CHAPTER 20 - BLAKE

I'd had a fluffin as a child, but it hadn't been stuffed. It had been real. A snuffling little thing with a tail bigger than its entire body. Father had brought it back from a trip to a dwarven city. I must have been no more than eight years old.

I'd loved the creature. Taken it everywhere with me.

Not it.

Her .

Thistle. I'd named her Thistle.

She was a sweet little thing. Loyal to a fault.

She slept in my bed every night.

Marcus had laughed at me for that. He'd always been a bastard, even then.

Mother had chided him, but he hadn't stopped. He'd never stopped. He never would until someone stopped him. Someone he was actually afraid of.

I shifted the basket I carried to my other hand, trying not to jostle the little sleeping creature inside. I'd peered in once when I'd picked it up from the First Year common room. Pendragon hadn't been around, but her friend, Florence, had thanked me over and over again for helping.

It had been embarrassing, actually. I hadn't known what to say.

One would think I'd be used to accepting thanks and praise from blightborn.

Honestly? I'd been disappointed that she hadn't been there. I thought she'd be waiting, maybe with a look of gratitude on her ordinarily hostile freckled face. Now that would have been a refreshing change. Having her look at me with something besides hate for once.

Though I had to admit, I'd grown accustomed to that stubborn set to her jaw. To seeing her pointy chin lifted towards me, as if she might actually be able to injure me with it. I knew she wanted to.

Even her ridiculous hair had grown on me a little bit. Those red curls that seemed to always be tangled, like they had a mind of their own. Untameable, like she was. Wild and challenging, refusing to listen to anyone around her. Always determined to get the last word.

But when the sun caught it just right, like in the Dragon Court earlier today, it could turn those strands of orangey-red into flame. I'd found myself staring.

And that infuriated me.

Drakharrows didn't stare. We didn't gape. We didn't...

It didn't matter.

She was insufferable. Completely and utterly maddening.

Then there was the way she carried herself. Like she had something to prove. No, worse, like she had no doubt she belonged here. She didn't cower, she didn't grovel. She didn't suck up to us like so many of the blightborn did. She just... didn't care. She honestly didn't give a fuck. And that bothered me. It rubbed me the wrong way.

Every day, she got a little bit more under my skin.

That stubborn, defiant set to her jaw when she argued with me. I'd wanted to wipe that smug look off her face more times than I could count. It drove me crazy.

And yet, there was something about the blaze in her green eyes that made her impossible to ignore.

She stood up to me, which no one else dared to do, and by the Bloodmaiden, it was annoying. But at the same time, it was...impressive. And infuriatingly attractive.

Fine. It was fucking hot .

The fluffin made a whimpering noise and I paused, lifting the basket up so I could look inside. The pup wasn't in great shape, but he was still breathing. If I could get him to a house healer, he should be okay.

I walked a little faster. If someone saw me with this thing, it would be humiliating.

I set my lips in a hard line and when a First Year came around the corner, I stared down at them until I saw a tear trickle down their cheeks. They ran past me with a sob.

I grinned.

If only I could do that so easily with other highbloods. If I saw Kage Tanaka right now, I'd never live this down. Carrying a puppy through Bloodwing? He'd laugh me off the face of the earth.

And if I came across Regan... Fuck. That would be almost worse. She'd ask if it was for her. And what would I say then? There was no way I was giving the thing to her. The last pet she had she'd forgotten about and it had starved to death. The only person she ever took care of was herself.

I stalked down another corridor. I was nearing the House Drakharrow tower. Glancing around quickly to make sure no one was around, I shucked off my cloak and draped it over the woven cage, praying no one saw me like this.

Turning the next corner, I quickened my pace and headed up the winding stairs to the upper levels of the Drakharrow tower. At least no one from House Avari would see me now. Other houses weren't permitted to visit rival towers.

When I reached the Drakharrow infirmary doors, I paused and listened. It seemed quiet inside. Hopefully they had no patients. Unless Theo had done something stupid and fallen off a table in the refectory again.

I pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside.

One of the healers stood by a wooden table, sorting through dried herbs and glass vials. Good. She was the same one who'd helped me when Pendragon was injured a few weeks back. I knew her.

The woman looked up as she heard me enter, her brow furrowing as she saw the cloak dangling over the shape of the basket.

I cleared my throat and strode forward, yanking the cloak off the carrier.

"I have an injured fluffin," I said curtly, holding the basket up so she could see inside. "I want you to treat it."

The healer blinked, as if taken aback. "An animal?" Her gaze flicked back and forth between me and the cage.

"A fluffin is an animal, yes," I barked. "I believe I just said that. Can you heal it? Yes or no?"

I wasn't about to tell her how the wounds had been inflicted. If she thought I'd done it, fine.

"I..." She cleared her throat and smoothed the front of her apron. "Yes. Of course, my prince." Only the House Drakharrow servants bothered to call me that within the school. But the fact that the healer was showing deference even though I'd brought an animal into the infirmary was a good sign.

I placed the woven carrier on the table. The fluffin pup stirred, his wide eyes fluttering open for a moment. The poor thing seemed too weak to do much else.

"Healer Ailith, I believe?"

She nodded.

"Ailith, I want you to keep this between us," I instructed. "No one else hears about it. You'll take care of the fluffin in your own chambers so no one else sees it. Understood?"

Her eyes widened a little but she nodded quickly.

Good. She wouldn't dare challenge me. Not a blightborn healer. I was used to being obeyed by the blightborn who served our house. This would be no different.

My jaw tightened. I looked down at the fluffin pup in silence.

Then, without thinking it through, I bent down and whispered through the wicker bars of the cage, "Be strong, all right? I'll be back."

I straightened up and caught the healer's raised eyebrow. But she quickly schooled her expression into a neutral one.

My cold demeanor snapped back into place. I nodded at her. "I expect this animal to receive the very best care and to thrive under your watch. Remember–this stays between us."

The healer gave me a measured look. She wasn't stupid, this one.

Good. I wanted her to save the animal, after all. I could only imagine what Pendragon would say if I couldn't manage that much.

"Of course, my lord," Healer Ailith murmured. "It will be done."

Without another word, I turned and left, resisting the urge to open the little cage and pick up the fluffin.

I'd check in on him tomorrow, I decided. Just to make sure he was still alive.

Not because I cared one way or the other, of course. But because House Drakharrow had standards to maintain. We needed to be obeyed in all things, no matter how trivial.