Chapter 23 #2
I flash her a bitter smile. “I’m a thrill seeker, I guess.”
Wrong thing to say, Mozi says.
Rather than dissuading Evie, the words stoke something inside her, and she presses closer to my side. She moves past the literal dragon like she’s going to steal his treasure, and drapes herself over my spine.
“We never got a chance to speak after you pushed me out of your room,” Evie whispers against my ear. “I’m a fan of playing hard to get but you know I always get what I want.”
I just can’t deal with her advances. I’m sick and tired of hearing about how we will be together, how our union will join our families…
Given time, she’ll launch into the same spiel as usual. I can almost predict word for word what will come out of her mouth.
If she feels the way I shudder in revulsion, she says nothing about it.
I hate it, mostly because I already know it will happen exactly the way Evie describes. That’s the kicker for me. No matter how badly I rage against it, the inevitable has a way of crashing down on your head and mocking your preparation.
Get rid of her, Mozi growls in my head.
For a split second, the image of sending Evie hurtling off the cliff flashes in my mind before I erase the image.
But no. I’m not my father. I don’t kill for pleasure or fun.
And Evie, as annoying as she is, doesn’t deserve that fate. Resignation drowns my veins. This isn’t Evie’s fault, either. She’s as pressured as I am, folded over and over into something small, to fit a mold.
We both know how impossible it is to fight the push of your families.
“Look, E—” I start.
She nudges me with her shoulder and presses closer. Her arms loop around my front so both her palms press flat to my chest. “It’s not a good time to talk. Right?” There’s a steel edge to her voice.
I’m predictable, which is also offensive. “Right. Mozi and I were in the middle of something. He doesn’t like to be interrupted.”
If anyone can upset a dragon, though, it’s Evie. She tenses when Mozi growls again and it makes no difference to her.
“When is it going to be the right time, then? We’re trapped in this school instead of out there on the battlefield. Seems to me that we have nothing but time while we learn and wait and train.”
She’s not wrong there, either, and I wish she were. “I’ll come to you later. Okay, Evie? I have to finish this conversation and then I’ll make time for you.”
My fingers tap wildly against my knee. Before she sees it, I lift my hand to cover hers.
“I don’t believe you.”
She’s clinging hard. How do I get her to loosen her grip?
“It seems to me you’re avoiding me and whatever it is distracting you these days, it should not be more important than our union.”
If only she knew.
“I promise. I don’t make promises lightly.”
I scan the horizon but there’s no escape there, even with so much of the sky unfolding out from our lonely mountain. Up here, none of it matters. Nothing and no one.
And Evie is trying to make it matter.
She leans into my silence, waiting for me to budge, and I’m not giving her an inch. With an aggravated exhale, she pries herself off me and scuttles back from the edge.
She casts a hesitant glance at Mozi. “You know where to find me. When you’re ready. But you better keep your promises, Kieran, or Father will hear how his future son-in-law lacks proper… respect for our arrangement.”
Evie blows me a kiss before sauntering away with her usual swinging hips to let me know exactly what I’m missing by being a stubborn jackass.
No, thank you. I know exactly what I’m doing.
No, you don’t, Mozi corrects. His claws grind against stone and he snaps his wings out to catch the air. None of you humans have any clue about your actions or the long reaching implications of them.
I scoff and say, Because dragons are so much better?
He puffs up his chest and smoke curls from his nostrils although there is no fire, not yet. Not for a few more years. Do you really want me to answer you?
Dragons are self-important. A lot like humans.
Mozi whips his head around before carefully refolding his wings. Incoming.
“Hey!” Astrid calls out a warning. “I just passed Evie. Did she actually get what she came for or did you send her packing again? She had a distinctly sour look on her face.”
I appreciate her overly loud announcement. The extra stomping is unnecessary.
“Stop making so much noise.” A part of me relaxes and I pat the area beside me that Evie just vacated. “You made your point. And besides, Mozi tolerates you much better.”
I don’t have a particular care for hydra riders, he says to me.
But Mozi shuffles aside to give Astrid the room to maneuver wherever she pleases.
“I thought I’d find you up here.” She flashes the dragon a quick grin there and gone in a flash. “Well?”
“No, Evie did not get what she came for.”
And implied, yet silent, she never will.
“Evie isn’t going to stop. The sooner you realize it, the better it will be for everyone.” Astrid explains it with the patience of a saint treading over familiar territory. “I swear, it’s the last time I’ll remind you, but you have to promise me you’ll remember.”
Going with my gut, I reach into my leathers for the second piece of paper tucked against my heart—the paper torn from my book.
“I don’t want to be with a woman who is happy to climb a corrupt ladder for social standing. I want to be with someone like this. Whoever wrote this letter. I didn’t get a chance to show you last night. I’ve got a pen pal.”
I hand the paper off to Astrid. Her eyes narrow on the note and she scans the length deftly, her upper lip curling the longer she reads.
“Are you really so dumb?” she blurts out.
My heart thuds erratically. “Excuse me?”
“You don’t know who wrote the note, Kieran? Seriously? The answer is so obvious a blind person could see it!” Astrid taps her chin. “Let’s think. Shall we? Who do we know who is smart enough to get into DragonSpear, without a parent to pull strings?”
I open my mouth to answer and stop short, snapping my jaw shut again.
“Well. That narrows it down,” I’m forced to admit.
Mozi’s laughter echoes through my skull along with the feeling that he knows exactly what is happening now.
What? I blurt.
Oh, it makes sense. I can’t believe I didn’t see it!
His joy annoys me because I feel strung along behind them.
“Who has been betrayed by the crown and is angry enough to have beliefs this strong, this young?” Astrid asks.
She stares at me plaintively.
When I stare blankly back at her, coming up with nothing but dead space, she adds, “Who moves like water on fire when she fights and probably wants you dead? Her face should be very clear in your head. Especially after your voyeur moment.”
It’s a revelation like lightning; a flash of understanding piercing the dark like a spear thrown from nowhere. My stomach drops but my heart soars.
You idiot, Mozi says.
I know exactly who wrote the note and the moment realization clicks into place, Astrid laughs.
“Yes, you’re right.” She cranes her face up to Mozi. “A definite idiot.”
Even though Astrid can’t hear Mozi, it’s painfully clear that she knows the dragon agrees.
How could I have been so blind? There’s only one answer to all my questions. Life, fate, whatever you want to call it, it has a way of circling back to the one thing I need.
Not a thing, I correct. A who. A warrior.
Morgan wrote the note and I’m the last one to realize.