Page 32 of Feralheart

Father grunted.

Tolross sat up straighter. “The Scorching, like in the stories?”

“A story is something made up as cover.” Father’s voice held no intonation.

“One wish for the winner,” I said.

Tolross’s eyes brightened. “Imagine that. What would you wish for?”

“To stop hearing trumpets,” Father said.

Tolross laughed, but it dissolved into coughing. I brought him water and waited until he’d finished drinking.

“What would you wish for, Eradin?” he asked.

I returned to my seat and picked up one of Father’s shirts, plus a threaded needle.

“I’d wish for this shirt to hold for more than one day.” The laugh I forced out didn’t take.

Tolross watched me like he was waiting for a real answer to slip past my teeth by accident. His gaze stayed on me too long, reading the lie the way he always did.

“You’d wish for me to get better,” he said quietly.

I didn’t answer.

“That’s stupid, Eradin,” he said. “Don’t do that.”

“I’m mending a shirt. That’s all I’m doing.”

“I mean the race. Don’t. Just don’t.”

Father stood and went to the stove, checking the coal bin. “We’re low. I’ll get more tomorrow.”

Too few pieces of coal left. Too many candles burnt to stubs. Everything measured against time we couldn’t buy.

He closed the coal bin and sat back down.

“Father, you saw the last race, didn’t you?” Tolross asked.

Father’s scarred hands stilled on the table. “I watched someone I knew sign up for the trial. A man from across town. He had a daughter about Eradin’s age.”

I moved the needle again, punching through the fabric.

“Did he win?” Tolross asked.

“No.”

“Did he⁠—”

“He didn’t come back. That’s all there is to remember.”

I stopped because my hands were shaking too much to keep sewing. “Did you try to stop him?”

Father’s head shot up. “Every way I knew how. He went anyway. They always do.”

It sounded like an accusation, as if he could already see me standing in the sign-up line, and he’d be damned if he’d watch another person he cared about choose a dragon over survival.

I pulled the thread too tight. It puckered the fabric, and I had to start over.