Ana gasped. The baby bird was struggling, trying to lift its head and making pitiful noises. Ana reached out to it, but she hesitated short of actually touching it.

  Clearly, the bird needed help, but she wasn’t sure how to give that. The bird that had scared Eleph off must have been the mother, but she was now nowhere in sight.

  Not that another bird would probably be able to help, anyway. This fledging was seriously injured.

  Should she put it in her shirt and carry it down the mountain? Galfour’s Point had a nurse.

  Galfour’s Point! How late was she to the exam?

  Ana started to reach again for the baby bird, but all of a sudden the animal burst into flames. Yelping, Ana jumped back. She landed hard on her butt in the dirt.

  She wasn’t imagining things. There was a ball of fire in the middle of the nest. As she jumped to standing, the fire died down. By the time she reached the nest again, there was nothing but a pile of ashes.

  Shaking its wings and head, the baby bird stood tall amongst the ashes. It no longer appeared injured. In fact, it looked rather healthy.

  As Ana watched in amazement, the bird did a couple hops, spread its wings, then took to the sky. It went fast for something so young, turning into nothing but a smudge in the sky in a matter of seconds.

  And then, it was gone.

  Chapter 16

  Taking a roundabout way back to Galfour’s Point would have been ideal, significantly cutting back on the chances of being surprised by Eleph. But Ana feared something else almost as much as she did him: missing the written exam.

  She journeyed down the mountain running and even tumbling here and there (though that last part was accidental). There was no way to tell what time it was, but the morning was already painfully bright.

  As she ran, questions plagued her. Why had Eleph wanted to destroy the nest? And the fledgling was clearly a magic creature, right? Normal birds did not create fire like that.

  Crossing Galfour’s Point’s lawn, she burst into the castle through one of its back entrances. She was gasping for air, with leaves clinging to her clothes and her hair a tangled mess.

  Her footsteps echoed in the wide, empty hallway as she ran for the exam hall. The castle was far too quiet, with no one about. Which meant she was late…

  Coming up on the exam hall, she saw Brax closing the double doors.

  “Wait!” Ana yelled.

  He looked at her in surprise. As she stopped at the doors, he opened his mouth as if to speak, but apparently, he couldn’t find the words.

  “Thanks,” she gasped.

  He nodded, raising an eyebrow in question.

  Everyone was seated at the desks, all fifty hopefuls vying to get into Galfour’s Point. There was only one desk left. Ana’s.

  Pepin must have saved it for her, since it was right next to his. He gave her a wild look but she ignored it. Stopping at the water dispenser in the back, she poured herself a glass that she carried to her desk.

  At the front of the room, Headmaster Whitlock shot daggers Ana’s way.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. Her voice, harsh from the run, croaked.

  A row away, Dove snickered. Today, she was easy enough to ignore. Ana had much more important things to focus on.

  “Where were you?” Pepin hissed. “You didn’t show up at the library.”

  Ana chugged her water. “I saw something amazing.”

  “What?”

  Headmaster Whitlock rapped on the teacher’s desk at the front of the room. “Now that everyone is finally here…we will go over the rules. You are not to leave your desk until the exam is over. Once you are finished, you may turn your papers in to me and leave the room. There are three hours to complete the exam.”

  His gaze settled on a ticking clock high on the wall. “You may pick up your pencils…”

  Everyone did. Some people even hunched forward, as if they were about to take off in a foot race.

  “And begin.”

  There was the collective sound of everyone turning over their first sheet of paper from the short stack on the desks. Ana flipped her paper over, but she glanced at Pepin.

  He was already busy writing down his first answer. She wanted desperately to share everything that had just happened, but clearly now was not the time. She needed to focus.

  Sensing someone looking at her, she lifted her face and saw Headmaster Whitlock glowering her way. Obviously, he was none too pleased with her showing up late to the exam.

  Bowing her head, Ana did her best to push away all the excitement over her discoveries and her disappointment in herself for being late.

  Focusing instead on the exam, she got to work.

  It was hard. Even without the distracting morning she would have struggled. Many questions she had to read over multiple times, and several of them she outright guessed the answers to.

  As the minutes ticked away, pencils were put down and sheets were turned in. Finally, twenty minutes before the exam time ran out, Anna finished and joined Pepin in the hallway.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “That was harder than I thought it would be.”

  “What were you talking about earlier? Why didn’t you show at the library?” His nose wrinkled. “And why do you smell like mud?”

  Ana looked down and found a smear of mud on the back of her pants. “I must have slid down some. Come here.”

  Seizing his elbow, she guided him to the end of the hallway, where there was no one nearby.

  “I saw Eleph. The scum who killed Cien.”

  “What?” He looked confused. “Where?”

  “Out on the grounds earlier, while I was walking to meet you. I thought I saw him in Rocheport the other day, but I told myself I was imagining things. Well, it turned out I wasn’t!”

  She was pacing, waving her hands with each step. She couldn’t get the story out quick enough.

  “I followed him up the mountain.”

  “All by yourself?”

  She ignored Pepin’s exclamation and kept pacing.

  “He went up that trail, you know, the one near where we found my locket.”

