Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
The next morning, I wake up to a note from Thorne slipped under the door, canceling our training session. No explanation. Just a single curt line saying he can’t make the lesson.
I stare at the black letters on the white page. The precise, harsh pen strokes don’t surprise me. Thorne’s tidy room and background as a soldier speak to his discipline. In a couple spots, the ink is thicker, though, almost as if the writer paused to second-guess his wording.
When I catch myself still staring at the page minutes later, I stifle a groan. Wow. Am I really standing around, pouring over Thorne’s note as if his handwriting will unlock the secrets of his soul? It’s a new low, even for me. Especially when yesterday’s shitshow should be claiming all my attention.
The grave marker, the intruder, the attempted stabbing, the escaped dragon, my hallucinations over the eyril field. I don’t know what to make of any of it. I wish I understood why Leesa felt the need to play cat and mouse games with me. The only conclusion I can draw is that my sister was scared and believed sending me the letter or the book directly came with too much risk.
Still, the image of my name on that gravestone is permanently seared into my eyes. I can’t help but feel betrayed…by both my mother and Leesa.
I came to Flighthaven hoping for answers. Instead, with each passing day, I grow more confused. Do all the strange things happening to me tie together somehow? Or am I just blessed by a god that specializes in the bizarre and inexplicable?
Shaking my head at my own foolishness, I stash the note in my nightstand and fish out the book Royce gave me from beneath the mattress. I smooth my palm over the leather-bound cover. Of all subjects, why Tirenese history? Hopefully, an answer lies within the pages. If Leesa went to all the trouble of getting the book, along with a coded note, to Royce, then I have to believe there’s something important inside. Nothing left to do until breakfast but start reading.
In the aftermath of such an eventful night, the mess hall at breakfast overflows with rumors and gossip.
Despite repeated searches, no one located the missing black dragon. Privately, I celebrate his newfound freedom. I hope the dragon flies far from this place and never returns. I hope he soars above the Cyne mountain range, enjoying the sun warming his hide and the wind flowing beneath his wings. Traitorous or not, I go as far as to hope the dragon finds a herd of wild dragons to join, even if that means settling in Tirene.
There’s only one person I could share these hopes with. Too bad he canceled on me. I avoid getting drawn into the conversations as much as possible, snarfing down my oatmeal and leaving early to curb my rising frustration over everyone’s obsession with how to recover the beast.
Outside, the relative silence eases my irritation. As the sun slips behind the clouds, a prickle of awareness teases the nape of my neck. Turning, I spy the culprit. A visibly pissed off Thorne stands outside the administrative building, his rigid posture and flat mouth dead giveaways. He’s staring right at me, so that’s great.
My blood sings as he finishes his conversation and stalks down the path toward me. Asinine on my part, honestly. No one in their right mind wants Thorne marching toward them as if someone stuffed his favorite boots with dragon droppings.
He grabs my arm and pulls me behind a tree, performing a frantic, head-to-toe visual inspection. “You’re okay?”
I wrinkle my brow. “I’m fine. Why?”
His shoulders relax. “Torno just told me about the man who broke into your dorm room and tried to stab you.”
Wait. Did I misread the signs? Thorne wasn’t pissed but worried? Over my safety?
My heart melts into a pile of goo. “It happened while we were away last night. I’m perfectly safe.”
His scowl deepens. “Perfectly safe until the next attempt. Meanwhile, here you are, frolicking about on your own like you don’t have a care in the world.”
“I’ll have you know that I have plenty of cares…er, lots of things I care about. And walking at a sedate pace is hardly frolicking.” The warmth in my chest expands. “Thanks for worrying about me, though.”
With a smile, I place my hand on his chest.
His muscles twitch at the contact. He raises his own hand, as if to cover mine, but stops abruptly and whips his head to the side. With a low growl, he jerks back a step, leaving my hand to fall to my side.
Torno strolls into view, following a walkway to one of the training fields. She dips her chin at us without stopping.
I return her nod and refocus on Thorne. The scowl has vanished, leaving his features arranged in that carefully blank expression I’m growing to hate. “You’re not special. I’m merely performing my duties. It’s part of my job to help maintain the safety of the campus and all fledglings.”
His voice is as flat as his expression. Cold. Just like the chill that chases the warmth from my chest.
From prick to sweetheart to prick again, all under a minute. That might be a new record, even for him.
I rub my sternum, a futile effort to banish the hurt from his verbal blow. He tracks the motion and—wait. Was that a flinch? No. Surely not. That would mean he cares, when he basically just told me the opposite.
In all honesty, I think he probably does care. At least a little. But the effort he puts into hiding this truth sends a message all by itself.
He doesn’t want this. Me. Whatever this connection is between us.
The fake smile straining my lips requires a lot of effort. “Well, then, thanks for looking out for everyone’s safety.” My forced cheer rings fake to my own ears. I should stop there to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness, but I can’t help myself. “For the record, if someone tried to stab you, I’d care. Not just because I want all my instructors to be safe, but because I care about you as a person.”
