Chapter 42
The tracks arced through a long curve, and the stock car where Myth slept was visible trundling along behind us.
Beneath the fear still thrumming inside me, there was a pulsing contentment.
I’d missed it until this moment, with all the hanging off moving train cars and having a pistol waved in my face.
I knew what I was feeling was from Myth, considering how starkly it contrasted with everything that had just taken place.
Prescott popped out of the door to the engine. “I heard a gunshot, so I stopped the train!”
Rush and I looked at each other.
“Fairfax was here. He…” I trailed off, rubbing my face. “He’s gone now.”
“He’s dead?” Prescott barked in alarm.
Rush shook his head. “No. Unfortunately.” His arm was propped beside my shoulder in the tight space. He slipped his pistol back in his shoulder holster. “Now we wait until Myth wakes up. Think you and the others can get us to Chesson?”
Prescott smiled. “Sure. The fireman’s a decent fellow.
Been telling me all about his family. Didn’t seem to care that I knocked out the other guy.
” He shrugged. “And there’s no brakemen tonight.
Just me.” He lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers.
“To Chesson,” he announced as he marched back inside the cab of the engine.
Myth woke as pale light painted the eastern sky with the promise of a new day.
He broke the door clean off the stock car and bolted for the sky, only to shoot downward again and snort in my face.
To my surprise, Prescott indeed got us to Chesson Station, or nearly.
We stopped between rows of cars in the shunting yard.
Hidden from view to all but the signalman, who was likely confused about the arrival of an unexpected train.
“I know,” I said, reaching for Myth. “I’m so sorry.” I threw my arms around his neck and relished his warmth.
When Myth flattened himself on the gravel of the train yard, I climbed on his back without a saddle and hung on tightly to the long spikes at the base of his neck.
We only had a short distance to fly this time.
It was time to go back to Cardan Lott, and while I was grateful I was reunited with my dragon, I sensed the trouble was only just beginning.
Cold wind scraped at my eyes and ears, but the panic of riding without a saddle kept my blood hot as we rose over the bleak train yard.
Instantly, the walls of Cardan Lott came into view.
We sailed past the stone walls, not as imposing from above, and landed outside the lair, where Myth lowered himself to his belly so I could dismount.
A contented swell flooded my heart, the same feeling I got when I’d entered my apartment over winter break and seen Evie. Myth was happy to be here, to be home.
But this was even more a cage now than it had been when I’d first entered, thinking I had no part in this life or their ancient traditions. Now, I had to play a new game, a deadly one.
I walked back to the school, the only sound my boots crunching snow that had hardened overnight. I glanced at the ground below the steps. Our footprints were still there.
I walked straight to Vaughan’s office. We all did.
When Headmaster Vaughan saw us, windswept and dressed like a small gang, still armed, he dipped his head and stepped aside, allowing us to enter.
“I expect you have a good reason for this?”
“Sir, she passed the bond test and my father erased the evidence,” Rush began as the headmaster closed the door behind us.
“We have Myth and I want to be readmitted, sir,” I added.
Clarence’s father looked at each of us in turn, landing on his son with a surprised look that quickly melted into genuine pride. “You helped?”
Clarence dropped his chin and coughed. “Yes, sir.”
Our headmaster crossed his arms, not in an angry way, but in a contented way. “Well done, son. It’s time you started deciding what mattered to you.”
Clarence’s head snapped up. “Thank you, sir.”
His father walked to his desk but did not sit. He sighed. “I believe you.”
I tilted my head. That was easy.
“I’m sure my father will be here within the hour,” Rush said. “He’ll know his train was robbed and that we have Myth. Tell him Merlon Fairfax knows the truth.”
Headmaster Vaughan tilted his head. “Actually, your father telephoned a bit ago. He was the one who alerted me that Miss Mireaux was on her way with her dragon. He also said he would be arriving shortly after with documentation regarding her bond, as well as some interesting paperwork regarding her heritage.”
“My heritage?” I asked, shooting Rush a puzzled look.
“Yes,” came a low, commanding voice from behind us.
We whirled to face Duke Covington as he strode into the headmaster’s office, followed by two men in stiff coats with matching frowns.
The duke paraded through our group to accept a handshake from Headmaster Vaughan, then he turned a searing stare upon his son. “Are you a part of this, Rushland?”
Rush coughed and blinked. “A part of what, sir?”
His father sniffed and snapped his fingers at one of his men, who quickly placed a gilded, leatherbound book in his hand.
“You will rue the day you chose to steal from me,” seethed the duke.
His eyes slid briefly to me, then his expression brightened as he turned back to Headmaster Vaughan.
“I found the documentation you requested. Arrived from Avencia this morning.”
He passed the leather book to Vaughan, who turned it in his hands.
The letters shone on the front, and I spied a flash of green between the hubs on the spine.
