The mother bird wasn’t happy, but the eggs were delicious.
Ren wiped her mouth, watching as the falcon winged in frantic circles outside their wards. She let out a mournful call. Ren would have felt guilty if they hadn’t needed every advantage to make it through the next few days alive. Theo’s surgery had cost Cora more than half of her magic. Ren was draining her own ockleys to create the wards and keep them all safe and comfortable. All while Theo tossed and turned, too fever-ridden to do more than occasionally sip from Avy’s canteen.
Their panicked departure had felt like the course of an hour. As the fog lifted, Ren saw they’d cleared the wyvern’s nest by only a thousand paces or so. Still well within its hunting range. She just had to hope that the spell she’d hit it with had caused enough damage to weaken it for a few more days. Otherwise, they’d be hunted before long.
“Should we try to start the next leg with him like this?” Ren asked the following morning. “We could use a levitation spell again.”
“As we climb, the air will get thinner,” Cora pointed out. “Corporeal magic at that height is subject to a lot of variance. You might end up launching him into the sky.”
Ren nodded. “You’re right. I forgot about Veeley’s atmospheric proof. One wrong step and we lose him. How long before you think he’ll be ready?”
Cora shrugged. “A day. The magic exacts a price. If he isn’t going to feel pain, it will make him feel something else. Exhaustion is demanded. At least he won’t be climbing a mountain with a shredded abdomen. We’d never make it through the pass with him in that state.”
They encouraged one another to catch up on rest and sleep. Ren sat with Theo on the first watch. Several times he’d whisper and turn, but it was never more than muttering.
Cora risked setting a trap outside their cave and got lucky. Rabbit meat was spitted and cooked over the fire—seasoned by some mountain flowers that Cora had salvaged. The girl had even roasted some roots into a far more palatable form. It was by far the best meal they’d had, and Theo managed to choke down a few bites before slipping back into a fitful sleep. Ren found the way he curled up against her boot pathetic, though she did begrudgingly admit that he had made two separate efforts to save them from the wyvern, even if the last had been tragically foolish.
“What were you going to do?” she whispered to him. “Punch the thing?”
He shifted restlessly in his sleep. When they were awake, Timmons and Cora got along well. That didn’t surprise Ren. Timmons got on well with everyone. It was approaching night when Timmons nudged Theo’s bag with her foot.
“I’ve held out for a while, but I’ve got to take the edge off.”
Ren laughed. “Seriously? We’re sleeping on the edge of a cliff and you want to get high?”
“Right,” Timmons said. “As if you haven’t warded the whole ledge?”
She snatched Ren’s bag and tossed it into thin air. Cora gasped, but the bag hit the invisible barrier and rebounded safely back into the cave. The same spell that kept the mother bird away from her nest was also keeping them sealed safely within. Ren grinned at Timmons.
“Awfully trusting of you.”
“Please,” Timmons said. “I’ve known you for four years, Ren Monroe. You think of everything. Do you remember that time we went stargazing with our astronomy class? Everyone left early because there was a bunch of cloud cover. You told me to stay, because you’d researched the weather patterns and knew the window of visibility. Who even does that?”
“But we saw the stars, didn’t we?”
Timmons grinned. “That we did, textbook. But you’re just proving my point. If I’m going to take a little bit of breath to calm my nerves, I couldn’t think of anywhere safer to do it. I’m with the best-trained surgeon in the city and my best friend, who is always three spells ahead of the rest of the world.”
Ren laughed. “Can you smoke some without using the whole batch?”
Timmons was already rooting through Theo’s bag. She held up the canister.
“This is enough for a month. Clyde…”
Her friend fell briefly quiet, biting her lip, before shaking her head at some unspoken thought. Having a classmate hunt them was bad enough, but Ren knew it was hitting Timmons the hardest. She distracted herself by focusing on the latch mechanism to release the breath.
“Do you want some, Ren?”
“No thanks.” She tapped her temple. “I will not blunt the one useful tool I have in this world.”
Timmons smirked. She’d heard Ren say that exact quote many times now.
“Cora?”
Ren rolled her eyes as Timmons turned her charm on their travel mate. It was like watching the sun pick a single flower on which to shine. She twirled a lock of silver-white hair and shook the pipe invitingly. Cora eventually grinned back. “It would help to learn more about the impact breath has on the brain by having firsthand experience.…”
Timmons laughed at that. “Well, consider me your lab assistant.”
Cora nodded shyly as Timmons arranged everything. The poor girl never stood a chance. Ren considered intervening but realized it was the first time she’d seen any shine in their expressions since Clyde’s death. So much had happened since then. They deserved a break.
“Breathe in lightly at first,” Timmons said, handing the pipe to Cora. “Quick exhalations.”
Theo stirred a little before continuing to sleep. Ren watched as the girls traded the pipe back and forth. It didn’t take long for their smiles to stretch. Timmons pointed at Cora.
“This one, right? This one.”
Cora grinned. “Your hair has unicorn dust in it.”
Timmons held one finger to her forehead, and both of them fell to giggling. Ren could only smile and shake her head. She was about to say something when Timmons pointed again.
