Rush knelt to help, gathering wads of paper. “I’m no expert, but sleeping on textbooks isn’t the best way to absorb their material.”
I tossed another wad of ruined notes at him, too excited about Myth to retort.
He stuffed the scraps of paper in his pockets until they were all full. “Can’t leave these here.” As he took a stack of books from my hands, his fingers lingered over my own. “There’s a chance Myth hasn’t used his flame this entire time, but if he has, you can’t let on that you know what it can do. You’re dead the minute he thinks you know. And,” he said a little quieter, “we’re not supposed to have anything to do with each other outside of school. If you come back, it’ll return to the way it was.”
I nodded, emptying like a sucking drain. A small part of me wondered if I could go back to pretending to be Rush’s enemy.
“My father can’t know, Ari.” He stepped closer, drawing my eyes up to his. “Not just about what we know, but about…” Rush swallowed. “He can take away everything we care about.”
My body tensed at what he was implying. But I was too excited about Myth, too stir-crazy from sitting alone in this house so long, to say anything intelligent. “So now the charade will be that you hate me again?” I teased, not realizing how the words would sound until they’d fallen from my mouth.
A small breath hissed from his nose. Was it a laugh? A disgusted snort?
As Rush turned to leave the room, holding his arm out for me to go first, he said, “Yes, Ari. The charade will be that I don’t care for you.”
When I climbedinto Azeron’s saddle behind Rush, my heart still thundered from his words. He was a Covington, and I was a bottomsider, and no part of me could fully process what he’dsaid. Besides, we were going to steal my dragon back, and I could barely contain my excitement over seeing him again.
Once we were all strapped in, Rush glanced over his shoulder. “Ready?”
My arms tentatively held his waist, unsteady from his confession and the departure from the easy way we’d always teased each other. Rush Covington had said he cared for me, and suddenly, sitting in a double saddle with him was as strange as it had been the first time, when my opinion of him had been less than favorable. Stranger, in fact, now that I wanted to hear him say it again, to mean it, to prove it.
“Let’s go get my dragon.”
He nodded, but as we took off, he pressed one hand over mine, holding me to him. His palm covered my fist, his fingers resting in the grooves between my knuckles.
We left Azeron saddled in the lair and marched down the path to Cardan Lott, old snow crunching underfoot. As we approached the school, part of my heart lifted while my stomach knotted. This place had changed me, even if I hadn’t changed it. Maybe that would be enough.
“They’re setting up for the spring ball in the ballroom.” He nodded at the terrace where we normally entered the school.
“The ball?” I scratched my head. “Already?”
Rush eyed me with a hint of worry. “It’s almost officially spring—race season.”
The ball was the school’s largest fundraising event of the year and was held at the spring equinox, the official opening of racing season.
Instead of the back terrace entrance, Rush led me to an arched doorway underneath the terrace steps. Bricks had been placed where a door had once stood. He moved into the stone archway, running his hands along the bricks until he touchedone near the bottom. He shoved it inward, and it made a horrible grinding sound as it moved. But no door appeared.
Rush stood up, mischief in his grin, and jerked his head toward the mirrored set of steps that led from the opposite side of the terrace. We left a line of footprints in the snow as we trudged to the other set of stairs. Another bricked archway. Another secret brick, this one in a different place. It made the same grinding sound. But when it sank inward, the seemingly ancient mortar around the doorway let out a puff of crumbled masonry, and the entire thing swung inward a few inches. Rush leaned against the heavy door, and we stepped into the school’s basement, into a hallway I’d never seen.
The corridors down here were bleak and unfashionable. Black and white tiles lined the floor, giving the place an eerie emptiness. One room contained old desks with broken legs, chairs with the seats missing, and two blackboards that seemed perfectly fine. Most of the rooms we passed were closed and locked.
Rush approached one and took out a shining silver key. He passed me the lamp and turned to the knob.
“How is it that you have all the secrets of this place?” I wondered aloud, crossing my arms as he unlocked the door.
“You forget my older brother came here five years ago.” He pushed the door open and stepped aside to let me enter first.
It was a lavish room, but carelessly decorated. Thick tapestries overlapped every part of the walls, and the furniture—which consisted of seven mismatched chairs—did not coordinate at all with the plush rug that sat in the center of the floor. The chairs had been arranged in a circle, and lamps of varying sizes rested on three tables.
“What is this place?” I asked as Rush stepped in behind me.
“The meeting room for one of Cardan Lott’s secret societies.”
My brows rose. “One of?”
“In a school this old, there are several.”
Vanya appeared in the doorway, a look of wonder on her face. She hurried into the room and spun to take it all in.
