Ch. 5, Destiny
I shoved back from Cillian's chest, glaring at him. Now that I got a full look at him, without the shock of having nearly been hit by a train, I realized what I hadn't before. His good looks were ruined by the sneer on his face. He was tall, but walked with an almost disdainful laziness, as if the whole world were beneath him. A smirk filled his face as he made a slow appraisal of my disheveled hair and clothes, and the lanyard hanging on my chest, that now seemed like some kind of giant blazing sticker labeled me a child.
"It suddenly all makes sense," he said with a sneer. "You found out I'm your competition for the summer program at Dracon Hall, and decided to give up. Would you like me to push you into the tracks now, or do you want to see if the sad, poor orphan act can earn you a place at Dracon Hall?"
Remember, reader, how I said I would ignore Cillian Dreadmoor? Well, screw that. I was going to earn Lainey and I a place at Dracon Hall—and then I would destroy Cillian.
"Get out of my way," I snapped. "Unlike you, I earned my interview. Nobody bought it for me."
"Oh, that much is very clear."
His gaze trailed down my body and I bristled at the cold, uncaring drawl, the way his eyes dismantled me piece by piece, like he could see every dirty deed I'd done to get here. But the people were pressing closer, boarding the train, so I tried to step around him.
He stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "You could leave now, you know? If you need some cash, I'll lend it to you."
And then, finally, I understood. I'd forgotten that I was once the book nerd, the girl who knew everything, who'd secretly taken the admissions test at Dracon Hall and achieved the very first prefect score. That girl, who I once was, was now as cold and dead and buried as my parents. Maybe that's why the laugh that emerged from me was as cold as the grave. "Is that what this is about? You're threatened by me? You think I'm going to take your spot? Well I plan on being top of the class. Get used to being under me."
A slow cold smile filled his face. "Maybe I will."
Heat flushed my cheeks at the insinuation in his voice. I fisted my hand, wanting to slap him, but then the train whistle sounded.
Lainey. Dracon Hall. That's what was important.
I stepped around him and snarled, "Stay away from me and my sister." I wondered briefly if there was any way I could push him onto the tracks and make it look like an accident. Probably not. He was freakishly tall with wide shoulders. Besides, I had the feeling that he was the type of person who'd come crawling out of any hole you shoved him into.
I'd met people like that.
I'd also made a few of them disappear.
I could feel him watching us as we boarded the train. As far as comebacks went, it was weak. But something about Cillian threw me off. Maybe it was the fact that after an entire year of defending me and my sister, of fighting the entire world, of being alone, I'd been saved by the very last person I wanted to owe anything to. Cillian was about to be my competition. And I needed every edge I could get—not just for me, but to get Lainey into Dracon Hall too. I might have gotten a perfect score, and they usually accepted siblings, but two full scholarships was going to take a lot of convincing.
Lainey's eyes were glazed and vacant as I pulled her through the crowds on the platform. As she stared up at me with those wide eyes, and a part of me cracked inside. Lainey—beautiful, silly, sweet, sensitive, wild, little Lainey, my heart, my sister, was gone. I didn't know this shadow sitting here.
Once, not so long ago, Lainey would have snapped back at Cillian—or at least she would have given me shit for letting Cillian get the better of me. If she were awake, the way she once was, she wouldn't have let me go chasing after shadows and ghosts and whatever other monsters stalked me. She was gone, and all I had was my rage and fear moving us forward.
I hoped it would be enough.
A whistle sounded, and together Lainey and I stepped onto the train, the last of the boarders. A man with a uniform came over, and, seeing the lanyards we wore at our neck, pointed to the back of the train. "Dracon Hall, is it? We've got a carriage in the back saved for minors."
"Thanks," I said, taking Lainey's hand and heading for the back, praying all the while that Cillian was the kind of rich snob who would pay for his own seat.
The train whistled again, the floor started shaking as it began to roll out of the station. I wanted to feel happy, excited, but when I glanced at my little sister's vacant eyes it took all I was not to let the world around me crush me.
How could I think I could do this?
What if the dreams were only the beginning?
What if there was a reason Mom and Dad hadn't wanted us to attend Dracon Hall? But, I shoved it all away, and thought back to that willow tree that we'd hid beneath all night.
I would become like a tree.
Deeply rooted. Unshakable.
The winds of life howled around me, but I held strong. My branches took the brunt of the storm, so that the fragile sapling beside me could have room to grow. And she would grow. I had to believe that. If I could just get her to Dracon Hall, I would find a way to feed her silence and peace and music and belonging, and she would come back to me.
"Come on," I said, my voice once again strong. I would weather whatever Cillian Dreadmoor threw out at me, and I wouldn't let him get to me.
I kept pulling Lainey to the back of the train, scenery now slipping by outside the windows, making me feel like I was running backwards while the world moved faster and faster away from me. Shoulders and arms bumped into me as others settled into their seats, but I didn't let any of it shake me, and I didn't loosen my grip on Lainey's hand.
The final train compartment was labeled Dracon Hall, and, I sighed seeing it, already seeing the tall figure sprawling across the seats aside. Great. So much for avoiding him.
Just before I reached out, Lainey pulled back, the first resistance in the month since our parents' death. I turned, staring at the flicker of fear in her eyes. I'd forgotten—Lainey didn't like enclosed places, and the compartment was tight, just two benches facing each other, one already holding Cillian's sprawling form.
Maybe it wasn't a spark, not yet, but it was something.
"It's going to be alright," I whispered to her, stepping forward and hugging her tightly. All around us people talked and laughed, no one noticed the two sisters embracing, holding on to each other like they were the only things they had left in this world.
"We're going to find a new home." I whispered into her ear, stroking her long, dark hair. "A new place to belong. I promise." Then I pulled back and said, "Do you trust me?" She stared up at me and then slowly nodded her head. My heart soared, and I reached out, touching her chin, as I saw almost, almost a smile there. "Well then, come on. The Foxglove sisters can brave anything. So long as we're together."
I couldn't explain it—that song, that calling I'd felt when I'd seen the girl. Someone I felt it in the way my sister's hand clutched mine, the way the train moved us relentlessly towards our future.
As if Dracon Hall wasn't just a place...
It was our destiny.
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