“Gods! Look at her magic. It’s pretty. Look at that. Six layers. I’ve known a few boys at school with less than six layers to their entire existence. Right? Right?”
Cora was tracing her fingers through the air, plucking at the unseen threads of Ren’s magic.
“Why is it gold?”
“Because she’s kindhearted,” Timmons said, glancing back at Ren. “Actually, she called Devlin a sanctimonious prick the other day. Maybe that’s not it.”
Ren smiled. “It’s because the magic is pure.”
Cora frowned back. “Huh?”
“Oh, dear gods,” Timmons said. “Here we go. I hear a thesis incoming.”
“A century ago there was a theory about magical purity,” Ren supplied. “Everyone thought it had to do with bloodlines, because the wealthiest houses told them that was how it worked. Powerful wizards marrying other powerful wizards. But about three decades ago a man named Silas Cross figured out that it had nothing to do with birth or blood. The purity of the magic’s appearance has to do with how perfectly it’s cast. The hand motions and the tone of voice and the command of the magic itself.” She squinted at the invisible wall. “Is mine really gold?”
Cora giggled. “It looks like sunshine.”
Ren nodded to herself. “Then you know it was done right.”
Timmons giggled. “Speaking of doing something right. Dancer over there was impressive with that wyvern. I wouldn’t mind being put to sleep like that myself.”
“7.1,” Cora said. “Let it be known. I’ve adjusted his rating. Although he still loses a few points for his airy demeanor.”
Timmons lifted her chin and put on a mocking face. “Such discussions are untoward. You don’t mean to say that Mr. Brood is uppity? Surely, you wouldn’t, Cora. Surely…”
They both fell into bubbling laughter again. “Uppity,” Cora repeated. “Who wouldn’t be? His father owns half the city. I’d have my head up my ass too.”
Timmons laughed again. “And that is not the best place to keep one’s head, if I say so myself. Very poor storage units.”
She adjusted to inspect her own. Ren couldn’t help laughing at the way Cora craned her neck to get a look as well. Timmons caught the girl at it and reached over to bop her on the nose.
“Do you know the story about the boy and the silver belly button?”
Ren snorted. “You always tell that story when you’re like this.”
Timmons scowled at her. “Fine. Didn’t want to tell you it again anyways, you prat.”
She covered her mouth but soon was giggling again, tracing the air with a finger. “I’m trying not to tell the story, but it’s coming out all on its own! Look!”
Ren looked up to where she was pointing. There was nothing on the walls, but Cora leaned in next to Timmons and squinted up as if she was reading the hidden text as well.
“That’s sad,” she said. “That they made fun of his belly button. People make fun of me all the time. Too quiet. Too weird. They’d rather have a doctor who smiles. Like any of that matters. Most of them just hate that I’m better than they are.…”
She trailed off. Ren watched as both girls continued to read a story that was apparently projecting from Timmons’s thoughts onto the walls. Ren knew the breath was powerful and strange and unpredictable. A vision of the world from the long-extinct dragons. She always claimed she didn’t want to blunt her mind. That was one part of why she didn’t imbibe. The bigger reason, though, was that she didn’t want to see her deepest secrets exposed through lack of control. She feared what might slip out if she ever unlocked those carefully sealed vaults, even for a moment.
Lost in thought, she almost didn’t notice Timmons rooting through Theo’s bag again.
“Hey. No more breath tonight. We can’t waste it.”
But her friend pulled out Theo’s notebook instead. She waved it in the air like a prize before flipping through the pages. A little hiccuping laugh sounded. “Oh! How delightful. It’s a journal.”
Ren shot her a look as she continued to peruse.
“ ‘I will have a new weight on my shoulders. A new duty. A new responsibility…’ ”
“Timmons. Stop. Now.”
She didn’t mean for the tone to sound so sharp. Her friend blinked a little before tossing the journal to the ground. Ren leaned down to place the notebook back in his bag.
“You wouldn’t want someone going through your things.”
Timmons held up both hands innocently. She wiggled her fingers a bit, which caught her attention. She held out her right hand to Cora, plucking at her thumb. “This little dragon went to the market. And this little dragon started a furniture company. And this little dragon…”
The two of them went on like that for another hour. All the obnoxious laughter at least served to lighten Ren’s spirit. There was one rather serious debate about the choice between a lifetime of cheese and a lifetime of handsome suitors. Cheese emerged victorious.
Cora eventually fell asleep midsentence. Ren watched Timmons tuck the girl in like a doll before lying down herself. It was quiet for long enough that she thought her friend had fallen asleep. Then she heard her whisper.
“I talked to Clyde.”
The hairs on the back of Ren’s neck stood up. Talked to Clyde? A million questions were born from those words. They tangled with a heavy dose of fear. Did this have to do with taking the breath? Could she somehow sense his presence nearby?
“That night,” Timmons clarified. “The night we hooked up. I convinced him to give you a position within House Winters. It was… the least I could do. Clyde was in love with me. He would have done anything for me. Anything. He told me he’d find you a spot. I’m sorry, Ren.…” Her voice fell to something less than a whisper. “Because he’s dead now. He’s gone.”
And with that, she drifted off to sleep.