One
Noelle blinked her blue-gray eyes, staring at the envelope on the table in front of her.
She glanced up at the woman sitting for her. Ellie Marcandia. The dark-haired woman raised an eyebrow.
“Well…?” Ellie asked, her accent crisp and hard to place.
Noelle slid it across the table to her. “No, thank you.”
Ellie’s eyes widened ever so slightly, but Noelle noticed it. She noticed everything. “I’m sorry?”
slungslung“I wouldn’t like to participate in your little games, thank you very much,” Noelle replied, not even looking at her as she stood up, grabbed her messenger bag and slinging it over her shoulder. “I don’t have a dragon, I don’t have any survival skills, and I don’t have a death wish, so no, thank you.”
She tossed a careless look over at Ellie. She had stood up as well, but she didn’t show any signs of surprise. Noelle looked at her eyes. The eyes betray everything. But either Ellie was very well trained, or she truly wasn’t surprised, because her black eyes were calm and unbothered.
Noelle took a step back from the small table, pushing aside her chair as she did so, and headed to the tall silver door at the end of the room, tightening the bandana around her neck.
“I know who you are.”
That was a simple statement: Noelle was Noelle White. Master of pickpocketing, squatter of streets, queen of death glares. But she still stopped in her tracks.
Slowly, steadily, Noelle turned around. A slight smile had curved Ellie’s lips.
Crap.
“Who am I, then?” she asked, forcing her voice to sound careless. Unbothered.
“You tell me.” Ellie stood up, striding over to Noelle in two steps. Noelle forced herself not to take a step back as Ellie stared down at her.
A moment passed. Then two.
“I’m…I’m Noelle White,” Noelle said.
Ellie smiled. A predator’s smile with straight, white teeth. Ellie straightened, then walked to the long window, gazing out at the sight of the gloomy city with her back facing Noelle.
“I think that we both know that isn’t true.”
Slowly, Noelle walked over to her chair and sat down.
“You won’t die in the Games, Noelle,” Ellie continued. “We will provide you with a dragon. You can pick one out. And you’ll have a chance to go to all twenty kingdoms. Come to the Dragon Games.” She walked back over to the table, sliding the envelope back to her. “And I won’t reveal your little secret to the public.” Her eyes found Noelle’s.
She smiled again.
They had a mini staring contest for a minute.
Noelle couldn’t risk her secret being exposed. It was too horrible, too painful, too bitter…
Six-year-old Noelle was waiting for them to reply, her stomach in pain from all the days of starvation, her wrists red and aching from the rope that tied them together—
Noelle shook off the memory. She instead gave Ellie one of her infamous death glares. “Fine,” she snapped.
Ellie smiled. “I’ll give you a day to say goodbye. Meet me on Mount Crest tomorrow. Bring your belongings.”
Noelle snorted. “My only friend” —she patted her loyal messenger bag, always hanging by her side—“is right here.”
Ellie shrugged. “Well, if you say so, we can go now.” Noelle nodded, though her eyes stung a little when Ellie led them out the door and down the long hall.
“Last chance,” Ellie said as she stopped before a door not unlike the one in the room they were just in. She glanced back at Noelle. “This door leads out to the plane. Once you get on, you won’t be able to see Gravemarch for a very, very long time.”
Noelle had to try not to flinch at the name of the city. “It doesn’t matter,” she stated straightforwardly. “I don’t want to see Gravemarch anyway.”
Ellie studied her for a moment. Noelle stared right back, keeping her face oh so carefully blank. Then Ellie shrugged. “If you say so.” She opened the door. Before them was a long, silver plane, perched on the flat roof of the building. Ellie started walking down the steps that led to the roof.
When she realized Noelle wasn’t following, she turned around and raised an eyebrow. “Are you coming?” she called.
Noelle adjusted her messenger bag on her shoulder, and as she did so, she discreetly wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket. “I’m coming,” she mumbled, following Ellie.
A young man in a professional-looking jacket was standing near the door of the plane.
Ellie gave him a nod, which he returned with an incline of his head. Noelle realized that Ellie’s status might be higher than just a Dragon Games participant recruiter. She looked between the two adults, but could tell nothing.
Noelle narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. The young man, the pilot, Noelle assumed, pushed an invisible button that opened the door with a hiss. The interior of the plane was fancier than most homes, complete with plush velvety carpets, fancy chairs, and a low coffee table on which were plates of fruit and other delicacies. In the back, there was a door leading to what was presumably the bathroom. The pilot disappeared behind some curtains in the front of the plane, to the cockpit.
Ellie plopped down on one of the chairs attached to the sides of the plane, grabbing a single grape and popping it in her mouth. Then she leaned forward, plucking a magazine off the table, sat back, and began reading. Noelle sat on the opposite of her, strapping herself in a seatbelt, all while studying Ellie.
She noticed. “Well, what are you staring at me for?”
Noelle shrugged. “Just wondering what your job is, other than blackmailing fourteen-year-olds into participating in useless activities they have no interest in attending.”
Ellie laughed, the sound rich and full, bouncing off the walls of the plane. “Trust me, that’s not my only job.”
Noelle tilted her head ever so slightly to the side. “What’s your other job, then?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
Noelle had to physically stop herself from rolling her eyes. Those five words were probably one of the most annoying words that any adult could ever utter. Instead, she took off her messenger bag and used it as a pillow against the wall of the plane.
“Aren’t you interested in learning more about the Games?” Ellie asked.
“Yes,” Noelle replied, “but I’m more interested in taking a cat nap.” With that, she closed her eyes, tuned out the sound of Ellie flipping the pages of the magazine, and drifted off.
