Lure of Lightning, page 5
They’re whispering quietly to one another when I enter the room.
“There are soldiers out there,” I tell them immediately, “out in the academy.”
“The Empress’s elite guard?” Beaufort asks.
I shake my head. “No. Soldiers from Onyx,” I say. “Lots of them. They were guarding the dragon.”
“Dragon?” Dray and Beaufort look at each other and then back to me.
“What do you think it means?” Dray asks us both.
“That my mother is taking precautions given what’s happened with Bardin,” Beaufort says, “and the incursion by the demons deep into our realm.”
I nod. This was my suspicion as well.
I come and join them by the kitchen counter, and Beaufort pours me a glass of whiskey, sliding it along the top where I catch it in my hand. I don’t usually drink, but after today’s events – after nearly watching Nini fly off to the demon wastelands alone – I think I need it.
I lift it to my mouth and take a long gulp.
“What are we going to do about the bloodsucker situation?” Dray asks, leaning back against the counter.
“I already told you,” I say, lowering my own drink. “If Briony wants to go after him, then we’re going with her.”
“Yeah,” Dray says. “But can we trust him?”
“We can trust him,” I say.
“You always say that, but...”
“I went to his room,” I tell them both. “And I searched it.”
“And don’t tell me,” Dray says, “you found his fucking diary and every page was love hearts and pictures of our girl.”
“Well… no,” I say.
Dray eyes me and Beaufort frowns. “Did you find anything?”
I nod.
“What?” he says.
“A lock of her hair,” I tell them.
“That’s kind of creepy,” Dray mumbles.
“How many pairs of her panties do you have snuffled away in your bedroom?” I ask him.
He simply grins.
“It’s not definitive proof,” Beaufort says.
“No, it isn’t. But I trust Nini, and I trust her feelings for him.”
“Doesn’t make it any easier though, does it?” Dray says. “Following him into the demon wastelands, it’s still a suicide mission.”
“Yes,” I agree. “We’re going to need help.”
“Help,” Dray says. “Yeah, but I’m not sure the Little Kitten’s skinny friend or the four-eyed one are gonna prove that useful.”
“No, we need proper help,” Beaufort says.
He lifts his drink to his mouth, stares at the liquid, then lowers it again untouched.
“The elite guard,” I say.
“The elite guard,” he repeats.
“You think your mum will let us have them?” Dray asks.
Beaufort sweeps his hand backward over his head, then forward, and drags it down his face. He groans. “I dunno. She’s unhappy with us. The dragon, the lumomancy, everything.”
“I don’t see any other way, Beaufort,” I tell him.
“No,” he agrees. “I’m going to have to ask her. Let’s just hope the professor returns before it comes down to that.”
Chapter Eight
Briony
“What’s it like being in love?” Fly asks me as the three of us – me, Fly, and Clare – lie sprawled out across my giant bed in the attic room of the Princes’ Tower.
Beaufort insisted I go to bed and rest, and so I insisted on taking my two friends with me, much to Dray’s obvious disappointment. I guess he was hoping I’d take him.
“Wow, Fly?” I say. “That’s a big question.”
“You’ve never been in love before?” Clare asks him in return.
“No,” he says. “I don’t think I have. I was expecting it to be this kind of wondrous thing where you’re walking around on cloud nine the whole time with love hearts in your eyes, but, geez Cupcake, it looks pretty stressful.”
I can’t help laughing, rubbing my knuckles into my eyes.
“It is pretty stressful,” I say. “Right now I feel like my heart’s been ripped in two, like there’s a piece of me missing. And I won’t feel right again until Fox is back with me.”
“See,” Fly says, “I get the whole sex appeal thing when it comes to the professor, but the love thing? The dude is scary.”
“Not underneath,” I say. “He’s kind. He’s brave. He makes me feel seen.” I lift my head to look at the two of them. “Do you think I’m crazy? Wanting to go after him, wanting to find him?”
“Uh, duh,” Fly says. “There’s a reason they banish people out to the demon wastelands, Briony. There’s a reason people that run away out there are never seen again.”
I sigh and drop my head back against the soft mattress. “I don’t want to put the others in danger,” I tell them. “It’s like a lose-lose situation. I don’t know what to do.”
“We said we’d help you,” Clare says, “and we will.”
“I know. But right now, I can’t see the best way to do this. I said I needed a plan, but I don’t have one at all.”
“We’ve got to look at it as a trial,” Clare says, rolling up to sit, crossing her legs and pushing her glasses back up her nose. “Just like any other trial.”
Fly snorts. “It’s not like any other trial,” he says.
Clare ignores him. “And you know where we usually start when we have a trial?”
Both me and Fly shrug.
“The library!” Clare says.
“No offense, Clare Bear,” Fly says, “but this is a problem the realm’s been dealing with for hundreds of years. If there were answers to how to defeat the demons in the Wastelands sitting there in the library, I think someone would have found it by now.”
“Maybe,” Clare says, unperturbed, “but I’m going to go and check anyway.”
She shuffles to the end of the bed and jumps down.
“You’re going to the library now?”
