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  “Come on, Clover. I should buy you a drink to make up for that black eye you’re likely to have,” Kerrigan said.

  She held her hand out to her friend. Clover warily took it, uncertainly darting her eyes between Dozan and Kerrigan.

  “I’d think about this carefully,” Dozan told her.

  She smiled back just as dangerously as she wrenched the door open. “Oh, I already have.”

  Then, she slammed the door in his face and went to get rip-roaring drunk with her friend.

  15

  The Bargain

  Getting drunk might not have been the best idea she’d ever had.

  Her head throbbed as she wandered into the mountain before dawn. She ambled back to her rooms within the House of Dragons, rooms she had shared with Darby for as long as she could remember, and still, it surprised her that her friend was up and… packing when she got home. Clothes were strewn everywhere, and a handful of boxes lay at her feet.

  “What are you doing?” Kerrigan asked. She removed Fordham’s cloak and tossed it against the back of a wooden chair.

  Darby jumped. “Kerrigan! There you are.”

  “You’re packing already?”

  “Well… yes,” she said sheepishly. “Where did you go last night? Hadrian and I looked everywhere.”

  “To the Wastes.”

  “Kerrigan, it’s dangerous.” Darby sighed heavily. “But you don’t care about danger. It’s in your blood. I shouldn’t even be surprised.”

  “After the catastrophe of last night… probably not.” Kerrigan flopped back on her bed and held her head. “I have to go talk to Helly.”

  “Looking like that?” Darby shook her head. She rummaged through Kerrigan’s clothes and tossed her pants and a shirt. “Change, and let me brew you something for your head.”

  “You’re a dream, Darbs. Your healing magic should always be used for hangover cures.”

  Darby snorted as she began to mix something together.

  “Seriously, shat am I going to do without you?”

  The words were supposed to be playful, but they came out mournful. She hadn’t meant for it to happen, but then the real thought came crashing down. What was she going to do without Darby at her side?

  “You’ll make do,” Darby said evenly. “Tell me your plan.”

  “Well, Helly said that we’ll figure something out. I assume that means that she’ll want me to stay an extra year,” Kerrigan said bitterly. “But I can’t do that. There’s no way that I can endure another year of meetings with potential tribes or get on that stage again with the year below us, hoping it’ll be different than this year.”

  “No, that would be… impossible.” Darby struck the fire starter together once, twice… and on the third time, Kerrigan just gave her a flame.

  Darby looked at her ruefully. “And where would I be without you?”

  “Still trying to light the fire.”

  Darby laughed and put the water on to boil. “So, what do you plan to do about it?”

  “I’m going to figure out what happened with Ellerby. Surely, it was a mistake,” she said doubtfully.

  “What if it wasn’t?” Darby whispered.

  Kerrigan couldn’t think of that, so she jested to keep from her terror. “Well, Dozan did offer me to be his queen.”

  Darby rolled her eyes. “As if you could ever be someone’s puppet queen.” She looked slyly at Kerrigan. “Even someone you were obsessed with when we were younger.”

  Kerrigan’s cheeks turned red. “I was not obsessed with him.”

  “Oh, you can’t fool me,” Darby said, tending to the water as it hissed. She dropped some herbs into it and then handed a mug over to Kerrigan.

  “Fine. He was rather handsome when I was twelve.”

  “He’s still handsome,” Darby said.

  Kerrigan raised an eyebrow.

  “Not for me! Obviously, I like girls,” Darby said shyly. “But… it doesn’t matter. He’s handsome and a snake. You know better.”

  Right. She knew better.

  Kerrigan finished her drink and then passed it back to Darby. Her headache was much improved. She was going to need to drink less if she wouldn’t have Darby as a roommate to put her back together.

  Kerrigan quickly changed into the clothes that Darby had picked out and discarded the clothes Clover had let her borrow the night before. Her ceremony dress was still tucked into Clover’s small room, forgotten. She hoped to never see it again. Burn it for all she cared.

  The mountain was teeming with life. Servants bustled through the corridors, preparing for the first day of the dragon tournament. Society members in their ceremonial black cloaks stood together in twos and threes, discussing what was to come. Though, of course, no one knew what the first task would be, save for the three tournament masters this year.

  The outside world had looked much the same as she strolled through the streets this morning. Families dressing their children in their best, eager to get into the arena and watch the first task. Street vendors offering specials, filling the air with the scent of cinnamon and clove and even more savory meat pies. The entire world was waiting on a precipice to see what would happen today.

  Except for Kerrigan.

  Her mind was focused on what was ahead for her own life. The tournament had excited her five years ago. She had thought this time around, she would be watching from the other side. Not a student anxious to become someone, but a tribe member watching with delight for her new people, cheering on their victories and lamenting their failures. The excitement only made her stomach ache more.

  She had to find Helly. She had to fix this.

