Caden's Secret

by Jadyn Chase

  When the upheaval struck, he slammed me down on his rod with all his strength. His lance plunged to its hilt in my insides. The world split asunder, never to be rejoined. In that epic crisis, an event horizon beyond comprehension radiated outward from that hidden point inside us where we met in the ultimate confrontation.

  It rippled to the farthest reaches of the universe and left nothing unchanged in its wake. It rearranged the order of existence. No one would understand who wasn’t there that night to witness it firsthand.

  14

  Epilogue

  Epilogue: Caden

  I kicked the Jeep tire and felt the satisfying bounce of my boot springing off it. I moved around the vehicle to the back and did the same thing to check the other two tires before I returned to the open hood.

  I wiped my hands on a greasy rag and bent down to grab the dipstick when a familiar bump made me look up. Archer leaned against the fender and moved his toothpick to the other side of his mouth with his tongue. “Do you have a minute, cuz?”

  I let go of the dipstick and straightened up. “I always have a minute for you. What’s up?”

  He squinted across the yard toward the house—my house. Just then, Christian and three other cousins sauntered around the Jeep coming from the bungalow. They lined up next to Archer. Christian hooked his thumbs into his pockets in a way that told me he meant business. The others crossed their arms over their chests.

  I scanned down the ranks and read the same expression in all their faces. Archer crossed his legs at the ankle and chewed his toothpick.

  “Well?” I began. “If you boys have something on your minds, you might as well say it right out loud and get it over with. None of us is going anywhere, so you might as well clear the air.”

  “Well, it’s like this,” Archer replied. “You lost your Pop in the war. I understand that, and he gave you his blessing to marry that little girl of yours.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “Is that what this is about? Do you boys have some problem with Caroline? I thought we settled all that last year.”

  Christian spoke up. “No one has a problem with her. You have to understand that.”

  “I better understand it,” I snapped, “because anybody that does have a problem with her better come right out and challenge me like a man instead of sneaking around talking behind my back. You boys have been having a few late-night parleys by the look of things. If you don’t have a problem with her, then what’s this all about? Somebody better start talking and fast.”

  “Take it easy, man,” Christian murmured. “None of us has any intention of challenging you. Pop left you in charge. We all accept that and now you’re married to Caroline with a baby and all.”

  “Then what’s your problem?” I whipped around to confront Archer. “Did you put them up to this? I don’t hear anybody sacking it up to tell me what this is about.”

  Archer shoved himself off the Jeep and faced me. He didn’t lose that casual air of indifference, so maybe they were telling the truth. Maybe they didn’t want to challenge me. Maybe they just wanted to talk.

  Ever since Pop died and Caroline came to live on Smokey Ridge, I dreaded the day the penny dropped. Someone was bound to take issue with me marrying a human woman after generations of keeping the bloodline clean and pure.

  I couldn’t expect to change that in one night without someone kicking up a ruckus. I kept looking over my shoulder for someone to challenge me, but they never did.

  Archer shrugged and averted his eyes. “It’s like this, man. Caroline’s a real nice girl and all. You make a good leader. No one wants to change that.”

  I waited for him to say something else. “But?”

  “But you’ve got a baby now,” he went on. “How do we know the little one is even a dragon? You’re bringing human blood into our line. We always thought humans and dragons wouldn’t be compatible. Now you two have this baby, but for all we know, he’s as human as his mother. If you two can only have human babies, then you should step aside and let a real dragon take over. It’s only right you hand the Clan on to one of our own.”

  “If we all took up with human women,” Christian added, “the whole Clan could cease to be dragons at all in a few generations. Then what?”

  So that’s what this was all about. They worried my boy wouldn’t be a dragon. They thought me and Caroline breeding would block my progeny from inheriting my dragon blood.

  I swept the faces one by one. Of the five of them, only Christian would look me in the eye. “Are you boys all in agreement about this?”

  Christian nodded. Archer took his toothpick out of his mouth and spat a speck of wood into the dirt. “Yeah. We are.”

  “And I’m assuming you’ve talked this over with the other families all over the Ridge and they agree with you. Would I be correct in assuming that?”

  Archer nodded. “You would be correct.”

  I shook my head, but I couldn’t think of one thing to say in response. The ugly truth was that I agreed with them, too. If, as they said, my children weren’t dragons, then neither they nor I had any business leading this Clan or even staying on the Ridge. A real dragon and his female dragon wife should take over so their young could lead the Clan into the future. Caroline and I should go live with the Others.

  I tossed my rag onto the radiator and turned away. My mind whirled with a thousand impressions and emotions. I wanted to fight this, but I couldn’t. These men were right.

  I regarded the house—my house. Caroline was in there right now with our two-week-old son. What would she say when I told her we had to leave the Ridge? That didn’t matter. I would do it. I would do it for the Clan.

  I whipped around and confronted my kinfolk, but before I could open my mouth, the house door slammed open. Caroline bustled down the steps carrying a bundle in her arms.

  She shoved a ball of blankets into my hands. “Will you please hold Ezra for a minute? Thanks. The toilet’s blocked and overflowing water onto the floor. I just have to run inside and shut off the water. Then I’ll come straight back. I promise.”

  In a flash, she darted away, up the steps, through the door and out of sight. The door slamming again made the bundle jump in my hands. A tiny arm stretched upward. Miniature fingers squirmed and wriggled before my eyes.

  A squall of high-pitched protest pierced the air. The little person wrapped inside squirmed his way out of the blankets and waved his arms around. He screwed up his little visage in displeasure.

  I bounced him in my arms and whispered to him. “Ssshh, boy. Easy, little fella. She’ll be right back, I promise.”

  I lifted him up to lay him across my shoulder when, with no warning, the package in my hands burst apart. The blanket ripped and fell away, and the writhing human baby inside exploded out of his skin. In a fraction of a second, he shifted into a tiny green dragon twisting his tail around my forearm.

  He screeched a single note of ear-splitting complaint. A momentary flicker of fire burped from his mouth. He flapped his wings against my hands and flopped into stillness. In the blink of an eye, he shifted back to a baby boy and curled into my chest.

  I hugged him close and picked up the torn blanket. I shook off the dust and draped it over him. I tucked it around his chubby jowls and crooned to him until I made sure he was on his way back to sleep.

  Just then, Caroline came racing down the steps again. She put out her hands. “I can take him now. I heard him crying. Is he all right?”

  “He’s fine,” I told her. “He’s settling down now. I can keep him for a minute.”

  She blinked at the baby. “All right, but could you come and take a look at the toilet? I just got the water shut off, but it’s all over the floor and soaked into the hall carpet. I don’t know what went wrong.”

  “Sure. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  She went back inside, and a deathly pall fell over the yard. I waited until I couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore before I rounded on my brother and my cousins. I fixed th
em with a hard glare. “Did you boys have something you wanted to say to me?”

  Archer shrugged again and surveyed the yard. “Nope.”

  Christian gave me a clipped nod. “I’m going hunting later. I’ll bring you something if I get anything.”

  The others fidgeted in search of some way to make a dignified exit, so I did it for them. “If that’s all you wanted to say to me, I better get inside. It sounds like I have a toilet to fix. I’ll see you boys around.”

  I hugged my baby boy against me and headed for the porch. So much for that little crisis. That settled the matter. Now no one would ever question me, my wife, or my standing ever again.

  The End.

  More from Jadyn

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