Page 48 of The Bond That Burns

“Medra, I wanted to tell you how happy I was that you weren’t executed.”

The comment was so sudden, I almost dropped my quill. Beside me, Florence froze. I had the sudden impulse to laugh.

“Um, thank you, Lunaya?” I managed to say. “That’s very kind of you. I’m glad I wasn’t executed, too.”

Beside me, Florence made a choking noise.

But Lunaya didn’t seem to notice. “My brother and I were both very relieved. Lysander said what he could during the tribunal, but he knew no one would listen to him. It makes us both happy to see you back at Bloodwing. Alive.”

For a highblood, her words were so genuine, so guileless. I found myself smiling at her. “I appreciated what Lysander said at the Tribunal very much. Your brother didn’t have to stand up for me, but he did. It means a lot.”

“Lysander believes in doing the right thing, even when it’s hard or goes against tradition,” Lunaya said simply. “And so do I.”

There was a moment of silence as we looked at one another.

“Well, um, I’ve finished my notes.” I glanced around. “I think Professor Allenvale is about to begin.”

As the professor began to call upon each group in turn, surveying us for our observations, I couldn’t help but wonder just which highblood traditions Lysander and Lunaya were ready to discard.

“Hungry, are we?” Florence asked with a laugh, as my stomach rumbled.

Our class had just ended and all of the other students were streaming back into Bloodwing.

“Starving,” I moaned. “Nothing good ever came from skipping breakfast.” Not to mention I hadn’t even grabbed a cup of kava.

She laughed. “Thought you would be. Here. I grabbed this from the refectory buffet table.” She pulled a parcel wrapped in brown paper from her school bag. “I thought we could have a picnic outside.” She looked at me sympathetically. “No kava though.”

“That’s all right. I’ll swing by after classes and grab a mug... or two,” I said, smiling at her. I unwrapped the parcel she handed me to reveal fresh brown bread, mellow orange cheese, slices of ham, and a cup of berries. “Perfect.”

We ate lunch on a flat rock overlooking the churning sea. The waves below crashed against the rocky shoreline. Sea birds flew overhead. The sun was out and it soon became so hot I shrugged my cloak off and sat on it instead.

I didn’t want to go back inside. I lay back on the rock, thinking about Lunaya and Lysander Orphos.

Florence sat cross-legged, flipping through one of her books. “It’s nice out here, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Let’s live on the beach and never go back to Bloodwing,” I grumbled.

Florence hesitated. “Is Blake really going to try to make your life worse?”

“Oh, definitely,” I said immediately. “He seems intent on it.” I glanced at her, trying to decide whether to tell her about thescene in the Drakharrow common room that morning. But the last thing I wanted to do was make her worry about me more.

The rhythm of the sea filled the silence.

“What class do you have next?” Florence asked finally.

“That history class. You’re really not in it?”

She shook her head. “But I’ll walk you there. I know my way around the castle better than you do.”

I’d learned a lot last year, but she was right. And the history class was listed as being in a new location I didn’t think I’d visited before.

A little while later, Florence left me at the bottom of a winding staircase.

No other students we’d passed had been going this way. I was the only one at the bottom of the stairs that supposedly led to “the cliffside wing” where Historical Perspectives would be held.

I made my way up the stairs and emerged into a narrow corridor. A single door, reinforced with iron, stood at the very end. I pushed it open and stepped into a strange classroom unlike any I’d seen before.

The room was semicircular and the far wall was entirely open to the sea beyond. Tall roughly-hewn red sandstone pillars were all that separated the classroom from the jagged cliff’s edge. A breeze swept through the space, rustling papers on the desk that stood off in one corner.

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