“My father will kill you if he finds out what you’re doing,” Rush snapped, not moving.
“He’ll try. Sure. But now that I know his secret, I can use it too. I can become as invincible as he has been for far too long.”
“We can get this over with now,” Rush said, fists at his sides.
Fairfax sighed. “There’s no fun in that. Your father’s defeat needs to be public, a dramatic affair, which is why I’ve planned a night race that will be well attended. The country’s most promising young dragon rider against a bottomsider with a wild dragon.” He arced one hand through the air as if reading a headline. “I can guarantee your father will attend when he finds out you are racing the wild dragon. And if your father attends, he will have a plethora of his adoring fans with him. It will be marvelous to watch you lose.”
“What if I don’t lose?” Rush said through gritted teeth.
“If you don’t, I will shoot your dragon. Then you won’t be able to win any more races.”
“Monster,” I breathed, clutching the edge of the chair.
“We still don’t know how my father uses magic to win, only that he does,” Rush said, voice almost a growl.
Hopping up, I shouted at Fairfax, “If you want to beat the duke, do it right. Let us race. No threats. No cheating. A real race.”
Silence fell as the train rattled down the tracks.
“You have two days to find out how to win, Arivelle. And keep in mind that one of you will not walk away from the race.”
Fairfax lifted his pistol and aimed at Rush’s head. “Now, if you’ll kindly leave.”
“The train is moving,” Clarence observed, his first words since we walked in.
“And your dragons are too, I assume?” Fairfax tsked. “Your father should rethink the curriculum at that school of his if it’s turning out brilliant minds like yours. Now, out you go. I promise to deliver Myth in one piece at Cardan Lott tomorrow morning.”
“I’m staying with him,” I said.
“Fine. You may. I have something else I’d like to say to you as well.”
“If she stays, I stay,” Rush spat, moving toward me.
“Your best bet here, Mr. Covington, is to find a way to weasel out of your father’s suspicions, which I’m certain will increase tenfold tomorrow when this train doesn’t arrive where he sent it and Myth returns to Cardan Lott. If you want him discovering your role in all this, by all means, stay. I’m sure he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot you the way he did that poor brother of yours.”
I held Rush back as he lunged. “No!” He made it a few steps, but he finally slowed. “You need to leave. He’s right. Go back to school. I’ll meet you there in the morning.”
The train screeched on the tracks, slowing as someone in the cab pulled the brakes. We rocked with the movement, and it briefly stole Fairfax’s attention as well as ours.
Rush’s eyes widened, and he flicked them toward Clarence. He mouthed, “Wintercress.”
Biting my lips, I nodded.
Rush turned back toward Fairfax and stormed at him, making me jump. “I’m not leaving her. So you can just shoot me right now, but I know you won’t because you need me to race her, tolose.”
Fairfax scrambled from his seat a little awkwardly, needing his hands to pry himself up as the train rattled against its brakes.
“Clarence!” I said, lifting my hands as if to catch something. He quickly withdrew the bottle of wintercress and tossed it to me. When my fingers curled around it, I tucked into a sprint.
Vanya caught on and leaped up as well, diving across the table for one of the pistols. For a brief moment, Fairfax wasn’t sure which of us to aim at.
Then he noticed Vanya had him in her sights and Rush was barreling toward him with his fists, me with an uncorked bottle of wintercress, the scent potent.
“Bleeding graves,” he spat. Holding his gun at us, he backed toward the coach’s door, slipped through it, and disappeared. When Rush bolted forward and ripped the door open, Fairfax was already running, albeit slowly, away from the train, which was barely rolling forward now. Rush punched the side of the train and called back for his gun.
By the time Clarence brought it to him, we could no longer see Fairfax through the trees.
CHAPTER 42
