I sent a frantic message to Nick and Liam and Garrett, copying them all, explaining that the ShadowEaters really were raging through the world. I managed to send one to Meagan before my messenger started to chime with such urgency that I had to turn it off or else it would be confiscated. I’d have to tell Derek myself.
Where had Kohana gone?
Where was Jessica?
I refused to give any more weight to the idea that she might be working with the apprentice Mages. That was probably what they wanted me to think, as it would divide us when we needed to pull together.
If only there was a way I could track her down. The Wyvern was supposed to be able to dispatch dreams. I hadn’t had much luck with that, but it couldn’t hurt to try again. I closed my eyes and thought about my fear for Jessica, focused it, then tried to send her an urgent alert, independent of modern technology.
I had no idea whether it would work.
When I opened my eyes, Muriel was still on the phone.
That was when I remembered the book that Derek had given me. I tugged it out of my backpack and opened it to the bookmark he’d inserted.
It couldn’t be all bad to be found reading Herodotus.
Herodotus, it turned out, was a traveler who wrote up his adventures and experiences for other travelers or for the entertainment of those who stayed home. Fodor’s for the B.C. era. For a guy who’s been dead for a couple of millennia, he reads pretty well. This was the passage Derek had marked—4:105, in case you don’t believe me:
The Neuroi practise the Scythian customs: and one generation before the expedition of Dareios it so befell them that they were forced to quit their land altogether by reason of serpents: for their land produced serpents in vast numbers, and they fell upon them in still larger numbers from the desert country above their borders; until at last being hard pressed they left their own land and settled among the Budinoi. These men it would seem are wizards; for it is said of them by the Scythians and by the Hellenes who are settled in the Scythian land that once in every year each of the Neuroi becomes a wolf for a few days and then returns again to his original form. For my part I do not believe them when they say this, but they say it nevertheless, and swear it moreover.
Wolf shifters driven from their land by serpents.
You know I had a pretty good idea who those serpents might have been—and glimpsed another reason why some of the wolves were not so hot about making alliances with dragon shifters. Kohana’s Thunderbirds had made a treaty with some reptiles they called Unktehila. It was an agreement that dragons would surrender North America to the Thunderbirds. That’s why he’d called me an oathbreaker when we’d first met.
Had my ancestors really needed to piss everybody off?
Or did that just come with the territory of being a dragon shifter?
I wasn’t doing a very good job of ensuring peace, love, and understanding myself. Maybe we’re meant to be solitary and grumpy. But with apprentice Mages hunting shifters and ShadowEaters set free, we needed to keep this alliance with the cats and the wolves and the Thunderbirds to ensure the survival of all of us.
Regardless of our innate tendencies. I made a mental note to ask Derek if the wolves really did call themselves Neuroi, and closed the book as Muriel came out of her office.
She looked at the book.
She smiled.
I smiled.
But when she gestured me into the hot seat in her office, Muriel’s smile disappeared.
IT SEEMED THAT I WAS officially troubled, and my disappearance that morning was proof that I was unreliable in terms of attending classes. This was perceived to be a result of my parents’ marital difficulties, a continuation of my bad attendance in the fall, and a natural if unfortunate emotional progression for a sixteen-year-old whose domestic life had become unmoored.
She did actually use the word unmoored.
Muriel didn’t know the half of it.
Of course, I couldn’t say anything in my own defense, even when it came to cutting class. I had to leave school this morning in an attempt to stop the apprentice Mages from invoking the ShadowEaters, which is part of their plan to eliminate all remaining shape shifters from the world. Sadly, I failed so it’s on to plan B.
Uh-huh.
Even better: I was late getting back because the apprentice Mages trapped me, deceiving me with a glamour, then binding me with spells so they could cut away my shadow. Fortunately, a Thunderbird shifter saved me and we both flew out of danger to the park just around the corner. Phew.
Or best of all: The wildcards have been drawn to this school to make an alliance to ensure the survival of our respective kinds. Derek Black is a wolf shifter and Jessica d’Angelo is a jaguar shifter and I’m a dragon shifter. Suzanne really did see a dragon in the girl’s bathroom last fall, and it was me.
Maybe not.
Trust me. It’s much better to just hang your head and let them think you cut class to buy cigarettes.
Given the current absence of my parents and Muriel’s unwillingness to compromise their last chance to rebuild their marriage (no, I have no idea where she got that interpretation of their vacation plan—ha) and her reluctance to draw Mrs. Jameson into this “disappointing situation,” Muriel had a plan under which I’d check in with her before and after each class. My observation that this could, in fact, make me late for class made no difference. We were partners, Muriel and I, from this point forward, driven to ensure my attendance, which would henceforth be perfect.
The timing on this strategy completely bit.
I might as well be a poodle on a jeweled leash.
It’s not my look. Just so you know.
Chapter 4
So, I was in a pretty crap mood when I got to English class late, one that was not improved by Derek glowering at me from the back of the room when I entered. I could feel his gaze boring into the back of my skull throughout the whole class, and he was ticked enough to not know the answer when he was called on.
I think that had to be a first. I hoped he’d be mad enough to ignore me afterward, but no luck; he followed me out of class and back to my Muriel check.
