Sometimes words just get in the way.
‘So, you’re the dragon who defended me,’ she said as we walked through the snow to her house. ‘Twice.’
‘What are friends for?’ I joked and she grinned at me.
‘I liked the idea of it being a guy dragon.’
‘Well, what about Garrett? He defended you.’
Meagan blushed as red as a beet and pulled out her messenger. I could see that she was scrolling through the text Garrett had shared. ‘We need to beat the Mages, but we have to crack the code on this mumbo jumbo to find out more.’
‘Two weeks to the full moon doesn’t give us much time,’ I said. ‘Still, we have to try.’ I walked beside her for a minute, choosing my words. ‘Look, you have to be really careful.’
‘Me? Why?’
‘Because you’ve got spellsinging abilities and the Mages know it. I’m afraid they’re going to try to recruit you …’
‘Don’t worry about me, Zoë.’
‘I am worried about you. They don’t take no for an answer and you could get hurt.’
She stopped with one hand on the door and looked at me. ‘How do you know that?’
‘Because they tried to recruit Jared, and he tried to decline, but they’ve been using him anyway.’ I thought about his conviction – and Kohana’s assertion – that they would use him to get to me, and I feared they’d do the same with Meagan.
‘Then give me his number,’ she said easily. ‘I’ll ask him for advice.’
‘But …’
‘Zoë, I can take care of it. You’ve got to figure out how to make this union work, save the shifters and defeat the Mages.’
Right.
‘If I can convince them to follow me,’ I had to say. ‘And if I had a plan.’
‘But think about it. If your powers as Wyvern mean that you could foil the Mages’ plan single-handedly, that would be a good reason for the wolves to have a prophecy about following you.’
She was right.
But how could I persuade the other shifters to work with us? Derek’s wolves needed me to do some big wolf thing to prove I could be a good pack leader. Jessica had been captured by the Mages and we dragons hadn’t managed to save her. And Kohana seemed determined to surrender any of us in order to defend the Thunderbirds. If I could bring him – the most reluctant ally – into the union, maybe the others would follow.
But how?
A little bit too late, I realized I’d lost a negotiating tool when I’d had it right in my claws.
I should never have relinquished the feathers I’d tugged out of Kohana’s tail during our last fight. It’s dangerous for a shifter to lose the cloak of his alternate form. We have to keep track of both to be able to shift between forms. We dragons have to keep track of both our clothes and our scales. It must be the same for Kohana— he’d need his clothes and his feathers. There are tons of stories about people stealing the seal skins of selkies or the pelts of werewolves and holding the shifter in thrall. Those stories are based in truth.
I’d had some of Kohana’s feathers. That could have given me some power over him, or at least an edge for negotiation, but I hadn’t thought of it at the time. It seemed unlikely that I’d be able to find those particular feathers again. I could only assume Kohana would have gathered them up if it could be done.
I wondered if I could get my hands on more.
And if so, could I use them to get him and the Thunderbirds on our side?
It was long after Meagan had run out of superlatives to describe Garrett’s dragon form – never mind his human one – and I was still staring at the ceiling of her room. I could hear the slow rhythm of her breathing, the quiet impact of snowflakes outside, the resonant hiss of two dragons on the roof, breathing dragonsmoke.
I closed my eyes, and missed my dad – well, actually, I missed our night flights over the city. I didn’t much miss getting chewed out or barricaded within a ring of dragonsmoke. We never talked much when we flew, except for his occasional tips on technique, uttered in old-speak. And even as frustrated as I was with him, a night flight would have been good. I was restless.
Fortunately, there were other dragons in my proximity.
And I had just about nothing left to lose in terms of my dad’s approval. He was already livid with me – or would be, once he figured out the full range of my disobedience. At this point, I had to save the day, somehow, in order to survive the reckoning that was coming.
Even then, the odds against me were long.
Right now, I needed the ego boost of being a dragon.
