Page 116 of Under Restless Skies

After a few seconds, I ask, “Is he gone?”

“Yes,” Celine says.

Only then do I realize I had a manic smile on my face, and I drop it.

Nelly is staring at me with a puzzled expression. “What was that?”

I huff, and perhaps exhale some of the anger I kept hidden when he stopped by our table. “I thought it would be nicer to make him wait, you know? And keep waiting, waiting, waiting.”

Nelly glances at her juice, thinking. “Maybe he has something important to say.”

I shrug. “Maybe I don’t want to hear it.”

And I don’t. Alayel has a way to twist words and wrap them around me, and I’m tired of being his prey.

I have more important things to worry about, like what’s going to happen after Cardiana’s festival and what Mallor is going to do to me. My stomach chills, fearing being expelled from the academy, losing everything I fought for.

And then there’s the hatchlings. What is it that Katrine can wait for? And who’s he?

Still, amidst it all, there’s Alayel. Alayel, Alayel, Alayel. Ignoring me one day, crouching by my table the next, making me so confused.

Celine has flying practice this morning, and since I have time off, I walk with her to the Outer Hill.

As we approach the bottom of the stairs leading to the summit, her fear radiates like waves.

“You’re used to flying, aren’t you?” I ask.

She looks down. “I broke my arm twice, so I missed some lessons.”

“Don’t you enjoy it, though? Flying?”

Celine stops. “The moment when I’m in the air, when there’s nothing beneath me, and I’m suspended by the wind only? I love it. It’s exhilarating. But then I have to go back to the ground, and landing is always terrifying.” She gives me a faint smile. “But I should be fine.”

“I’ll be at the Outer Beach, waiting.”

We part ways; she climbs the steps to the hilltop while I head for the tunnel that leads to the beach. The day is warm and I remove the uniform, then hide it in the bushes. Wearing only my linen underslip, I enter the water and feel the force of the waves against my body, washing away my anger, my bitterness, my memories of Alayel.

When the first gliders jump from the hill, I get out of the sea and return to the bushes, where I take my uniform, then put it on once my body is dry.

From here, I can’t see who’s flying, since the sun’s up, but I notice that some gliders move more smoothly than others, and I don’t know if it’s the recruit’s talent or their gear.

My heart still cracks when I look at them and realize it will never be me, up there in the air. I’ll never fly like them.

Even if I recall what I saw on the day of the attack, I still want to fly. Some irrational part of me wants the thrill, the joy, even if it might mean my early death. Perhaps the potential for some pleasures stifles our own sense of self-preservation.

After a long time, the first glider lands with a second-year young man I don’t know well. From here, it doesn’t look dangerous. He ends in a run on the soft sand.

More gliders land, and I think about Ava and Vos, stuck in that room, unable to feel the ocean breeze from up close or the sun on their skins. But it’s for their own protection, I tell myself, still unable to shush the part of me that’s starting to think that keeping them locked up is wrong. And yet, if riders want to kidnap the little dragons, we have no choice but to keep them safe.

A recruit lands with a loud thud, runs a few steps, then stumbles and falls. Something in my heart stutters, thinking it’s Celine, but it’s another male recruit. Celine lands much later, and hits the sand in a smooth, perfect motion. I wave at her and she gives me a triumphant grin.

She can fly.

Hopefully she won’t be picked to go into the air during an attack, at least not anytime soon.

I head to the hatchling’s room soon after dinner.

At the bottom of the stairs, someone steps out of the shadows. Startled, I step back.