“What about him?” I asked, maintaining my expression flat and uninterested.
“That Moonveil seems to always be lurking around. First, he seemed to want to kill you, and his girlfriend nearly beat you to death. Then, he protects you beyond the veil when you impulsively jump through a portal. And finally, he saves your life from a royalist. What is it now?” Shakari asked. My chest is tightening. Had she figured it out? What did she know? “What does he want with you? Is he threatening you?” she pressed.
She didn’t know. I exhaled in relief while she continued. “I would kick his ass and all his friends' gladly. Just tell me.”
I let a low laugh out of my mouth in realization that my best friend still hadn’t put all the pieces together.
“I know you would, but I can deal with him myself,” I said, trying to play it lightly. Shakari raised a brow. I had to give her something and quickly. So I said the first thing that came to mind.
“When I realized Lorik Draventh was one of the only ones in Dragontail history who grabbed the ruby in the five-minute dragon illusion, I asked him how he did it. But the Moonveil just gave me another of his lectures. That I cannot take shortcuts. So we just got in a heated argument, and I am done with him.”
After I told her that story, I realized how stupid it sounded, but I had to give her something, and the truth was not an option.
“I know what you are doing,” Shakari chastised. Evidently, she has just seen through my lie. “Ever since you set foot in this academy, you have tried to apologize and make him like you. That is a lost cause. Stop trying to make everyone like you and stop apologizing for your family's brutality.”
She paused for a second, my eyes wide open, listening to her lecture. “You are the princess of Rionis, whether you like it or not, and you might rule after your mother, whether you want it or not. You will be hated by many, so just accept it.”
Her words weren’t filled with discipline or strength, but with kindness and love. It was good advice, useful, even but not what I needed in that moment. What I truly wanted was for my best friend to take my hand and tell me she would stand by me no matter what came
next.
But she couldn’t, since I wasn’t going to tell her I had kissed the Moonveil, that he wanted me, but I had no option but to push him away.
I ached to tell her everything, the argument tearing through my mind, the kiss, the pull, the desire but I couldn’t. Shakari couldn’t know. It was dangerous knowledge, the kind that could cost her life to be a witness to such a crime. And I loved her too much to ever risk that.
“I know, you are right. I am done with the Moonveil.” I said simply. “But now I need to sleep.” And that wasn’t a lie. Deep sleep was all I needed to take off the heat of today’s conversation with Lorik Draventh.
Chapter 31: The Moonveil
The second week of training for the trials was more challenging to sleep through than the first. Anxiety and expectation filled me every night. I was obsessed with practicing the third trial.
I knew it was impossible and yet I wanted to master it. I still hadn’t grasped the ruby, but I was getting closer.
The dragon guide had revealed the magma dragon’s weakness: heat. If I could overheat it, bring the rest of its body up to the same molten temperature as its core, its movements would slow, just long enough for me to reach the ruby.
The problem was time. I never had enough of it to conjure the mass of flames needed to wrap its entire body. The dragon was enormous.
During the day, my thoughts seared with desperate strategies to attempt to reach the ruby. The obsession devoured me. At night, dreams twisted into relentless nightmares,nightmares of the crimson dragon and its master. All I could see lately were those intense green eyes. I never truly rested.
Sleeping had been hard these days; the stress and anxiety kept me awake. And if I did, nightmares would taunt me. Tonight I couldn’t even find sleep, and I had no books left to distract me; I’d returned them all yesterday.
All I had left was Lorik’s dragon guide, and I’d already studied it twice.
When I checked the clock, it was past midnight. A full moon hung high in the sky, spilling pale light through my window.
Without changing out of my white pajamas, I left my room. No plan. No destination. I drifted through the dark halls of Solphire Tower, my mind consumed by the trials looming just one week away. Only when I stopped did I realize where my feet had taken me.
I stopped in front of the metal doors to the Hall of Mirrors.
I pushed the doors open, thinking I could practice wielding a large number of flames to overheat the magma dragon.
Inside, the room was dark, lit only by thin strands of moonlight reflecting off the mirrored wall.
I walked to the center of the hall, flames dancing in my hands and in the air. Suddenly, the metal doors behind me screeched.
I turned, flames growing in the air. A dark figure stood by the door, but I couldn’t tell who it was.
“Who is there?” I asked. The figure took two steps toward me, and my flames illuminated his body. As soon as I saw the face, I extinguished all the fire above me.