Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
“Run me through it one more time.”
Olive squeezes my hands as she sits facing me on my bed. Halfway through lunch, she dragged me back to our room and demanded that I tell her what happened. Apparently, my face wasn’t doing a stellar job of hiding my heartbreak. Who’d ever guess that spending two hours on sleep and an equal amount of time on crying would leave me less than fresh?
Stifling a groan, I re-summarize last night’s events with Thorne. By the end, I’m ready for a prolonged nap.
“Here’s my opinion, for what it’s worth. You told him you loved him, right?” I nod. “If I had to guess, it sounds like he’s feeling things for you that scared him, so he deliberately tried to push you away. Which is actually good news.”
I gape. “Okay, I’ll bite. In what realm is Thorne telling me I’m too na?ve for a relationship with him, that it was only sex for him and nothing else, and literally trying to convince me to leave the kingdom good news?”
“The realm where he’s going out of his way to act an oozing pustule and hurt you. If he didn’t care, he’d shrug and be indifferent to whether you stay or go, but he wasn’t, was he?”
“Well, no, but remember this is Thorne. He maintains a base level of assholish-ness at all times.”
“True, but that doesn’t explain why he flip-flopped all of a sudden.” She taps her index finger against her chin. “You said all this started right after you told him about the king’s letter, right?”
My shoulders droop. “Right, but I can’t see how me turning down an exemption would factor in…unless he really does believe I can’t hack it here and should leave. He might never have suggested it before because he didn’t believe I’d get one.”
After what happened with her brother, I feel bad discussing this with Olive, but she acts unfazed. “Could he have been upset about the king coming to watch the trial?”
I rub the back of my neck. “I suppose, but I don’t know why. He and the king are supposedly tight, so why would that bother him?”
Olive toys with a loose thread on her collar. “Just considering all the possibilities. Either way, I bet you caught him off guard. I bet once the shock wears off, he’ll come around.”
Though not completely sold, her optimism bolsters my spirits, because I see her logic. His overboard reaction did come out of nowhere. That’s part of why it hurts so much. “Thanks, Olive.”
“That’s what friends are for.” She leans in for a quick hug. “Come on. It’s almost time for the assembly.”
At the assembly, Bigley’s announcement about King Xenon’s attendance at the trial comes as a surprise to all the fledglings apart from Olive and me. However, the follow-up about his imminent arrival this afternoon and the subsequent party Flighthaven will host in his honor tonight is news to us too. When Bigley releases us for the remainder of the day, excitement spreads like wildfire among the fledglings. The opportunities to let loose are a rare enough occurrence here that even most of the men sound hyped about dressing up and dancing.
Olive excuses herself, claiming she wants to meet with Resnick to ask a question about her magic. On my walk back to the dorm, a hand grabs my upper arm from behind. My heart skips until I realize the hand is too small to be Thorne’s. I spin and my muscles coil, preparing me for a potential threat. “Helene. Do you need something?”
“Not here.” She tugs me toward the dorms. I dig in my heels, staring at her hand. Her aggrieved snort tells me what she thinks of my unspoken demand, but it does the trick. She releases me and, with an exaggerated flourish, gestures me forward. “After you.”
Does she think I’m an idiot? “Yeah, no. I don’t think so. After you. I insist.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. What do you think I’m going to do, tackle you in the stairwell?”
I lift my eyebrows because, yes, actually. That wouldn’t surprise me at all.
Fixing me with a scathing look, she stomps ahead. I trail behind her while rubbing my temples, praying whatever this is about is quick.
Inside our room, she paces the floor. I sit on the bed and wait her out.
I’m about two seconds away from leaving when she stops in front of me. “You should leave Flighthaven. Tonight. Everyone will be at the party or worried about who’s flying in. I doubt they’ll spend much energy on who’s leaving.”
I sputter a laugh. “Seriously? This again?” I shake my head. “Twice in one day, what are the odds?” I mutter.
Her forehead creases. “What are you mumbling about? No, never mind. It’s not important. Leaving is.”
Exhaustion seeps into my bones. “You know, I thought you stopped trying to threaten me into leaving, that you and I were past this. Guess I was mistaken.”
She wraps the end of her braid around her fingers and tugs. “We were, but that was before I knew the king was coming.”
Frustration roars through my veins. “The king again. Why does the king making an appearance change anything?”
Glancing at the door, she lowers her voice. “Because Leesa didn’t start acting weird until after the king’s last visit.” She swallows. “She told me that if she ever vanished for some reason and her sister showed up, that I should try to get you to leave. And that you should avoid the king at all costs.”
I scoff. “Do you really expect me to believe you and Leesa were friendly enough for her to tell you something like that? Please. I know I’m not very worldly, but even I’m not that gullible.”
“You’d better believe it, because it’s true.”
“Yeah? Prove it.”
Helene flexes her fingers like she’s picturing them around my neck. “Did you go through her belongings yet and find a dragon pendant? Because I gave that to her.”
My gaze slides to the bedside table, where I stashed the necklace I found in the stairwell. The pendant looked expensive. “You gave my sister a dragon pendant.” My flat voice oozes with disbelief. “Even if I bought that story, why would you do that?”
