‘You want a report? Get it from mother. Leave,’ grunting my demand, I was surprised when Willow didn’t linger.
Apart from bumping shoulders on the way out, it went smoother than expected. In retaliation, my sister left the door wide open, as if it would bother me in the slightest.
At last, I was alone again. Retreating into my solitude, I relished the quiet. Once I had checked the room for traps and curses, I finally relaxed. The protections clearly needed replacing since they had failed to keep her out, but I would deal with that later.
Worn out from a day full of uncertainty, I lay down in my brown canopy bed and summoned the book I had stolen from the king’s office. I had slipped it into my purse the moment he had been called into his meeting. It seemed only fair that if he were to learn new things, so should I.
The dark leather cover creaked as I opened it, revealing bold crimson ink strokes across the first page:
The Art of Fire Breathing
For control brings relief.
Pain brings control.
And knowledge breeds pain.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the words had been written in blood and, if so, whose.
There was no date on any of the pages, but the frayed edges hinted at its great age, and the knowledge it contained was exactly what I needed. As sleep began to cloud my mind, I thought of what the first chapter claimed: that fire could spread through the entire body of a fire-breather.
Mine only lived in my chest and hands.
Was I as blemished in fire as I was in witchery?
Chapter Four
Avari
Preparing for our second meeting and the looming training session left me both curious and uneasy. An unfamiliar restlessness coursed through my body, my fire pushing to the surface more than usual. It wasn't what I'd expected. The king's hostility had been predictable, but his sudden shift to reserved civility unsettled me far more. I couldn't help wondering what had prompted the change.
I stepped out of the warm portal and was greeted by a curtsy and a soft smile from Michael, the socially awkward assistant.
‘Welcome, Princess Ava. We’ve been awaiting your arrival,’ he said, yesterday’s shyness gone without a trace.
‘Nice to see you again, Michael. Am I late?’ My pulse quickened as I checked the time, but it showed six fifty in the morning.
The man smiled reassuringly before adding, ‘Not at all. It’s the king who’s always early to importantmeetings.’
I recognised how vital the conjuring was to King Dracon and the Fogoyans. The thought of having to choose between genuinely training him or merely pretending for my mother’s sake made my stomach churn. Her figurative grip had tightened around my neck my whole life, and over the years, I began to wonder whether breathing was even worth it.
This alliance offered me the resources to hone myself into the weapon I always had the potential to become. The king was a perfect example to learn from, the only person my mother had ever struggled to destroy. The only person she couldn't break.
The Elder Committee had bestowed a rare opportunity upon me by enforcing the treaty, even if it hadn't been intentional. And it surely hadn't. They'd known of my suffering in the Ortensian court for over a decade, ever since I'd petitioned to abdicate my title. I had been willing to walk away with nothing. Yet even as the court had nearly destroyed me, they'd done nothing.
Michael and I walked in silence. While I tried to memorise the route, the castle was a maze of staircases and winding corridors. Eventually, we entered an ornate dining room bathed in the early morning light, its warm rays spilling across the furniture and over all of us. The golden-framed window-walls overlooked the lushest forest I had ever seen, and the sight left me breathless. The hues of green calmed something deep within my soul. The sun rose above the untamed trees and mountains, stretching so far they looked endless.
‘Those are the mountains my family hails from,’ Anya murmured in my mind.
The information shocked me. We never spoke much about her relatives; it was a sore subject.
‘Your family lived in the mountains?’
‘The system of caves within them. I’ve seen them in their dreams; it’s a city in its own right. It’s nice to see it’s still standing after all this time.’
‘I can’t even imagine what that must feel like.’
‘I’m glad to have found you, Avari. Now, train him or not, but your king has been coughing for a while to get your attention.’
