She chuckles before getting serious again. “I do want to take over. I just can’t fathom my father retiring.” She stares up at me. “Right now, it’s hard to fathom a future at all.”
Ice hits my veins. As much as I’m happy right now, the truth is I’m wrapped up in that uncertainty. Our relationship too.
“Not until we can somehow clear our names,” Farren adds. “And we can’t do that until we know they’ll be safe.” I don’t need to ask who she means bythey.
I think back to our timeline, the hope that Nity would nest in that cave over and over again. “We might never be able to guarantee that.”
She turns back to the dragon’s leg. “I know.”
I’ve spent the last few days trying to reassure all the Walshes that my father is a coward who cares far too much about his reputation and business to come poking around. But how many times had I heard him talking of buying out the Walsh Sanctuary, using it to create breeding facilities and more open training grounds? He’s always complained how the Walshes aren’t ambitious, aren’t business-oriented enough to take his obscene offers. So if he assumes they have become social climbers like so many of his clients, he might think he has a chance to gain a foothold. And if he suspected for even a moment a golden dragon nested on this coast, he’d fly in within an hour. I’ve let those worries remain my own, though.
“Your father won’t retire before you finish at Revers,” I reassure. In part that is why we are here making house visits to every dragon under Dr. Walsh’s care. Not only to field rumors so we are safe enough to teach the hatchlings to fly, but to gather support. From what I’ve seen attending to thirty-four dragons in the past week, his remaining clients are fiercely loyal, and of course they would be. How do you drag someone’s name through the mud when they are the kind of man to dive into the mud to help you?
“IfI go to Revers,” Farren clarifies, placing way too much emphasis on the if.
“You will. Of course you will.”
She stands and runs her hands down the dragon’s back. “I meant more if I can afford it.”
I am a complete jerk. Her fight for the scholarship wasn’t led by ambition and trying to prove herself. With the sanctuary and how much herfamily gives back to the dragon community, they don’t have the funds. Even these checkups are pro bono. “Take it,” I blurt.
She jerks and holds out her hand, ready to take whatever I’m trying to throw at her. “What? Take what?”
“The scholarship. It’s yours.”
She drops her hand slowly and stares me down. “No.”
“What?”
“You aren’t going to give it to me.”
“But—” But it’s rightfully hers. She’s better than me, deserving.
“We fight fair. You need that scholarship just as much as I do. Worst-case scenario I’m stuck here interning with my dad, doing what I already love until I can make enough money to pay my way. But you? You need to get out of that house.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t think of the future?”
“Yeah, well. I guess I’ve thought ofyourfuture,” she admits, a blush dusting her face.
I stutter on two emotions. First, a warm attraction to her looking at me like that, as proof she cares about me. Then coolness thinking of going off to Revers without her there by my side. Of not being with her through it all.
Farren moves to the next stall, toward the next dragon. I follow on her heels. “But you deserve it more than I’ll ever—”
She whirls on me before we enter the stall. “The truth is I don’t deserve it. I probably shouldn’t go to Revers at all.”
That’s the most perplexing thing she’s said so far. Farren Walsh, who knows more about dragons than anyone, who’s beyond curious and passionate, shouldn’t go to school to learn more? “What? Why?”
She adjusts her glasses, not meeting my eye. “It’s not important anymore.”
She’s nuts if she thinks I’m dropping this. “You mean your future? Of course it’s important, Walsh.” I step forward. “Tell me.”
She glances around the humble stone barn. “I wanted to go to Revers to become a licensed veterinarian, but I also wanted to get funding for aresearch excursion.” Before I even open my mouth to ask, she continues. “I wanted to get funding to see if I could find them, Nity’s colony.”
My thoughts dull to a whisper. “You think there’s a whole colony?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. But I wanted to try to help them.” Her brown eyes shine. “I mean just think. Maybe there are alloys dying at hatching because there is no crafter there to help. They might need basic care. Who knows how many golden dragons could be saved if a veterinarian was on-site.”
I never even thought of the possibility. Nity was the exception in my mind, the last of her kind. But who knows? Who’s searched every isle or every mountain?Iwantedto try to help them.She’s infused the past tense into her statement as if she’s already abandoned the entire idea.
