House of Shadows (Royal Houses 2)

She gritted her teeth and nodded her head at him. Come on, she wanted to scream at him.

Eventually, he got the picture and flew across the arena. But there was no bond, no tug, nothing. And as they looked into each other’s eyes, they both knew they were in way over their heads.

Not too bad, huh? Tieran spat sarcastically into her mind.

26

The Protest

Kerrigan spent the week excelling at the various mounts and dismounts that Alura had shown them and failing miserably at every single bond exercise. They skidded by when they could look at each other or Tieran could speak into her mind what he was planning to do. They suffered through blindfolded bond training. And while everyone seemed to get better, she stayed exactly the same.

Alura looked at her strangely through much of it. She didn’t know that Kerrigan was faking it, but how long could they keep this up?

She was more exhausted from faking a dragon bond than from the rest of her classes combined. She did fine in her new subjects—government, history, and philosophy. She excelled in her magic classes. She was even pulling away in her air and fire lessons. Water was always her worst subject, but even that was nothing compared to the bonding.

She kept waiting for Zina to start their spirit training classes, but anytime Kerrigan asked, Zina shooed her out the door and claimed that she’d contact her. Which was fine by her since she was swamped with papers in the evenings now. Her nose buried in a book as she scratched on parchment until late into the night. Only to wake up for dragon training all over again.

The only joy in all of this was that weapons training had been moved to twice a week, and they were fighting with staffs, knives, and spears, too. Lorian only came to taunt her, frustrating but manageable.

The one thing she did know was that she couldn’t stay inside this mountain another moment. She missed the Wastes. She missed how easy her life had been in the House of Dragons. While there, she’d complained that it was hard, but boy, had she been wrong.

“What took you so long?” Clover asked once Kerrigan slipped through a secret exit out of the mountain.

“Sorry. It’s been a very long week.”

“Tell me about it on the way.”

But Kerrigan didn’t want to tell anyone about it. She knew that Clover wouldn’t judge her for not bonding with Tieran. She’d even encourage her to fake it until she made it. She just couldn’t do it. Something about saying it out loud would make it real.

“Well?” Clover asked, pulling out a cigarette as they wove through the streets.

“You’re going to smoke that here?” Kerrigan asked dubiously.

“I need one before we’re in the protest for hours on end,” Clover said. Her voice hardened at the words. She clearly hated admitting to it as much as Kerrigan did.

“All right. Be quick.”

Kerrigan tugged on her hood and glanced around nervously to see if anyone was watching. Loch was still illegal even if Clover smoked it for medicinal reasons.

She stamped out the smoke before they made it to the Square. People milled about the interior of the Square, making signs and chatting. For a Friday night, the Square was relatively empty. The traffic had been reduced by barricades that kept the horses and carriages out of the center.

“There are fewer people here than I thought,” Kerrigan said.

“Yeah. Thea can get people out for the secret meetings, but to actually stand up to the Society, that’s an entirely different thing.”

“Makes sense. No one wants to get in trouble.”

“We’re allowed to protest,” Clover said defensively. “It’s protected speech.”

“I know, but …”

Clover shrugged. “I get it. It’s stupid.”

Kerrigan agreed. But fear laced the protest. No one was approaching anyone else. None of the signs were being held high. The protesters were huddled together and looking around anxiously. Only a few people were doing much of anything, and Kerrigan instantly recognized Thea as one of them.

“Come on. Let’s say hi.”

Kerrigan followed her to where the leader of Rights For All was standing, speaking to a Fae male. Well, the man was arguing with Thea while she kept a perfectly level head.

“I understand, sir, and appreciate the information, but we actually are allowed to be out here today.”

“I’m going to call the Society Guard.”

“You may do so, but I have a permit from the Society for this demonstration,” she said cheerfully.

“No one wants your kind here,” the man said. “You’re going to lose us all our business.”

“I apologize for the loss of business. We do not want to harm you in any way. We would like to request the same from the Society and the city guard. We deserve to be heard.”

The man grumbled something and then turned and trekked back to the glass-blowing business he apparently owned.