  “Kind of. It didn’t look like anyone uses it, though. Why would he go up it?”

  “That’s what I wanted to know.” She raked her fingers through her hair-- kind of. The strands were too tangled. “He went all the way up the mountain, to the very top. And there was a nest. A boulder. He-- he pushed the boulder to the side.”

  She stopped pacing directly in front of Pepin and stared into his eyes.

  “O-kay.” His brow furrowed. “He pushed the boulder...to the side?”

  Ana licked her dry lips and glanced around. A few groups of students were at the other end of the hall, talking near the exam room’s doors.

  She lowered her voice. “He has magic. I thought he might when he...when he attacked me and Cien. He was so strong, he didn’t seem human. Normal. And now I know it.”

  Pepin inhaled sharply. “Where would he have gotten magic? You have to learn it. At school.” His laugh was hollow. “At this school.”

  “Some people say that The Knowing has dark magic, and a man in Aershire told my father and me that Eleph works for The Knowing.”

  She gave Pepin a moment to let that sink in.

  “All right.” He nodded firmly, though his throat rolled with a swallow and he looked almost scared. “You’re crazy for following him. You know that, right? You could have been killed.”

  “Yes. I know.” The gravity of the situation hadn’t yet sunk in. She didn’t know if it ever would, considering what else she’d discovered while up the mountain. “There’s more. The nest.”

  “What about a nest?”

  “Eleph went to the very top and there was this big nest. This big.” She showed him with her arms. “I’ve never seen a nest that big. He went up to it and broke the egg in it, and then there was this really sharp bird cry from the sky and he ran off.”

  Pepin blinked. “Did you see the bird?”

  “Only its shadow. By the time I looked up, it was gone.” She shook her head. “It must have flown so fast…but, Pepin. Listen. I looked into the nest and there was a baby bird there. Eleph had injured it, and it was...it was…”

  “It was what?”

  What she saw didn’t make sense. She tried to find a better way to explain the events but couldn’t find one.

  “It was dying,” she finished. “I was going to bring it down here and try to help it, but then it-- it burst into a ball of fire and...and flew away.”

  Pepin stared at her, his expression unreadable. After a moment, she realized that perhaps he was in shock. Or about to laugh at her.

  “Are you joshing me?” he asked.

  “What?” She recoiled at that. “No. Of course not.”

  “Ana, that sounds like a phoenix.” His voice rose in excitement. “That is a phoenix.”

  “Like in the book,” she said in awe, recalling the beautiful illustration.

  Of course the bird had been a phoenix. She’d known it must have been some sort of magical creature, but in the frenzy of Eleph and the exams she hadn’t stopped to properly consider what kind of magical creature.

  The realization of what she’d seen knocked the strength out of her knees. Faltering backward, she planted her shoulder blades against the wall and stared at the floor.

  “Where did it go?” Pepin eagerly searched her face.

  “It flew off so fast. I don’t know. I could show you the nest. I know exactly where it is.”

  “We could look at it, sure, but neither the fledgling or the mother will return there. Phoenixes lay one egg at a time, and they don’t reuse the nest. Once their egg hatches, they move on. Perhaps to another region hundreds of miles away. It’s part of the reason they’re so difficult to track.”

  So she might never see the little bird again. The thought, for some reason, made her incredibly sad.

  “Now,” Pepin said, “there’s the question of why Eleph would want to destroy the phoenix.”

  “I know.” Ana lifted her palms. She was at a loss, but she could nearly hear the wheels turning in Pepin’s head.

  “Do you remember that I told you that several Galfour’s Point students have bonded with magical creatures other than dragons?”

  “Yes.”

  He raised his eyebrows.

  “You mean Eleph might have been worried that would happen again?” she asked.

  “It makes sense, with a phoenix so close to the school. And I’m sure he would be crushing dragon eggs if he could, but only the top elite in The Council and Galfour’s Point’s headmaster know where those are kept. Dragon riders’ main job is to fight organizations like The Knowing. Eleph’s boss, whoever that is, must have sent him up there to destroy the nest.”

  Ana’s pulse picked up. “That makes sense...and it means that The Knowing really is in Rocheport, or at least some of its members are.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She explained what she’d learned from the book Brax loaned her, and though Pepin was interested, he also seemed a tad disappointed.

  “You could have told me all of this.”

  “I...I know.”

  Did she? She felt she could trust Pepin, so why hadn’t she shared everything with him as it had happened?

  Because she was used to keeping her cards close, that’s why. Her whole life, she’d only shared important things with Cien, Ginger, and Aelred. And sometimes not with all three. There were some things about her life that only Cien had known.

  “I wasn’t sure what to make of it all,” she said. “In fact, sometimes I’ve been trying to forget. To not be so...obsessed with making Eleph pay.”

  Pepin pursed his lips. “I understand that. It’s good that you have Galfour’s Point to focus on. Of course you want to bring Eleph to justice, but has it occurred to you that you might be in over your head?”

  She made an exasperated noise, unsure how to respond to that. What did the expression even mean in her world? A world where a person did what they had to in order to survive, and that’s basically all it came down to.

