“You talk about good things,” I said. “You recite poetry and philosophy and theology and—”
Draco laughed again. “It’s wonderfully amusing, how many people will be swayed by the words of those who disdain the very meaning of them.”
“What about Raiya?” I asked, desperate for any sign that this was some kind of demonic hoax. “You took care of her after her parents died.”
“Yes.” A hungry look came into his eyes. “Lady Justice finally fell, and I went to her and made sure she was under my care.”
“Why?” I was genuinely baffled. “Why train her to do what she is supposed to do, when she’s supposed to bring about your downfall?”
“The Prince,” he murmured. “The Prince’s words are never wrong. But this time, I have the advantage. His world has repeatedly rejected him, and I have found a way into the very heart of the one who is supposed to bring me to meet my end. I fully intend on surviving the encounter.”
“You think Raiya’s just going to fall over?” I asked. “You’re the one who taught her to stand.”
“And you’re the one who was stupid enough to save her,” Draco grumbled. “She would have consigned herself to a spot next to Alküzor if you hadn’t stepped in and saved her and the Sinisters.”
“So you think,” I said, putting it all together, “that because I’m here, you’ll succeed in beating Raiya?”
“Precisely.” He grinned. “Do you have any idea how easy she is to manipulate?”
“You’re the one who told her to go and drink from Aleia’s star,” I said. Anger flared inside of me.
“Of course.” He cupped his hands together and his voice went high as he mocked Raiya. “‘Oh, Grandpa, I do love him, but I want to do the right thing!’”
“Shup up!” I warned him.
“Please, don’t get overly excited.” He gazed down his nose at me, smugly. “After all, are you really going to be the one who kills her beloved grandfather?”
I faltered.
“I am the one, remember, who came and got her when she was the only one to survive that car accident in Norway—”
“The one who probably arranged it, too,” I muttered.
“The one who told her stories of heroes and adventure and true love—”
“So you could undermine it in real life!”
“The one she would come crying to after school, when the other kids would make her angry or sad, triggering her growing powers when she was young or testing her discipline when she was older—”
“Stop it!” I said again, too unwilling to recall my share of that.
“The one who made arrangements for her to give blood at the hospital and held her as the needle pressed into her arm for the first time—”
“You did that?!”
“For power, naturally,” he said, interrupting his list of rights to Raiya’s trust for the first time.
All of the pieces suddenly fell together in a strange way. Grandpa Odd—Draco—had been using Raiya and the hospital as a way to gain her blood.
He had been living on the earth as a human for thousands of years. He never died.
He was looking for Justice. He knew she was a Star. He likely found several ways to get a hold of a lot of money. He wanted to monitor the universe for signs of her coming. He was a crazy old man who had waited for millennia to gain what he wanted.
Suddenly, it made sense. In the weirdest, most diabolical way. “You’re Ogden Skarmastad, aren’t you?”
Draco laughed again, this time with pleasure in his eyes. “Figured it out, did you? Pity you won’t be able to prove it.”
Prove it? I still had trouble believing it. Dr. Skarmastad had come to Apollo City years ago and set up his astronomy hub. He claimed to be looking for the secrets of the universe. He was rumored to be this passionate, mad, brilliant man.
“I’ll tell Raiya what you told me.” I gripped the hilt of my sword. “I’ll tell her that you were using her. There’s got to be a paper trail to prove that I’m right.”
“Changeling dragons are hardly registered citizens,” he reminded me. “I’ll admit, it’s getting harder to fake an identity in America, but there are still plenty of ways around it.”
“Raiya will still trust me,” I insisted. “She loves me.”
“She also loves me, her poor, old, sweet Grandpa Odd.” The scaly face darkened. “What makes you think love and trust are the same things? Aren’t you the one who teased her, argued with her, called her names, trashed her in front of your friends?”
I frowned.
“Aren’t you the one who ‘took a vacation’ from using your supernatural powers to help her, leaving her weakened in battle?”
That was my breaking point; I had to defend myself. “Hey, she wanted me to quit!”
“Aren’t you the one who has consistently been her greatest weakness?”
“Only because she’s afraid of losing me,” I insisted.
“Aren’t you the one who is lacking in discipline, with temper tantrums and arguments and fights? The one who rejected her despite always promising to love her—
“Enough!” I thundered, drawing out my sword. I leapt and swung at him, determined to show him I was not who he said I was. At least, not all the time.
He easily dodged me, ducking and laughing as though it were some kind of game.
“Augh!” I yelled as I swung down the deathblow.
Instantly, his face transformed, and his eyes were suddenly the ones I recognized; it was Grandpa Odd.
“Are you going to kill me then?” he asked, his voice soft and weary.
My eyes went wide and wary, but I shook my head. I moved slightly to the left, cutting into his shoulder before I stopped completely.
I breathed deeply, in and out, huffing.
And then I watched as his face transformed back, and Draco grabbed hold of my sword. “See?” he said. “You can’t even hurt me. There’s no reason to think my granddaughter will be able to defeat me, even if you do tell her about my real identity.”
“You’ll pay for this,” I said.
