Chapter 13
Ahand closes around my arm, and I’m pulled away from this hallway and taken up the stairs.
“I’m a recruit,” I grunt. It’s true that I don’t take all the classes, and that I’m in the cleaning crew, but I’m still a recruit—sort of. “I’d like to talk to someone from the academy.”
“They’ll decide,” the guard says.
Several images cross my mind, out of order. Me, pinned on the floor. The rider and I pulling the staff. My hands blocking his magic.
I doubt anyone would believe me if I told them the truth, and, in any case, I can’t even explain what I was doing in that hallway.
The worst is that they punish recruits for any reason, and I worry they’ll use this as an excuse to get rid of me. It makes no sense, but it’s not like this academy is overflowing with logic.
We leave the stairs and come to the same hallway where I have classes, but we walk farther down, and the guard unlocks a heavy wooden door. As he’s busy turning the key, I wonder if I should try to run.
Run where, Mayara?
He opens the door and leads me to a large room, much like a classroom, but with no board in the front. Instead, wooden chairs are set in a semicircle, with a seat in the middle, and a high pulpit in the front.
The guard points at the middle seat, and at least he doesn’t push me there or restrain me.
I sit and wait, my feet tapping anxiously on the wooden floor, my stomach feeling light and odd, as I wonder what’s going to happen.
Frankly, I think I did a pretty amazing job stopping that rider and should get a medal or something, but one thing I’ve learned in this academy is never to expect fairness.
With a deep breath, I tell myself to calm down. I can make up a story as to why I was by the dungeons, and nobody needs to know I touched the staff, let alone block the rider’s magic.
After a long time, someone enters: Commander Mallor.
It’s not starting well. He sits in one of the chairs in the semicircle surrounding me, his expression neutral, his clothes his usual academy uniform. It doesn’t look like he was at the ball.
After a few minutes, a woman and a man come in.
She wears a red uniform like the castle guards, but with gold rims on the sleeves, and seems to be some kind of commander.
The man wears a blue Sky Guard uniform, and I’ve never seen him before.
One of the guards who found me downstairs also enters the room and stands near the back, while another guard brings the staff, holding it with thick layers of cloth, as if it was indeed a hot pan. He leaves it on a table at the front.
Mallor looks around. “Everyone’s here, I suppose. Recruit Mayara, would you like to explain what happened?” His tone is not accusatory but not gentle either, and gives me no inkling of what he plans to do.
“I was feeling bad for Silvia,” I say. “Thinking how sad she must be that she couldn’t come to the ball, so I decided to try to find her and went to the dungeons. Then I heard a noise, saw a hole in a door, and a rider.”
“How did you know it was a rider?” the woman from the castle guard asks.
“His clothes were different, and he had that staff. I figured that even if I couldn’t defeat him, I could slow him down until more guards appeared, and I yelled for help. He tried to attack me, and threw me on the floor, but then I think he heard the guards coming and ran away.”
The woman’s mouth tightens at the corners. “Did you see where he ran?”
“I didn’t. But the guards came soon, aware that there was an intruder.”
The man from the Sky Guard gets up and approaches the staff. “How was he holding this?”
“His bare hands.”
“Does it do anything?” he asks.
For some reason, I decide to feign ignorance. “Maybe it’s how he blew the doors? I’m not sure.”
“The girl speaks the truth,” Commander Mallor says.
At that moment, the door opens, and Alayel steps in, his breathing heavy, still dressed in the fine suit from the ball.
His eyes find mine the moment he steps through the door, his gaze dropping to take in the rest of me, unguarded worry in his expression.
“She should not be expelled.” His voice is low, composed, and yet there’s electricity cracking beneath it, a hint of fury that his polite manners can’t disguise.
Mallor sighs. “Your Highness, may I remind you that this matter is not under your jurisdiction?”
“Is that so?” Alayel glares at the commander. “Would you like to debate it with my father?”
“I have more pressing matters.” Mallor turns to the other people in the room. “Anyway, the girl has shown great bravery stalling the intruder and calling for help.”
His words stun me, even if they make sense. A thrill of joy threatens to take me, but I’m afraid he’s about to squash my hopes. Alayel, standing at a corner, looks more relaxed, so maybe this is good news indeed.
The commander continues, “She has secured an interesting artifact that will help us gain insight on our enemy. Foros obviously guided her to be at the right place at the right time. As someone with the Foros gift, she shall be accepted into the Sky Academy under the planning and leadership track. Any objection?”