This time, his flinch is obvious. Torment flares in his eyes as he gazes at me, his hands fisted at his sides. “Don’t. Care, that is.”
Ugh. Not this again. “Why not?”
“Because nothing can happen.”
“Nothing as in, we’re not allowed to give a damn about each other as human beings?” He folds his arms across his chest, quirking his left eyebrow up in challenge as if to say, you know that’s not what I meant. I throw my hands up in defeat because, fine. I do know. That doesn’t mean I need that eyebrow to call me out like that. “Is it the instructor-student thing?”
A beat passes. “Sure.” He gives my body one last inspection. “Don’t let me catch you by yourself again.”
He walks away without glancing back.
I want to argue, but what’s the point? He couldn’t be clearer about not wanting anything from me, and I need to respect his boundaries. To him, I’m probably just another fledgling watching him with starry eyes. If I’m so desperate for a romantic relationship, I should take his advice and find someone my age. A peer. Not a moody instructor who makes me want to bang my head on a wall half the time, anyway.
Luckily, the next days keep me busy. Preparations for the upcoming trial and my race to locate Leesa don’t leave me much time for brooding. I push myself in conditioning and weapons training, as well as flex my expanding power in magic. Thorne deems me proficient enough at flight to join my regular class. Now that I’ve conquered my terror of riding an alicorn, flying comes easily. My aptitude for riding and connection to Zephyr grow with each session. Sometimes, we’re so in tune, it’s almost as if we can read each other’s minds.
If only using weapons in the air were half as simple.
Thorne cuts our morning lessons down to every other day, helping me practice those skills along with anything else he can dream up. The grueling sessions don’t allow much space for chitchat, which I’m sure comes as a big relief for us both. I also recruit my flight unit and Theo to help me practice my skills on the ground when afternoon classes get out and sometimes even after dinner.
If I can keep my eyes open at night, I read Leesa’s book. So far, nothing jumps out as pertinent to my life or Leesa. I worry that I’ve gotten my hopes up for nothing.
I read about ancient times when dragons preceded people and the belief they claimed all of Tirene as their home. I read about how phoenixes used to flourish and build their nests in the cliffs before disappearing, and about other beasts—magical and otherwise—that roamed the kingdom. All very helpful if I ever decide to seek a career in animal husbandry, but aside from that? I doubt a history of the most interesting and prolific creatures residing in enemy territory will aid me in uncovering the answers I seek.
Like other sources, this author repeats the speculation that the Tirenese are winged due to dragon ancestry in their distant past. He goes a step further and hypothesizes that ritual magic was combined with the inherent magic in dragons themselves. That’s far more palatable than the idea dragons mated with the original native people, a theory that creates such an alarming visual that I wish I had a magic spell to scrub the very concept of bestiality from my brain.
After a grueling week, I’m overjoyed when we have a free afternoon to spend however we please. Theo and I lag behind the rest of my flight unit as we head to the beach.
“Careful, Lark.” Theo snakes a hand around my waist, catching me as I stumble.
My face heats at the contact. “Thanks. I was lost in my own head.”
It’s not a lie. A lot has happened during my time at Flighthaven. The image of that grave marker never leaves my mind for long, and I’m nervous at the thought of the upcoming trial, knowing how vital it is that I don’t let my unit down.
But more important is my sister. Despite all the recent revelations, I’m no closer to finding her.
In good news, my magic continues to grow stronger as I wean off more of the remedy. My worry over losing control grows too. In class, I take care to never call on all my power. The memory of the burning stable is still too traumatic, and even though I’m starting to question everything my mother ever told me, her warnings about using my magic still hold sway. Maybe now more than ever. If I am adopted, there’s no telling what secrets she’s hiding about my biological family. For all I know, I come from a long line of people who struggle with freakish elemental power bursts that lead to accidents.
That’s the crux of the problem. I don’t know anything.
“What did those poor little rocks ever do to you?”
At Theo’s amused comment, I startle and watch a rock bounce along the trail ahead of us. “Sorry. I was spacing out again.”
The breeze tugs a few wisps of hair loose from my braid. Theo catches one of them, rubbing it between his fingers before tucking the strand behind my ear. “You need to learn how to relax.” When I snort, he shoots me a sideways glance, his hand lingering on my cheek. “What’s so funny?”
“If you only knew…relaxing is basically all I used to do before coming to Flighthaven. Oh, hey, look, there’s Olive and the others.”
I start jogging toward them, relieved to get a little space and join a bigger group. Theo’s always been friendly, but today he’s giving off a different vibe, like he’s interested in being more than friends, and I don’t know what to do about it.
Unlike Thorne, Theo’s casual touch doesn’t set my body on fire or release a flock of butterflies in my belly. But Thorne’s not an option. Maybe Theo’s exactly what I need to help me get past my inappropriate infatuation.