Page 111 of Kingdom of Shadows and Wings

“If by spying you mean I overhead you asking one of the other fledglings what they knew about the security in this building, then sure.”

“Oh.”

“‘Oh,’ is right. You’re lucky I’m the one who heard and not someone else.”

“Am I, though?” I mutter.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.” I grind my teeth. “Look, if you’re here to talk me out of this, you might as well leave now.”

His beleaguered sigh strengthens my desire to kick him. “If I thought there was a snowball’s chance in hells of you listening to reason, I would, but I know better. Like I said, I’m here to make sure you don’t get caught doing whatever it is you think you need to do. You’d better hurry, though. The longer we’re here, the more likely we are to get caught.”

That takes the wind out of my sails. “Then quit talking to me so I can get to work.”

Using the ever-light, I head straight for the set of wooden file cabinets lined up against the wall. I make short work of the locks and start rummaging.

The drawers contain a series of folders arranged alphabetically. The first one dates back to students who attended five years ago. Moving on, I open and close several drawers until I locate Leesa’s year.

“Find anything?”

“Almost.” I thumb through the As to Axton. “Here we go. Leesa’s file.” I tug out the folder, sit cross-legged on the floor, and begin to read.

Shadows flicker over his face. “Don’t get too comfortable. We need to?—”

“Hurry, I know, I know. I heard you the first time. Also, not a complete idiot.”

“Are you sure about that? Because if you’re asking my opinion?—”

“I’m not. Also, shh. I can’t hurry if you keep interrupting me.”

I can sense him seething as he towers over me with the ever-light like an angry god but do my best to ignore him. I flip through Leesa’s file, finding what I expected. Family and medical history, magical element and projected power level, and instructors’ notes on her excellent service. Nothing that points to her concerns about dragons or anything else. Nothing at all out of the ordinary, except for a summary at the end about her disappearance.

I glance over at Sterling.

He leans toward me, worry in his eyes. “What did you find?”

“Your evaluations of Leesa. Thanks for thinking so highly of her.”

“She deserved it.” His mouth crooks up. “I wasn’t being kind.”

“Gods forbid I’d ever accuse you of that.”

He huffs. “Hurry. We’re already pushing our luck.”

Once I finish scanning Leesa’s file, I return it and hunt for my own. Like my sister’s, the first few pages document my family and medical history. Unlike Leesa’s, my medical history holds a lengthy list of my various ailments over the years. My brow wrinkles. Averylengthy list. Almost as if my mother took extra care to document every significant dizzy or weak spell over my entire life. Except I don’t recall seeing a healer or medic nearly that much.

The family history section reads much the same, with the exception of one small detail. A question mark follows my mother’s and father’s names.

Does that mean someone at Flighthaven has the same questions I do about my true parentage?

I skim the instructor evaluations. My face burns as I read Kinneck’s accurate but awful appraisal from my first week of class. Based on his remarks, a reasonable person would have expected Bigley to punt me to Forthaven to join the foot soldiers.

Celeste Dawson, my weapons combat instructor, leaves kinder comments about my skills with a bow and arrow and quick progress with other weapons. Maybe she’s the reason I didn’t get kicked out my first week.

Digging deeper into my file, I come upon Sterling’s assessments. My first reaction is to ignore them and avoid any hurt. Curiosity overcomes my reluctance. I want to know what he thought of me in the beginning.

To my astonishment, there’s nothing in there about my abysmal performance when I started out or about my fear of alicorns and flying. In fact, he only wrote two lines total.

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