I slipped out of bed and pulled on my jeans and sweater. I crept out of Meagan’s bedroom without disturbing her. The dead bolt on the front door made a slight snick when I unlocked it and I froze in the foyer, certain that I’d be caught, but no one stirred.
I could hear Meagan and both of her parents breathing at the slow rate of sleep.
Once outside the door, I raced around the house to the dark shadows of the back garden. I bounded into the air and shifted shape, loving the power of my body. I soared to the roof easily, and Garrett smiled at the sight of me.
‘Wondered how long it would take you,’ he said in old-speak.
‘Anyone want to fly with me?’
They exchanged glances and then Nick straightened. He spread his golden wings wide, stretching. ‘I’m up for it.’
‘I’ll stay here,’ Garrett said.
I leapt off the roof, hearing the swoosh of Nick’s wings behind me. I beat my wings hard, racing him a little, heading straight for the stratosphere. It felt so good that any repercussions of the parental variety would be worth it. The falling snow swirled around us, as if we were dancing with it. I saw the gleam of golden scales to my right as Nick came up beside me.
He grinned as he soared past. ‘You’re not that fast.’
‘Faster than you think!’ I pushed harder and caught up to him. ‘Losing your edge, Nick?’
‘Not yet.’ He hooted and flew even faster.
‘You just don’t want to lose to a girl!’ I taunted, sailing past him one more time.
He laughed and came raging up behind me. He caught my tail to hold me back, and I spun around to cuff him playfully. We wrestled, rolling through the air, our scales shining like jewels in the night.
Once upon a time, physical intimacy like this with Nick would have stopped my heart cold. Now he was like a big brother – another one – just a guy I could tease and harass and whose company I could enjoy. We cavorted through the air, each giving the other a talon as necessary to keep the game going.
I saw the glint of mischief in his eye just before he spiraled down into the city. He looked like a feathered golden spear, but one that turned corners with grace. I knew he was up to trouble, and was curious to see what he had in mind. I raced behind him, then laughed when I saw where he was going.
He buzzed the webcam of the local television station, flashing dragon teeth for the camera. Then he lifted his tail, like he was mooning it, even without pants. I laughed, wondering what anyone watching would make of that display.
I knew what the dads would make of it.
We spun together, showing off, then raced for the clouds, claw in claw. We pushed ourselves to go higher and faster, streaming through the night until we were panting for breath.
We landed on the top of the Sears Tower, beside the antennae, and surveyed the city in triumph.
‘It’s cool, isn’t it?’ Nick said with satisfaction.
I was still out of breath. ‘What is?’
‘Being a dragon. Being powerful. Being able to breathe fire.’ He gestured with one claw at the twinkling city, dusted with snow. It didn’t even look real from here. ‘Being able to fly.’
His words reminded me of the ride that I owed Jared, the one I might never be able to deliver, and that flattened my mood. ‘Good and bad,’ I said.
He considered me, probably noticing my change of tone. ‘What’s bad about it?’
> ‘I still can’t do everything I’m supposed to be able to do.’
‘But you can do a lot more than before.’ Nick shrugged with his usual confidence. ‘And we had enough ammo to finish those Mages tonight. Tell me that wasn’t exciting.’
‘I don’t think they’re finished.’
‘So we live to fight another day.’ He grinned at me. ‘Our dads fought Slayers for centuries before they defeated them. Consider it part of the adventure. Imagine how good it will feel when we totally finish them.’ He bumped shoulders with me. ‘Come on, Zoë. What’s really eating you? Is it that Jared isn’t around? Where’d he go, anyway?’
I chose between reasons, because there was something I wanted to know. ‘Your dad warned him that I might not ultimately have a firestorm with him and so he bailed.’ Only half of the story, but Nick looked away, frowning. I knew I’d struck a nerve. ‘I’m thinking that it sucks that we don’t get to choose who we fall in love with – or even if we do fall in love, we can’t act on it until we know about the firestorm. The choice is made for us.’
‘Worked out all right for our parents.’