  Helly stood regally among a group of admiring Society members outside of the wing that led to the various levels of living quarters for Society members. This part of the mountain was very unlike where Kerrigan had spent the last twelve years living. Her world was so small, so confined. She and Darby had a one-room apartment with two beds just big enough for them to grow into over the years, and they had. The bathing chambers were shared between all of the Dragon Blessed. Though final years were allowed their own bathing. The twenty-three of them had seen it as such a luxury to only have to share with each other and not a couple hundred other littlings from five on up.

  But the Society quarters were another thing altogether. Instead of the mansions on the Row, they each had their own chambers within the mountain. Depending on seniority, they could have a dozen rooms or more to themselves with full attendants, lavish furniture, lush rugs, and even their own private bathing chamber. The Society quarters were warm and hospitable. A place the esteemed members could find a life, get married, raise children, if they chose. An allegiance to the Society first, tribe second.

  Kerrigan cleared her throat as she approached the group of Society members. They turned to her as one, most recognizing her from her time in the castle. By the crinkle of their eyes and tight smiles, she assumed some of them had been at the ceremony last night as well.

  “Hello, Mistress Hellina,” Kerrigan said, dropping into a curtsy.

  “Oh good, Kerrigan,” Helly said with a smile. “You are right on time.” She looked to the other members and nodded her head. “I will meet you in our box. I still find it strange that I will be on the other side of the tournament this year.”

  “We’ll see you in there, Helly,” one woman said and then gestured for the rest of them to follow her out of the mountain.

  “You played that well,” Kerrigan said evenly.

  “I’m not sure they bought it,” Helly said with a shrug. “Come. We have something to discuss, do we not?”

  Kerrigan nodded and walked with Helly through the labyrinth of hallways until they came to her rooms. She flicked her wrist to turn the lock and they entered.

  “I don’t have long. The tournament starts within the hour, and I must be in attendance. As a previous administrator, it is my duty.”

  “Of course,” Kerrigan said. “I just… you said we’d figure something
out for me.”

  Helly’s expression changed to one of sympathy. They took a seat on her settee. “I am truly sorry for what happened yesterday. That should have never been possible. I thought that you had someone secured.”

  “I did,” Kerrigan cut in. “Ellerby of Elsiande was there, but he left right before my name was called. And I want permission to speak to him, to try to reconcile this.”

  “Kerrigan,” she said softly. As if she were about to issue a blow. “You’re talented, dear girl. So very talented. Honestly, I don’t know if you even need a tribe.”

  Kerrigan whipped backward as if she had been slapped. “What? What does that even mean, Helly? Everyone has to follow the tribe system. What you’re saying is that I don’t need to become a citizen.”

  “That’s not what I’m saying,” Helly said evenly, her eyes harsh in the dim light. “I am saying that you could stay here and work for the Society.”

  “As a servant?” she gasped.

  “No,” Helly said firmly. “Please allow me to finish.”

  Kerrigan pressed her lips together, but panic was seizing her lungs. Helly thought that she should stay and be a servant to the Society. That she should use her talents, her powers, her visions to help the Society. She didn’t have to become a citizen because they could keep her here forever. Where she could never have a life of her own! She never would have suspected it of Helly, who had always been her friend and mentor.

  “You have possession of all four elements. You are an excellent dragon rider. The dragons love you. And you have… your visions,” she added simply. “Any tribe—every tribe—should be clamoring to get your attention, but they aren’t.”

  “Because I’m half-Fae,” she whispered.

  “No,” Helly said sharply with a shake of her head. “No, that’s not why. Don’t ever think that. Because you’ve done such a good job at hiding how accomplished you are, everyone underestimates you. It’s a very safe position to be in.”

  “It’s not safe; it’s suicide,” she croaked. “If I’m not a member of a tribe, then I don’t become a citizen, Helly. I don’t get my own life. I don’t get to escape what my father did to me!”

  And there it was. Her entire life and fears laid out before them like a raw, bleeding wound.

  Helly reached forward and pressed her hands to her trembling fingertips. “What Kivrin did to you was wrong, Kerrigan,” she murmured. “I am certain he deeply regrets what happened. If you wish to return to Bryonica, then I can speak to him—”

  “No! I don’t want anything to do with him.”

  “I wish that I could claim you as my own,” Helly said with a soft sigh. “But you know the rules for the Dragon Blessed. A Society member cannot claim you. Too much bias. I think the only choice is for you to come work for me.”

  Kerrigan despised that rule. It would make so much more sense for Helly to claim her, but it was forbidden. “Work for you? How?”

  “You would be a steward of the Society. Not a full member, of course, but you could work alongside us. It wouldn’t be the first time that it has happened in our history. Sometimes, tournament champions who don’t succeed in becoming a rider will request special privileges to live within the mountain and study alongside our members. They give up their tribe affiliation and merely become Society.”

  “I’ve never heard of this,” she said warily.

  “We don’t broadcast it to the public,” she said. “But you know Master Fillion, who is head of the library systems?”

  “Of course.”

  “He’s not a full member. He was allowed to stay almost six hundred years ago now, and he’s never left.”

  Kerrigan’s jaw dropped. “He’s just a… person. Not a rider?”

  Helly nodded. “That’s right. Mistress Moran is much the same way. Though she would loathe for me to tell you that.”