  For the first time, she felt like Pepin truly couldn’t understand her. He came from a life of money and comfort. Perhaps he felt that the authorities would eventually bring Eleph to justice.

  She knew that wasn’t the case. The police didn’t work that way in Aershire. A loan shark who killed another work-school kid from the slums wasn’t worth tracking down when there were bigger matters at hand.

  “Let’s go to lunch.” Pepin clapped her on the shoulder. “You must be famished.”

  Now that the adrenaline that had been coursing through Ana all morning was starting to die down, she felt more exhausted than anything else. As if she could lay her head down and sleep for two days straight.

  She knew her racing mind wouldn’t allow that, though, so a meal seemed like the next best thing.

  As always, the food in Galfour’s Point’s mess hall was amazing, but Ana had to force down each bite. Worries swirled through her head, and she couldn’t decide what to focus on.

  She’d done a poor job on the written exam, she was sure of it. And then there was Eleph. She was starting to thinking she should have followed him down the mountain rather than stay up there and peek into the nest, as amazing as the experience with the phoenix had been.

  Because now Eleph could be gone again, having slipped through her fingers a second time. For all she knew, he’d already left Rocheport.

  Following him into town and reporting him to the authorities there might have been worth missing the exam.

  The problem was that she had too many priorities and she was failing at fulfilling all of them.

  “Hey!” A girl with frizzy blonde hair burst into the mess hall as Ana was taking small bites of rice pudding. “They posted the results!”

  Her spoon dropping into the bowl, Ana caught Pepin’s eye. There was already a wave of people rushing out of the mess hall and toward the great hall.

  There, a notice board near the front doors had a sheet of paper tacked to it. The cacophony increased, girls and boys shouting and calling to their friends.

  The only way to get to the front of the crowd and sneak a peek at the paper would be to literally push people aside. Instead of doing that, Ana hung back against the wall with Pepin, who had started biting his nails.

  “Nervous habit.” He dropped his hand.

  “I’ve never seen you do it.”

  “Haven’t been this anxious in a good while.”

  She nodded. There didn’t seem to be anything to say. He’d done his best and she was sure that he would pass, but he already knew that as well. It didn’t take away the current tension.

  There was a squeal of pleasure, and then a gasp. A girl started crying, while two friends hugged and jumped for joy. A boy’s face turned red as he slammed a fist into his palm.

  Dove clapped her hands and beamed. “I made it!”

  “Of course you did,” one of the girls who was always buzzing around her said.

  As for Ana…

  Closing her eyes, she touched her locket. If she had failed, then she’d be headed back to Aershire. And to what?

  There was no money for her to take the exams again next year. With her father’s courier business flailing, she’d need to search for a job. Those were hard to come by in Aershire.

  If only they could sell the courier shop and make a bit of money to move somewhere nice, like the mountains. But the business was in debt. If any profit were to be made from a sale it would be absolutely pitiful.

  A tugging on her sleeve drew her from her thoughts.

  “Come on.” Pepin tugged again. “Let’s take a look.”

  He inhaled sharply as they strode forward, and Ana’s knees weakened.

  On the paper was a list of those accepted into Galfour’s Point, twenty-five names in all. She spotted Pepin’s almost right away.

  “You did it.” She jabbed her finger at his name.

  Pepin’s eyes were glossy. “Thanks to you.”

  Ana bit into her smile. They both turned back to the paper, looking for…

  A name they couldn’t find.

  Ana’s stomach dropped, and she read the list again. Her name wasn’t on it.

  Chapter 17

  A warm breeze whipped Ana’s hair, and she pushed red strands off her cheeks. It was a lovely afternoon, sunny and with a bright sky.

  Too bad her world was falling apart.

  Sitting on the rooftop she’d snuck onto her first night at Galfour’s Point, she gazed at the side of the mountain behind the school. Part of her wanted to go back up there, just in case the young phoenix had returned.

  Pepin seemed to know what he was talking about, though, and if he was right, the phoenix nor its mother would come back to the nest.

  “There’s always next year.” From next to her, Pepin scrunched up his face. They’d been sitting on the rooftop for close to ten minutes not saying a word.

  Ana checked a sigh. “All of our savings went into the entrance exam fee for this year. We won’t be able to afford this again.”

  His face fell, and she saw as reality set in for him. “Oh.”

  “Yeah.” Not wanting to see the pity that was sure to come next, she turned away.

  “What if...there were some other way to get the exam money? Then, if you passed next year, we would be in class together. It takes two to four years to go through the program.”

  “What other way?”

  Again, it was like he simply didn’t get it. She missed Aelred and Ginger...and, of course, Cien. Pepin was already a dear friend, but there were some things he would never understand.

  “I don’t know.” Pepin inhaled deeply, his shoulders rising close to his ears. “But there has to be a way. There are scholarships.”

  That’s true. Ms. Ionadi had mentioned she’d attended school on a scholarship.

  “We don’t have to give up, is what I’m saying.”

  That melted Ana’s heart. Just like that, it wasn’t her or him. It was them.

  “I’ll miss you a lot.” Her voice cracked.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17