“Not as much as you will.” He sneered at me, tossing my sword to the side. “I’d hate to see us on such poor terms, young Hamilton.”
“It never bothered you before,” I said, before it registered.
Hamilton? Why is he calling me by my …
That’s when it hit me—just how dangerous he was. Draco could not only hurt me and Raiya, but he could expose us. He could go after our families and friends.
He already damaged my favorite coffee shop, didn’t he? And that doubled as Raiya’s home.
“You’re a monster,” I hissed. Resolve hardened inside of me again. We have to stop him. No matter what!
“Then you should know,” he said, “just how imperative it is you destroy me.”
“I’ll agree with you there.”
“You can do it right in here,” he said, “if you’re okay with throwing your relationship with Raiya away.”
“I already told you, I can explain things to her,” I reminded him, drawing my sword back again. “She would trust me.”
“But for how long?” he asked. “How long until she suspects you just wanted to finish your duty up, so you took the easy way out, sacrificing her grandfather along the way?”
That nagging voice at the back of my head, disguising itself as reason, said he was likely right. I should include her in the decision.
The other part of my brain—the part I liked better—said that Raiya had made her own plans on her own before, and I was perfectly justified in following her precedent.
While the silent debate was going on inside my mind, I saw him suddenly speed toward me, his hand transformed into a dragon’s claw, with the sharp edges of his nails full of darkness and power.
Still undecided, I raised my sword to defend myself. Please, please. I need help.
He rushed at me, and I felt nothing as he passed through me.
“Huh?” I blinked few ti
mes, only to see my body disappearing. I was going out of Draco’s heart. I was returning to reality again.
*☼*
I heard myself groan as I found myself slammed back into my physical body.
The real world was much brighter, even though it was close to evening, and its beauty, hidden away or discarded from the heart of the dragon before me, flooded through me upon my return.
“Are you alright?” Raiya’s voice was muffled a bit as I looked up at her.
On the ground, Grandpa Odd/Draco was still captured, held in place by four of her arrows.
“I’m fine,” I tried to say, but I think my mouth didn’t quite get the message. I heard my words running together a bit, so it sounded more like a restless warthog than a response.
I snapped back to myself as Grandpa Odd moaned, sounding so sad and alone and fearful, I wanted to chuck the sword away and wrap my hands around his bare throat myself.
“What happened?” Raiya asked, before I gave into my temptations.
I didn’t want to tell her. I knew I had to tell her. But I didn’t want to think about telling her. So I just told her.
“He lied,” I whispered. I cleared my throat. “He lied to you.”
“Lied to me?” Raiya frowned. “Lied to me about what?”
“Everything.” Then I shook my head. “No, not everything. Just most of it.”
“Most of what?”
I stood up and straightened. “He’s not your real grandfather,” I said. “He’s always been Draco.”
Disbelief came swiftly to her face. “No, that’s not right,” Raiya said, shaking her head. “He’s an ambassador from the Celestial Kingdom—”
“Probably just like Elysian, then,” I said, nodding toward the inner city. “A forced exile.”
“But—”
“He told me. He bragged about it. He told me that you wouldn’t believe me.”
She faltered. “This isn’t about you and—”
“I saw his heart. There’s no Grandpa Odd in there!” I said. “There’s just a sick and twisted fallen dragon, trying to sink his claws into your heart so you can’t destroy him, like you’re supposed to!”
Raiya’s face went ash white at my words, and I instantly regretted my tone.
Grandpa Odd—Draco—wheezed down on the ground below. “Raiya?”
“What is it?” she asked.
“Will you help me?”
“How can I?” she asked, ignoring the hateful glare I was giving her.
“You must kill me,” he said, and I nearly fell over in angry shock.
“What?” Raiya glanced back at me. Just as I had been while inside his heart, he was tearing into her two.
“You must kill me. It’s the only way.”
Raiya hesitated. “Are you sure?” She pulled out her bow, an arrow of light conjuring up in her other hand.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, you must kill me.”
“Raiya—” I stepped forward, but she shook her head at me, and I said nothing.
She took careful aim, but as she drew back the drawstring, I could see the tears up in her eyes. “I … I don’t know … ”
She doesn’t know if she can do this.
What was his game in all this? I wondered. Why make Raiya do this? If she did kill him, he would be finished. Was it to prove something to me? Was it a distraction?
Maybe it was to prove something to himself. Or to her.
Before Raiya could do anything, a tear dropped onto her cheek, and she shuddered.
At the slightest movement of her hesitation, Grandpa Odd’s face disappeared, and I would argue the rest of him did, too, as he broke through her arrows and her power.
Raiya fell backwards, while I jumped to the side.
Draco rose to his feet, easily brushing the scattered bits of her broken arrows away into the wind. “It seems all my teaching was for naught,” he said.
“Grandpa?” Raiya’s voice was weak.
He laughed as he launched out an attack; his fist caught her right in the torso as he sped past her. Draco’s eyes gleamed red again as he looked over us.
I turned back to see he was watching Adam, as he squirmed in Mary’s arms. I knew immediately we were in trouble—all of us.
