Chapter 19: The Order

Bram's POV

The bell on the clock tower rang for eleven minutes, and by the time it stopped the whole academy knew the word.

I was at the foot of the cliff path with Mira's hand in mine when the Alpha's courier found me.

"The Alpha will see you in the lodge study," he said. "Alone."

"She is not to be left," I said.

"Ilyan Greaves is with her," said the courier, and held out a sealed note with my father's handwriting on it.

Come, it said. Or I send the council.

Mira looked at me.

"Go," she said. "I have a fae, a shadow-walker and half the grass on fire. I'm the safest person on campus."

I kissed her once, hard, in front of the courier.

Then I went.

My father stood at the study window with his back to me.

The room smelled of pipe smoke and cold ash.

He did not turn around.

"Eleven minutes of bell," he said. "The valley will want a dragon by supper, and I am the one who must give them an answer."

He paused.

"And my son, who swore on his mother's ashes, walks her down the hill with his bare hand in hers."

"I'm not hiding it."

"I can see that."

"She is my mate."

"That's the word I would have chosen, too," said my father, "if I were a fool."

He turned, and his face was gentle.

It was the face he had worn at my mother's funeral, with a hand on my small shoulder.

"I did not want to do it this way, Bram," he said. "I wanted you to see it for yourself. But you've had a month, and you've spent it in her bed."

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