My dragon shrieked, and his claws cracked the concrete beneath his feet.
Don’t…flame…My mind was slipping.
I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
Then sleep came.
CHAPTER 36
Aloud clank stirred me from a fitful sleep.
My eyes popped open, and I sat up on a creaky cot. Bars encircled me.
I was in a holding cell inside the jail. Catcalls, whistles, and comments that made my stomach roil filled my ears as I glanced around. My body ached, and I let out a moan.
“Hush, Ar,” said a familiar voice.
Outside my cell, in the dim light of the single lamp affixed to the wall by the far door, stood my brother. In his hand was a ring of iron keys. My cell lock thunked faintly as it opened, and the door wheezed on its rusty hinges.
Bennett stepped aside. “Come on.”
Sneers and shouts of disapproval harangued us as we hurried toward the exit, Bennett holding my elbow as if I were his own prisoner. There were no guards in sight, the chair by the door vacant.
“Did Fairfax send you?” I whispered.
“That quack sponsor of yours? No.”
The word pricked at my skin a little. Not because I loved Fairfax at all, but because I’d thought he was at least an ally.Fairfax had clearly gotten himself out of jail, leaving me behind. But I didn’t really care who’d gotten me out as I hurried behind my brother.
The hallway leading through the constabulary was empty as well, eerily so. We took a turn down a hallway I hadn’t passed through on the way in, and soon we exited through a small door that led into a neighboring building with velvet carpet that swallowed our footsteps. Bennett walked these dark halls with determined steps, leading me first right, then left, and, finally, down a small flight of stairs and out a slim but ornate door that dumped us into a narrow alleyway where steam lifted from a manhole in the pavement. No streetlights shone here, and when he shut the door behind us, it looked so nondescript and bland that I doubted anyone knew where it led or cared.
Without a coat, the air snapped harshly at me. I shivered and wrapped my arms around my torso. Then with a flush of panic, my fingers slipped down to my pocket, where I felt the comforting outline of a metal key.
“Don’t look at me like that, Ar. I just risked everything to get you out of there,” Bennett said, replacing his newsboy cap. On his wrist, between his leather glove and jacket sleeve, I spotted a new tattoo peeking out. The same interlocking S I’d seen carved on Rush’s skin.
I dropped my head. “You didn’t have to?—”
He bent toward me, jabbing a finger at me. “Yes, I did. Ari, I heard what happened. What they did to you.” He pulled me into a hug, which surprised me.
“How?” I said, pushing back. “Who told you?”
“The duke’s boy. He’s the one who paid me the bond money to get you out.” I was too speechless to reply, so he kept talking. “Said it would be easier to hide his involvement if I did it.” He shrugged, pulling out a cigarette. “Guess that’s true.”
“If you paid the bond, why all the sneaking and whispering?” I said, recalling the vacant guard’s chair.
With his lips pinched around the cigarette, he mumbled, “Apparently the guards had been instructed not to let you out, bond or no.”
I stared at his flickering match, not wanting him to elaborate on what happened to the guards. Then I blinked as he shook out the small flame. “They tortured my dragon.”
“You too, from what the duke’s boy said.”
A faint nod. The memories were hazy. “But now they know the truth.” There was a finality to it that made the ache in my muscles and the pinch in my heart not feel so strong. We’d passed the test.
My brother coughed out an incredulous laugh. “They sent your dragon to be executed, Ari.”
My knees buckled, and I tipped forward. Bennett caught me, awkwardly, trying not to burn me with his cigarette. “Whoa, whoa.”
I caught my balance, head spinning. “Is he dead?”