‘Aside from mine splitting up,’ I had to note. Nick eyed me and I saw his wariness. ‘I don’t know. Maybe they will. Maybe they won’t. The fact that they’re thinking about it isn’t much of an endorsement, though, is it?’
‘They’ll work it out,’ he insisted. ‘They did before. They love each other, don’t they? Isn’t that what counts?’
I thought of the things my mom had said about my dad always choosing the Pyr over her and I wasn’t sure that love was enough.
‘But what if the firestorm doesn’t work out?’ I asked.
‘What?’ Nick was incredulous. ‘It has to. That’s the way it works.’
It was my turn to stare at the city. I didn’t think it was that simple. I heaved a sigh. ‘What if the old plan for us doesn’t work anymore?’
Nick swallowed and spoke with force. ‘You make it work.’
‘How so?’
‘You make more Pyr. You do what you can. You try to do what’s right.’ He said this last word with even more emphasis and glared stubbornly over the city. It was all black and white to him.
I had to say it. ‘Do you really think you’re doing the right thing by staying away from Isabelle?’
Nick avoided my gaze. ‘I might be.’ He turned to look at me before I could argue. ‘The firestorm is right,’ he said with force and I wondered who he was trying to convince. ‘And I will follow it. I won’t make promises I might not be able to keep.’
‘But she thinks that you’re meant to be together.’
Nick looked down. He tapped his nails on the lip of the roof, thinking. ‘I hope she’s right,’ he admitted so quietly that I had to strain to hear him.
Then he looked at me, his gaze tormented. ‘But what if she’s wrong? What if we’re just attracted to each other? What if it’s just sex?’
I didn’t know what to say to that.
Nick’s voice dropped low. ‘If my firestorm is with someone else, I have a duty to my kind. We all do. And I’ll have a duty to my son, whenever I have one.’
‘Your dad reminded you of this.’
Nick looked away. ‘It would be easy to be with Isabelle, Zoë, but in the end, it might be wrong. It would hurt her more if I had to turn away from her later.’
‘So you’re turning away now.’
He dropped his head. ‘Sometimes you’re crazy enough about someone to protect them even from yourself.’ And this time, when he met my gaze, his was clear with conviction.
I felt better for having Nick explain himself to me. He wasn’t being a jerk, like Isabelle thought. He was being thoughtful. Considerate.
‘They say patience is a virtue,’ I said, smiling at him. ‘But I think waiting bites.’
Nick laughed and made a mock bite in my direction. I snapped back at him, and we leapt into the air simultaneously. We swung our tails and played at fighting again. Then Nick pointed back down to our neighborhood. ‘Race you to the roof!’
‘Last one there is Slayer bait!’ I retorted, using an old taunt from our childhood. We flung ourselves through the sky. Nick was ahead of me, all golden strength.
‘Look! It’s Isabelle!’ I cried and he halted to look.
‘Where?’
‘Not here, fool.’ I raced past him, laughing as he roared behind me. He caught my tail and spun me around. We fell onto the roof of the town house in a tangle of talons and scales, laughing all the while.
I shoved a fistful of snow into his face. He breathed fire at me in mock fury and I swung around to swat him. He caught my wing and we wrestled on the roof. I couldn’t get a good hit in because we were laughing too hard.
‘Nice quiet return,’ Garrett noted. ‘I bet no one will notice.’
‘Anything happen while we were gone?’ Nick asked, brushing himself off and taking a serious tone.
Garrett shrugged. ‘Just that.’
I realized suddenly that there were a lot of cats meowing. They were making that yowl that tomcats make at night, but it sounded like there were a lot more of them than was typical. I hadn’t even noticed any tomcats around Meagan’s house before.
‘There must be hundreds of them,’ Garrett said. I looked at him in surprise. ‘It started about an hour ago. And keeps getting louder.’
