“Correct. I need that scholarship so when I’m at Revers, I can go into the medical department without my dad taking everything away when he catches on.”
“He’d not let you major in medicine? You’d still be a huge help to his business. Cut my family out for one.”
I hate the way she says that, like that would be my first thought and thus my goal. “My father doesn’t want the kind of help I’d offer. He wantsobedience. He wants the number-one rider in the country so he can show me off and promote his tracks. The silver that comes from championship dragons doubles in price. That’s where the real money lies.” Which is the main reason he urged Hort’s descaling a few weeks ago. He didn’t care about dragon age and safety protocol, only customer demand and the bottom line. “We’ve had enough conversations for me to know what he’ll find acceptable. I’m expected to take over the business, but I don’t want it. If I never raced again, I’d be happy.”
“Never race again?” Farren repeats. “But there is something about racing that seems so… freeing.”
Freeing? I don’t think I heard her correctly. “Walsh, doyouwant to race?”
She presses her lips together. “If racing paid more attention to the ethics and regulations, didn’t make the dragons shift into metal, then yeah… I would. Not as a full-time career or anything, but sometimes when I spot I can’t help but want to be up there too, amidst the fray.”
“I can’t believe this.”
“No, that’s my line.” She gestures to me with a flap of her hand. “I can’t believe you. Since when have you wanted to be a vet?”
“Since I was twelve.”
“Twelve? And you’veneverspoken about this to your parents?” She glances at my arm and winces like she just answered the question herself. I haven’t trusted my parents with what I truly want since I was eight and announced I liked crafting tin best. Even certain opinions weren’t to be tolerated. Better to avoid their permission altogether and when it comes time to ask for forgiveness, be independent enough to not need them. Get a degree, get enough money to buy Hort. That’s the mission.
She pushes my shoulder, making me tip sideways, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“What was that for?”
“Now I feel bad.”
“If you feel so bad, teach me.” The words are out before I fully process them. When I do, I freeze. The last time I cooked up the courage to ask Farren to study together it didn’t end well. Beginning of year ten,Dragon Anatomy One, I tried to casually inquire if she wanted to be my lab partner for the year. She’d looked at me, appalled, and then her friend, Cara Moore, interceded with a loud “You trying to slack off, Murphy?” That got the whole class’s attention, and a chorus of complaints about how Farren and me partnering together would break the grading curve erupted through the room. But as Cara pulled Farren away, Farren still turned around to properly reject me so I couldn’t misconstrue her disdain. “No, thank you.”
This time, though, her eyebrows don’t furrow. Instead they pop upward. “Oh?” she says playfully. “And what do I get out of it?”
What could I offer?“I’ll teach you silver-crafting. Or, well, I’ll pretend to teach you so that you don’t have to keep pretending you don’t know.”
Her eyes widen and she grabs my forearm. The warmth of her hand sparks my nervous system into awareness. She’s touching me. “Will you teach me how to craft a silver tea?”
I laugh at her excitement. That was not a no. “Sure.”
Not a second later, she pulls back. “But why would you do that?”
“So, if you have to craft silver again like with Bex and I’m not there, you can use me as an excuse.” I nod toward Nity. “It’ll help protect them. Make you less suspicious.”
“But there would be consequences… Your parents…”
“They only had the one rule, remember?”
“Yeah, because teaching me silver-crafting is an implied rule. A very ‘do not do it under any circumstances’ kind of rule.”
“I don’t know. They only reiteratedonerule, which means that’s the only one they care about. Besides, if they knew the truth, that rule would disappear. They’d want the opposite.” I freeze again realizing what I’ve said and how I’ve said it. In a way, that was me suggesting we could date, that we could…
The cave suddenly feels too dark, too intimate. Heat rushes everywhere.
Sometimes I don’t understand how Farren doesn’t see through my feelings. Doesn’t understand how much I want her. Because deep down where I don’t dare to cultivate too much hope, there’s a vital third part of mymission. Get the degree, get Hort, and then ask Farren out properly, admit my feelings without society telling us the class divide is too wide.
It might have been less complicated when she was a copper-crafter though. It used to be one more string to cut to escape my parent’s puppeteering my life. Now, even if Farren gave me a chance, it’s Nity, her babies, and the future of an entire dragon species keeping us apart.
I finally gather up the nerve to look at Farren and she seems deep in contemplation. When she faces me, her whole body shifting closer, she doesn’t look shocked, or disgusted at my slip. In fact, I don’t think she noticed at all. She sticks out her hand. “I’ll train you in medical. You’ll train me in crafting. It’s a deal.”
As I reach forward, she pulls back her hand at the last second. “Wait, one more thing. Can we also promise not to ignore each other anymore?”
“If you promise you won’t try to get me kicked out.” At her frown, I refresh her memory. “Try to make me fall for you? Ring a bell?”