I was really not interested in getting chewed out, but Derek’s heightened sense of smell apparently wasn’t sharp enough to pick up on that.
Or else he didn’t care.
“So, what was that all about?” he demanded in his growly undertone. “Where did you go? And why were you in Trevor’s car?”
“You saw that?”
“I had a feeling. I turned back to find you.” He glared at me. “I saw you leave, but I couldn’t catch up with you.” His tone turned fierce. “You never should have gone anywhere with him. You know he’s dangerous.”
“He told me that Adrian had been eating shifter shadows. I went with him to try to stop Adrian.” It seemed like a good idea not to mention—yet—that I’d completely, totally, and utterly failed in that goal. I marched down the hallway and he walked beside me.
“Alone? Dumb, Zoë. Dumb.”
That stung, because it had been dumb. It would have been nice for him to have had some confidence in me, though. “I told Meagan.”
“Well, you didn’t tell me.”
I strode onward. I hadn’t exactly had time to update everyone on the planet on my situation.
“We’re a team,” he said with force. “We have an alliance, in case you’ve forgotten. We’re supposed to work together but you acted alone.” I guess the fact that I didn’t immediately defend myself made him even more angry, because he took a deep breath and a step back. “If you got yourself in danger, you deserved it.”
Deserved it? I was with him until those last two words.
“Excuse me?” I halted in the hallway and spun to face him. I didn’t care who saw me and I didn’t care what my eyes did. I was feeling the need to breathe some fire.
“I deserved to be spellbound?” I demanded in an undertone. “I deserved to be cornered and nearly sacrificed to the ShadowEaters? Is that really
what you think? Just because I didn’t tell you what I was doing, I should die?”
Derek, to his credit, looked shocked. His eyes widened as he surveyed me. It was a bit late, to my thinking, to worry about the details.
“No,” he whispered.
“Yes,” I hissed with force. “The ShadowEaters are free. I tried to stop Trevor and Adrian, but I failed. Not only that, but they’re hungry and they’ve already killed someone by eating his shadow.”
Derek paled.
“Plus Adrian has become one.”
Derek took a step back.
“Zoë!” Muriel called from the end of the hall. “You don’t have time to socialize.”
“No way,” he muttered, but I could see his doubt.
“Yes! I would have been lunch if Kohana hadn’t helped me.”
His eyes flashed. “I would have helped you. You should have told me where you were going. I found you by scent, even though you disappeared. I would have followed you anywhere.…”
“Obviously I made a mistake,” I said, interrupting him. “But since I’m the one who was nearly sacrificed as a result, I’m not feeling like I owe you an apology.”
Oh, he didn’t like that. I saw the flash of anger in his eyes and the way his gaze dropped to my lips. That was when I knew that it was the kiss that really bothered him, not my leaving alone with Trevor or even endangering myself.
That made me see red. Because Kohana had kissed me. It hadn’t been my choice, I hadn’t invited it, and I sure hadn’t drawn it out.
“You don’t own me,” I whispered, and Derek’s features set.
“Coming, Muriel!” I shouted with false cheer, and marched toward the guidance office. She smiled at me, all sweet concern, but I nearly snarled at her. There must have been a little bit of dragon in my expression, because her smile disappeared in record time. She swallowed and marked the time on her sheet so I could sign it, then ushered me off to math class.
Standing in the hallway to make sure I went right there.
I was feeling, if you must know, a little bit pissed.
I BANGED OPEN MY LOCKER at lunch and flung my books into the bottom.
“Bad morning?” Nick asked from right beside me, and I could have jumped for joy.
Then I practically fell on him, giving him a hug so tight that I nearly squished the stuffing out of him.
If dragons had stuffing. They don’t, in case you aren’t sure. All the usual blood and bones and guts inside. No sage-and-onion stuffing. Not even chestnut.
He hugged me back just as hard. “Okay, Z?” he asked, pulling back to look at me. He’d taken to calling me Z since my birthday. I’m not sure why, but I kind of liked it. The nickname had a buddy feel to it, which perfectly suited our friendship now that I’d abandoned my lifetime crush on him.
“Bad morning.” I tried to compose myself, with—it must be said—mixed success. “What are you doing here?”
Nick smiled sheepishly. “You called.”
I propped my hands on my hips to survey him. “I called you only an hour ago. Even you couldn’t get here from Minneapolis that fast.”
“So maybe I was here already.”
What?
Nick flicked a glance up and down the hall. “I wanted to talk to you.”
He had my undivided attention with that. “About?”
Nick’s neck reddened but he didn’t avert his gaze. “Isabelle.” He said her name in a long whisper. Then he shoved his hand through his hair, leaving it all standing up, and looked unsettled.
Isabelle.
Well, the plot had thickened.
Just to fill you in on the gaps, Isabelle and I are convinced that she’s the reincarnation of the previous Wyvern, Sophie. Sophie died with her Pyr lover, Nikolas, and once she died, I was conceived. Only one Wyvern at a time. The story is that they chose to sacrifice themselves because they couldn’t be together, anyway—their love was forbidden stuff. Nick’s dad was convinced that Nick was Nikolas reincarnated, and I thought it was incredibly cool that he’d been so determined to find his Sophie again that he’d started a new life just months after his last one had ended. Isabelle says she’s been dreaming about Nick all her life, and that her dreams always come true.
