He nodded thoughtfully.
“So you took your brother’s place. Where is he, then?”
“He…he’s dead.” The words stuck in my throat as my brother’s face swam before my eyes. I still missed him so much! And he hadn’t been gone that long.
“Dead?” Ryse asked, looking surprised.
“He died of a fever not long after our father and his dragon…ended themselves,” I said. “I nursed him the best I could, but we had no money for a doctor.”
I felt tears stinging my eyes and tried to hold them back. This was the first time I’d talked to anyone about Auren’s death, and I was surprised at how much it hurt.
“I’m sorry.” Ryse shook his head. “I didn’t know.”
“Of course you didn’t—no one did, and no one cared!” I exclaimed, suddenly angry. “Your family are like royalty—you probably live in a huge mansion with plenty of servants. How could you know what it’s like to live on the side of a mountain with no one to help—no one to care? No food to eat, either. You can blame me for coming to the Academy in Auren’s place if you want to, but it was either take my brother’s place here or starve to death at home!”
I was crying now—the tears pouring down my face in torrents. It seemed that my cycle had saved up six months of emotion to dump on me all at once, too, because I couldn’t seem to stop.
Ryse looked properly stricken now.
“Auri,” he said helplessly. “I’m so sorry.”
“I’m suh…suh…sorry, too!” I got out, still sobbing. “I’ve muh-muh-made a mess of everything!”
“No, you haven’t!”
He came to sit beside me. Taking the half-empty mug of tea from my shaking hand, he put it back on the tray and gathered me into his arms.
“Yes, I have,” I said, swiping at my eyes. “I lied to everyone—you included. I know you must be mad at me, and I don’t blame you. I guess I could have married one of the noblemen my father had lined up for me instead of coming to the Academy, but I didn’t want to do that either.” I looked up at him with wet eyes. “I didn’t want to be some old man’s bed slave and have to obey his every whim because he owned me once we got married.”
“I don’t blame you.” Ryse stroked my hair out of my eyes. “Auri, it doesn’t matter why you came to the Academy in the first place—you’ve earned the right to be here.”
“Earned the right?” I looked up at him in confusion.
“You’re at the top of all your classes—you made the highest score on the entrance exam in over seventy years. Even higher than mine, right?” He smiled down at me.
“My father hired a tutor for my brother, and he taught us both,” I admitted.
“You also Impressed and bonded with the first Golden Queen in over a century,” he went on. “You know, in the books I’ve been reading, they talk a lot about the Queens. They only hatch from the pure gold eggs and they only bond with female riders.”
I looked up at him in surprise.
“Is…is that how you knew I wasn’t a man?”
He nodded.
“I wasn’t positive at first that my translation was correct. But once I was sure, well…it was pretty obvious. Especially once I knew that L’eesha never would have bonded with a male rider.”
I thought of how he’d been staring at me lately with that thoughtful look in his eyes.
“Why…why didn’t you confront me?” I asked, sitting up and swiping at my eyes again.
“Because,” he said simply. “I was waiting for you to tell me on your own.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling horribly guilty. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you—that you had to find out like this.”
“You mean by L’eesha giving me your monthly cramps?” he said dryly. “I admit, it wasn’t the ideal way to find out, but at least now I know what you’re going through.”
“I’m really sorry about that—I never told her to,” I said quickly.
