Page 48 of His Greatest Treasure

“Remember what she did to Alexander.”

She had pushed Lord Somerville too far. I flinched back, even though I was outside the office and Father hadn’t seen me. His voice cut like an icy wind.

“She drew out his power. She saw what gifts we had given him with the purity of our blood. He was magnificent.”

“He is dead.” Her voice broke. “He’s dead because of her. She did that to him, our baby boy. She’ll do the same thing again.”

“Alphonse is older than Alexander was. He has been raised differently. And I will monitor their interactions carefully. Do not think that I am gambling with the life of my son.”

Mother’s voice was so broken that I almost couldn’t make out her words.

“Yes, Lord Somerville.”

I registered what she’d said, realised it was a dismissal, and turned and fled towards the nearest corner, darting round it with barely a second to spare before Mother came out of Lord Somerville’s office. She closed the door gently, and began to walk along the corridor with steady, stately steps. Then they sped up and then she ran.

I’d never seen my mother run before. I heard a sob break out of her throat and saw the flare of her bond with her sister as she raced up the stairs.

I was too stunned to move. I didn’t even have the wit to follow her.

It looked like I was getting a tutor.

Chapter 20

Blaze

Something drew me out of the little woods and over to the border. I swear I felt a flicker of fire over there and it worried me.

I’d come to this territory seeking refuge and the borders had been defensive and strong enough that I’d risked crossing them just to experience the safety on the other side. If there was something happening to the borders, I needed to know.

I needed to know whether it was safe.

If they were weakening, I’d need to leave.

My body flushed with heat and then cold. No, I didn’t want to leave.

On the other hand, if I stayed and the fire on the other side burned through them… everyone inside the territory would be in danger.

I flared hot again, and realised I’d flickered into my flame form. It took a lot of concentration to shrink myself down to a small little fire and I hopped up onto my oil lamp to burn there so that I wouldn’t start burning through the floorboards or anything.

I was unsettled and afraid, which meant I instinctively stayed in my flame form and couldn’t convince myself to turn back, not yet.

Which was inconvenient because I needed to be solid flesh in order to open the door.

If I’d been under attack, I could burn high and bright, fill the entire hut with my form and set light to every single thing in it, burst out of the charred remains and flee. But I wasn’t under attack. I needed to convince my body of that before I’d be able to shift back and walk out using the door handle.

It took far longer than I wanted to make myself see sense. Every time I felt like I was nearly able to turn to my flesh form again, I thought of fire on the outside of the border, trying to get in, and then I thought of being chased through the streets and across fields and then I thought of the fire spirits getting in and burning, burning… and Alfie wasthe only person in the whole castle who couldn’t protect himself from fire.

Every time I even thought about him getting burned, even for a fraction of a second, my body roared with fire and I could hardly contain myself in the small space.

The way I managed to get control of myself in the end was to concentrate on that fire. I was sure I felt it flickering out there.

The more I concentrated on it, though, the more I realised that it was a small fire. In fact, it felt like… it felt like a dragon.

I was afraid of what that meant, but it wasn’t as terrifying as fire spirits come to hunt me down.

It meant I stepped off of the oil lamp and took on my human form, becoming flesh and blood, all wrapped up warmly in Alfie’s coat. I tugged at the collar, pulling it closer to my face and inhaling. I could only smell myself on it, which was annoying. I’d never been able to smell Alfie.

Once I was outside, I walked quickly. I just needed to see for myself, that was all.

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