Page 159 of Wings of Destruction

This is what status gets you.

Status is hollow, a beautiful shell with nothing inside. I’ve earned none of it and deserve less.

Past the door to my private bathroom, the cool marble tile is broken up by a plush crimson rug from the Eldorian territory. The quality is nearly impossible to match and harder to find these days. But I’ve got one ready to soak up the dirt and grime from the bottom of my boots.

None of the other students have a rug like this. Even Headmistress Harbi doesn’t have one. Only me. Because of my father.

The room is scented with expensive cleaners and fresh flowers rest sleepily in a vase the color of Morgan’s eyes on my dresser.

This is why I can’t back down from my path now. The Headmistress wants me out of here, I guarantee it, and I just handed her the means to do it. Threatening her will never get her to change her mind. There’s no such thing as leniency with her, especially not when I’d bullied my way into her office to stand up for a maid.

This is on my shoulders whether I like the direction it’s taking or not.

I drop my head in my hands. “Come on, Kieran, get it together.”

Energy lights my muscles and I stand awkwardly, pacing from one side of the room to the other. There’s got to be a way out of this. Nimble fingers find the clasp on my weapons holster, and I let it fall to the ground, discarded.

“There’s a way out of this whether you see it or not,” I urge.

My voice lacks conviction.

Morgan will never change her mind. She’s made her position painfully clear and it strikes me as odd how similar she is to Harbi. The two of them would make an indomitable pair under different circumstances. No one would dare stand against them if they united.

Without his dragon, even my father would fall prey to those two, I have no doubt.

Today, I tried my best and my best is not good enough. So what do I do now?

Harbi gave me two hours to get through to Morgan. I’d have better luck chipping my way through this mountain with my teeth.

My hand slicks over the dagger still strapped tightly to my thigh holster. She hadn’t managed to gut me. Does it count as a small win?

Not in this case.

I glance outside at the evening slipping into violet and purple. My time is up. I’m out. I’m out.

“I’m out.”

I pace to the armoire and pull open the doors. A brown bottle rests on one of the shelves inside and I grab it, throttling the neck to pull the cork free and knocking back a long pull.

The strong taste of distilled liquor scalds the back of my throat on its way down. I knock back another sip until the heat pours into the gulley of my stomach.

It’s a waste to guzzle the drink this way. Another luxury, for the son of the great General.

I can do whatever I want but no one understands the consequences of slipping.

“I’m out,” I croak.

I force myself to repeat the words until they stick but the meaning is beyond me. All my efforts at kindling a rebellion will be for nothing now. Unless I somehow find a way to continue the work outside of DragonSpear…

I’m going to have to find Astrid and let her know. No doubt she’ll bash my brains in for this. She only knows I’d been searching for Morgan, that something had gone south with my negotiating. She has no idea about the deal I cut with Harbi.

When Astrid finds out, I’ll be worse off than hydra meat.

Holing up in my room to sulk has its merits. A very big part of me considers the bed, how comfortable it will be to duck under the covers the way I used to do as a child and shut out the rest of the world.

In the dark cave of linen, it’s easy to pretend there is nothing and no one else.

Then Mom would come into my room pretending to look for me. She’d make a big show of it, scouring the room from top to bottom and playfully ignoring my giggles.