I barked out a dry laugh. “If I start burning down buildings with my friends in them? Yes, in the name of the Light, please lock me up! Why would I want to roam free if I was doing that?”
She rubbed her hands together as if assessing everything we’d spoken about. “I’ll bring this up with my council and get word to you about my decision.”
I sighed in relief. “Until then, I’m free?”
She simply gave me a curt nod and strode from the room.
I backed up three feet until my back hit the wall, and then I sagged against it. I’d just bought myself some time, but it seemed like the queen had her mind set on my eventual imprisonment. Yanric poofed through the wall in a ball of black shadows and then transformed before me.
‘I pray nightly that she chokes on a piece of meat and ends up in the Realm of Eternity,’he stated dramatically.
I chuckled, holding out my arm for him to land on.‘Don’t pray that. Because then Ayden would become king at nineteen years old, and I don’t think he’s keen on that.’
Master Clarke began to stride down the steps, and I straightened myself. Yanric moved to my shoulder, and I put my glove back on.
Master Clarke shook his head, but he was smiling.
“What?” I asked.
“That was brilliant, but I’m not sure you realize what you’re getting yourself into,” he said.
“I’m getting myself not locked up for life. That’s all I care about.”
“I’ll be honest, I thought she was going to haul you out of here for a second.” He ran a shaky hand through his hair, and I frowned.
“Hey, thanks for sticking up for me like that with her. I mean…seriously, you’re the only adult here at school who’s on my side, and I really appreciate it.”
He appeared nervous at the praise for a moment but gave me a curt nod. “Of course. I’m invested in your success, Fallon. Itold you from the beginning, I will not let you go dark under my tutelage.”
“So, what have I not realized that I’ve gotten myself into?”
He winced. “You strive to distance yourself from the Bane family and their dark deeds. Publicly taking responsibility for them and pledging allegiance to the queen as a Bane heir will have every fae in The Gilded City take notice of you.”
I swallowed hard.
Crap, I hadn’t thought of it that way.
“Well, it’s better than being locked up.”
He sighed, looking tired. “True. All right, well, you’d best get to class. If you don’t figure out how to get Ariyon back, you are assured to spend the rest of your life in a cell.”
That was not the kind of pressure I needed, but I nodded and thanked him again, shoving my new schedule in my bag and slipping up the staircase and out the door.
It was time to switch gears. Instead of learning how to control fire and levitate objects, I needed to learn about healing and all things of the Light.
‘Ironic,’Yanric observed.
‘Shut it,’I told my bird. ‘I can be light and good and heal people.’
‘You’re going to have to. Otherwise, Ariyon is trapped forever, you end up in a cage, and I’m guessing I end up in this said cage with you.’
No pressure.
TWO
ARIYON
I was attracted to Fallon from the moment I laid eyes on her. She was like a magnet, and I’d been drawn to her from the start, no matter how much I hated it. When I found out she was the daughter of the woman who killed my parents, I loathed myself because I still wanted her. I wanted to touch her a thousand times a day—becauseIcould. Me and no one else.
