House of Shadows (Royal Houses 2)

“He’s handling it.”

“She hates her father,” Fordham spat.

“I know, but you will only make things worse.”

“Me and not him?”

“Oh, he probably will, too, but she expects that from him.”

He turned back to look at Clover. Hadrian had finally reached them as well.

“Explain,” he commanded.

“Have you changed your mind about Kerrigan?” Clover demanded.

His jaw clenched. “No.”

“I don’t understand,” Hadrian said. “Why are you two not together?”

Fordham shook his head. “It’s a curse.”

Clover rolled her eyes. “Melodramatic.”

“A literal curse,” he explained. “I am doomed to hurt the ones closest to me. It was given to me at birth.”

“Have you considered that simply by denying yourself the person you want, you are already hurting her?” Clover snapped.

Fordham’s face cleared for a moment. “No. I don’t want to hurt her, but …”

“But?”

He shook his head and turned to find Kerrigan piling into a carriage and leaving the party. Hope died in his face. “I don’t want to get her killed either.”

Hadrian put his hand on Fordham’s shoulder. “We all think we’re doing the best by her, but as someone who has known her most of my life, let me tell you that she does not like choices to be made for her. She would rather suffer the consequences than live with regret.”

Fordham’s face was pained at the words. “I’ll consider that.”

Clover watched him deal with the consequences of his actions. She wasn’t ready to return to the party to deal with the consequences of hers. So, she slipped into the night without Hadrian or Darby. Away from the life she could only ever halfway occupy as a human and back to the Wastes that accepted her wholly as she was. She lit a loch cigarette, wondering who that was anymore.

25

The Dragons

“We can do this,” Kerrigan said to Tieran as she stood at his side in the arena.

You are incredibly optimistic. It would be endearing if it wasn’t so ill-advised, Tieran grumbled.

“Thanks.” She rolled her eyes at her dragon.

Seriously, how had they ended up together? Not that she wasn’t a sarcastic jerk sometimes—a lot of times even—but Tieran took it to the next level.

Now, if Alura could just show up and tell them what they were all doing.

The trainees hadn’t been given any directions the rest of the weekend. Kerrigan had spent it sleeping and trying to forget the Season party that had ruined her life. She only left to eat, making sure to do it at odd hours to escape the others. Which worked. She didn’t even see Fordham, who must have been avoiding her to accomplish that. He always seemed to have a sixth sense to her movements.

Then, this morning, she’d woken up to a note slipped under her door that said to meet in the arena. So, here she was. The dragons were already waiting for them when the others trickled in as well.

Audria was paired with Evien, a majestic purple-scaled dragon, who Kerrigan used to sneak out with at night to fly. Roake had the sapphire-blue dragon, Luxor, who had never understood Kerrigan’s sarcasm or really any figures of speech. Which might have been a problem for Kerrigan, but seemed to suit Roake just fine. Noda’s dragon, Avirix, had seafoam-green scales that nearly matched the various patterned teal headscarves she always wore. Avirix was the largest of the lot. Not as large as Gelryn, who was the size of a large house, but hardly as small as Tieran.

Kerrigan tried not to look to where Fordham stood with Netta in all of her ruby-scaled glory. She didn’t want to know what he thought about March. Or maybe… didn’t think about March.

Roake tapped his foot. “Is she ever going to appear?”

She must, Luxor said evenly. She is duty-bound.

“She’s taking her sweet time,” he grumbled.

“She’s allowed to do what she wants,” Audria said.

Indeed, Evien said. But maybe we could fly around the arena while we wait.

Tieran nudged her. Maybe we cut a break.

Kerrigan rolled her eyes. “We’re not that lucky.”

Tieran couldn’t even argue.

Noda was the first to see her. She gasped and pointed to the skies where Alura soared in on her dragon, Gemina. She was a stunning metallic blend of silver, gold, and bronze. Her scales almost matched the silver metal armor that Alura had fastened down her front. She looked like an avenging goddess from legend.

Gemina zoomed in low, and Alura executed a perfect dive roll onto the sand floor. She whipped up, removing the sword strapped to her back, and ran at a full sprint. Gemina dipped down, grabbed her in one claw, and tossed her upward. Kerrigan’s eyes widened as Alura did a flip and landed in a standing crouch on the back of her dragon, an effortless shield forming around them. She thrust the sword back into its sheath and then side-rolled down the leg of her dragon, dangled from the ankle, and released, using air to cushion her descent and landing on one knee.