The Firedragon Read Online Free Page A

anyone
else.
    But why? There was only one reason for a
silencer spell – he must have a secret to tell her. She leaned
forward, dropping her voice a level. “What’s bugging you?” she
whispered.
    He lowered his wand and met her gaze. “You
were about to say you wanted to prove that Norms could be better
than Enchanters, right?”
    She shrugged. “Yeah. I’ll
beat you for
sure,” she added with a joking smirk.
    “ True.” He tried to return
her smile, but the uneasy look remained in his eyes. “Still, you
can’t go around boasting about it. The way you’re saying it, you’re
threatening the status quo.”
    “ Status-huh?” she asked,
confused. Why’s he always throwing fancy
words at me?
    “ Status quo – ‘the way
things are,’” he explained. “The Triumvirate’s caste system puts
Enchanters above Norms. And it’s stood for nearly a century,
grounded in the idea that those with magic are superior to those
without. If you win the Challenge, and it’s just one contestant who
happens to be a Norm beating others that happen to include
Enchanters, then it’s not that big a deal. But if you make it sound
like something bigger, something that could endanger the system –”
He broke off, his eyes flying to the doorway, and shut his mouth
firmly.
    Aurelia glanced back, startled, but didn’t
see anything out of the ordinary. She turned back to her friend
with a questioning look.
    He brought his gaze back to her, but his
expression remained tense. “Thought I saw someone.”
    Whatever he was about to say, it had to be
bad, and she waited for him to continue, more frightened than she
wanted to admit.
    Finally he drew a breath. “The Triumvirate
can’t have you jeopardizing the caste system that puts Enchanters
above Norms. They’ll silence you, no matter how well you represent
them in the Challenge. They’d rather lose their champion than risk
their way of life.”
    They’ll silence me. She knew what he meant by that. They’d lock her
up forever, and no one would see her again. It would be as if she’d
never existed. But she hadn’t said anything bad about the
Triumvirate, and she had no wish to. The Triumvirate made her mad
because they treated Norms as inferior, but they weren’t evil.
Monsters were evil – they killed people in horrible ways. The
Triumvirate kept the monsters away. She wasn’t threatening the
government; she just wanted them to change.
    Was that really enough to get her in
trouble?
    Connor must have sensed the anger stirring
within her, because he looked her straight in the eye, his
expression taking on a kind of gravity she’d never seen in him
before. “I mean it, Aurie. That kind of talk could be interpreted
as treason. There are a lot of people around right now, and they’re
all listening.”
    Treason? She swallowed hard, fear suddenly overwhelming
her anger. Treason was punishable by death. She hadn’t thought
about her intentions that way before. But the Triumvirate was her
nation, her home, her people. She’d dedicated her life to
protecting it, and everyone who lived within its
borders.
    “ How could I be considered
a traitor?” she protested hoarsely. “Everything I do is for the
Triumvirate! Wanting change isn’t treason!”
    His gaze didn’t leave hers. “Some people
might see it that way. Please, Aurie, promise you won’t talk like
that to anyone else. I don’t want to see you get in trouble.
Someone might have already heard you.”
    She opened her mouth to
object, but then saw that there was something more than worry
behind his expression. He looked scared … scared for her. The last
time she’d seen him look so frightened, he’d just learned that he’d
be pitted against monsters in the Challenge. Wow, he must really be worried about this, she thought, pressing her lips together. Is it really that bad? She didn’t particularly want to find out.
    “ Okay, I promise I’ll pipe
down.” Then she put her hands on her hips in rebellion. “But