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“She’s dangerous, Callan. Whatever else is true about her, she’s a danger to you and to everyone around you. Your magic would be telling you that if you knew how to listen, but clearly I have to tell you instead.”
“Professor, I—”
“That’s all.” She rose to her feet and swept up the stairs, her skirts swirling around her ankles as she went. The door to the lecture hall slammed hard behind her, and then he was alone. Ridiculous, he thought, trying to summon more of the frustration that had been building during their cryptic little exchange. He regretted being so polite, now. He should have snapped back, should have defended himself.
But right now, he couldn’t feel angry. All he felt was the lingering, gnawing sense of unease that he’d been doing his best to ignore ever since he’d realized that there was more to Kaya than she was telling him.
Chapter 10 - Inota
Inota smiled blandly through every fresh compliment she received at the end-of-term staff party that afternoon. She’d been surprised by how many other teachers had turned out to see it. Didn’t they have their own lessons to prepare for? But it was the last day of term, with most teachers finished for the time being—at least until the onerous task of exam marking began the following week, of course. So they’d decided to turn up to her lecture instead. It was a gesture of support and friendship, she knew that, and she knew she ought to be grateful. The person she was pretending to be would have been grateful. It was a show of respect, especially from the Dean, whose presence all but guaranteed that she was being considered for a more permanent position at the school.
But it was getting harder and harder to fake enthusiasm about things that she knew would never come to fruition. At this rate, it would be a miracle if she made it to the end of the semester—she was surprised she’d even gotten to the end of the term. She was starting to hate the face she saw in the mirror each day, the constant work of making sure it hadn’t begun to warp or change in a way that her ‘friends’ would notice. She’d never felt more trapped in her life, more claustrophobic, more convinced that she needed to get the hell out of here. At least there was the trip coming up, but even that was a source of stress. She’d put Callan’s mind at ease a little with her improvised confession, but now the pressure was on her to come up with a convincing lie. And she was getting so tired of lying.
Maybe she should take a leaf out of her old boss’s book. Just get hold of a weapon, hold it to Callan’s throat, tell him in no uncertain terms to take her to his insula and get her through to the new world. Brute force was so much simpler than all this deception. It was a bad sign, a very bad sign, that she was starting to think of Haspar’s methods as a reasonable option… but she was just so damntired. But instead of resting, she was going on a trip. With Callan. Her mark, her prey. She should be delighted with the opportunity to worm her way further under his skin.
But the dread only intensified as exam week dragged past and she readied herself for the trip. She barely slept at all the night before they were set to leave, the worry gnawing and seething in her belly like a living thing, and when she dragged herself down to the windswept pier at dawn, she felt more like she was walking towards a battlefield than to a short inter-insular trip. Callan was there already, of course, fresh-faced and cheerful. Just the sight of him was enough to crystallize all her fears, the realization she’d been resisting all term finally hitting home.
As much as she’d clearly succeeded in getting under Callan’s skin, the truth was that he’d gotten under her skin, too.
She could feel his attention burning through her as they climbed aboard the little boat that had come to collect them, and she focused her attention on the window instead as the stormy gray seas gave way to gray mist and the curiously dislocated feeling of traveling through the Fog came over her. She could feel the magic embedded in the little ship working to keep them on the narrow path, holding back the chaos out there, maintaining a rational relationship to time and space in a place where doing so was downright irrational. She’d always had an affinity for the gray, liminal spaces between worlds, even before she’d taken up with Haspar and been forced by necessity to spend most of her time there. Unbidden, she felt her hand come up to fidget with the thin chain around her neck, feeling the solid, dense weight of her pendant against her ribs. Callan had asked her about it once. Another entry on the long, long list of things she’d never be able to explain to him.
And then, as suddenly as they’d left, they were in Isthmus. This was by far the largest transport hub on any insula, one Inota had spent a great deal of her life avoiding at all costs. There was so much paperwork associated with travel these days, too many bureaucrats interested in who you were and why you were traveling. She’d have much preferred to guide the two of them through herself. But this was easier, though more nerve-wracking. To her relief, the bored-looking attendant who processed their paperwork barely glanced at it, and though she’d rehearsed a dozen explanations for the forms of identification she lacked, they were quickly waved through.
“This is exciting,” Callan told her as they headed for the ornate doors that would lead onto the streets of the city. “I’ve been through the Hub a dozen times, but I’ve never actually set foot in Margrav.”
