House of Shadows (Royal Houses 2)

Kerrigan gasped. “Are you kicking me out?”

Alura considered it and then shook her head. “No. We’ll have to have a makeup for the second part.”

“A makeup,” Kerrigan breathed. “When?”

“Monday. It’s a holiday weekend,” Alura reminded her. “I won’t keep you from the Night of the Dead celebrations in the city. Plus, I am to return to Venatrix this weekend for the Season event and the market opening. You and Tieran will have to make up the second test then. But if you don’t pass, then you’re out.”

Kerrigan gulped and nodded. “I understand.”

Tieran looked at her bleakly. We’re screwed.

And he wasn’t wrong.

29

The Night of the Dead

Kerrigan didn’t participate in any of the Night of the Dead festivities. She and Tieran spent all weekend flying around and scoping out locations to figure out how to beat this test on Monday. There was no other option. They ended up with a half-dozen places to meet all around the city perimeter. If she didn’t send them near those, then Kerrigan didn’t know what to do. It was the only shot they had.

Her friends tried to pull her out for the street festival the day before her exam. They wanted her to get her mind off of the test, but even if she wanted to go out, she couldn’t. She had plans with Mistress Zahina.

Helly had sent word to meet Zina in the aerie at nightfall, wearing all black. Kerrigan arrived right on time to find Zina in her black robes, her graying hair tied back and her face distant. A dragon nearly the size of Gelryn waited nearby with milky eyes and scratches down its neck and back.

Kerrigan swallowed as she approached the pair. “Mistress Zahina.”

“Zina, dear, is fine. Don’t let Vox scare you. He’s really a very sweet creature. He did his duty and now spends his days as he wishes, as I did until Helly called me back.”

“Hello, Vox,” Kerrigan said, bowing deeply to the ancient dragon.

Kerrigan, it is a great pleasure to make your acquaintance. The stars speak your name.

Kerrigan rose and stared in confusion. “The stars?”

“Don’t listen to him either. He fancies himself an astrologer.”

Vox nosed her. I study the stars, and they speak plainly about so little. Do not diminish the ones that they highlight. It is why you heeded your apprentice’s summons.

“Apprentice?” Kerrigan asked in surprise.

“Yes, yes, I taught Helly. She’s a handful and a half, isn’t she?”

Kerrigan didn’t know what to say to that. Helly was having her own master teach Kerrigan. It must have taken a great deal to get Zina back here. No matter what Vox had said about the stars.

“Anyway, we should go, dear,” Zina said.

She climbed onto Vox’s back with ease, and Kerrigan followed her without question. To ride such a dragon was a great privilege. Many people didn’t even like to carry guests on their dragon’s back. They weren’t pack mules after all. They were sentient beings.

Kerrigan didn’t ask where they were going. It didn’t really matter after all. She needed to learn to control her spirit magic or else the spiritcasting would consume her. She hadn’t had a prophetic vision since the tournament, but they used to wait years between visions. The only thing she’d seen at all lately was Mei putting up the barrier, and she didn’t know how much of that was her connection to the wall. Either way, she wanted to stay sane.

Vox didn’t fly far before landing in an open lane inside the city. No one even seemed to care that a dragon had landed on the road. A giant at that. But that was the way of Kinkadia. Dragons were as common as horses.

Kerrigan slid off of Vox’s back and then balked when she saw where the dragon had brought them. “Black House?” she gasped, whirling on Zina.

“Yes, yes, I know the stories people tell of the place. It’s abandoned, haunted, a home for orphans who were drowned.” She waved her hand, hauling a large bag onto her shoulder. “All that. It is still the best place to practice on this night.”

Kerrigan shuddered, remembering the last time she’d stepped into Black House. She’d been with Fordham, investigating the weapons that Basem Nix was selling with illegal magical artifacts. Her spirit magic was erratic, and the spirits of the dead swarmed her. Fordham didn’t feel a thing, and Kerrigan was overwhelmed with their presence. And that had been in the middle of the summer. Not on the actual Night of the Dead.

“Come, girl. Nothing is going to reach you with me beside you,” Zina said.

A healthy lot of Fae children prowled around the house, stepping close to it and then screaming at some bump in the night. It was tradition to try to touch the door to prove your mettle to your friends.

Everyone gaped as Zina strode right past the entire lot, up the stairs, and yanked the door open without even a backward glance. The kids all screamed and ran away. Kerrigan bit her lip, her stomach twisting, but she didn’t want Zina to look back for her. It was just a house. A haunted house on the Night of the Dead. But just a house. How many times could she say it to convince herself?