I left them, leapt into the air, and took off. While Draco had his focus on Elysian, I decided to go for his other half.
“Time to get under your skin, Draco,” I said, amused by the word play. (Maybe there was a chance I would get that perfect 800 on my English SAT after all.)
The ghostlike dragon seemed miffed at my appearance. All in all, I decided the feeling was mutual.
My sword made contact and scratched against the hardened, scaly surface. I was a bit surprised at the resistance I faced. I had been expecting the skin to just fall apart at my blade; it seemed like a ghost, maybe, but it had more of a shield than I expected.
I looped around in the sky, deciding it was best to keep up the attacks. I managed to steal a quick look at Elysian and Draco, and saw they were locked in a similar battle.
As I watched, I saw a bright arrow launch out from where Raiya was situated. I was amazed to see the arrow hit its mark perfectly, burning into his chest.
He hollered in pain, and I took the chance to throw all of my power behind my sword.
“Starry Knight!” I called.
Even from where I was, I could see her turn her attention never faltered, as she knew what I was calling for.
Another arrow launched, this time at the heart of the dragon skin. I held my breath as it flew past me—once it did, I launched myself forward, aiming for the underbelly of the dragon before me.
The arrow struck the dragon, weakening the power of its scaly protection.
I plunged my sword into it, grimacing as I had to convince myself this was some larger-than-life video game to get through it all. When I removed my sword from the giant beast a moment later, I saw the blood scorch the blade with a pattern of scales mirroring the ones I just cut.
Please, no dreams about this!
But it was almost over, right?
“No!” Draco’s cry of denial was scraggly, scratchy.
I turned to face him. It was his turn, I thought. It was his turn to be sealed away.
Elysian reared, his smug expression clear over the clouds of smoke and dirt. “It’s over, Draco.”
Draco scowled, and for the briefest second, victory seemed not only likely, but close.
I could see Raiya and me together, with no interdimensional war to worry over; we were happy and free, as we graduated high school and headed off to college—as we grew up and older, our love growing and remaining along with us throughout all of this life.
And then Draco’s power slammed into the ground in front of Elysian, sending dark lightning and debris into his eyes.
The dragon skin beside me glowed, and the line down his belly lit up with light as it healed itself.
Momentarily blinded, I found myself falling to the ground as it shook. When my vision cleared, I saw Draco as he reached out and allowed his skin to consume him.
A sonic ripple splashed through the city the moment when their powers combined. The ghostly dragon skin with the rainbow eyes, seemingly flimsy and opaque, burned into a black dragon.
As I watched, black wings, long and sharp, sprouted out of his back, and his tail lengthened, including a pinnacle of sharp horns at its end. His claws extended, shredding up the nearby sideways and grassy areas.
Draco roared, and I could see the heat waves pouring out of his mouth, as his final transformation was complete.
His eyes devoured the rainbow, draining it of its power and leaving it a gateway to an abyss of emptiness. And then, he opened them to face Raiya and Adam.
“No,” I said, grabbing my sword and heading over as fast as my feet could carry me. I stopped as his tail came swatting at me.
“Not so fast,” he growled, his voice deeper and more menacing.
He turned back to Raiya, now inches from her face.
I was terrified for her, but she looked as calm and cool as ever.
One day I am really going to have to tell her how irritating that is.
“I’ve waited centuries to prove I could kill you,” Draco told her, making my blood boil more than it had when Orpheus had admitted his love for her.
“If that is the truth, why wait so long?” Raiya asked softly.
I held my breath. What was she doing? Was she trying to push him into attacking her?
I wasn’t sure if we were going to survive.
But then I saw it.
Despite the dragon’s face, I saw Grandpa Odd’s expression as it popped up for a half of a second. I gasped.
His head turned, and I ducked as he attacked me even more venomously than before.
I saw it and I knew he knew that I saw it, because he attacked me again, trying to swat me away with his tail again. He missed me, but sent me back far enough he was able to focus on Raiya again. As he looked at her, there was no doubt in my mind as to what was going on in Draco’s mind.
He loved her. He loved Raiya. Not as a bride, but as his baby granddaughter. He couldn’t help it. And he hated her for it, and he hated himself for it.
“I have my own mission here,” he insisted bluntly. “Alküzor is waiting for me.”
Before he could stop her, Raiya reached out, holding her hand up to his nostrils. She lightly laid her down on his nose, and he baulked.
He inhaled deeply, and then choked; I frowned and tried to move forward again. What was he doing? I wondered.
Before I could approach them, Draco took off, sending a shiver down the surrounding streets. Rather than staying to fight, he fled, laughing all the way, until he disappeared down into the shadows of the darkened horizon.
Elysian came up beside me. “I can follow him,” he offered.
“Go ahead,” I said. “But he’s too dangerous.”
Elysian sniggered, catching my attention. “What?” he asked. “He’s not as dangerous as I feared. He’s not yet back to his full power. Probably because we did manage to catch almost all of the Sinisters. The collected Soulfire was nearly depleted when that thing swallowed up Asteropy.”
