Chapter 2
Portia packed while Milo, under the pretence of helping her, paced the floor of her apartment, fretting loudly.
Felicity kept growling under her breath as she brought various things from the laboratory only for Portia to tell her she didn’t need them.
The girl kept threatening to go to her father.
He was someone important, but Portia couldn’t remember who right now.
A duke, an earl? Something. Chances were, he wouldn’t care.
But Felicity did.
‘She can’t do this,’ the young woman said, for the millionth time.
Milo wasn’t much better. ‘It isn’t right.
It isn’t fair. You didn’t do anything wrong.
She would have killed that little—’ He glanced at the desk where Portia had made a nest from the beautiful shawl right beside the lantern.
Jade was curled up inside it, sleeping now, her chest rising and falling, her claws pinpricking through the material as she kneaded it in her sleep.
The shawl was probably ruined as well, not that it mattered.
‘Little what?’ Portia asked, still feeling prickly. Because it was all her fault. If she had just shut her mouth and kept her head down none of this would have happened.
And that horrible woman would probably have killed Jade.
No, actually, Portia found she didn’t regret that for a moment. Everything that happened afterwards, however…
The board would have to meet, she was told.
Probably the whole council. Her case would be discussed in detail.
In the meantime, she was to be suspended and denied all access to the Academy and its facilities.
Unfortunately, that included her accommodation.
She wasn’t quite being sacked, not yet, but that was what it might turn into.
All her work. Everything for the last ten years, all gone.
Because of a teacup dragon.
Great-Aunt Iris would be so proud, Portia thought bitterly.
Jade gave a little trill of contentment in her sleep and to Portia’s surprise, her heart jerked almost painfully.
It didn’t matter. It was done. And while Milo was still ranting on and on that he would find a way to fix it – and no doubt he would try – Portia knew what was going to happen.
The same thing that happened to Seb when he came here.
Her brother had only made it six months into his first year.
It had been humiliating, devastating, when he was sent away.
Portia had been tasked with returning him home and had tried to comfort him.
It won’t be forever, she’d said, you’ll come back.
It will all work out. I’ll do something. I’ll find a way, I promise.
All those empty, broken promises.
Seb wouldn’t come back here if you paid him anyway. Not after everything that had happened.
But she had loved the Royal Academy of Tesh.
She had made it her whole life. And she’d been good at what she did.
She had been instrumental in restructuring the Apothecarial and Herbalism department, teaching up-and-coming scholars like Felicity and countless others and making sure their holistic understanding of magic and the world around them stood them in far better stead than many other less recent graduates. The work she and Milo were doing now…
Didn’t actually seem to matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. Not when faced with the wrath of Lady Virginia Moorland.
It was all over. No one else had the nerve to say it yet, but Portia knew how this was going to go. Money governed everything in the end. If she and Milo had actually had that breakthrough in their work on magical fields, maybe they could have stood their ground. But now? No way.
‘Portia,’ Milo said, his hand on her arm to stop her punching her clothes deeper into the case.
Felicity took it from her and began to refold everything so it would fit.
So patiently, so diligently, that Portia didn’t know what to say.
She didn’t know what to say to either of them.
‘I will fight this. She can’t do this. I’ll make them clear your name. ’
And he’d lose. Didn’t he see that? Tears burned in the corners of her eyes and she blinked rapidly.
‘She can, Milo.’ She tried to smile. ‘You don’t know what they’re like.’
He frowned, confused. ‘What who’s like?’
‘The court,’ said Felicity vengefully. Oh yes, she understood. Felicity knew the court far better than either of them; Milo because he’d never had to, and Portia because she’d avoided it for years.
‘They’re worse than the academic board,’ Portia explained. ‘It’s all about appearances and favour, and she’s… she’s Lady Virginia Moorland. She knows the court inside out, their secrets and their vices, everything. It doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t have done anything differently.’
He pulled her into a hug, which she accepted only because she was so startled.
And it felt good. Like hugging one of her family.
Something she hadn’t done for a long time.
They probably all still blamed her for bringing Seb home the way she did, but there was no choice then either.