  “Mistress Moran?” she asked in disbelief. “But… how?”

  “She trained under the last House of Dragons’ tutor. And she has been with us for so long, hardly anyone even remembers. It’s an option for you, Kerrigan.”

  Her head was swimming. She had never heard of this. Twelve years in the mountain, and she’d thought she’d discovered most of its many secrets, but she was learning that she knew so very little about how the Society operated. But could that be for her? Could she work for the Society as a nonmember, a noncitizen, and still be fulfilled? Could she do it instead of investing everything to have the life she wanted? One filled with travel, adventure, love, and home?

  The mountain had been her home for so long. But it wasn’t home. Not really. It was a stepping-stone to what she could get. And if she agreed to stay here forever, she would never know what else might be.

  “I can’t,” Kerrigan said with a sigh. “It’s such a good opportunity, but I think there’s more out there for me. And I want to get it. I want to matter. I want to make a difference in the world. I can’t do that, staying here, safe under the mountain and the watchful eye of the Society. I can’t be a pawn in someone else’s game.”

  “You know I never, ever think of you that way.”

  “I know. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t how I feel.”

  Helly straightened at the words. “What else would you do? There is no contingency plan in place for this. It’s this or the streets, and you’ve never lived on the streets.”

  “I’d make do,” she said bitingly.

  Dozan’s offer sat tantalizingly in front of her. She didn’t want to take it. She knew that it was going from being one pawn to another, but she wouldn’t stay here. That she knew.

  “I know you would,” Helly said, losing all of her heat. “But if what you really want is to make a difference, then what would be the point?”

  Kerrigan sighed and put her head in her hands. “Nothing. There’d be no point.”

  “Stay here with me. You would make a difference with us, Kerrigan. I know you would.”

  Kerrigan’s mind was racing. There had to be a third option. Something she was missing.

  “Get me an extension.”

  Helly’s eyebrows rose. “For what?”

  “Give me until the end of the tournament to have a tribe select me.”

  “You’ve had a year for this already.”

  “I know, but I thought I had it secured, and I have to figure out what happened. I just need the extra month through the tournament, and if I don’t find someone by then…”

  “You’ll come work for me,” Helly said.

  “Yes.” Kerrigan hated saying the word, but she had to. She knew that she could figure this out in a month. She could do it.

  Helly held her hand out. “A bargain then?”

  Kerrigan gulped and placed her hand in Helly’s. This was old magic. She could feel the bond snake up her wrist and join them together. One month until the end of the tournament to find a tribe to accept her… or she was bound to the Society forever.

  16

  The Job

  As much as Kerrigan wanted to immediately get started, Helly had other plans. Even a month of lodging within the mountain wasn’t free, and she was no longer officially a Dragon Blessed, which meant that she had to earn her keep. Helly had insisted she continue to assist Fordham since none of the servants would do it for the length of the tournament and report to Master Bastian—this year’s tournament administrator—for any other duties.

  Which was why she was currently running to get to the champions’ area in time to speak to him. Only a half hour remained before the champions would find out the specifics of their first task. She was cutting it close.

  By the time she rounded the corner and found Master Bastian standing with the other two co-administrators to the tournament, Mistress Layla and Mistress Sinead, she was out of breath. All three turned to look at her quick approach.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Layla asked, threateningly stepping forward.

  Kerrigan halted immediately. The last thing she wanted to do was get on the wrong
side of someone from Herasi, the most barbaric of the three warring tribes to the west.

  “Apologies,” Kerrigan said, dipping into a quick curtsy. “I bring a notice from Mistress Hellina.”

  Bastian’s bushy eyebrows rose, but he took the letter she held out before her. He cracked the red wax seal and read the contents. Then, he looked up at her in surprise before passing it to Layla and Sinead.

  “This is most unusual,” Bastian said.

  “A special dispensation from the council is required for this,” Sinead said dreamily. She was from Concha, an island off the eastern coast famous for their meditative and holistic healing practices.

  “Indeed,” Bastian said. “I believe we can arrange that.”

  It had been Kerrigan’s gambit to take this straight to Bastian and not to the council. He was the only person who had offered his help at the party last night. She had hoped that he actually meant it when it came right down to it.

  “We cannot proceed without a full council meeting,” Layla said curtly.

  “There is no time for that,” Bastian said. “I give my blessing for this. A conditional acceptance. Rouse the competitors and assemble them in the hall, and then you shall report to me.”

  Kerrigan nodded gratefully. “Thank you, Master Bastian.”

  “Bastian,” Layla said, disapproval thick in her voice.

  “We will discuss this later,” he said with all his resounding authority.

  “Lorian will be displeased,” Sinead said evenly, almost uncaring.

  “Lorian can bring his complaints to me. For now, Kerrigan can complete the instructions I gave her. If such time as the council can convene and they decide not to allow her this, we will reconsider.”

  Kerrigan knew a dismissal when she heard one. She bobbed another curtsy and hastened away before she could hear what Layla and Sinead said to argue against her. Bastian had come through.