“Gonna have your dragon eat me? Roast me alive, Briony?”
“Maybe,” I say. “Or maybe I’ll burn you alive with my own magic.”
I let it flare in my veins, just a flicker, a flash of light, so quick I doubt anyone else in the canteen sees it or feels it, but it’s enough to have Stanley stumbling backward.
I turn around slowly to face him.
“They say the professor’s missing,” he says, “like the deputy headmistress. And the deputy headmistress is a traitor. Maybe your professor is one too. Maybe you are as well, Briony Storm. Maybe they’d like to know that.”
“I’m warning you,” I tell him.
“What’s going on?” Fly says, stepping up beside me. “Cupcake?” His voice is full of concern.
“Nothing,” I chime as cheerfully as I can. “Stanley just wanted to congratulate me on how well I did in this trial.”
“Did he?” Fly says.
Stanley scoffs, shoots one last disgusted look my way, and storms off.
I turn back to my plate of food.
“What was that really about?” Fly says.
“He knows about me and Fox,” I say.
I’ve been so concerned about finding Fox, I haven’t thought about the consequences – about what will happen when everybody learns just how much I care about him, and just how much he cares for me. It makes me realize just how stupid flying off like that was. I need to proceed with caution. I need to think things through. I don’t want to find him, only to land him in a whole heap of trouble.
Fly watches Stanley push his way through the busy canteen.
“Do you think he’ll make trouble for you?” he asks me.
I shake my head. “No. I don’t need to worry about him.”
“You’re sure?” Fly says.
“Yes,” I say, “I made it very clear that I will burn his skin off if he tries a single thing.”
Fly laughs. “Wow, Cupcake, you’re turning into a real badass.”
I shrug, pile the last few vegetables on my plate, and find a seat in the canteen.
Clare joins us fifteen minutes later, when there’s barely a bread roll or a sliver of meat left. She carries her plate in one hand and a pile of books tucked under her arm in the other, then comes to sit with us.
“Well, looks like you’ve been busy,” I say to her.
She nods, opens the first book on her pile, and starts reading, tearing off bread with her teeth as she does.
“Have you found anything useful?” I ask her.
She shakes her head. “But the library gave me these books,” she says, “so I’m sure there’s going to be something.”
She doesn’t say anything else for the rest of dinner – she’s too busy reading – and me and Fly chat quietly so as not to disturb her.
Once we’ve finished, Clare tells us she’s returning to the library, and Fly offers to walk me back to the Princes’ Tower.
“I’m okay,” I tell him.
“You were struck by lightning, Cupcake, and if you faint or collapse on the way back and I’ve left you on your own, I’m gonna be in big trouble with those three men. And by trouble, I mean they’ll probably beat me alive.”