“Can he fix that?” I asked. “It’s not like a curse or something, like Alora and Aleia placed on the Sinisters?”
“Unfortunately,” Elysian said, “he’ll be able to get more power. But we have a little time.” He nodded toward Raiya, watching her as she stared after Draco’s form, her eyes glazed over. “Which you might need in order to take care of her, by the looks of it.”
“I’ll take care of her,” I said and hurried forward. I arrived by Raiya’s side just as she stumbled and fell, leaving too much of her blood stained on the sidewalk.
“Raiya!” I called, gathering her close.
“Bring Adam to me,” she said, her words slightly slurred.
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” I said.
As if he knew she’d wanted to see him, Adam came up behind us. Raiya sat up and took my brother in her arms.
“Angel,” he said, curling his arms around her neck.
She snuggled Adam in her arms and started shaking. “You were very brave,” she told him. “Just as before.” And then I could feel the tremor inside of her as she pushed out a small amount of her power. “That will make that boo-boo feel better,” she said, and then she collapsed again.
“Raiya,” I called again, cupping her cheek as I checked her pulse. “Raiya, stay with us.”
“I’m here,” she replied.
“I’m taking you to the hospital. Can you transform into your regular self?”
She mumbled something under her breath, and I repeated the question.
Only then did she press the Emblem of the Prince, the mark on her wrist, and transformed back into the regular girl I knew from class and coffee runs. If I wasn’t so scared to see her frailty, I might’ve stopped to recall she wasn’t the only one who should transform out of superhero mode.
I don’t even remember the trip to the hospital.
What I do remember is bursting through the door to my dad’s office, still in my Wingdinger form, as Adam rode on Elysian’s back at my side, only to see Mark in mid-conversati
on with a group of interns.
The look of shock on his face was telling, as was the quick assessment as he looked down at the girl in my arms.
“You have to help,” I said to Mark.
The interns started whispering, and it was enough to knock Mark’s focus off my interruption.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “I would respectfully ask you to take over my floor. It seems we have a special emergency.”
The interns looked at us as they filed out, some of them trying to nonchalantly take pictures with their cell phones.
“Remember HIPPA!” I shouted as they left.
Mark smiled. “I was just about to remind them of that,” he said. “Thank you.”
He gestured toward the door. “Come,” he said. “Let’s get her set up in a private room.”
“Daddy!” Adam cried happily.
“Hi, Adam,” he said, lifting Adam off Elysian’s back. “Have you and your brother been having a good time together today?”
I stumbled. “You know it’s me?” I asked.
Mark sighed. “Of course I know it’s you, Hamilton. Do you really think I don’t know my own son when I see him?”
I gaped at him as he headed down the hall, calling out to nurses, asking for supplies, and checking on other patients.
Or, for all I really did know, signaling to get the police on the line. Belatedly, I did recall that Mayor Mills, before he went mental, had issued a warrant for my arrest. Not that the assistant mayor was likely upholding it.
We entered a room and Mark closed the door.
“Lay her down on the bed,” he said, pulling down some chords and hookups and other medical objects I didn’t know about or recognize. “Tell me what happened.”
I gulped, trying to swallow my nerves. “She, uh, got cut.”
“By what?” Mark glanced over at Elysian. “A dragon?”
“Sort of.”
Mark sighed. “If you were practicing,” he said to Elysian, “you might want to keep in mind that even Stars aren’t able to defend themselves entirely from a dragon’s power.”
“You know about that, too?!” I asked.
“Of course.” Mark grabbed a pack of gauze. “Here, press this into her wound right here,” he said.
“How do you know about the fallen Stars?” I asked. “How do you know I was one?”
“Dante Salyards and I were best friends in high school,” he said, his expression grim and hard, nothing like the father I knew. “And there aren’t always a lot of leading cardiologists that can be counted on in a crutch. And that’s all I’m going to say in the matter.”
“Do you know about Starry Knight, too?” I asked.
“Yes,” he admitted. “But I’ve known about her for much longer than you.”
“Did you find out when Cheryl told you I was dating her?”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Ham,” he said, suddenly harsh. “You’re not an adult yet, as much as you might like to think so. There are some things that you keep quiet about, no matter how much you might want to tell someone, and there are good reasons to do just that. Reasons you don’t need to know about, nor should you want to.”
There was an ominous tone to that entire speech. I decided Dante was going to be answering some of my questions, the next time I saw him.
“Does Dante know about me and Raiya?” I asked.
“No,” Mark said, before he added, “and that’s why we’re not going to talk about it anymore, okay?”
“Okay.”
He exhaled. “We’re going to need a good story for this, that reminds me.”
“Story?”
“I’ll work on it,” Mark said. “You just worry about that bandage for now.”
“Right.”
“When you’re finished here,” he said, “you’re going to do exactly as I tell you, and then, tomorrow, you’re going to go to school and act like this never happened. Do you understand me?”
“What are—”
“I said, do you understand me, Hamilton?”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes.”
“Good.”
“Can you save her?” I asked.