Despite her lingering unease, she couldn’t help but smile a little at the expression on his face. As a dragon, she knew he was probably older than her by decades at least, but right now, he looked like a little kid, almost hopping from foot to foot in his eagerness to get out into the street. Margrav, she thought faintly, trying to remember the last time she’d been here. Of the handful of large cities on Isthmus, it was probably the one she’d spent the most time in. The presence of the Hub meant it was a regular thoroughfare for inter-insular travelers… more to the point, the kind of travelers who had enough money to make their journeys in comfort. Little wonder, then, that it had become a central city for trade, both on larger and smaller scales.
Little wonder either that it was absolutely full of dragons, she thought darkly as they stepped out onto the bustling streets of the city. It was disgusting, really, how they leveraged their infinite lifespans to hoard wealth. Just about every major business in this city was owned and run by dragons, though you wouldn’t know it to look at the staff doing the real work, would you? Oh, no. They were gracious enough to hire humans for their dirty work, paying them a pittance while they hoarded their profits in their towers high above the city streets… quite literally, in most cases.
But Inota kept the scowl from her face as best as she could. Because beside her, Callan was staring around at the city with an expression of stark wonder on his handsome face. You’re a dragon too as far as he knows, she reminded herself. You should be just as thrilled by all these ostentatious shows of wealth.
“The buildings are so strange,” he murmured, looking back down at her.
“The city was planned around the Hub,” she explained, gesturing behind her to the enormous building that they’d just emerged from. “The above-ground portion forms the city center, and everything else spreads out from there.”
“But … they’re so tall. Look,” he said, pointing beyond the rooftops of the buildings across the street. She knew what he was looking at. In the distance, towering skyscrapers loomed. They surrounded the city in a kind of lopsided oval, towering structures that overlooked the city on one side and the surrounding countryside on the other. “Like a defensive wall.”
She snorted. “I suppose that’s not a bad way of looking at it. Though I don’t think it’s the city they’re defending.” Callan looked quizzical. “Dragons,” she explained, reminding herself how new he was to this world. “Dragons—especially rich ones—like to live up high, looking down on everything around them. They also tend to like keeping their distance from everyone else.”
“From other shifters?”
“Other shifters, humans, mages… you name it, they’d prefer not to know about it. So they live in those towering skyscrapers out there, only deigning to fly down to this level when they’ve got orders to give or deals to make.”
“You’re not a fan, huh?”
Too late, she realized she’d let a little too much venom creep into her tone. She recalibrated as quickly as she could, cursing herself for letting the anxiety of the trip get to her like this. “I’m not a fan of structural inequality, no,” she said levelly. “I don’t think anyone should have more say over the running of a city by virtue of how much money they have, or how much property they own.”
“I agree,” Callan said simply. He was quiet as they headed down a connecting street, and she glanced at him sidelong, aware that he must be holding back the dozens of questions that were clearly coming up with every new sight. The streets were busy with vehicles and the sidewalks crowded with people hastening back and forth, and occasionally a shadow would pass over them and they’d glance up to see dragonwings outlined against the blue sky above them. Finally, they reached their hotel, a three-story building a few blocks from the Hub, where a bubbly, effusive young wolf checked them in with far more enthusiasm than Inota felt was necessary. Her silver eyes lingered on Callan’s face for a long moment, clearly admiring him. The burst of jealousy Inota felt surprised her, and she felt her jaw tighten and her fists clench at her side. The wolf glanced back at her, a look of realization and then acute dismay flashing across her pretty face.
“Oh! Wait a second. We’re just about ready, but just let me…” She tapped on the keyboard in front of her, frowning faintly. Inota could see Callan leaning over the desk, clearly fascinated by the computer but trying to be discreet. His insula relied almost exclusively on magic, from what her research had told her. Of course even this hotel’s dated technology was going to be of interest to him.
“Alright, thanks for your patience,” the wolf said brightly, sliding two keys across the desk to them. “We’re all set. You two have a lovely stay, alright?”
Inota gnawed on her lower lip as they were shown through the hotel to their room. The young wolf had been changing something about their booking, she was almost certain of it… and when the doorman pushed open the door to their room, she realized with a mixture of amusement and consternation what it was. To keep costs down in the more expensive stops on their itinerary, the Dean had suggested they share a room, with separate beds, of course. But this room was dominated by a single, enormous bed, complete with a luxurious-looking quilt and a pair of towels neatly folded on the end.
“Oh,” Callan said faintly, turning back to her with a worried half-smile. “I guess she must have thought…”
“I guess she must have,” Inota agreed, setting her bag down.
