“Isn’t that a little cruel?” Clare asks.
“Love is cruel,” Fly responds.
“If Fly’s going, then I’m coming too this time,” Clare declares.
“Really?” Fly says. “You didn’t want to come to Onyx to visit the palace, but you want to go to Slate.”
“Yes. It was horrible being left behind last time and worrying about all of you. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. Even the library didn’t cheer me up like it usually does. The only consolation was having Damien nearby.”
“And will Damien letyougo?” I ask her.
“Briony Storm,” Clare says, “I’m an independent woman, and I donotneed to ask my boyfriend for permission to go off on a life-threatening, probably actually quite suicidal, mission.”
“Just to clarify,” Fly says, “I don’t have to ask permission either.”
“Or me,” I say. They both look at me as if they don’t believe a word of that. “What? I actually get my own way most of the time.”
“Because they let you,” Fly says.
“I may be their thrall or their fated mate, or whatever you want to call it, but I’m also not their doll to control and order about. I have my own mind, you know that.”
“It’s just… they’re so…” Clare shudders. “Dominant.”
“Yeah,” Fly says, grinning even wider. “I think that’s what she likes.”
“Actually,shelikes it both ways,” I say. “Sometimes it’s fun to be the dominant one.”
“Oh jeez. You’ve changed. Both of you have,” Fly says, spinning his gaze from me to Clare and back again.
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
“When I met you both, you were two such sweet, innocent little things, and now… well, you’re both corrupted, dirty little?—”
“Don’t say it!” Clare warns.
“It’s down to my influence,” Fly says, puffing out his chest with obvious pride.
“I don’t think it is,” I tell him.
“It isn’t,” Clare agrees. “We always had it in us. We just needed to discover it.”
Fly laughs, and we continue on to the next tower in our round of interviews.
Despite talking to scores of other students, we don’t find anyone with even an ounce of hidden magical ability. Not that they’re aware of, anyway. And I believe them. I don’t think it’s a matter of being too scared to admit the truth. I think any one of these kids wouldloveto have magic. It’s just that none of them do.
When we return to the Princes’ Tower long after lunchtime, we find it’s a similar situation with everyone else. And I’m even more convinced that Slate Quarter is where we need to go.
I came from Slate Quarter. It’s where I found Blaze. It’s where Beaufort suspects other firestones may be lurking. If I really am the light that will ignite powers in others, then I think I have to go back to where I came from, because I think that’s where the light started, and that’s where I’ll be able to grow it.
The problem, as always, is how we travel out to Slate Quarter without being captured by the Empress and her elite guards.
We think we’re safe here at the academy. We think the castle is protecting us. Certainly no elite guards have arrived to arrest us, and there has been no attack on the academy. In fact, the response from Onyx Quarter has been rather eerily quiet – not a crow in the sky or a wandering visitor.
But it’s unimaginable to think that the Empress will simply let us take over the academy in this way. Therewillbe an attack. Therewillbe repercussions. And if we step out of the academy, I think both of those things become more likely.
“I think we’ll have to displace,” I tell the others. “It’s not like Blaze can carry all of us on his back anyway, and a dragon is pretty easy to spot in the skies, especially a big bright golden one.”
“It’s probably not sensible for all of us to go together,” Fox says. “But I also think splitting up would be a mistake.”
