Chapter 3 Lies in the Boiler Room

Kirrily Vane

Thane's gloved fingers felt like ice around my jaw. His thumb rested dangerously close to the skin beneath my left ear, where the tiny battery inside my jammer was hidden. If he moved his hand just a little to the left, he would feel the raised scar beneath my broken-compass tattoo. And if he discovered it, I was dead.

"Who the hell are you, scholarship girl?" Thane whispered. His breath felt as cold as the air around him.

My mind raced. Should I fight him? He could freeze me before I even got to my feet. Should I pretend to be stupid? He had already noticed my eyes following the security cameras.

I had only one choice. When a lie was about to be exposed, a good con artist knew how to create a bigger one.

I forced tears into my eyes and let my voice shake. I squeezed them shut as if his words had hurt me deeply, then allowed a tear to roll down my cheek.

"I'm a girl whose father froze to death in a public hospital because your family's company cut the power during the winter storm of 2019," I said, my voice breaking. I opened my eyes and let the anger show. "I was watching the cameras because I'm scared, my lord. I was looking for an exit. I wanted to find a way out before your dragon friends decided to burn me alive like they burned my coat!"

I pulled my chin from his grip and stumbled backward as if his touch had hurt me.

Thane didn't move. He remained on one knee, his cold blue eyes fixed on mine. For three painful seconds, the entire Atrium seemed to go silent. I could hear the faint hum of the blue crystal scanner above the main vault. Behind him, Indi Carmichael shifted nervously in her expensive boots.

At last, Thane stood. His tall frame blocked the light from the chandeliers. "If you want an exit, Vane, the ravine is thirty feet behind you," he said without emotion. "Jump. It will be quicker than what this place will do to you if you fail the first trial."

He turned and walked away. The crowd parted to let him pass. My heart pounded so hard that my chest hurt, but I kept my relief hidden. I stayed on my hands and knees until the Chancellor dismissed us. Then I joined the others, limping as if I could barely walk.

But I wasn't going to the dorms.

As the fifty initiates moved towards the grand spiral staircase, the highborn heirs began chatting among themselves. I slipped into a narrow space beside a gargoyle statue and counted down from eight, waiting for the security camera to turn away. Then I moved into the blind spot I had discovered earlier.

A heavy service door stood partly open behind a tapestry. I slipped inside and quietly closed it behind me. The noise from the Keep faded at once. In its place came the deep rumble of machinery beneath the building.

The air was hot and damp. Steam hissed from iron pipes running along the rough stone ceiling. This was the hidden part of the Obsidian Keep, where human workers laboured to keep the dragon lords warm.

I hurried down three flights of rusty iron stairs, careful not to make too much noise. The heat dried the tears on my cheeks as I passed beneath a shaking steam pipe and entered the second boiler room. A young man in dark grey overalls sat on a wooden crate beside a glowing furnace. A wrench rested loosely in his hand.

Jarrah.

He looked up, a strand of sandy hair falling across his forehead. The moment he saw me, a warm smile spread across his face. He tossed the wrench into his toolbox and stood.

"You're late, kiddo," he said. His familiar voice brought me a little comfort in that awful place. "I was starting to think Indi Carmichael had actually set you on fire."

"She tried," I replied, leaning against a hot iron pipe as my knees began to weaken. The rush of fear and excitement was finally wearing off. "And Thane Corin nearly caught me."

Jarrah's smile disappeared. The relaxed maintenance worker was gone, replaced by the sharp, dangerous leader of the Syndicate's northern cell. He stepped closer and studied my face. "Caught you doing what?"

"Mapping the lower Atrium," I muttered.

I reached behind my left ear and pressed the centre of my broken-compass tattoo. A soft click sounded inside my skull, and the faint buzzing in my jaw stopped. My body's natural signals returned as the jammer shut down. My temperature settled, and my heart rate returned to normal. The illegal device was a brilliant piece of technology, but wearing it felt like having a heavy weight pressing against my brain.

"He noticed my eyes following the cameras during the scan," I explained, rubbing the sore skin behind my ear. "He's sharp, Jarrah. Scarily sharp. He even noticed that my heart rate didn't match how frightened I was acting."

"He's a Corin," Jarrah said, his jaw tightening as he handed me a small canteen of water. "They're not just rich, Kirri. They're dangerous. Don't give him a reason to suspect you."

I drank deeply, letting the cool water soothe my dry throat. "The vault security is different from the blueprints you gave me in Sydney. There's more than a biometric scanner. They've connected it to a dragon crystal that can detect magical energy."

"I know," Jarrah whispered, leaning closer so the workers nearby wouldn't hear us. "That's why you're going to bypass it."

He reached into his work pocket and pulled out a smooth black cylinder about the size of a lipstick tube.

"What's that?" I asked, studying it carefully.

"A static bypass," he replied. "Tomorrow, when the first trial begins in the mountains, the Keep's security system will focus on tracking the initiates. While Thane and the other heirs are busy fighting for their places in the snow, you'll slip away from the trial area, enter the lower vault, and attach this to the crystal."

My heart began to race. "Jarrah, the Sun-Siphon relic is protected by three layers of runes. Even if I shut down the crystal, I still can't open the chest without the physical DNA of a high-blood dragon."

Jarrah stared at me, his dark eyes serious. "We shut down the crystal first, Kirri," he said, taking my hand and holding it tightly. "Then we'll find a way to get a sample from an ice dragon. My cell spent three years forging your academic records and getting you into this place. We're not leaving empty-handed. That relic contains enough stolen magic to power the entire human underground for fifty years. No more freezing in public hospitals. No more begging them for scraps."

I looked down at our joined hands. The weight of the mission settled over me again. Jarrah was right. He had rescued me from the streets when I was twelve. He had fed me, trained me, and taught me how to read people, lie when necessary, and survive when no one else cared whether I lived or died. I owed him my life.

"Okay," I said, taking the black cylinder and slipping it into the hidden pocket inside my boot. "I'll do it tomorrow during the survival trial."

"Good girl." Jarrah patted my shoulder. "Now turn the jammer back on and get to the dorms before room inspection. Remember, look weak, keep your head down, and don't let Thane Corin get close enough to discover what you really are."

I nodded and raised my hand to the tattoo behind my ear. I pressed the centre. Nothing happened.

My heart skipped. I pressed it again, harder this time, digging my thumbnail into the skin.

A click sounded.

Then a violent electric shock shot through the bone behind my ear. Pain burst across the left side of my head, so sharp that my vision filled with silver light. I gasped and dropped to one knee.

"Kirri!" Jarrah cried, rushing to my side and grabbing my shoulders.

The jammer wasn't working properly. A high-pitched whine filled my head, making my teeth vibrate. The skin beneath my tattoo burned, and the smell of scorched flesh filled my nose.

"It's overloading," I gasped, tears blurring my vision. "Jarrah, the scan in the courtyard must have damaged it. The blue ward hit the device, and now it's short-circuiting!"

Before he could answer, the heavy iron door at the top of the stairs slammed open with a deafening crash. The temperature in the boiler room dropped so quickly that my breath turned white. Steam froze in the air and fell to the stone floor as tiny pieces of ice. Frost spread across the walls and pipes.

A tall, dark figure stood at the top of the iron stairs.

Thane Corin.

His cold blue eyes glowed in the dim light as he looked down at us. "I thought I smelled a burning rat," he said. His voice carried the force of his dragon magic through the room. "What are you doing down here, scholarship girl?"