Page 182 of Grave Situation

Instead, there’s a hushed intake of air.

“Talon Silverbright?” someone whispers.

“TheTalon Silverbright? The Hero of Vaderyn?”

Oh. That’s unexpected.

“It shouldn’t be,”Leicht says, his tone heavily implying that I’m an idiot for being surprised.“You knew the stories were circulating through Vaderyn. You’ve heard the songs.”

That’s another thing: songs. Some second-rate bard trying to make a name for herself wrote a song about me—even though she barely knew any of the details—and it caught on. Since then, it seems I can rarely walk past a taproom without hearing my name being sung by a drunken crowd. Jaimin thinks it’s hysterical that I can no longer tease him about being the subject of songs, but if I ever find out who leaked my name to the general populace, suspending them upside down over the chasm is the least I’ll do to them. At least nobody knows I’m also Wasianth. That would be a disaster.

“You can call me Professor Silverbright,” I finally reply, and then, since they all seem to be waiting, “But yes, that’s me.”

Excited chatter breaks out, and I frown. This isn’t how today is supposed to go. Am I really not going to have to threaten them to get their respect?

Maybe I’ll still get the chance. “Settle down,” I order, and to my disappointment, an immediate hush falls. Sighing, I move on. “In my experience, there are three types of student in this room right n?—”

A knock interrupts me, and I glance over at the door. “Enter.”

The person who slips in is familiar to me—on this day last year, she complained to the dean about me. “Excuse me,Professor. I have a message for you,” Lenora Bell, aka Farm Girl, says. She and my other surviving students from last year came to see me in the spring, after I’d returned to the academy, to offer their condolences on Tia’s death and talk about Drey. It was nice.

I take the note and ignore the glance she gives at the windows, as though she’s expecting to see someone out there. I don’t tell her I was too. “Thank you, Lenora.”

She grins and leaves, and I glance at the paper in my hand.

Talon—

Arimen has asked us to have lunch with him today. He says he has important things to talk about. Noon in our rooms.

—Jaimin

I have strong suspicions what this will be about, but they’ll have to wait. I have a class to teach.

“As I was saying, there are three types of student here…”

After sendingthe class to the cafeteria, I make my way through the academy and over the bridge to the healers’ side of the chasm. Despite Jaimin’s worries, I was right that nobody protested the idea of me, a level-2 mage, choosing my own living quarters away from the Academy of Mages. I honestly think some of the masters would have offered to help me move if I’d indicated I needed it… though that might just be because they wanted me farther away. Apparently, me stabbing another mage to death—even though he deserved it—and then standing there holding the dagger, blood all over me, and asking if anyone else was willing to take extreme measures to get questions answered made them all wary of me.

Not so wary that a few didn’t point out that I’d breached some “legalities” by killing Leng before he could be tried. The dragon riders promptly declared that I’d been acting on behalf of the dragons, and under the treaty, no trial was needed for dragons to execute a person who had confessed to a crime against them. I guess Leicht told his story fast, and the dragons gave their riders instructions. Just one small benefit of being part of a dragon prophecy. Another one is that Ifinallygot to see the dragons’ valley.

“Talon?” someone calls, and I turn to see Preet, the dean’s assistant. She’s smirking. “How was class this morning?”

“Unsatisfying,” I tell her, but I can’t hold back my smile.

“So I shouldn’t expect indignant students to make complaints this afternoon?”

I narrow my eyes. “Did you know this would happen? The whole… respect thing?”

Her laugh makes me huff. “The dean and I had our suspicions.”

“You could have warned me!”

She winks. “But that would have taken all the fun out of it.” Sobering, she adds, “Master Eldridge is grateful that you decided to continue teaching. He thinks you’re the best thing that could have happened to the first years. Don’t tell him I told you that.”

“I’m grateful to teach,” I admit. “Turns out, I love it. Don’t tell him I told you that.”

Preet pats my arm. “I understand. And I’ll let you know if I hear any rumors about students falling in love with the Hero of Vaderyn.”

What? My face drops. “What?Preet, what’s that supposed to mean?”

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