Destined love? Sounds like it, in all its romantic glory—hopefully with a better ending this time around.
The trick is that Nick has been a little uncertain about all of this. Maybe more than a little. I know he likes Isabelle, I know he’s not daunted by the fact that she’s older than us, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous and kind and pretty much everything anyone would ever want in a girlfriend.
He just didn’t want to promise what he couldn’t deliver.
I respect that, even if it isn’t the happy ending I—or Isabelle—might hope for.
“What about Isabelle?” I asked, pretending that I hadn’t guessed.
“Well, you’re a girl.”
I had to tease him. He looked so earnest. “True.”
He grinned and gave me a nudge. “Seriously.” He pulled a jewelry box from his pocket. “Do you think this is a sucky birthday gift?”
“Her birthday’s not for another couple of weeks,” I said, taking the box. I didn’t need to say that. Nick is one person who always remembers other people’s birthdays. He’s like a birthday calendar. He knows them all and makes sure he remembers everyone on their day.
It’s quite sweet, and it’s not just because he loves a party or loves to be remembered on his own birthday.
“Two weeks from Saturday.” Nick grimaced. “I want to make sure I picked out something good while there’s still time to fix it if I didn’t.”
He was worried about it. I opened the box and caught my breath. Inside was a pendant, set in silver, with two stones in the center. One was yellow and faceted, while the other was opalescent and rounded. They weren’t huge stones, but they were pretty together. The yellow one had a silver setting that made it look like it was the orb of the sun, while the opalescent one was set into a silver crescent of a moon.
“The sun and the moon,” I said.
Nick and Isabelle, I thought. In his dragon form Nick has glorious golden scales and glowing amber eyes. Seeing him as a dragon is like looking into the radiance of the sun. Isabelle, meanwhile, is ethereal and a bit dreamy. When I’d dreamed of the past Wyvern, Sophie, her dragon scales had been so pale that they could have been made of moonbeams. I touched the pendant with a fingertip.
“Well?” Nick was practically bouncing in his anxiety. He swallowed visibly, obviously concerned that I wasn’t saying more. “Do you think she’ll like it?”
“I know she’ll love it.” I met his gaze. “It must have cost you.”
He shoved a hand through his hair again and grinned, as nervous as I’d ever seen him. This was saying something. Nick does confidence like he invented it. “Yeah. I had the jeweler make it special. I wanted it to be right.”
I looked down at the pendant, awed and wary, too.
I had to say it. “It’s not a trinket, though, Nick. You shouldn’t give it to her unless you’re going to see her more than you do now.” He looked worried when I said that. “Isabelle—well, anybody—would think this was a pretty serious gift. A declaration, maybe.”
“Yeah, I know.” He shuffled his feet again. “I guess that’s what I really wanted to see you about. You know that night after the big fight with the Mages, before your birthday?”
“Yeah.”
“I went back to her room at the dorm and we sat and talked.…”
“Uh-huh.”
He grinned. “Really. We talked all night. It was awesome.” He shoved his hands into his pockets and heaved a sigh. “It was easy, but electric, too.” He grimaced, but I knew exactly what he meant. “I don’t know, Z. I don’t know what to do. Can you see some future for me?”
That was not an easy question to answer.
The hall had emptied out and Nick’s stomach growled right on cue. “You hungry
?” I asked. “Let’s get something to eat while we talk about it.”
“Good idea,” he said, and slung an arm around my shoulders. We headed to the cafeteria, grabbed some pizza, and sat in the corner together, talking—which gave all sorts of people all sorts of things to speculate about.
Nick is the kind of guy people notice.
No: girls notice him.
I felt every female eye in the place on us, even after we sat down. In fact, I felt more than one gaze boring into my back. I bit into my pizza—they actually had my favorite combo today, feta and green pepper, a sign from heaven that I was intended to eat lunch in the cafeteria on this day—and glanced over my shoulder.
Suzanne and her cronies were obviously talking about Nick. I knew this because Fiona and Yvonne were looking our way, Trish was snickering, and Anna was whispering something to Suzanne that made the Queen Bee smile. I also could hear what Anna said, courtesy of my sharp Pyr hearing.
Her comment made Nick and me smile, too. We exchanged a glance at the conviction that he must be my cousin to be seen eating with me.
“Right,” Nick said with a teasing grin. “I should kiss you just to mess them up.”
“Who cares what they think?” I said, dismissing them. “Anyway, a few months ago you were sure it wouldn’t be fair to spend more time with Isabelle, in case you have a firestorm with someone else.”
“In case destiny isn’t on our side,” Nick agreed, making a slice of pizza disappear in record time. He met my gaze. “But what if it is?”
“Something changed your mind,” I insisted. “Was it really a night of talking?”
“I can’t stop thinking about her.” Nick flung out his hand. “It pisses me off a bit. I’ve never had this happen before.”
“Could it be love?” I teased, and he flashed his usual confident grin.