Page 113 of Wings of Destruction

“Stop making so much noise.” A part of me relaxes and I pat the area beside me that Evie just vacated. “You made your point. And besides, Mozi tolerates you much better.”

I don’t have a particular care for hydra riders, he says to me.

But Mozi shuffles aside to give Astrid the room to maneuver wherever she pleases.

“I thought I’d find you up here.” She flashes the dragon a quick grin there and gone in a flash. “Well?”

“No, Evie did not get what she came for.”

And implied, yet silent, she never will.

“Evie isn’t going to stop. The sooner you realize it, the better it will be for everyone.” Astrid explains it with the patience of a saint treading over familiar territory. “I swear, it’s the last time I’ll remind you, but you have to promise me you’ll remember.”

Going with my gut, I reach into my leathers for the second piece of paper tucked against my heart—the paper torn from my book.

“I don’t want to be with a woman who is happy to climb a corrupt ladder for social standing. I want to be with someone like this. Whoever wrote this letter. I didn’t get a chance to show you last night. I’ve got a pen pal.”

I hand the paper off to Astrid. Her eyes narrow on the note and she scans the length deftly, her upper lip curling the longer she reads.

“Are you really so dumb?” she blurts out.

My heart thuds erratically. “Excuse me?”

“You don’t know who wrote the note, Kieran? Seriously? The answer is so obvious a blind person could see it!” Astrid taps her chin. “Let’s think. Shall we? Who do we know who is smart enough to get into DragonSpear, without a parent to pull strings?”

I open my mouth to answer and stop short, snapping my jaw shut again.

“Well. That narrows it down,” I’m forced to admit.

Mozi’s laughter echoes through my skull along with the feeling that he knows exactly what is happening now.

What? I blurt.

Oh, it makes sense. I can’t believe I didn’t see it!

His joy annoys me because I feel strung along behind them.

“Who has been betrayed by the crown and is angry enough to have beliefs this strong, this young?” Astrid asks.

She stares at me plaintively.

When I stare blankly back at her, coming up with nothing but dead space, she adds, “Who moves like water on fire when she fights and probably wants you dead? Her face should be very clear in your head. Especially after your voyeur moment.”

It’s a revelation like lightning; a flash of understanding piercing the dark like a spear thrown from nowhere. My stomach drops but my heart soars.

You idiot, Mozi says.

I know exactly who wrote the note and the moment realization clicks into place, Astrid laughs.

“Yes, you’re right.” She cranes her face up to Mozi. “A definite idiot.”

Even though Astrid can’t hear Mozi, it’s painfully clear that she knows the dragon agrees.

How could I have been so blind? There’s only one answer to all my questions. Life, fate, whatever you want to call it, it has a way of circling back to the one thing I need.

Not a thing, I correct. A who. A warrior.

Morgan wrote the note and I’m the last one to realize.