We stood up and looked as the cries became steadily louder. I could see the silhouettes of dozens of cats in the street. Maybe hundreds. They were all different colors – soot gray with white socks, black with white tuxedo bibs, ginger and tortoiseshell and whiter than snow. They walked with the delicate precision of cats, silent but purposeful. They clung to the shadows, as if they didn’t want to be seen, but the gleam of their eyes gave them away.
Like gemstones shining in the dark.
They also were moving in the same direction, as if they gravitated toward some unknown destination. I wondered – were they all shifters? Or were cats in general drawn to a cat shifter’s distress? What were they going to do? Where were they going?
‘They’re gathering,’ Nick said.
But why?
Then I noticed that something else had changed. I could see the orange swirl of Mage spell, bright again, winding out of the sewer grates with greater potency than before.
They were up to something, spinning their web and making it stronger. Were they feeding on Jessica’s strength? What was the deal with the cats? Were they drawn to Jessica’s distress? Or were they leading the way for us? Was she still alive, then?
I saw a black cat hesitate on the lip of a sewer opening. It looked around, then stared straight at me. It held my gaze for a long moment, then turned and slipped through the grate, as sinuous as a snake.
Gone as surely as if it had never been.
I felt a shadow pass over me, and it chilled me to the bone.
‘What is it?’ Nick asked and I told them what I could see.
No one liked that news.
Garrett looked grim. ‘We should sleep while we can.’
I wondered, though, whether I would ever sleep again, with my thoughts spinning so fast.
Like a Mage spell.
I watched the orange light, tugging down into the world beneath the city. I thought about the cats, maybe answering some summons we couldn’t discern.
That was when I knew exactly what we had to do next. We had to go down into the sewers, just like those cats, and confront the Mages in their den.
Wherever it turned out to be.
I didn’t tell the others my plan until the morning, when we all met up in the park. I’d spent the night trying to think of alternatives, but hadn’t come up with a single one.
Predictably, there was dissent. The guys weren’t big on risk, especially with so many unknown variables. Meagan was instantly ready to go and help her buddy.
We decided to vote.
Meagan voted first, in favor of the quest, then spent time busily researching the Chicago underg
round on her messenger. She was so proud of herself for finding maps that I didn’t have the heart to tell her that we wouldn’t need them.
I’d just follow the spell light.
Nick was sure the light I’d seen was a lure to draw us into a trap. Garrett pointed out that we weren’t sure of Jessica’s motives. Had she been targeted by the Mages and trapped? Or was she complicit with them, like Kohana? Liam wondered whether Jessica’s capture was just an illusion, meant to draw us closer. Meagan was insulted by that idea, but before they could argue, Isabelle drew another card.
She’d been quietly shuffling the whole time. She brushed aside the snow on the park bench, then snapped the card onto the painted wood.
The Chariot.
‘Always the court cards when Zoë is around,’ she murmured with a smile. We waited expectantly. ‘The Chariot indicates a conflict being resolved. Someone intervening in a situation.’
‘Like a rescue?’ Liam said and Isabelle nodded.
‘It has a military sense, like a planned campaign being executed.’
‘Successfully?’ Garrett asked.
Isabelle nodded again. ‘It indicates preparation and planning, so check your plan and coordinate it. But yes, the card is right side up, which means triumph.’
‘Upside down for Zoë,’ Derek said softly.
I jumped to find him behind me, in his quiet human form. The guys looked startled – they hadn’t heard him approach, either.
But he was right. Isabelle could have placed it on the other side of the bench, but she’d put it between us. I stared at the card as the guys reviewed events of the night before and planned their assault.
Was I crazy to let that detail bother me? What did the card mean when it was reversed? Failure? A temporary victory? Either possibility spooked me.
But it didn’t much matter. The guys were on board. Derek and Meagan and Isabelle were in. We didn’t have to tally the vote to know that we were going underground.
It had been my idea in the first place, so I couldn’t bail.
Our thinking was that the Mages would be tired after their festivities of the night before. They’d be expecting us to take time to regroup. We would strike early and fast, before we were anticipated, and maybe have surprise on our side.