“I would.”
My head snapped up and I looked at him, unsure if I had heard him correctly. For several long seconds, I held his stare, until another shiver broke my composure.
“Saints, it’s cold,” he said, rubbing his hands together a little too forcefully. “I’ve learned enough for tonight.”
“Will Myth be okay after…?”
Rush snorted. “That stone won’t hurt him.”
Probably right. I followed him to Azeron after hugging Myth goodnight. Rush checked the saddle, tugging here and there.This time, when I climbed onto the back of his saddle, my arms wrapped around him more easily, my face pressed to his back.
“Watch out, Mireaux, or I’ll think you’re comfortable with your arms around me.”
I ground my chin into his back, and his spine straightened. The slight rumble of his quiet chuckle shook my body, and I smiled as we took off.
As Vanyaand I packed for our two-week break, I couldn’t stop yawning. Every now and then, my gaze would drift out the window and I’d get lost somewhere between memory and expectation. Only when I felt my roommate’s eyes on me did I snap back to the task at hand. Vanya crammed her trunk shut and sat on it.
“I’ll miss you,” she said, sticking out her bottom lip.
“Oh, come on, you’ll be too busy to miss me.Skiing. I can’t quite imagine what that’s like.”
Her lips curled into a smile. “At least my family’s ways of keeping me from going home are fun, right?” She hopped up and threw her arms around me. In the weight of her embrace, I could sense the pain those words had caused her.
“Well, there’s always Rending Night at my place, a one-room apartment in a tenement house whose stairwells reek of urine.” I shrugged as her jaw fell open. “Infinitely more appealing than skiing in the Draks, if you ask me. And you’ll be missing out on meeting my mother; that wonderful woman believes I’m a walking accident. Last chance to change your plans?” I tilted my head.
“Oh, Ar,” she breathed, smile fading as her shoulders fell.
In just two syllables, there was much grace. She understood that going home was often as hard as leaving it. A fact I never would have thought true of a princess.
“See you in two weeks,” I said.
The stairsto our third-floor apartment were as creaky as ever, announcing my arrival long before my knock on the door.
Evie flung the door open, then swallowed me in a lung-crushing hug.
“Hi,” I said, smiling over her shoulder. “What have you done to your hair?”
She cupped her hand under the short bob, a style I’d seen on race day that I’d dismissed as ridiculous. “Do you like it?”
“You look seventeen. Not fourteen.” Her face lit up. “That wasn’t a compliment, Eve.”
She clicked her tongue and stepped back. She was definitely taller. Her hairstyle made it look like she’d skipped a few years in my absence. She would be a full-grown woman by the end of the year at this rate, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. Neither Bennett nor I could keep the hounds away if we weren’t here.
“I can’t believe Mama let you do that,” I said, stepping into our home.
The scent of evergreen greeted my nose, partially obscuring the general stench of the poorly kept washrooms at the end of the hall. Boughs of cedar hung at the doorframes. Evie’s touch. I smiled and dragged my bag inside.
“No trunk?” asked Evie, scanning the hallway behind me.
I shook my head. “No.” A gnaw of guilt. “I won’t be staying here the whole break. Oh, don’t look at me like that.” I peeredaround the apartment for Mama. “I have a dragon to take care of now.”
Twirling her fingers in the air, she pranced around the back of the couch. “Oh, that’s right; we’re not illustrious enough for you anymore, dragon rider.”
“Not the case at all,” I said, thinking of the dung that had been hurled at me only days ago. I flopped onto the couch, which squeaked in greeting. Evie fluttered over and sat beside me, her head tipping onto my shoulder.
For a moment, we sat there. Time shifted and it was just her and me, like it had been before Cardan Lott, before fixed races and magic and an irritable blond boy had taken over my thinking.
“You seem different,” my sister observed. Sometimes I felt like the connection between sisters was as profound as the one between dragon and rider. Not quite telepathic, but close.
