Wings of Fire - Eclipse Burning (1)

Chapter 16

"We understand if you want to go, but we're hoping you'll choose to stay," Clay added. "We ask you all to give us two days before you decide. Give us two days to find out what happened and who did this. If we can't - if we think it's too dangerous to stay here - we'll consider shutting down the school."

We're looking for the dragon who planted the bomb. Moon's mind whispered. 

Gotcha. Eclipse silently nodded. 

We think it might be Pike since he had a problem with both Carnelian and Bigtail. Moon continued.  

That dragon has a problem with everyone. Eclipse rolled her eyes. Other than Anemone, of course. 

It's still worth a look. 

Moon. Startled, both Moon and Eclipse glanced to their side and found Qibli staring at Moon intently. He tipped his head. See if you can edge that way. Pike's over there. 

Only half listening to Clay's speech, Moon sidled through the crowd until she was directly behind the SeaWing. Eclipse easily stepping into Pike's mind. 

At least the princess was no where near the fire. He had a confusing mind. His thoughts rampaged around like wild rhinoceroses; half of them began and then trailed off as he jumped to another. If Anemone had been hurt - maybe Queen Coral is right - can't protect her if I'm dead - dare to kill me, I'll rip off their - that poor little RainWing - I miss the Deep Palace, nothing catches on fire there - wish I'd had a chance to fight that NightWing - would've given him a tail whack he'd never forget - never even got to fill his bed with slugs - so pointless, having dead enemies, nobody to yell at - there's Anemone; that IceWing is standing too close to her; maybe I'll go bite him - wonder which of these idiots set the fire - that'd give me someone to snarl at -

"That dragons mind is a mess," Eclipse mumbled to Qibli. 

"Messier than mine?" he chuckled awkwardly. He was trying to hide the fact that he was outlandishly uncomfortable with the fact that she'd been able to see through him this whole time, then feeling stupid for trying to hide anything from her. 

"A whole lot messier," she grinned. 

Moon pivoted to meet their eyes and shook her head. Pike was an odd, bad-tempered dragon - and might be secretly protecting Anemone for Coral - but he wasn't their killer. 

Frowning, Qibli scanned the crowd, choosing and discarding suspects at lightning speed. He crossed off all the RainWings right away, which Eclipse agreed with; none of them had ever had an aggressive thought, as far as she'd seen. He paused on Umber and thought, Too loyal to Clay, then Marsh: Too nervous. Eclipse agreed with that as well; from the frantic terror spiking out of Marsh's head, he wouldn't be able to handle planning something this big without cracking under the pressure. 

Winter and Icicle? he wondered, studying the two haughty IceWings, who stood a few paces away from everyone else. Not Winter, he mused. He was with me or near me most of the day, especially right before class. But maybe Icicle?

Eclipse didn't think so. It had to have been a dragon with fire, right? That or they had an accomplice. 

Winter stretched his wings and twisted his neck to search the crowd - for Moon, Eclipse realized. Moon ducked out of his sight behind a large MudWing and Winter skimmed his eyes right past her, catching Eclipse's eyes instead. 

They stood still for a moment, simply staring at one another. Maybe it was a show of dominance that made them both not want to look away. Or maybe it was something different.