Page 138 of Harbinger

“I don’t want your charity.” The words spill out in a rush from being pent up inside me for so long.

A shadow crosses his face and vanishes like a passing cloud. “This isn’t charity.”

Lowering himself to train a patron’s daughter? Giving her a room in his house? “What is it, then? It’s not like I’m paying rent.”

His frown deepens as he sets his coffee on the counter and crosses his arms. “I’m trying to keep you alive.”

The answer pierces deep, and I suck back a breath. Because if I’m the harbinger, if killing me starts the cycle … that’s the last thing he wants.

My throat aches, still raw from nights spent crying into my pillow. I swallow and force myself to nod. I need to prepare. “I’d feel safer if you’d answer any of my questions.”

Hadrian’s visit only left me with more of them, and the terrible understanding that I might not have run if I’d known the truth about Bishop.

And then Kieren might still be alive.

But Bishop exhales slowly, clearly searching for a new and unique way to deny me.

“Fine,” he says, as if conceding costs him something. “We’ll begin today.”

“Today?” My pulse jumps a second too soon.

“After you eat.” His lips tug at the corners as he speaks.

“I said I’m not—” I start to grumble.

“You’ll eat,” he cuts me off. “Then we’ll train, and you can earn those answers.”

The arrangement sounds more like a threat than a compromise, but it’s something. So, I gulp down a retort that won’t get me anywhere with his stubborn ass and nod.

Lenora looks between us, eyes flashing with triumph. She moves quickly, plate already in hand, and sets it in front of me.

“I guess I know whose side you’re on,” I grumble. But the bread is still warm from the oven, butter melting in a puddle atop it, and she’s left the egg yolks runny like I prefer. My stomach growls in anticipation, earning me a knowing smirk from her.

She pats my shoulder. “I’m on whatever side keeps you safe.”

How am I supposed to argue with these people? I pierce the yolk with my fork, sopping up the golden liquid with the toast. The first bite makes me glad Bishop forced his hand. Not that I’ll ever admit it. But still … maybe this doesn’t have to be terrible. Maybe we can find our way back to that tentative friendship we’d started to form before …

I down another bite, but I can’t quite swallow the memory along with it. Bishop has every reason to be angry with me, but he’s given me the benefit of the doubt. I finish my toast, resolving to do the same, even though he watches me eat like he expects me to run away.

When I ask Lenora for another egg, Taliesin snorts under his breath. “Not hungry.”

“I thought you wanted me to eat,” I say sourly, but I’m not talking to him.

Bishop only smirks back. “Eat as much as you like. You’ll need it.”

That doesn’t sound ominous at all.

The sky is the color of wet ash when we arrive at the Bellatorum an hour later, the clouds pressing down around the foothills and forming a thick blanket of fog that turns the proving grounds dim and flat. Early winter has brought wind that batters everything between the sea and the mountains with slicing gusts, and the misty rain it carries stings my eyes.

Despite the weather, the metallic clanging of swords echoes in the distance, and neat lines of conscripts move between buildings. The drizzle blurs their faces, but their heads are held high like they don’t notice.

If only I could say the same.

I shiver, tugging my coat more tightly to block the rain. At least it isn’t snowing.

Bishop leads me toward the far side of the compound, past a line of crumbling plinths and a stone wall half strangled by ivy, toward a trail worn into the side of one of the mountains that guard the rear of the campus. My leg muscles strain as the path steepens, and the ground grows muddier and less traveled the higher we climb. I glance behind us and find most of the buildings below hidden in the cloud bank, only glimpses of their roofs and thin plumes of chimney smoke remaining visible.

“Where are we going?” I glance around. Knowing Bishop, he probably plans to spend the first eight hours providing me with safety instructions and lecturing me on the importance of following the rules.