Page 136 of Wings of Destruction

A sudden ache in my chest catches me off guard. Like my mother’s sapphire.

Is Harbi’s necklace a family heirloom as well? I scour my mind for some scrap of knowledge about the woman and come up blank. The more I struggle, the harder it is to breathe, like my anxiety is catching up to me at once, and the memories get farther away. They slip right out of my grasp.

My chest tightens and the rest of me follows suit behind it. If Harbi sees the struggle on my face, she’s content to watch me, to mark my progress and see if I’m able to get myself out of the headlock of nerves or not.

“Welcome, Morgan Whyte,” Harbi says softly.

I turn my wrists in the binds and sniff, shrug, to hide the movement. “This is a less than stellar welcome, if I’m honest.”

When I thought about it in the past— because what new student would have a face to face meeting with the headmistress at some point? —I pictured equal footing. Common ground.

Not a voyeur in black and leather straps.

“Oh?”

The word hangs in the air between us ready to drop but she never finishes the statement. It’s not an apology, and it’s not an observation.

I don’t know what it is.

The edge deepens and the nerves take center stage. I bite my lip to stop panting. Get a grip, Morgan, or Ether take you.

The curse helps.

Headmistress Harbi and I alter our posture to face each other at the same time. In terms of a power struggle, I’m losing, even though I’m the one who needs to survive.

She and I are playing very different games and I pray to Ether that Kieran doesn’t stick around long enough to see what kind of cards I’ve got close to my chest. My nostrils flare. At the moment? It’s a whole lot of nothing. But something will come to me through the scrabble of my thoughts. I’m sure of it.

At least, I have to be sure. Otherwise I’m trapped with no way out.

Kieran takes a step closer and the plush carpet absorbs the sound. He’s near enough to stop me if I make a move to hurt Harbi, or myself. The strap dangles loose in his hand. In case I need a quick yank to remind me of my master.

Harbi clears her throat and draws her staff in front of her.

Both hands choke the wooden neck. “Kieran has proposed something interesting. We’ve been discussing several possibilities for your future.”

My torso fills with life, sensation, growing hotter like an entirely separate organ. Fury.

He’s probably brokered a deal where he gets to spend the last few days with me in his bed, doing whatever he wants to me. Fitting. Isn’t it?

Anger has kept me alive better than any other weapon.

It’s been my constant companion through life. I’ve felt it from the beginning, always with me, but stronger and louder now. My tutors used to clock me as being one of the worst tempered children when I didn’t get my way.

If I can use it now⁠—

I fight it down with a promise not to go there again, because today, the anger is tempered with fear. I’ve trained to defend myself and he might have gotten the upper hand eventually, but I’d held my own for the fight.

“Yeah? And you’re in the habit of letting your students tell you what to do?” I scoff and the sound wobbles. “If I talked back to my tutors that way, they’d have knocked my teeth loose.”

Harbi flashes the mimic of a grin and if I hadn’t been fixated on her face, I’d have missed the change entirely.

“It’s certainly an offer I would not have considered coming from anyone else.”

“Ah, so you’re saying his reputation is what twisted your ear. Or maybe just his father’s reputation,” I throw back.

Is Harbi courting favor with the great and powerful General? Vying for power in whatever empire rises from the ashes?

The thoughts race mad and unhinged through my head.