“Why would I need a knight to help you?” Keegan asked.

“This is where the weirdness kicks in.” Bryn gave him an abbreviated rundown of Blood Magic and how the Institute would assign him a male knight.

“Seriously?” Keegan glanced back and forth between Valmont and Bryn like this might be some sort of joke.

They both nodded.

He rubbed his chin. “If you need my help, I’m in, but this is really messed up.”

“Welcome to my life,” Bryn said. “It’s odd, but it’s never boring. We’ll let you know when they have a knight lined up for you.”

After class, Bryn let Mr. Stanton know Keegan had agreed to help before she and Valmont headed for the library, since she’d been banned from history class for arguing with her teacher on her first day of school.

Valmont seemed back to his normal self this morning, so she didn’t mention their conversation from the night before. All she wanted today was something close to normal.

“We talked to Keegan. What’s next on the agenda?” he asked.

“I need to work on my term paper for Mr. Stanton.” As they walked across campus to the library the spring breeze stirred up the scent of grass and new leaves. Bryn inhaled. “I love that smell.”

“Me, too.” Valmont stopped walking. “I wonder if we could work outside. There’s no rule that says you have to write in the library, is there?”

“Not exactly, but someone who didn’t know I’d been granted special permission to work in the library might think I was skipping class. If that were to get back to my grandfather, there would be hell to pay.”

“Right, I forgot. With the Blues, it’s all about appearances.” Valmont’s tone sounded a little bitter. Apparently, last night’s mood was still with him. Not that she could blame him.

“Yes. Appearances are important, and it’s best not to give my grandfather a reason to be upset.” Especially since she’d started to like him lately. “I have to admit. He’s not the ice king I thought he was.”

“Ice king?” Valmont asked.

“Everyone uses ice queen to describe a cold stand-offish woman, so I think ice king works for a man.”

“I have no valid argument against that,” Valmont said. “But it doesn’t sound right.”

“Fine. Then you can come up with a masculine form of ice queen.”

Valmont tapped his chin, and then he grinned. “I’ve got it.You could say,‘He’s not quite the Jaxon I thought he was.’”

Bryn laughed. She was glad to see him joking around again. “Uhm…you’re not wrong but no, for the obvious reasons.”

“I’ll keep working on it.” Valmont opened the door of the library for her. They entered and were stopped by two Red guards.

“Sign in if you wish to access the library.” The guard thrust a clipboard at Bryn. This was new.

“Why?” Bryn asked as she signed her name.

“Tighter security measures are being taken,” the guard held the clip board out to Valmont who scribbled his name without making a single comment, which showed a great amount of restraint.

After they’d passed the guards, Bryn said, “I’m surprised you didn’t feel the need to comment.”

“After our ‘everything is about appearances’ discussion, I decided to rein in my normal troublemaking instincts.”

“I’m impressed.” She headed for the stairwell they normally took up to the third foor.

Valmont grabbed her elbow and steered her toward the front desk. “We’re taking a detour. Miss Enid is holding a book for me.”

“What kind of book?”
“A book for troublemakers.”
When they reached the desk, the librarian was absent. “Maybe she’s downstairs in the vaults.”
Miss Enid emerged from behind a shelf of books. “Hello, Valmont. Your special request came in.” She pulled a slim volume with the familiar title Days of Knights from underneath the desk.

“There are more of these books?” Bryn asked. They’d already read through five or six of them, which featured fairy tales involving knights and dragons from a time before the Directorate, when there hadn’t been so many rules and restrictions.

“This is a smaller set of tales,” Miss Enid said. “I think it has the story Valmont referred to about the strange crown that helped one dragon hold another prisoner.”

That would be a cheery and highly controversial read.

“It might help us figure a few things out, and it gives me something to occupy my time while you do your homework.”

“I’ve offered to let you do some of my homework,” Bryn said, like she had tried to share something fun with him.

“Sorry,” Valmont said, “My duties as your knight only go so far.”

Once they were seated at their normal table on the third oor, Bryn found she couldn’t concentrate on her essay. “It’s like my brain is on strike.” She shut the notebook and tossed it back into her book bag.

Valmont didn’t acknowledge her comment. Eyebrows furrowed, he seemed completely absorbed in his book. “It’s that good?” she asked.

He nodded and turned the page. “Let me finish this tale and then you can read it.”

Five minutes later, he closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m not sure we should show this to anyone, least of all your grandfather.”

“It’s that bad?” Bryn asked.

“See for yourself.” He flipped back a dozen pages and then handed it to her. “Each tale stands on its own.”

Once upon a time, there was a world where certain dragons thought they knew what was best for everyone. The arrogance of this Clan was beyond measure. Dire steps had to be taken so the other Clans could prosper.

“I don’t see this making my grandfather’s top ten reading list.”

“Keep going,” Valmont said. “It gets worse.”

“Great.”

The smartest dragons joined forces with the most creative dragons. Together they designed a weapon that would render a dragon unable to shift. It was called a Tyrant’s Crown. When placed upon a dragon’s head, the crown would activate, creating a containment spell around the wearer’s head and neck, which rendered them incapable of shifting. Stuck in human form, these dragons were less powerful. The crown could only be removed by a knight and a dragon working together using Blood Magic.

Bryn closed the book. “Even reading this makes me nervous, like if someone found out we had it, we’d be accused of conspiring with the enemy.” She turned the book over in her hands. “I think we should return it to Miss Enid and let her decide what to do with it.”

“I disagree.” Valmont plucked the book from her hands.

Okay. That didn’t happen very often. “Why? What do you think we should do?”

“I think we should search the book for clues which might lead us to more artifacts. Better we find them than they end up in enemy hands.”

“I see your point, but the Directorate isn’t one to give second chances. We should give it to Miss Enid or my grandfather.”

Valmont flipped through the pages. “I suppose, but since it’s checked out in my name, I’m going to finish reading it first. There might be valuable information we can use.”

She didn’t love his plan, but he had mentioned the tale to her grandfather already so it wasn’t like he was hiding information. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

“I’ll probably finish it this evening. You can turn it into someone tomorrow.”

“Okay.” She tried to keep the annoyance in her voice to a minimum. Valmont might be her knight, but he was still his own person, capable of making decisions for himself. Still, it rankled. How could he not see the risk he was taking by keeping this to himself?

In the locker room before Basic Movement, Bryn shared the situation with Ivy. “What do you think?”

“He’s allowed to have his own opinion, but I’m not sure he’s right.”

Now she didn’t feel so narrow minded. “Do you think I should call my grandfather and let him know we have the book?”

“That would cut down the opportunity for anyone to rat you out.” Ivy said. “So it might be a safer way to play it.”

As long as no one freaked out about the book before she had time to call her grandfather, it would be okay.

Want to add Fanning the Flames to your Goodreads want to read list? Here’s the link.