Free The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) by Courtney Grace Powers

the suite, “but it's a beautiful day. It's been a while since I've seen your campus. I thought perhaps…” Hesitating, the duke glanced at Reece, then folded back the shutters. Reece blinked against the brightness. “I thought perhaps I ought to remedy that.”
                  A while? It had been four years, at least.
                  “I have class. Fencing.”

              The duke harrumphed. “I should like to see that. I used to be quite the fencer myself, before I became duke.”
                  Reece bit off a sigh. It had been hard enough to keep the mission secret from the duke without him making suspiciously spontaneous house calls. Reece would be walking on glass all day, trying to keep him from sensing something with his newly-restored parental feelers. Abigail had never had those, but once upon a time, the duke had been quite adept at reading Reece's mind.
                  “Perhaps we should visit the museum,” the duke suggested, and Reece froze with his hands clutching his last unpacked pair of trousers. “Visit The Aurelia . I haven't had those rock treats from Oceanus in years.”
                  “I don't know,” Reece said, trying to sound nonchalant. “It’ll probably be swarming today, what with the holidays…”
                  The duke waved a flippant hand. “What good is it being duke if I can't have some privileges? I know the museum's curator; I'll send him a log letting him know to expect us.”
                  Barely able to keep the sour note out of his voice, Reece mustered some fake enthusiasm and smiled. “Great.”
     
     
                  They started the day with breakfast in the galley before touring the campus, visiting tutors and classrooms, attracting the awed stares of students who had only ever seen the duke in the papers. Two barrel-chested bodyguards who looked more like bears than men followed a careful ten paces behind everywhere they went. There was humiliating, and then there was this .
                  They ran into the Rices at the small performance stage that had been set up on the campus green, now covered with a foot of snow. A four-person band, bedecked in holiday colors, played carols on their flutes and fiddles until they caught sight of the duke watching. Their music broke off raggedly as they stood to salute him. Hayden patted Reece on the shoulder with a mittened hand as Reece tried in vain to turn invisible.
                  “It's good he's here, though,” Hayden said quietly as the duke chatted amiably with the ever haggard-looking Mr. Rice, whose furry hat dwarfed his head. “Now you can say a proper goodbye.”
                  “And how am I supposed to do that, seeing as he doesn't know I'm leaving?”
                  “Well, maybe you should tell him.”
                  “ What ?”
                  “What's the worst that could happen?”
                  “Prison!”
                  Sophie looked up from sprinkling birdseed over the snow, her blond hair pinned back by a pair of woolen earmuffs. A few purple-winged songbirds hopped over to her offerings. “He doesn't have to know you're saying goodbye. You could just tell him what he means to you.”
                  “What he means to me,” Reece repeated. He glanced up and found his father's eyes watching him. “Right.”
                  They said goodbye to the Rices and headed for the museum, Reece feeling worse by the minute. True to his word, the duke had flexed his right to special treatment. When they arrived, the lobby was cleared of tourists, so it was just them, the two bearlike guards, and Aurelia. Reece felt like she was staring at him. He felt like everyone was staring at him.
                  All in all, they saw five exhibits before