to him—”
“It is important to him,” Nettle said. “But if there is one thing that can throw him off, it is his mother. You will see. I believe—”
“Hey! Hey, lady!” Aurora and Nettle both looked up. A red-faced man strode toward them. Aurora shrunk away, but Nettle lengthened her neck to stare back at him. “We don’t want your kind here.”
It took Aurora a moment to realize that he was talking to Nettle, not her. The singer looked at him for a long moment, and then turned to Aurora. “I believe,” she said again, “that he—”
“Hey!” the man said. “Don’t ignore me. You’re not welcome here.”
“I live here,” Nettle said evenly. “And you are disrupting my conversation.”
“You think you can come here, eat our food, take up our space, and we’ll accept that? You people are all the same.”
“You people?” Aurora stood. “What exactly does that mean, you people?”
“People like her,” the man spat. “Foreigners. You think we got enough to spare? She should live in her own kingdom, not take up ours.”
“People like her?” Aurora echoed. “I’m not from Vanhelm either. Why are you not shouting at me?”
The man spluttered.
“She has as much right to be here as you do.” Aurora could feel the anger rising within her, the burning. She took a deep breath, forcing it back. “How dare you?”
“Is there a problem here?” A thin woman in an apron approached the table. She looked at Nettle. “Miss, you’re disturbing the other customers. I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“This is absurd!” Aurora said, but Nettle just pushed her half-finished plate away and stood. Her expression did not change. With an upward tilt of her chin, she turned and walked off. Aurora scrambled after her.
“Nettle, what—”
“What was that?” Nettle said. “That was Vanhelm, Aurora. Such an advanced kingdom, so hardworking, so welcoming . . . but so low on space, so concerned about resources when they can grow little themselves. They must have priorities. And for some, that means that only certain people should be allowed to take up space here. True Vanhelmians. People not like me.”
“But that’s ridiculous,” Aurora said.
“It is what it is. Do not concern yourself, Aurora. I am used to it, although it is more common in Vanhelm now than it was.”
They walked in silence for a little longer. Then Aurora glanced back in the direction of the café. “We didn’t pay,” she said.
“I know.” And finally Nettle smiled.
SEVEN
BY THE TIME FINNEGAN KNOCKED ON AURORA’S DOOR the following morning, she was prepared. She shoved a piece of paper under his nose before he had finished saying “Good morning.”
“Here’s my plan,” she said, as he stepped through the door. “Of how we should proceed.”
“It’s lovely to see you too, Aurora,” Finnegan said. “I did sleep well.” He took the paper from her and read it. “This is an admirable effort, but do you really think you can plan things out this much?”
“I don’t have a lot of time,” Aurora said. She had been up and dressed for the day since dawn, tossing her thoughts onto paper and honing them for the prince’s inevitable appearance. “We need to know what we’re doing.”
“And you had to write it down?”
“I wanted to be clear.” She moved closer, pointing to the scribbled words as she spoke. “I have to learn how to use my magic to help Alyssinia. You want me to use it to get rid of the dragons. So. First I learn how to control it. We practice. You help me learn more about magic in general—what it used to be, why it disappeared, what magic the dragons have—and about my curse and what happened to me.”
“Because I’m the expert on the subject?”
“No,” she said. “But you seem good at puzzling things out. We’ll learn how my magic works, and what my connection to the dragons is.”
“And hopefully figure out how to deal with them along the way?”
“Exactly. If I’m going to stop the dragons, make them sleep, we’ll have to go to that mountain that Lucas mentioned—back where it all began. And once I’ve done that, you’ll help me go back to Alyssinia, stop the violence, and replace the king.”
“Simple,” Finnegan said. “I can’t imagine a single thing that will go wrong.”
“I hope you can,” Aurora said. “Then we can fix them before they happen.”
Finnegan laughed. “All right, dragon girl,” he said. “I’ll play.”
“Good.” She moved to fetch her cloak. “We should go to that Institute where Lucas works,” she said. “That’s