Page 52 of His Greatest Treasure

“Oh, um, did you?”

I felt a moment of alarm at the prospect of Lord Somerville having gone looking for me or finding out where I’d been. I really didn’t want him to find Blaze. Something in me wanted to keep him secret. Although that same thing in me wanted to parade him round and tell everyone he wasmybest friend and that he lovedme.

Secrecy won, obviously. I knew that if anyone found out about him, he’d be sent away. And I couldn’t think about that. It made me feel like I’d have a heart attack with how hard my heart beat, like it was pushing through my chest. Any time I thought about Blaze being sent away, I quickly thought of something else instead.

My father looked at me with icy eyes over his desk.

“Where have you been?”

“Uh, I was, um, well you see I wanted to go for a walk but I didn’t want to—”

“Don’t babble, Alphonse.”

“Yes, Father.”

I was so relieved that it meant he didn’t know where I’d been and he didn’t know about Blaze that I actually smiled.

That only lasted a second. Lord Somerville’s eyes flashed with something I wasn’t familiar with and my smile faltered and died. I flushed with embarrassment and confusion.

The thought that remained was that I was very grateful I’d taken the time to go back to my room and shower and change my clothes so that I didn’t smell of ash and woodsmoke and come. I’d licked Blaze’s come off his hand and it had tasted so good…

Oops, I didn’t want to think about Blaze right now. Not in front of my father.

He was studying me, his silver-blue eyes so pale that they were like chips of ice.

“It is time that you learned to shift, Alphonse. You are old enough and it is your duty to do all that you can for the goodof our clan.”

“Yes, father,” I said, and I meant to stop there and basically back out of the room, but of course I didn’t. I blurted out, “Will it hurt?”

“Excuse me?”

“Shifting? Will it hurt? I mean, I’ll do it anyway because I want to help and everyone else can shift except me so I want to be able to do it like the rest of you but I was just wondering if it would hurt, so I could brace myself—”

Luckily for me, my father interrupted me and my tongue stopped almost as if he had commanded it.

“Accessing one’s dragon is natural and does not hurt. One as unused to communicating with your dragon as you might find it uncomfortable, but you will learn, and it will become second nature to you.”

“Should I have talked to my dragon?” I was so surprised that I looked up, my mouth open. “I didn’t know! I don’t know how to do that.”

“That is what you will learn at the hands of Madam Trevellian.”

After the conversation I’d heard-but-hadn’t-been-meant-to-hear, I couldn’t helpbut ask, “Is she nice?”

Even though I guessed the answer, I wasn’t prepared for my father’s blunt reply of, “No.”

“Oh. Can’t I have a nice tutor?”

“Madam Trevellian is the most experienced and powerful hag in the country. She will be able to sense your power immediately and draw it out. She is not required to be nice, only competent.”

That made sense, of course, but it didn’t mean I had to like it.

“Yes, Father.”

I left, longing to go straight back outside and see Blaze. I just felt so much… better around Blaze. I felt like I was someone important.

Not important like a clan elder or a pop star or a politician, but important like I really mattered to him.

Instead, I had to roam the castle, feeling restless and not able to find anyone. I thought I saw Aunt Isabella’s bond flicker in front of me in the way that meant she was near so I followed it, hoping to find somebody to talk to. I rounded the corner of a long corridor and saw her at the other end. Before I could even call out a greeting, she gave a start and fled.

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