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“I want that dragon, Cirro.”
Cyrus’s voice from the last time I had been in these tunnels floated through my mind, and I fought to keep my facial expression neutral. Smiling up at him sweetly, I slid my hand into his.
“That is very kind of you, Cyrus.” I said, keeping my tone light, “I’m sure Aepein will appreciate it.”
Cyrus nodded, gifting me with another one of his blinding smiles as he turned us away from the door again. I looked back over my shoulder, watching as it swung slowly and locked itself back into place, the groan ofmetal on metal just as deafening this time as it was before.
~~~
Lurking in the dark shadows of the corridor, I watched as a group of staff moved through the corridor. They were out of uniform, and talking loudly about the tavern in Zalas that they were heading to. Laughing and joking with each other, they disappeared around the corner, and I took my chance.
Sprinting from my hiding spot, I tried to avoid the windows as I made my way through the West Wing of the castle. I knew the way to Gracie’s room in my sleep, so I was there before anyone could spot me, thankfully.
Knocking my knuckles against her bedroom door frantically, I heard her curse from inside the room, the sound of her quick footsteps crossing the room happening only seconds before the door was yanked open.
“What the f—“ Gracie was cut off by me pushing past her, my chest heaving as I breathed heavily. “Kira?!”
I waved a hand at her in greeting, letting myself flop down onto her bed so I could catch my breath. The lack of training, both with and without weapons, was starting to take its toll on my stamina, and I briefly wondered if I would be able to convince Cyrus to let me join in a training regimen with the youngest intakes.
The mattress of Gracie’s bed dipped down next to me, and I opened my eyes to see her staring at me, wide eyed and expectant. I sat up, gesturing towards the glass of water on her bedside table, and she handed it to me without a second thought. Gulping it down, I held up a finger as though to say wait.
“You know I love you, Kira, but this better be important.” Gracie laughed as I finished off her water and handed her the empty glass. I laughed lightly, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand. “That was not very Queenly.”
“Oh, shush,” I groaned, and Gracie’s laughter filled the room, “This is incredibly important.”
“Okay, tell me.” Gracie giggled as she moved from where she sat beside me, she tucked herself under her duvet, moving an old, worn paperback book out of the way, and leaned back against her pillows.
I rolled the sleeve of my robe up and thrust my arm out for her to look at. She frowned for a second, her eyebrows furrowing in the middle as she looked from my face to my arm. Slowly, the realisation of what she was looking at hit her, and she leaned forward, snatching my arm up in her hands and yanking me across the bed. I landed on my stomach with an oof.
The gold threads of my veins had faded from earlier, but they still shone under my skin, as though someone had painted me with thick, stubborn paint that refused to wash off. They stretched from the star in the palm of my hand,right into the crease of my elbow, where they bloomed out into an intricate rendition of the sun.
Gracie’s eyes went wide and her mouth fell open as she twisted my arm every-which-way to get a better look at it.
“What. Is.That?!” She gasped, lifting my arm above our heads to examine the underside of it. I winced as my shoulder stretched in a way that it should not be able to but laughed at her enthusiasm.
“Cyrus took me down into the tunnels,” I began, and Gracie gawked at me from underneath my arm, her eyes only leaving the intricate gold for a second, “And showed me where they are keeping Aepein’s egg.”
“No!” Gracie’s head shot up from under my arm, and I laughed loudly at the expression on her face. “What was it like?!”
“It is stunning, truly. But that isn’t the most interesting part, Gracie! The door it is kept behind was enchanted, locked with a whole bunch of runes and a gem of some kind, Cyrus had to channel his magic into the door to unlock it. It looked like he was struggling so I tried to… help him, in some way, by putting my hand on his shoulder. I could feel his magic under his skin, and the next thing I knew, I was being held in place by whatever this is —“ I gestured to the gold on my arm “— and the door opened!”
Gracie stared at me, wide eyed and wondrous, her hands still gripping my wrist tightly.
“I told him I hadn’t been able to tap into my magic yet, and he said something about my needing an anchor.”
“Oh!” Gracie gasped, scrambling off her bed to fetch the book she had discarded at my arrival, “I was reading about anchors!”
“What does it mean?” I asked, moving from where I was sitting on the middle of her bed to beside her under the duvet, squashing the two of us together.
“It doesn’t have to be a person, necessarily, just something you are strongly emotionally attached to.” Gracie explained, flicking through pages of her book to reach the part she wanted to find.
I frowned. If it was something as simple as that, why would Leo not have suggested it as an option for channeling my magic already?
Gracie thrust the book in front of me, a proud smile on her face as she presented what she wanted to show me.
“It needs to be something you are attached to, but it makes summoning your magic organically harder.”
I frowned, letting my eyes scan the page in front of me.
