Sophie backs away, opens the door with a bang and runs.
‘Oi!’ the Guardian shouts.
I slip off the bed on to my knees as the sobs rack my body.
Now she knows, will always know, who I truly am. A liar, a fraud, a shiny fake rotting beneath the surface. Exhaustion washes over me as I climb into Sophie’s bed and lay my head against the pillow. I’m enveloped in her smell, the smell of my childhood. I’ll never be this close to her again. I try desperately to grasp on to Chumana’s words, to remember what she said before my mind spins back into that awful pit of anxiety and hatred it’s permanently been in, ever since last summer.
You don’t have to forgive yourself ... But you can offer yourself a second chance.
A floorboard creaks and suddenly there are familiar arms round me and a voice in my ear. ‘Care to tell me what’s going on, cousin?’
I sit up.
‘Viv?’ he says, his voice finding a touch of unusual seriousness. ‘What’s happened?’
I tell him.
‘I always knew there was more than you were letting on.’
‘I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me any more.’
He scoffs and ruffles my hair. ‘You’re my family. There’s nothing you could do to make me not want to have anything to do with you.’ He pauses. ‘You did an awful thing. But I know you well enough to know that you regretted it immediately. And I trust you to do the right thing now.’
He hugs me and for a moment I just savour the feeling. The feeling of being loved in spite of my mistake.
‘Did … Atlas say anything?’ I ask casually. ‘Earlier?’
He rolls his eyes. ‘He wanted to come up here when we saw Sophie run past, but I told him to bugger off. I’ve barely had a look in your life since he’s been around.’
I snort. ‘As if you haven’t spent your every waking moment with Karim.’
He grins. ‘What did you mean, yesterday, about Karim escaping on dragonback?’
‘The dragon I freed from the library is up in a field behind the forest,’ I say. ‘If we can get Karim out during the night,Chumana will take him to safety. Has anyone been found?’
‘No,’ Marquis says grimly. ‘But the Guardian staffroom is just below the library, and Karim has been listening through the floorboards all morning. They think Gideon or Serena might have escaped into the town, so they’re widening their search.’
‘What about Wyvernmire?’
‘She congratulated me on winning my category and told me I’d soon be able to return home,’ he scoffs.
‘And our family?’
Marquis shakes his head. ‘They won’t be freed unless you win your category, too. She said I’m only here because of you.’
‘That’s not fair,’ I seethe. ‘They’re your family, too, and you kept your end of the deal—’
‘It was never a real deal, though, was it, Viv?’
I look at him.
‘She doesn’t care what promises she made. If she did, she would never have made us compete in the first place. And now, because of her, we might have to face Bulgarian dragons. This war is about to get bigger.’
I take a deep breath. ‘If it comes to that … we know what side we’ll be on. Don’t we?’
‘Viv … I already told you that—’
‘And I agree,’ I say. ‘You were right about everything you said. I’ve been wrong my whole life. I want us to join the Coalition, Marquis.’
