I slipped my fingers into my hair. “I didn’t want to come to this,” I hissed. “You forced me.”
Dad put both hands on his hips and closed his eyes. “Why can’t you just go with the flow like Damien?”
Damien chuckled, his white-blond hair glistened from the amount of gel he had in it. “Yeah, Dorran, like me.”
“Shut up,” my father said. “Now, I need to get in here and make sure you didn’t set anyone on fire.”
He left me in the hall with Damien. “You’re such the black sheep, Dorran. I just love that about you.”
I swatted his hand away from me and hid my smile. I walked back into the dining hall, finding Amara crawling from underneath the table. I helped her up, swiping my palms down the skirt of her dress.
She looked distressed, her fingers coming up and touching my mouth. “I thought you could only shoot fire when you were in your dragon form.”
“Is that what they are teaching in school nowadays?”
“Can I see your dragon,” she whispered.
“Of course. He’d love that.”
My mother’s icy stare sliced at me from the opposite side of the room. “Well, aren’t you going to apologize to the table for ruining dinner?”
I pulled a piece of food from Amara’s hair. “No, I don’t think I will. If Gwendolyn—,”
“—Georgina,” she corrected.
“Whatever—wants to apologize to Amara for being rude, then yes, I will accept it. But I don’t owe her or anyone an apology. You’ve had your nose in the air since I marked Amara—,”
“That is not true,” Mother said.
“I grow tired of this,” I said with a sigh. “If you need me, think of someone else that can do the job, and ask them. We’re leaving now.”
I guided Amara out of the dining hall, and back toward the bridge. Her footsteps weren’t quick enough being tipsy, so I lifted her into my arms and hurried up the steps.
My irritation was so thick that I almost didn’t catch the smell coming from my room. It was someone’s scent that seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
Amara squealed when I took a sharp left and opened the door with my shoulder.
A hooded figure stood at my nightstand, their face shadowed so I couldn’t see it, and they wasted no time before running toward the window and climbing onto the ledge.
“Stop!” I shouted, but they jumped and disappeared into the air.
Amara clung to me; her eyes rounded as she just noticed the same thing I had. That person disappeared. Vanished into vapor.
Several guards from the castle bridge raced into the room behind me. “What is wrong, Dorran?”
“Someone was in here,” I said softly. I turned and my face must have been ashen because they glared. “Whoever it was jumped into the air and disappeared.”
One of the guards cleared his throat after several seconds of silence. “You’re sure? You didn’t have too much to drink—,”
“No," Amara said, pointing a finger in his face. “I saw it, too.”
“That’s saying a lot,” he mumbled.
I sat Amara down and walked over to my nightstand. There was nothing in it. The only thing I ever put in it was mail. What did they want? Did they take something? Were they planting something?
My brother pushed through the guards. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” I said, reaching for Amara’s hand. “We’re going to the cabin. I want you to send three guards up there—,”