Page 47

“7.1,” Cora said. “Let it be known. I’ve adjusted his rating. Although he still loses a few points for his airy demeanor.”

Timmons lifted her chin and put on a mocking face. “Such discussions are untoward. You don’t mean to say that Mr. Brood is uppity? Surely, you wouldn’t, Cora. Surely…”

They both fell into bubbling laughter again. “Uppity,” Cora repeated. “Who wouldn’t be? His father owns half the city. I’d have my head up my ass too.”

Timmons laughed again. “And that is not the best place to keep one’s head, if I say so myself. Very poor storage units.”

She adjusted to inspect her own. Ren couldn’t help laughing at the way Cora craned her neck to get a look as well. Timmons caught the girl at it and reached over to bop her on the nose.

“Do you know the story about the boy and the silver belly button?”

Ren snorted. “You always tell that story when you’re like this.”

Timmons scowled at her. “Fine. Didn’t want to tell you it again anyways, you prat.”

She covered her mouth but soon was giggling again, tracing the air with a finger. “I’m trying not to tell the story, but it’s coming out all on its own! Look!”

Ren looked up to where she was pointing. There was nothing on the walls, but Cora leaned in next to Timmons and squinted up as if she was reading the hidden text as well.

“That’s sad,” she said. “That they made fun of his belly button. People make fun of me all the time. Too quiet. Too weird. They’d rather have a doctor who smiles. Like any of that matters. Most of them just hate that I’m better than they are.…”

She trailed off. Ren watched as both girls continued to read a story that was apparently projecting from Timmons’s thoughts onto the walls. Ren knew the breath was powerful and strange and unpredictable. A vision of the world from the long-extinct dragons. She always claimed she didn’t want to blunt her mind. That was one part of why she didn’t imbibe. The bigger reason, though, was that she didn’t want to see her deepest secrets exposed through lack of control. She feared what might slip out if she ever unlocked those carefully sealed vaults, even for a moment.

Lost in thought, she almost didn’t notice Timmons rooting through Theo’s bag again.

“Hey. No more breath tonight. We can’t waste it.”

But her friend pulled out Theo’s notebook instead. She waved it in the air like a prize before flipping through the pages. A little hiccuping laugh sounded. “Oh! How delightful. It’s a journal.”

Ren shot her a look as she continued to peruse.

“ ‘I will have a new weight on my shoulders. A new duty. A new responsibility…’ ”

“Timmons. Stop. Now.”

She didn’t mean for the tone to sound so sharp. Her friend blinked a little before tossing the journal to the ground. Ren leaned down to place the notebook back in his bag.

“You wouldn’t want someone going through your things.”

Timmons held up both hands innocently. She wiggled her fingers a bit, which caught her attention. She held out her right hand to Cora, plucking at her thumb. “This little dragon went to the market. And this little dragon started a furniture company. And this little dragon…”

The two of them went on like that for another hour. All the obnoxious laughter at least served to lighten Ren’s spirit. There was one rather serious debate about the choice between a lifetime of cheese and a lifetime of handsome suitors. Cheese emerged victorious.

Cora eventually fell asleep midsentence. Ren watched Timmons tuck the girl in like a doll before lying down herself. It was quiet for long enough that she thought her friend had fallen asleep. Then she heard her whisper.

“I talked to Clyde.”

The hairs on the back of Ren’s neck stood up. Talked to Clyde? A million questions were born from those words. They tangled with a heavy dose of fear. Did this have to do with taking the breath? Could she somehow sense his presence nearby?

“That night,” Timmons clarified. “The night we hooked up. I convinced him to give you a position within House Winters. It was… the least I could do. Clyde was in love with me. He would have done anything for me. Anything. He told me he’d find you a spot. I’m sorry, Ren.…” Her voice fell to something less than a whisper. “Because he’s dead now. He’s gone.”

And with that, she drifted off to sleep.

27

Ren sat in that dimly lit cave, struggling to breathe.

Timmons had gotten her a position. An actual position. A promised path forward from the lips of a dead boy. She couldn’t believe her bad luck. The idea that she might have landed a sponsorship with House Winters if only the accident in the waxway chamber had never happened…