And she was going to have to face them all again now.
‘I’ll write to you,’ she told Milo. ‘If you want.’
He looked bewildered. ‘Of course I want. We still have work to do, you and I. Just because you’re haring off to an island in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean you can slack off, Portia.
Are you…’ He released her and took a step back, looking suddenly awkward.
Beneath that sophisticated, tailored image he presented to the world, she knew Milo had a lot of insecurities.
In fact, they were largely to blame for the outer image being quite so carefully constructed and maintained. ‘Are you really going home?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t have anywhere else to go. And family have to take you in, don’t they?’
She meant it like a joke but Milo didn’t smile.
‘Is Seb still there?’ Milo bit his lower lip. ‘Is he—?’
Oh, Portia thought and couldn’t help but wince, which Milo, of course, saw. His face fell even further. They tended to skirt around this subject as much as possible. For good reason.
‘He’s happy,’ she told him as gently as she could. ‘He’s running the Magical Emporium now. He took over from my uncle. It suits him. Do you – do you want me to tell him you were asking after him?’
She saw Milo think about it for a moment.
They had been as thick as thieves for the short time Seb had attended the Academy.
And then all that had fallen apart in the wake of the disaster, she supposed.
Neither of them wanted to talk about it.
Especially not to her, best friend of one and sister to the other.
She had kept herself carefully out of it because of that very connection.
And after everything that had happened with the accident, and Seb being sent down, and Milo…
well, it was better to never mention it.
There were recriminations to be had all round.
‘No,’ Milo said quietly. ‘Best not, I suppose. I’ll go and arrange a carriage for you. If you want?’ He looked like he didn’t know what to do. Not now the moment had come. He looked as lost as she felt.
‘I’ll drive you, Professor Starling,’ Felicity offered firmly. ‘My chaise is just outside.’
Felicity’s chaise was a nippy two-person carriage, drawn by a single bay horse and she handled it expertly.
They didn’t talk as they left the Academy and made their way out into the city of Tesh itself.
Felicity left her at the coaching inn, with fond words and the promise to be in touch which Portia didn’t really believe.
Felicity would no doubt find a new and enthusiastic mentor in no time and forget her.
Or possibly remember her fondly in idle moments, if Portia was lucky. The girl was gifted.
They exchanged a tearful farewell and Portia switched to the next public coach heading west, Jade travelling in her hand because Portia didn’t want to risk trying to coax her into a carry case, even if she had owned anything suitable.
The idea of the dark cramped box Virginia had kept the teacup dragons in made Portia think of prison cells and oubliettes.
She didn’t have jesses, but wasn’t sure that Jade would wear them anyway.
The thin looped leather straps which attached to the ankles of a dragon’s hind legs allowed a handler to control or tether them for their own safety, but Virginia hadn’t bothered with them.
No, she just kept the dragons locked up or held on to them like some kind of toy.
Jade was barely trained at all, not that it seemed to matter now.
The dragon slept most of the time, her tail wrapped securely around Portia’s wrist. When she did wake, Portia tried to feed her pieces of chocolate, but the dragon didn’t seem interested.
That was another worry, one she could focus on instead of her own spiralling thoughts.
Travelling this way meant that when Portia reached the docks at Bennin, she was left standing there with her cases and only one free hand to haul them onto a luggage trolley. She managed as best she could until a man in the uniform of the ferry company noticed and came to her aid.
‘I’m afraid we aren’t sailing until morning, ma’am, but we can arrange accommodation in the inn for—’
She recognised him instantly. She’d been dreading this.
‘Portia?’ he said, clearly surprised to see her here. He was from the island. And now he knew she was there, everyone would know.
‘Hello, David. Nice to see you.’ If she kept her tone light and carefree, that would make everyone think nothing was wrong, wouldn’t it? That she was just visiting briefly. Not that she had actually done that in ages. ‘Or should I say Captain Palmer now?’
He lifted the cases onto the trolley effortlessly and summoned one of the crew to take it into the nearby inn. ‘We didn’t know you were coming back. It’s been… some time.’