“Mary!” I screamed. “Run!”
Mary sprinted off down the street instantly, and I felt a second of relief.
A second of relief before moments of pain, as Draco’s power slashed through me. I responded by lashing out at him, gathering my energy into my fists and launching out a stream of attacks against him.
Raiya seemed slow to react, as though his blow to her had not only knocked the wind out of her, but knocked the sense out of her, too.
“Come on,” I called to her. “We need to stop him.”
She nodded, and I felt worse for pushing her; I was supposed to be the one protecting her, after all.
Behind me, I heard Adam scream.
“Adam!” I called back as Draco was making his approach.
Before I could say anything else, Draco managed to grab Adam out of Mary’s hands and shove her to the ground.
He picked Adam up and squashed him against the wall of a nearby building. “I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you,” I heard him say. “As a child with the power of Star blood in his veins, you can give me the energy I have longed for.”
His dragon claws reappeared, and he pulled back, no doubt ready to slash the heart and soul out of my brother.
“No!” Raiya’s arrows sped alongside me as we both attacked.
But it wasn’t enough. We were too slow and too far away to do anything but scream.
A moment later, I heard Adam start to cry. I almost didn’t look up, and sometimes I still wish I hadn’t.
Mary had managed to step between Adam and Draco; she absorbed his blow, his claw disappearing into her body.
“Mary,” I gasped. My steps, faltered by the thought of Adam in pain, spurred on forward.
Adam dropped out of Draco’s claws and ran toward me. Raiya’s arrows landed all around Draco, but he was unable to move as Mary held onto him.
I caught Adam as he passed by and quickly tucked him up on my back where I could count on some extra protection from my wings.
While he settled in, my eyes met Mary’s imitation violet eyes.
I watched as there were no tears, only tenderness. The violet faded to brown, and the golden color of her hair darkened, and I was allowed to glance at her face—her true face—for the first, and last, time.
“Time to go home,” she whispered. I was too far away for her voice to carry over, but I had a feeling she was speaking right into my being, the way a mother’s love called to the heart.
And then, she was spirited away.
As the last of her light dissolved, Draco turned and headed away down the block.
☼20☼
Battle for Justice
Adam curled his arms around my neck before I remembered to move.
I’d never seen any of our side die fighting. It was beyond horrifying.
Raiya came up to me. “She’s been called back home,” she said.
“What does that mean?” I snapped. “Aren’t those just nice words for death? For murder?”
“To a human,” she said with a sigh. “Mary was a Reborn.”
I shook my head, trying to rid myself of all the emotional turmoil that had just thrown itself at me. It didn’t work. “What do we do now?” I asked.
“We need to go after Draco,” she said quietly.
“Are you going to be able to fight at all?” I asked. “You didn’t seem like yourself just now.”
“I … I’m sorry for that,” Raiya said. Her tone hardened. “If Grandpa is really gone, for sure—”
“He told me!” I shouted. “He told me.”
“Exactly,” she said. “He doesn’t have to tell you the truth.”
“But that’s exactly what he would have wanted you to think,” I argued back. “He told me the truth,
to prove to me that you wouldn’t believe me.”
“Then wouldn’t it make more sense for him to lie to you, so you would be wrong, and then undermine my trust in you even further?”
“It wouldn’t matter,” I said, “if you already didn’t trust me.”
She sighed. “I’m getting confused by this conversation’s turn.”
“Me, too,” I admitted. “Look, he said he was Ogden Skarmastad, and he admitted to lying to you about the River of Life!”
She stilled as I rambled on.
“The Skarmastad Foundation is the one who’s been making Mikey’s medicine and they’re the ones who hired SWORD—what? What is it?”
Her hands came up to hide her face, while distress, anger, and bitterness overflowed from her.
“I didn’t want to believe it,” she said. “But I have no choice now.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“Remember that day before Thanksgiving break we went to go see Mikey in the hospital?” Raiya asked. “That day I left you to go check on something?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly. “What about it?”
“I stole Mikey’s records,” she admitted. “I wanted to see what they were doing. I know that my blood has been used in some different treatments before, so I wanted to see if they could give him something—”
A new level of awareness hit me. “Mark knows, doesn’t he?” I asked. “My dad knows who you are.”
“Yes,” Raiya admitted. When she saw my anger, she doubled down on her arguments. “Of course he knows! He wouldn’t have let me give Adam a blood transfusion otherwise.”
This is just a terrible day for finding out terrible things, I silently decided. “So he knows who I am?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But he knows enough about me to know you’re in danger if you hang around me.”
“After saving my brother”—I jerked my thumb at the four-year-old on my back—“you’re hardly dangerous.” I shook my head. “You know what? We need to catch up to Draco. Tell me about the connection between Grandpa Odd and the Skarmastad Foundation on the way.”
We took off, flying throughout the city, checking through the different streets.
“When I saw Mikey was getting the medicine containing Star blood, authorized by the Skarmastad Foundation, I knew something was wrong,” Raiya said, calling out to me from across our windy flight paths. “I know Grandpa had the connection to the founder. I just never imagined he was the founder.”