Accepted? I’ll be joining the Sky Academy? I can barely believe these words, can barely believe I’ve made it, after everything.
Nobody utters any word, and Commander Mallor turns to me. “Recruit Mayara, you’re therefore dismissed. You’ll receive new instructions tomorrow.”
I want to jump up and down and thank him, but I only get up and bow. “Understood.”
My heart is light as I step out of that room, when I feel someone’s arm around mine, but it brings me comfort instead of fear.
Alayel’s beside me.
“What happened?” The urgency in his voice and the intensity in his stare awaken the shard of attraction for him that I’ve been trying to bury.
“A lot,” I whisper.
He takes me to a staircase I don’t know well, then to a familiar hallway, where he opens a door and leads me to his bedroom.
I shouldn’t be here, and yet, where else can we talk freely?
“Don’t you have to return to your ball?” I ask.
“Let me take care of you first.” He goes to a counter, opens a bottle, fills two cups, and brings one to me. “Are you hurt?”
There’s no question about his worry. No debate whether he cares for me. A maelstrom of emotions revolves in my chest. I take a sip of the sweet, slightly alcoholic drink. Some kind of wine. “Not really.”
“And you faced a rider?” His amazing dark eyes are focused on me as if nothing else mattered in this world.
I nod, my head feeling light, my face warm because of the wine. “The same rider from the island. He wanted to get to the room with the hatchlings.”
Alayel gulps his wine, then blinks. “Wow. And he left? Like that?”
“I think he heard the guards. Now, I don’t know why he left the staff.”
Protect them.
His words still echo in my head, his eyes still pierce my soul, the feel of his hands still lingers on my wrists.
I can barely understand any of this myself, let alone explain it to anyone else, even to Alayel.
Instead, I take another sip of that sweet wine, as if it could relieve the intensity of those memories.
Alayel clicks his tongue, immersed in thought. “The guards are going around the perimeter of the academy, trying to find the intruder.”
I shake my head. “He flew away. I think it’s that dragon…”
“The one who healed you.” He gives me a knowing look.
“Yes. The one who can fly under a storm. The rider’s gone.”
He pauses, thinking, takes my almost empty cup, gets up, refills it, then sits and passes it to me. “The guards will figure it out. And maybe one of our ballistas caught him.”
I shiver, horrified at the thought of that dragon being hurt, but then I figure that the storm would have provided him cover, and something in my chest loosens.
It’s bizarre to hate that rider and feel protective of his dragon, but I can’t help it.
Can’t explain it either. I’m not even sure why I’m so certain that it was that dragon.
Perhaps it’s just a deduction, since that rider attacked us during the storm. No, it’s not a deduction. I’m sure.
Alayel is the only person who really knows what I faced, who knows that a dragon healed me, so I decide to tell him more about what just happened.
“Remember when I pushed Felien?” A shiver of dread takes my body when I recall how easily I killed that smuggler. I sit on the sofa and take a large gulp of wine, as if it could erase my horror.
Alayel sits beside me. “How could I forget? I remember I wanted to kill him myself, but then you…”
“Pushed him, yes, and it was a strange, oddly strong push. This time, the rider pointed his staff at me, and sent a wave of destructive energy.”
Alayel’s stare turns even more intense, wild even, while I wonder if any of what I’m saying makes sense.
But I’m telling what I remember. I continue, “I… blocked it. Pushed it back, even. I don’t know how. I took his staff too, and yet when one of our guards touched it, it burned him.”
Alayel presses his lips together. “You can’t tell anyone that.”
“You said it before, but what if they don’t know about the riders’ magic, and…” I’m not even sure what to say.
He shakes his head and narrows his eyes, his shiny curls framing his stunning face. “They keep a lot of secrets. I wouldn’t doubt that they already know about their magic.”
“But then why wouldn’t they tell the recruits? Make sure they’re prepared?”
“That, I don’t know. I’m not privy to all their secrets and machinations, Mayara. Regardless, there’s no reason why you should share your secrets.” He holds my gaze, then drinks another sip of his wine, the rim of the cup resting between his lips.
I wonder what it would be like to feel these lips up close, then wish I could take back that thought and erase it.
“Maybe,” I mutter. The wine has numbed my shock, but might have numbed me too much. I get up, feeling light and warm and slightly tipsy. “I’d better go.”
“Stay.” He takes my glass and puts it on the counter, beside his, then stands in front of me, a hand reaching for my hair. “Please, stay,” he pleads.