“Yes.”
“Well…for some reason, M’alex thinks you’re important.” He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling with the gesture. “I don’t know how or why—I’m just doing what he tells me to.”
“Oh…all right.” I didn’t know why I felt let down. Had I been hoping that Ryse was interested in me and wanted to protect me because he had some kind of feelings for me?
But that was crazy because he still thought I was a male, I reminded myself. I was lucky that M’alex had taken an interest in me. Otherwise, it would be me against Larson, and I knew who would win in that situation.
“I’m flattered that your dragon likes me so much, but I can stand on my own two feet,” I told him at last. “You didn’t have to put me in your Wing—was that M’alex’s idea, too?”
Ryse nodded—a little too quickly, I thought.
“He wants me to keep you close to me,” he told me. “Again, I don’t know why. Maybe it has something to do with your, uh, ability. Being able to feel dragon emotions, I mean.”
I sighed. This again.
“Is it really that unusual?”
“I told you, I’ve only read about one other person who had it,” Ryse said seriously. “I need to go back to the library and see if I can find that text,” he added, more to himself than me. Then he frowned at me. “How could you not know it was unusual?”
“My br—I mean my sister had it too,” I said. “We grew up feeling the emotions of our father’s dragon.” I shifted and wrapped my arms around myself. “Of course, most of what we felt was rage. My father was always so angry after he got demoted to Wide Sweeps and F’lorn fed off his anger and amplified it. Which made him even angrier and it went on and on and on like that.”
Ryse’s golden eyes softened.
“That’s a bad cycle to get into,” he said softly. “A rider has to keep control of his emotions—otherwise he and his dragon can go into a downward spiral pretty quickly.”
I thought of the final downward spiral my father and his dragon had taken…thought of their broken bodies at the bottom of the ravine… It took some effort to push the bad memory away.
“Well, I just thought it was normal,” I said. “But we’re getting off topic—I need to be able to stick up for myself.”
“And you will be able to,” Ryse told me. “Because starting tomorrow, you’ll be training with me every morning.”
“What?” I shook my head. “What are you talking about?”
“The Second-year’s weight room,” he told me. “It’s located on Level Two, down the hall from here.” He gestured down the hallway that led away from the Cook-pot. “You’re going to meet me there an hour before First Bell every morning and we’re going to make you strong enough to stand up for yourself.”
“But—” I started to protest, but he put a finger to my lips to stop me.
“Before you start complaining, I know you’ve been getting up early to go ride the Flight Simulator every morning, so it’s not like you’ll be missing the sleep. Plus, the kind of work-out I’m going to design for you will be a hell of a lot more useful than just clinging onto a wooden dragon for an hour every day.”
I supposed I couldn’t argue with that. Also, I was pretty sure I would get kicked out of the Academy if I ever went near the Flight Simulator outside of class-time hours again.
“All right,” I said at last, when he moved his finger. I wondered why my lips tingled where he’d touched me.
“Good.” He nodded in satisfaction. “Now come on—I’ll walk you back to your dorm.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I protested. “I can get there fine on my own.”
“I just want to be sure your Dorm Monitor is there and you’re not all alone,” he said, and I could see I wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it.
“All right. Thank you,” I said, with as much graciousness as I could muster.
But as we walked back to my dorm, I couldn’t help wondering how it was that I had not only not stopped him from interfering in my life but had somehow agreed to even more interference.
33
AURORA
And so, over the next week, my life at the Academy fell into a new pattern. I was still up well before First Bell, but now I dressed in workout clothes—long, loose trousers and a thin, short-sleeved shirt I’d gotten at the Commissary—and headed for the Second-year weight room.
