Chapter 28 #2
Kieran takes a step closer and the plush carpet absorbs the sound. He’s near enough to stop me if I make a move to hurt Harbi, or myself. The strap dangles loose in his hand. In case I need a quick yank to remind me of my master.
Harbi clears her throat and draws her staff in front of her.
Both hands choke the wooden neck. “Kieran has proposed something interesting. We’ve been discussing several possibilities for your future.”
My torso fills with life, sensation, growing hotter like an entirely separate organ. Fury.
He’s probably brokered a deal where he gets to spend the last few days with me in his bed, doing whatever he wants to me. Fitting. Isn’t it?
Anger has kept me alive better than any other weapon.
It’s been my constant companion through life. I’ve felt it from the beginning, always with me, but stronger and louder now. My tutors used to clock me as being one of the worst tempered children when I didn’t get my way.
If I can use it now—
I fight it down with a promise not to go there again, because today, the anger is tempered with fear. I’ve trained to defend myself and he might have gotten the upper hand eventually, but I’d held my own for the fight.
“Yeah? And you’re in the habit of letting your students tell you what to do?” I scoff and the sound wobbles. “If I talked back to my tutors that way, they’d have knocked my teeth loose.”
Harbi flashes the mimic of a grin and if I hadn’t been fixated on her face, I’d have missed the change entirely.
“It’s certainly an offer I would not have considered coming from anyone else.”
“Ah, so you’re saying his reputation is what twisted your ear. Or maybe just his father’s reputation,” I throw back.
Is Harbi courting favor with the great and powerful General? Vying for power in whatever empire rises from the ashes?
The thoughts race mad and unhinged through my head.
Kieran coughs over a laugh. At my expense, or because he knows exactly the kind of punishment Harbi can impart with her staff?
I guess I’ll see.
If I rattle her enough, she’ll toss me out, which has to be preferable to whatever deal Kieran’s trying to cut.
“Reputations mean nothing to me. They come and go. They are the product of whoever makes the most noise,” Harbi replies.
She doesn’t explain herself, though. Harbi’s demeanor is equal parts casual and cool. It’s intentional armor and one I’ve had to don myself. In that way, she reminds me of my mother.
Physically they are not the same.
Mother had been willowy and ethereal despite her strength, with hair the sometimes garish color of mine and pale skin that showed off her spray of freckles. So many people in our village had the same red hair as a hallmark of our territory.
Harbi’s tawny skin and dark sable locks make her the night to my mother’s day. Her stare remains fixed on me and my jaw locks.
This situation is wrong on many levels, and scorch him, but Kieran is marking me from the corner of his vision. He’s yet to look away.
“What does Kieran’s reputation say about him?” I half wonder out loud. “That he is daddy’s little lap dog barking at whoever he’s aimed at? That he can sway much older adults to do his bidding? Or maybe we all just like the way he looks.”
Kieran’s chuckle is louder and less able to be disguised.
“I’d watch your tone, Fury,” he mutters. “She’s not above corporal punishment.”
Judging from the weapons and that staff, the scuffs along the wood, Harbi knows exactly what to do to put a grown man down.
I twist against the binds again, hoping for leeway and finding nothing.
“You should never have been a maid,” Kieran says, stepping up to my side and speaking in low tones. “You should have been a student. It’s a terrible twist of fate that put you on the wrong side of this place.”
“And you can rot in the Void,” I reply sweetly.
I catch a flash of a grin from the headmistress. “She certainly has a mouth on her, doesn’t she?”
“If you want me dead then you’ll need more training,” Kieran says as he spells it out for me. “More training which I am willing to give you under the right circumstances.”
“Training.” Disdain drips from the word. “And what makes you think I’d want anything from you?”
“Because the alternative is death, and you’re too smart to choose that willingly.”
“Don’t presume to know what I’m smart enough to do,” I snap. “Your girlfriend already tried to put me in my place. How did that work out?”
A muscle ticks in Kieran’s jaw, but before he can respond, Harbi holds up a hand.
“We’re off topic, children.” It’s a lash of reprimand. “Going back to our earlier discussion brings me around to this, Miss Whyte.” Harbi pauses to cross behind the desk.
She ducks her head, a waterfall of hair hiding her sharp features. She lifts something but tucks it to her chest. I catch a glimpse of a folded edge. Some kind of letter?
“What are you hiding?” I ask.
“Kieran has made an offer on your behalf. He’s quite convincing when he wants to be, regardless of what you think of him.”
She has no idea what I think of him and it’s best to keep it that way.
“You can either accept your place as a student,” she begins, my heart racing. “Or you can—”
My gorge rises.
“Pass,” I interrupt immediately.
Harbi nods as though she’s filing my answer away for later before adding carefully, “If you decide to join the student body, you will serve the kingdom. You will be taught by the best and brightest minds of Manifest. You will be trained and you will have the opportunity to be chosen by a mount. Not just a unicorn, although if that is the route of your heart and your fate, then so be it. This opportunity does not belong to everyone.”
Not just a unicorn…
The way she says it, like being a part of the herd is somehow less important than any of the other mounts…
“Like I said.” My lips purse in disgust, a muscle twitching at my temple. “Pass.”
“Fine. It is entirely up to you. You have a place here, if you want it, or you accept the punishment for servants who strike a noble.” Harbi continues like I haven’t spoken.
Her eyes, though. A begrudging respect? “This includes a whipping before you’re sent to work in the worst part of the mines.
You will die. There is no situation where you make it out of there alive. ”
“I’ll survive the whipping,” I insist hotly.
Kieran clears his throat. “The whip will be held by the noble you accosted. It bears mentioning.”
I stop, the skin of my wrists raw from attempting to escape. Evie will be the one holding the whip? In that case, it’s either death by whip without even making it to the mines or serving the people who killed my family.
Going to school here, being an actual student, will mean a completely different trajectory toward my goals. It will give me the space to execute my revenge.
“There’s no third choice, if that’s what you’re considering, Miss Whyte.” Harbi sounds conversational as she sets the object on the desk in front of me. “Those are your options. This time, it is quite black and white.”
Far enough away to force me to take a step closer.
I tuck my raw wrists into the folds of my dress as I approach.
Harbi had two things hidden in her hands. The first is a letter, like the one I’d gotten in the mail before the battle of Fallkirk. My acceptance to DragonSpear. The second is a stamper in gold, the flat bottom portion glittering with the school crest.
Dueling dragons chase each other and eat their own tails, a coat of arms nestled between them.
How many official proclamations has Harbi used this on to show her authority?
She grabs the slender handle of a brass pitcher and a glass from one of her desk drawers while I stare open-mouthed at the unlikely objects.
“Do I get a little time to think about it?” My dry throat aches for a sip of whatever it is she’s going to pour.
A stream of wine fills the interior of the hammered glass. I nearly groan when she lifts it to her lips and the room fills with the scents of rich red wine with notes of oak and clove.
Harbi knows it, too. She knows exactly what she’s doing.
The question is, do I know what I’m doing by refusing? There’s really no other choice. I’ve already resigned myself to death. Does it really matter how it takes me?
“By all means,” she says calmly before taking a sip. “You’re the only one dealing with the expiration date. Not me.”