“I’ve already wasted enough time lying around with you two.”
“Gee, thanks,” Fly says.
“I’m going to go and check on Damian too. He didn’t have such a great trial,” she tells me.
“Oh shit, Clare,” I say. “You didn’t say anything.”
“He’s okay,” Clare tells me, “just a little bit shook up. He was resting last time I went and checked on him. I’d better go and see if he’s okay. I’ll see you at dinner.”
She pads across the room, and then we listen to her close the door behind her and jog down the stairs.
“I think she may be in love too,” Fly says.
“Yep.”
“It’s sickening,” he says, “enough to make you vomit.”
“You’re just jealous,” I say, pinching him.
“Cupcake,” he says, “if love involves traipsing out to the demon wastelands and being torn apart by monsters, then I am definitely not jealous.”
“Yeah,” I say. “That bit’s not quite so good.”
I doze off after that, and when I wake, Fly is still lying beside me, reading a book he’s found from somewhere.
“Shit,” I say. “What time is it?”
“Dinner time,” he says. “I’m so hungry.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“And face the wrath of Beaufort Lincoln? No thanks. Do you think those boys of yours would conjure us up some food?”
I plump up the cushions behind me and shuffle up to sitting, running my hands through the loose bits of hair that have fallen free from my bun and tucking them back into the elastic band.
“Actually,” I tell him, “do you think they’re still serving at the canteen?”
“There’s no way that boy of yours is going to let you leave the tower to go to the canteen. Besides,” he says, pulling a face, “isn’t the food in this place far superior to the shit they serve down at the canteen?”
“Yeah,” I tell him. “But I want to know what’s going on, don’t you? I mean, the Madame has fled. I wonder what that means. You think the Head will come back now?”
“No one knows where the Head is, Cupcake,” Fly reminds me.
I chew on my lip, then make up my mind, dragging my best friend from the bed, finding a jacket, and yanking him down the stairs.
The Princes must hear me come because all of them are waiting in the hallway for us.
“Where are you going?” Beaufort says. “You’re meant to be resting.”
“I have been resting,” I say.
“She even slept,” Fly points out.
“And now we’re going to the canteen to get some food.”
“We can make you food,” Dray says.
I shake my head. “We’re going to the canteen.”
“You need to rest,” Beaufort repeats.
“I need some air,” I tell him, “and some space. I’m going to the canteen. You’re welcome to come with us if you want.”
Dray pulls a face like I’ve just asked him to eat his own sports socks. “We could take you to the shadow weaver common room instead if you like,” he offers.
Fly swings his head in my direction with an expression that’s clearly begging me to accept this offer.
“No,” I say. “We’re going to the canteen.”
I take Fly’s hand in mine and scowl at the three men. “I’m not going to run away,” I say. “I know what I did earlier was stupid. But I do need to eat, and I want to see what the gossip is out there.”
“I didn’t take you as one for gossip, Briony, sweetheart,” Beaufort says.
“Sometimes gossip’s useful.”
“There are soldiers out there, Nini,” Thorne says next.
“Soldiers?” I say.
He nods. “So be careful.”
“Why do I need to be careful?” I say with a frown.
“Kitten,” Dray says, “Just don’t end up getting into any trouble.”
“Be serious,” Fly tells him. “She can’t promise that.”
My feet are wet by the time we make our way through the puddles submerging the academy pathways and arrive at the canteen. It’s already full, the windows steaming up and the air inside muggy.
I brace myself as I push my way through to the main body of the canteen, ready for the usual silence, followed by intense whispering. But today, I guess there’s too much to discuss, and I’m just a side note buried among it.
We’re late, as usual, and I’m trying to work out exactly what kind of meal I can cobble together from what remains in the pots on offer when a small girl with curly hair grabs Fly by the arm and pulls him to one side, jabbering away at him.
I pick up a plate and make my way around the pots, scooping soggy vegetables and limp meat onto my plate. I’m halfway around the table when my path’s blocked. I’m about to apologize and step around the person in front of me when their voice has my gaze snapping up to their face.
Stanley. His hands are buried in his pockets, his body facing mine, his face unreadable.
“You’re in my way,” I snarl, because while I’d happily step around anyone else in this academy, I won’t be stepping around Stanley.
“I’ve been looking for you,” he says.
“Oh well, isn’t that nice?” I say. “Please move out of my way.”
“Where were you?” he says. “You weren’t in your tower room.”
“I don’t live there anymore, Stanley. I live with the Princes.”
I’m sure he knows that. I’m sure everyone in the academy knows that.
He sneers at me. “You’re such a little slut.”
“Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?” I say, placing my plate down on the table and glaring up into his face. I once thought he had a kind face, a caring one. I don’t see any of that kindness anymore. Although, I have to admit, he’s still handsome – though there’s a coldness to it now, and a bitterness.
“They’re saying you have a dragon,” he says.
“Are they?”
“Is it true? Or is it one of your many lies?”
I look at him, dumbfounded. “When did I ever lie to you, Stanley? I think you’re the one who lied to me. You made me all sorts of promises that you didn’t keep.”
He snorts. “What promises?”
