AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I will. I’ll pass everything along. Should I pass the other thing too?” Holly asked, referring to the whole ‘Queen’ thing.
“Actually that would be good,” Claire decided. “If they can slip it into the shifter communities that would work well.”
Holly nodded and then hesitated. “Be safe.”
“I will.”
Claire sat in the seat after the glow from the orb had faded. She hoped she was making the right decision. Only time would tell.
15
Claire walked back into the Headmaster’s office. “Holly is up to speed,” she announced.
“Perfect,” the Headmaster nodded. “We’ll get started here. You all probably need to go if you want to make the flight to the Dragon Mountains before dark. In fact, I would encourage that. The Council has been serious about cracking down on travel.”
Malcolm growled. “They would have to be stupid to try to stop us.”
Desmond rolled his eyes. “I think at this point we’ve established that.” Claire frowned. Desmond’s talk with his father must not have gone well.
Headmaster Dorian ignored both of them and looked at Claire. “What else do you need?”
Claire thought over everything and remembered the journals. “Oh, could we get a list of all students and staff who attended or worked at the Academy during the time my mother and father were here?”
She didn’t want to tip their hands about why they needed the lists but the Headmaster just nodded. Desmond must have filled him in on who her parents were while Claire was talking to Holly because he didn’t react except to that tidbit at all. “I’ll pull the list from the archive.”
“Good,” Claire nodded. “Then perhaps you could send it via locator orb to us?” She turned to Desmond. “Holly said you had one here at the Academy keyed to Frederick’s office. We’ll need to key it to this one here too.”
“Already done,” Desmond said. “I’ll grab it before we go along with anything else we need from our suites.”
“Let’s go get what we need from the suite,” Everett said, rising to his feet and standing next to Claire.
“We’ll grab you some food from the kitchen for your flight,” Helene said, tugging Andy out of the office.
“Travel safely,” the Headmaster said, his face grim. “I have a feeling this is all going to get worse before it gets better.”
* * *
“Packlightly but grab what you need,” Everett said as they entered the familiar yet dusty rooms of their suite. He disappeared into his room while Desmond headed straight for his workshop and Malcolm disappeared into his hoard room.
Claire took a moment to look around the living room. A light sheen of dust had settled over the unused surfaces. A bittersweet feeling rose in her stomach. Was this ever going to settle down? Was she ever going to come back here and just be able to be with her Triad and her friends and learn all the things she had missed out on growing up?
“You’re not packing,” Malcolm’s voice broke her from her thoughts. He had stepped out into the living room and was staring at her with a soft look on his face like he could read her thoughts. With the bond growing stronger, she wouldn’t have been surprised if he could.
“Just lost in thought,” she smiled at him, holding out a hand. He crossed to join her and she rested the side of her head briefly against his upper arm. Whatever lay ahead, she was determined to protect this family she had found.
Malcolm wrapped an arm around her waist before guiding her towards her room. It seemed her grumbly dragon was going to help her. Claire refreshed her clothes and ducked into the bathroom to refresh the small sack of toiletries she had brought along. When she came out, Malcolm was laying out the coat she had bought on Pinscer Street last year as well as the gloves and scarf he had bought her at the Market.
“We’ll be up in the air for a few hours,” he said gruffly. “You need to stay warm.”
Claire smiled and leaned on her tiptoes to press a quick kiss to his stubbly cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. “You always take such good care of me.”
Malcolm didn’t answer but gave her a pleased rumble as he scooped her in a tight hug. “Get dressed,” he ordered as he released her. “Everett and I will go down to shift and get ready. You might need to collect Desmond from his workshop as he tends to get lost in it.”
Claire nodded and followed Malcolm out of her room. She knocked softly on Desmond’s door but didn’t receive an answer. She pushed the door open. Desmond, lost in thought, was muttering to himself in the center of the room as he shoved things into his spelled satchel. There had to be a weight assistance charm on the satchel as well as there was no way any person could carry that many books without help.
He looked up across the room and focused on Claire. “Little pumpernickel, am I taking too long?”
“You’re fine,” Claire said, crossing over to him. She smoothed the furrow in his brow. “I just came to help. How did the conversation with your father go?”