Vaughan held the book in his arm and flipped it open to the page marked with a purple ribbon.
His finger slid down the page, then paused. His brows lifted.
Then he peered up at me. “Royalty?”
The duke’s lips spread in a thin smile. “It appears so. Merlon was right, after all.”
“About what?” I asked, pulse rising. Rush kept his face fixed on the windows, his jaw hardened and his shoulders pinned back.
“Come, take a look.” Headmaster Vaughan set the book on his desk and carefully spun it, his finger pressed to one line.
Tentatively, I moved toward the book and peered down at the words.
Names. Alphabetized by surname. Dates were handwritten beside the names and crests had been penned at the top of each page.
Beneath the headmaster’s finger was a crest labeled Miro.
It was a genealogy.
Headmaster Vaughan tapped the first name on the list. “Do you know who this is?”
I shook my head. The name Cas Miro didn’t mean anything to me.
“He was a prince. The son of one of the Ancients. First generation godborn.”
Vanya inhaled behind me.
“Okay,” I said, not following.
“And this,” said the headmaster, sliding his finger down the page, “was your great-great-great-grandfather. Who changed your surname to Mireaux when he came to Cavaria.”
I stared at the name Florentin Miro. Beside it was written see also Mireaux.
My attention snapped to the duke, who was staring at me like a cat who’d caught a mouse.
He nodded curtly. Then waved for the book to be handed back to him.
The bearded man on his left stepped forward and gathered the book.
It flipped shut with a definitive pop and my focus fixed on the glint of light coming from the spine of the book.
The duke accepted the genealogy, tucking it against his side so that the spine faced me. Embedded in the leather was a sparkling green emerald.
Pinching my lips to keep from gaping, I tried to collect myself. I needed the duke to think my discomfort was at this revelation, not the fact that I knew the book was using magic to alter the contents. “So I’m…related to royalty?” I said, trying to sound genuinely shocked.
Vanya pressed her fingers to her lips, hiding a small smile. She didn’t know what the emerald meant.
“It would appear that you are,” said the headmaster, his voice full of excitement as he moved around his desk.
“Your heritage was, regrettably, called into question after discovering your family’s home, my dear.
My sincerest apologies.” He actually bowed to me.
“But now that we have proof that you are indeed a Miro, as you originally claimed, there is absolutely no reason not to reinstate you as a student at Cardan Lott. A most esteemed and welcome student.” He opened his arms wide, eyes moving toward the duke for affirmation.
“Of course,” the duke said, his voice dripping with unctuous courtesy as he offered me the smallest of bows. “Any bonded rider is welcome here.”
My mouth went dry as I faked a smile back at him.
He was trying to cover up the fact that a bottomsider could bond.
And he had the means to do so. Magic had altered that genealogy to include my family, I was certain of it.
He stood there, brazenly showing off the emerald in the spine of the book, testing me.
He needed to know if I understood the meaning of the emerald, and he assumed he could read my reaction right here, right now, to prove what I knew.
I had to throw him off course.
Picturing how excited Evie would be if I could ever tell her we were related to ancient royalty brought quick tears to my eyes, knowing it was only a lie.
But the tears were helpful as I turned to the duke.
“Thank you, sir,” I breathed, dabbing at my eyes the way a woman should, according to Fairfax’s hasty instructions during the week prior to the start of term, when he’d tried to round off the blunt edges of my manners.
“How can I ever thank you for showing me this kindness?”
I hoped it sounded genuine. I needed him to believe me, considering I’d just robbed him, and he knew it. From behind the duke, Rush shifted his weight, expression still devoid of all emotion.
The duke’s lips twitched faintly. “Ah. It was a necessity, nothing more. We can’t have imposters entering our great school.
Your sponsor, despite his good intentions, simply does not have the resources I have at my disposal.
” He tucked the book tighter against his side.
“It is always a pleasure to help those in need.”
I dipped my head in a sloppy curtsey so I wouldn’t get caught balking at him.
I wasn’t sure what was between the duke and Fairfax, but it was clear the two hated each other.
And it was also clear the duke had intentions of his own by magically forging my genealogy to allow me back here.
It wasn’t simply to cover up the truth that a bottomsider could bond, and I could only assume his real purpose had something to do with my dragon’s magic.
Only time would tell what the duke really wanted, and I hoped to avoid finding out as long as possible.
“Well, now that this is all settled, I must get back to work. Until tomorrow, Casper.” The duke’s men preceded him toward the door and opened it for him.
As the duke stepped over the threshold, he turned back to look at his son.
“It is my wish that you attend to all of Miss Alcott’s needs tomorrow night, as her father has asked to hold a private conversation with me at some point throughout the evening. ”
The blood drained from my head so fast I nearly fell over. Rush’s throat bobbed and he offered a tiny nod to his father before the man vanished out the door.