Fireborne by Rosaria Munda

Author:Rosaria Munda
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2019-10-14T23:00:00+00:00

ANNIE

Duck and I walk back to the Cloister in the early morning, when the sky is no longer quite so inky black. Duck hums the last song, his coat swinging over one shoulder; I hold my shoes by their heels on the hooks of my fingers, the marble of the Palace walkways cool beneath my aching feet. Duck’s voice echoes in the deserted courtyard.

“Can you believe we live here?”

The courtyard smells of cold stone and the cool water that burbles in the fountains. Columns along the arcade rise to vaulted overhangs above us, where tendrils of ivy hang silhouetted against the stars. Distantly, a gull cries.

“Can you believe we ride dragons?”

He rounds on his heel, takes a few steps backward. “Can you believe I just danced?”

I laugh aloud.

“And not too badly, by the end,” I grant.

This, I realize, must be what giddiness feels like. Like escape. As though for a few short hours, as I danced until my hair fell from its pins, I left behind every bitter thought that haunts me and was free.

Most of all the memory of Lee’s hand in mine, the rush of old comfort thrilling with new danger—and his face when I pulled away. Like I’d just pulled him apart.

We’ve reached the Cloister garden. The rippled glass of the solarium glows orange, a fire lit within: We won’t be alone when we enter. I reach for the door handle, and Duck takes my hand, pausing it. I turn to him.

“Oh. Not so fast.”

He pulls me back to him, and as I realize what is about to happen, I freeze.

And then, with dizzying speed, a hundred small incidents click into place like a narrative whose common thread I did not, until this moment, let myself see.

Oh, dragons. How did I not know this was coming?

“Duck, I don’t . . .”

He stops, too.

For a moment we continue to stand close, frozen, and I feel the threat of an end rise over us: an end of something that could have started and that I was almost certain I did not want; and worse, more terrifyingly, an end now to what we already had.

But then Duck takes a half step back and lights a smile. And even if it’s not quite as easy as his usual smile, it’s close. Crinkling his eyes, spreading across his square face.

“Hey. It’s—okay, Annie.”

The lingering uncertainty as I take in the strain around his eyes: Is it?

“Let’s go in?” I ask.

That’s when the alarm bells begin to toll.

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