“She’ll need a few days of rest,” Mark said, “but she should be able to pull through. She lost quite a bit of blood, by the looks of it.”
“Draco attacked her, trying to steal her soul.”
“Draco?” Mark frowned, turning to Elysian. “Not this one?”
“Hardly,” Elysian snorted.
“I didn’t realize there were more dragons down here,” Mark said. “That’s disconcerting.”
“More business for you, I imagine,” Elysian replied.
“I’d actually prefer to have less business,” Mark assured him as he took the bandage from under my fingers and began to rub solution into Raiya’s wounds.
“You and me both,” I said, stepping back to make room for him as he worked.
For the first time in a long time, that I could remember, anyway, I actually wished my dad would say something to me. I wanted him to tell me more about how he knew about the fallen Stars and the dragons and SWORD. Especially SWORD.
And the Skarmastad Foundation, too, I recalled. I wondered if Mark was in on the medicine that Mikey was taking. Was it possible he was an active member? Or was he just a cog in their machine, pushing meds as part of some world take-over ploy?
What was the connection between SWORD and the Skarmastad Foundation, anyway? If you were going to control the world, what was the point in hiring the people who wanted to control all the power in the world?
Clearly, this was a matter of deep intellect. And more government paper-trailing.
I nearly groaned at the thought, but Mark stopped me before I could manage.
“Okay,” he said. “She’s all ready to go.”
“She’s not awake,” I said.
“She needs rest, Hamilton.” He frowned at me. “I’m going to keep her here for three days.”
“No meds,” I said.
“You’re not her next of kin,” Mark said. “I’ll need you to go and inform her grandfather—”
“Can’t.” I shook my head. “He’s … he’s not available.”
“Oh, well then her aunt will do. Or her cousin.” He glanced at her chart. “It would be good of you to inform them. Though it looks like I won’t need a signature from any of them.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Mark looked at me quizzically. “Don’t you know when her birthday is?” he asked. “I mean, you’ve been sneaking around with her for a few months now, haven’t you?”
“We’re dating,” I snapped. “And we work together, obviously, on supernatural concerns for the city. What does it matter?”
“Her birthday is tomorrow,” he said. He pulled out one of her forms. “See? January 23rd. She’s technically an adult, as of tomorrow.”
“Oh.”
I stared at the numbers, and I swear, it was almost like I couldn’t read them. And then I laughed. “No wonder she didn’t tell me,” I said. “She and Gwen have the same birthday.”
Mark gave me a strange look. I couldn’t blame him. It’d been a long day. And it had been an even longer day for me than for Mark. After all, I’d been swept away by time stops, attacked by Orpheus, and off on a dragon hunt all in one waking period.
Weariness finally hit me.
“You’re tired,” Mark said.
“I know,” I replied. “Can I stay with her?”
“Absolutely not.” He folded his arms. “You’re going to go and tell her family after you leave here. And before you leave here, you’re going to tie me and Adam up with these extra bandages.”
“Huh?” I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
“You’ll see.” Mark moved over to the corner of the room, pulling Adam along with him. “Just listen carefully, and do everything exactly how I tell you.”
☼22☼
Together
Turns out, Mark needed me to make it look
like I was kidnapping Adam and holding him hostage in order to get him to give me medicine. Raiya played a minor, unnamed role as a patient, someone I used to lure the famous, loveable, gifted Dr. Dinger into my awaiting trap, no doubt.
Or at least, that’s what Mark told the police and the reporters who came to investigate the events at the hospital after I tied him up and then left with Elysian.
While I wasn’t happy about the news coverage, I did sort of understand it. Mark was friends with Dante, which made him a contract—reluctant or not, I didn’t know—of SWORD. And if Dante didn’t know about me, Mark was on my side, trying to keep him from finding out.
So I was going to have some pretty bad press in the meantime.
That was the bad news. The good news was that I could go and visit her after school the next day.
The more bad news was that I actually had to go to school.
And sit there, once more, with my back to Raiya’s empty chair in Mrs. Smithe’s class, wondering if she would ever come back, and desperately missing her while Martha prattled on about … okay, about some important stuff, but not recent important stuff.
The more, more bad news was that, due to the building damage, and a loss in the family, Rachel’s was closed to the public for a few weeks.
The more stupid news was that my friends—naïve, ignorant, and simple as they were—contributed the coffee shop’s closing to my bad mood. I snapped at them a few times, as if to prove them wrong, only ending up proving them right. Mostly. They were still wrong.
“Hamilton,” Mrs. Smithe called from the front of the room. “Are you coming?”
“Huh?” My head snapped up with a start. “What?”
“Class is over. Come on up here.”
Anger, frustration, and bitterness washed over me. I wasn’t sure why, exactly. I mean, Draco was free, Raiya was in the hospital, none of this would’ve happened if Adonaias had just stepped in …
There. That was it—the real reason I was angry.
“What’s wrong?” Mrs. Smithe asked.
There. That was it—my breaking point.
“What do you mean, ‘What’s wrong?’” I spit back. “Don’t you mean ‘What’s right?’ Turns out, nothing is.”