I swallow hard. “You said you’d never hurt me.”
“I guess you just have one of those faces, Briony.”
Once upon a time, I was scared of him, scared to provoke him. I’d have kept my words neutral, my face too, hoping he’d get bored and move on. I’m not that girl anymore. I have ways of defending myself. I have people who would do it for me.
“You really are a little shit. An evil, twisted one,” I say. “And a coward, Stanley.”
“Why am I a coward?”
“Why don’t you try picking on someone your own size?” I tell him.
“Those men won’t always be there to protect you, Briony,” he says. “One day you’ll be back in Slate with nobody and nothing.”
“I’m not going back to Slate,” I tell him. “Unlike you, Stanley. And I don’t need any man to protect me.”
“Because you have a dragon,” he says, snorting with laughter.
I’m severely tempted to blast him with my magic and show him just how powerful I am now – to teach him a lesson, to hurt him like he hurt me so many times. But he’s not worth it. He’s not worth my time or my attention. And besides, I did promise Dray I wouldn’t get into any trouble.
“Leave me alone, Stanley. I’ve got nothing more to say to you.”
And then I push past him, half expecting him to hit me for it. He would have, in days gone by. But I’m right about him, he is a coward. He knows if he lays one little finger on me, the Princes will skin him alive and serve his guts to the crows out on the academy field. He dare not risk that.
Instead, he just steps back and whispers as I pass him by, “Slut.”
I ignore him. His words can no longer hurt me.
But then he adds, under his breath, in a whisper, “I know about you and the professor.”
I freeze. I can’t help myself. And it’s enough. He steps closer, right up behind me, lowering his mouth to my ear.
“I know you’re fucking him.”
“You don’t know anything,” I say. “You’re deluded.”
“Briony,” he says, his hand coming to rest on my hip. “I saw you together in the Great Hall. I heard you.”
“You’re deluded, Stanley – making up sexual fantasies to feed your sick brain.”
He digs his fingers into my skin so hard it hurts, and I know it’ll bruise.
“What would happen if I told them?” he says.
“Who exactly would you tell? The deputy headmistress? She’s gone.”
“Yeah,” he says, “but there’s someone new coming. Someone new has been appointed in charge. Haven’t you heard? They’re arriving tomorrow. I wonder what would happen if they knew about you and the professor.”
“Nothing,” I say. “Nothing would happen, because nothing is happening.”
“Maybe you should start being a bit nicer to me, Briony,” he says, “or maybe I’ll be tempted to spill your secret.”
“Don’t mess with me, Stanley,” I hiss. “I’m not a scared little girl anymore, and I could hurt you. I could hurt you real bad.”
“Gonna have your dragon eat me? Roast me alive, Briony?”
“Maybe,” I say. “Or maybe I’ll burn you alive with my own magic.”
I let it flare in my veins, just a flicker, a flash of light, so quick I doubt anyone else in the canteen sees it or feels it, but it’s enough to have Stanley stumbling backward.
I turn around slowly to face him.
“They say the professor’s missing,” he says, “like the deputy headmistress. And the deputy headmistress is a traitor. Maybe your professor is one too. Maybe you are as well, Briony Storm. Maybe they’d like to know that.”
“I’m warning you,” I tell him.
“What’s going on?” Fly says, stepping up beside me. “Cupcake?” His voice is full of concern.
“Nothing,” I chime as cheerfully as I can. “Stanley just wanted to congratulate me on how well I did in this trial.”
“Did he?” Fly says.
Stanley scoffs, shoots one last disgusted look my way, and storms off.
I turn back to my plate of food.
“What was that really about?” Fly says.
“He knows about me and Fox,” I say.
I’ve been so concerned about finding Fox, I haven’t thought about the consequences – about what will happen when everybody learns just how much I care about him, and just how much he cares for me. It makes me realize just how stupid flying off like that was. I need to proceed with caution. I need to think things through. I don’t want to find him, only to land him in a whole heap of trouble.
Fly watches Stanley push his way through the busy canteen.
“Do you think he’ll make trouble for you?” he asks me.
I shake my head. “No. I don’t need to worry about him.”
“You’re sure?” Fly says.
“Yes,” I say, “I made it very clear that I will burn his skin off if he tries a single thing.”
Fly laughs. “Wow, Cupcake, you’re turning into a real badass.”
I shrug, pile the last few vegetables on my plate, and find a seat in the canteen.
Clare joins us fifteen minutes later, when there’s barely a bread roll or a sliver of meat left. She carries her plate in one hand and a pile of books tucked under her arm in the other, then comes to sit with us.
“Well, looks like you’ve been busy,” I say to her.
She nods, opens the first book on her pile, and starts reading, tearing off bread with her teeth as she does.
“Have you found anything useful?” I ask her.
She shakes her head. “But the library gave me these books,” she says, “so I’m sure there’s going to be something.”
She doesn’t say anything else for the rest of dinner – she’s too busy reading – and me and Fly chat quietly so as not to disturb her.
Once we’ve finished, Clare tells us she’s returning to the library, and Fly offers to walk me back to the Princes’ Tower.