Helene finds something fascinating to study on my comforter and clears her throat. “We were, um, dating.”
I shriek. “You were dating?”
She jumps, checks the door, and then shifts back to me with a scowl. “Shut up!” she hisses. “I don’t need everyone knowing my business.”
I cross my arms. “If you two were dating, why didn’t Leesa ever mention that in one of her letters?”
Her scowl becomes a frown. She closes her eyes, her expression pained. “Probably because I told her we needed to keep it a secret. My family…they wouldn’t understand. That’s also why she broke up with me, if you must know.”
Damn. She seems so genuine, I almost buy it. But this is Helene we’re talking about. Although, if she’s telling the truth, I suppose that could explain why she tried to frighten me off when I first arrived. “Why go through all this? Why not just tell me?”
“You mean, like I’m doing now? Because that seems to be going really well so far, don’t you think?” Okay, point taken. “Also, no offense, but I didn’t know you and had no idea if you’d go running off telling everyone about us. I figured scaring you away would be more effective.”
“So Elijah and Mark…?”
“Total ratfuckers. They’d be just as happy to see you dead as gone.”
A surprised laugh barrels up my throat. “Don’t sugarcoat it for me or anything.” I scrub my palms down my face. “Sorry, this is a lot to take in. Do you have any other proof? Though, it probably doesn’t matter. I’m not leaving. Not yet, anyway.”
Helene glares before tossing her hands in the air. “Whatever. At least my conscience is clear, knowing I tried. You wanna thumb your nose at death, be my guest.”
Ah. There’s the Helene I know and love.
I call out as she storms toward the door. “Do you think she’s still alive?”
She bows her head, her hand stilling on the doorknob. “I don’t know. All she told me was that the king was asking a lot of questions about you. I think she kept me in the dark at first to protect me, and later, because I was no longer someone she took in her confidence. I pray every night, though.”
With that, she sweeps from the room, leaving me to wrap my brain around this new information in silence.
“Leesa, what did you uncover?” I whisper while pressing my palm over my heart. “And why didn’t you tell someone?”
More determined than ever, I scan the book Leesa left with Royce.
Three-quarters of the way in, I flip a page and squint, tilting the book toward the window. It’s a section with information on dragoncallers. In the sunlight, I swear I spot a faint groove beneath the word. As if someone underlined it using an ink tip without ink.
Excitement skitters down my spine.
Time has erased how and why the dragoncallers came into existence. Records indicate the first sighting of the winged people with these incredible powers was centuries ago.
The passage continues.
Those in Kamor and Aclaris envy and fear the Tirenese dragoncallers for their power over dragons, the most powerful creatures on Earth.
As I read more of the passage, I realize what struck me as odd about the narrator. Unlike other books I’ve read about kingdoms outside Aclaris, this book favors a Tirenese perspective. I noticed when reading about past skirmishes. I notice again now. The author was almost certainly Tirenese and possibly slanting this so-called history in their favor.
Connected to dragons through a mental bond, a dragoncaller can read the feelings and emotions of their namesake. A lesser-known fact is that, while not as strong, they were often believed to possess empathetic connections to other magical creatures too.
Though the Tirenese people in general require no use of outside herbal or other supplemental enhancements to perform magic, it’s believed that due to the strength of their magic, a dragoncaller’s use of such a supplement could lead to deadly consequences. In fact, according to legend, when first manifesting, even non-enhanced magic can result in disaster.
I stare at the words, my mind returning to the moment my magic first manifested at our castle.
That morning, I was on the shared balcony outside Leesa’s and my rooms, enjoying the way the sun eased the morning chill. To my surprise, the bright glow stopped warming my skin and began to sting to the point where I feared I’d blister.
Not understanding, I stepped into a shadow. The burning got worse. Reddish patches on my pale arms swirled then coalesced into five thick lines that streaked to my fingertips. They burned and smoked. Next, sparks flew from them.
In the distance, flames burst from the stable. The horses—that I was afraid of—screamed. Servants yelled. The stable boy lost his legs. Our stallions and mares died.
When my mother found out what I did, without me meaning to, she came to a horrible realization. I could make fire without trying or using eyril, which no one in this kingdom had ever done before.
Panicked, she paid an alchemist to concoct a remedy to tamp down my magic and warned me to never tell anyone about my unexpected talent. Not even Leesa.
To hide my magic from everyone.
Shuddering, I read on.
Young, untrained dragoncallers are susceptible to the beasts’ emotions, the first several onslaughts confusing and easily overwhelming until they gain experience and control. Headaches and nausea typically accompany unexpected images, sounds, and ever-changing feelings that emerge from the dragons to settle in the dragoncaller’s mind.
Stunned, déjà vu floods through me as I recall the day I faced Flighthaven’s black dragon.
My pulse races, and my hands tremble.
With time and practice, those physical and mental issues fade, leaving the dragoncaller to bond with the beasts and own the sky.
I lower the book, my heart plummeting into my stomach. The idea solidifying in my mind can’t possibly be true, and yet, it must be. The details line up…even the grave marker bearing my name. Because if I’m right, then the couple I believe to be my parents did not sire or give birth to me. If I’m right, my kingdom of origin isn’t Aclaris.
I’m Tirenese. And I’m a dragoncaller.