my watery stare.
Whatever had transpired in the past twenty-four hours between us had cemented something new, like a foundation being laid for a building whose purpose and design I did not know.
“Trying to change people’s minds, even if you fail, is never useless. You changed my mind.”
I sniffed, not certain I believed him. “My meeting with Vaughan starts in fifteen minutes.”
Rush released me and grabbed my shoulders. “Then we need to make a plan in case things go south.”
I sat cold and rigid in the chair across from the headmaster’s desk, hands on my knees, back straight. Merlon Fairfax stood beside me as Vaughan delivered his news like punches, one right after the other, with no preamble, no softening, only direct hits to my composure.
The first blow: “We received a telegram from the breeder in Avencia you claim to have purchased Myth from. Myth’s papers, it appears, were fabricated.” The second: “The board demands your immediate expulsion.”
My stomach shrank as my world caved in around me.
The third: “Because of your deliberate falsification of your identity in addition to your dragon’s, which has put many people in danger, you are also hereby under arrest.”
“I beg your pardon,” sputtered Fairfax. “Now, I’ve known you a long time, Casper, and this is not ordinary behavior. I demand that she be shown some dignity.”
The air rushed from my lungs and I caved forward, elbows on my knees as I stared at the floor. The headmaster’s vague reflection was a dark shadow on the glossy wood.
“You knowingly fabricated those documents, so I don’t think it is appropriate to demand anything. The police will find it convenient that you are here too.” Vaughan stood, his face now limp and tired looking.
“What is that supposed to mean?” barked Fairfax.
“You are guilty of forgery, Merlon. There must be consequences.”
Fairfax spluttered. “Preposterous. How is this my fault? Or hers? Those papers were falsified by the breeder, not by me. Do your research, Casper.” He crossed his arms beneath his reddening cheeks. I didn’t even know Fairfax as well as the headmaster did, but even I could tell he was lying.
Headmaster Vaughan’s expression faltered briefly.
Then he sighed. “I am only passing along information given to me. I will look into a further investigation regarding the documents, but as it stands, the board requires her removal and the law requires her arrest. She, at least, is not who you said she is.” Then to me, “I’m sorry, dear. Truly.”
“And by board you mean the duke,” huffed Fairfax.
Vaughan did not refute the statement, which drew a deeper frown from Fairfax.
“What about the bond test?” I said, head snapping up.
“What about it?” asked Vaughan.
“You said yesterday that there’s a way to test a bond.” I stood up. “Myth will pass that test, sir.”
The headmaster’s frown returned. “I thought they performed that test yesterday.”
Fairfax turned to me. “The dragon did choose her; you must have seen this. Bryce, surely, has seen it. Call him in.” He sounded more desperate than I’d thought he would. His pockets couldn’t save us now, it seemed.
Vaughan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Even if the bond test were administered, and, against all odds, you were to pass it, you and your dragon are not permitted to return to classes at Cardan Lott, Miss Mireaux. You have fabricated not only your own heritage, but that of your dragon, and have thus brought a stain upon our school that threatens to shut its doors. If all of the families demanding your expulsion pull their funding, we will be forced to close.” He sighed.
“Either you leave, or everyone else does. As headmaster, I must do what is best for the school.”
My eyes closed slowly. This had gone all wrong.
“Casper,” hissed Fairfax, his voice pure vitriol.
“When did your ideals of a better tomorrow bow to the bigots of a powerful past? You took this job because you believed you could make a difference for this country, this world, by educating young minds, and not just young minds, but the most powerful set of individuals in this country. Bonded riders. You have the ability to create real change here, and you are afraid to offend those who disagree with you.”
A swelling of pride filled my chest. I opened my eyes and smiled faintly at Fairfax.
“You have at your disposal the ability to prove, once and for all, that a bottomsider like her can bond with a dragon.” He jammed his index finger into the desk. “This would be life-changing.”
Headmaster Vaughan stared at me while Fairfax spoke. His pinched brow loosened, then hardened again, but not with frustration this time. With determination. “I will order the bond test.”
“Good. Good man. I will do what I can to replace whatever is lost if any families withdraw their financial support.”
The headmaster turned to slide his jacket off the back of his chair. “Thank you, Merlon.”
“Of course.” He motioned for me to stand. “When she passes the bond test, what then?”
Vaughan slid his arms into his coat. “If she passes, then I am certain we will be facing outrage. There will be full-on inquiries into her family tree, beyond what I’ve already ordered.
Questioning every birth on record, even those who wrote the records.
Ransacking her home for any evidence of family heirlooms. And that’s the best-case scenario.
And, well, we shouldn’t discuss what might be the worst they could do. ”
Asset or assassin. I could become either.
“Sir,” I said, halting his progress as he came around the desk. “If I pass the bond test, I want to be admitted into the end-of-year race.”
Both men turned their attention on me. Before either of them could speak, I boldly added, “If it can be proven that I am a bonded rider, then what does it really matter where I came from, or where he came from?” I pointed in the general direction of the lair, even though Myth wasn’t there.
“Let the race prove what they won’t admit.
Let the race prove that someone like me”—I threw a cursory glare at Fairfax—“can indeed be a rider.”
My sponsor beamed at me, then nodded once at Vaughan, awaiting his reply. We might have our differences, but Fairfax and I at least had overlapping goals.
The headmaster’s eyes traveled between me and Fairfax a half-dozen times. “The end-of-year race? That is…” He trailed off, fingers absently pushing the papers on his desk.
“Let me finish out my classes here, and let me race. Sir,” I added hastily.
My pulse had risen so fast I was nearly sweating.
If I ran, Duke Covington would only track me down.
Rush was right: the more people knew who I was, what I was, the better.
Even if I didn’t win the race, now that the truth about my heritage was out, that could be enough.
“I will suggest to the board that you be permitted to race. However, I cannot guarantee that they will approve this request. Nor can I guarantee they will allow you and your dragon to return here, even if he passes the test.”
I swallowed, preparing my rebuttal, but Fairfax cut me off. “That will be most generous, Casper. Thank you.”
Fairfax gently turned me by my arm and ushered me out.
At the door, Headmaster Vaughan stopped us. “You’re forgetting one thing. The police are here to take you into custody. Until this debacle is resolved.”
“Will that really be necessary?” Fairfax asked.
There was the smallest of hesitations from Vaughan, then, “To save my school the embarrassment of this whole ordeal, the duke agreed to have you transported quietly via coach to the constabulary nearest here.” He nodded at both of us, a dismissal.
Outside the headmaster’s office, a man in dark blue waited with his arms crossed over his round belly.
There were no handcuffs or rough handling.
He walked quietly beside us toward the school’s main entrance, where a dark coach pulled by a single horse waited.
Not even an automobile had been relegated for this.
Faces had gathered in the entrance hall. This might save the headmaster some embarrassment, but it heaped it on top of my head like the shovelfuls of dung I used to toss into train cars at the Covingtons’ estate.
I’d worried that this would go wrong. That my dream of changing this stone-cold world would fracture and crash around me. This was so much worse. This was not a fracture, a mere windowpane shattering. This was obliteration. Every piece of this impossible dream vaporized in an instant.
In the crowd, I spotted Vanya, crying behind her cupped hands.
Rush stood beside her, hands lazily hanging in his pockets, attention steadily fixed on me.
I stared at them as I passed, hollowed of all feeling.
Before we stepped outside into the cold, I glanced back one last time at the school’s interior, as I’d likely never be allowed entrance here again.
For the blink of an eye, I’d belonged here, but perhaps even that had been a lie.
This place had never been my home, and it was always going to find a way to spit me back out.
The last thing I took in was Rush’s unwavering stare. When our eyes met, he gave the faintest nod, imperceptible to anyone not looking for it.
Then I stepped out of the school. The wintery wind blasted my face and neck. I still wore the school’s uniform, which I had donned this morning. Five steps. Then the coach.
Vaughan didn’t allow any of the students to follow me outside or watch me drive away.
But when I bundled into the coach, I heard one of the policemen whispering to Fairfax and motioning for him to follow.
To my shock, and to Fairfax’s utter dismay, he was shoved, huffing and puffing, into the coach with me.
When the policeman shut the door, darkness swallowed us.