Scorched

by Mari Mancusi

  And where would that leave her?

  “Grandpa…” she started to plead, then closed her mouth. What good would it do? Her guardian, much as she adored him, was the quintessential nutty professor—too wrapped up in his own spectacular inner world to comprehend even the most basic of money matters.

  Which left it all up to her.

  Since she’d moved in after her mother’s death, she’d done what she could, from taking over the museum’s publicity and custodial duties after school so they could cut back on staff, to cleaning houses and mucking out barns on weekends to earn extra cash. But try as she might, it never seemed like enough. And her carefully constructed world was feeling more and more like a house of cards each day. Every time the phone rang or someone knocked on their door, she’d freeze in panic—convinced it was social services, come to take her away. Her caseworkers had never been truly convinced that her grandpa was capable of taking on the responsibility of an orphaned teenage girl. And they’d be more than happy for an excuse to throw her back into foster care.

  But Trin was not going back. Not now that she finally found a family to call her own. And whether that meant hiding their financial situation from neighbors and teachers or begging debt collectors for “just one more extension,” she did what she had to do to keep the two of them together. Last week she’d even pawned her mother’s emerald ring to pay their overdue property taxes.

  She involuntarily glanced down at her finger, still sporting a tan line from where the ring had been—before she’d been forced to hand it over to the shady-looking man behind the bulletproof glass. It had been the only treasure she’d been allowed to keep after her mother’s death and her finger felt naked without it.

  But it was worth it to see her grandpa’s face, she reminded herself, when she presented him with the stack of bills. Enough money to pay their property tax and even a little left over to celebrate Christmas. Knowing their home was safe and their family intact was worth more than the Crown Jewels.

  She sighed. Some days she felt much older than sixteen.

  “Hey, hey!” her grandfather protested, catching her face. “Chin up, young girl! It’s Christmas Eve after all! And I’ve got a surprise for you.”

  “A surprise?” she repeated, looking up with curiosity despite herself. “Are you actually going to let me open a gift early for once?” Grandpa had strict rules about waiting until after breakfast on Christmas morning for any unwrapping, and usually Trin was cool with that, enjoying the anticipation and all. But this year she already knew what she’d find under the tree—the expansion pack for her favorite RPG video game, Fields of Fantasy—and it was killing her to wait.

  Sure, she knew it was a shameful indulgence—and the money it cost would have been better spent on paying their bills. But Grandpa had insisted, saying everyone deserved something frivolous at Christmas, and, for once, she’d been too excited to put up much of a fight. Video games were her kryptonite, after all. Her escape when real life got too tough.

  “Absolutely not!” Grandpa shot back. “You know the rules.” He wagged his finger at her. She sighed. Maybe after he went to bed she could unwrap the box and download the CD onto her computer, then carefully wrap it up again and place it back under the tree. Terrible, she knew. But otherwise, how was she even going to sleep, knowing it was just sitting there under the tree waiting for her?

  “Okay, not a present. Did we win the lottery then?” That would be a surprise she could certainly get behind.

  Grandpa smiled mysteriously. “In a sense,” he said. “It’s a new exhibit. Arrived this morning when you were at school, from my guys in Antarctica.”

  Last year, when times had been a little better, Grandpa had partially sponsored a small eco-archeological study on the effects of global warming on penguins. But for all the data the team had sent back so far, Trinity had been convinced they were just sitting up there, sucking down glacier-made frozen margaritas and running dollar bills through a paper shredder.

  “Well, all right,” she said approvingly. “What did they find?”

  “An egg,” Grandpa pronounced. “Perfectly preserved too. Evidently the team was out measuring one of the melting glaciers when they came across it, still half embedded in the ice. They believe it’s been just sitting there, frozen, for millions of years.”

  Trinity felt her heart beat a little faster. “And what do they think it is?” she asked, trying not to get her hopes up. She had to admit, a new exhibit like this—if it could be verified—could be sold to pay off some bills. To keep the lights on. Maybe even get her mother’s ring back. “Some kind of bird? A dinosaur egg?”

  Please let it be a dinosaur egg. They could loan it out to a bigger museum and collect a fee that would pay their electricity bill and—

  “Even better.”

  Trinity pursed her lips, enthusiasm deflating as she caught the gleam in Grandpa’s eyes. It was a look she knew all too well—the same he’d worn last summer when he’d presented her with fossilized Sasquatch dung he’d purchased off eBay. It had even, to her chagrin, come with a certificate of authenticity.

  She sighed. Maybe they could advertise candlelit tours as romantic…

  “Come on!” Grandpa urged. “You’re going to love this. I promise!”

  She reluctantly followed him out of the office, heading down what had once been a gorgeous marble hallway, a majestic showcase filled with treasures from around the world. Sadly, today that showcase seemed as extinct as the dinosaurs themselves. The marble floors were cracked and stained and the treasures long gone, with only a few dinky exhibits remaining behind—those that no one had wanted to borrow or buy. It made her heart ache to see the halls that had once teemed with life and history reduced to a cavernous graveyard of broken dreams and empty display cases.

  “Here we are,” Grandpa announced, stopping in front of the Millennium Chamber. Trinity raised an eyebrow in surprise. The chamber had lain empty for the last two years, with none of the remaining exhibits deemed worthy of Grandpa’s favorite room. For him to put the egg here—well, he must truly believe it to be something special. She bit her lower lip, her heart thudding in anticipation as she watched him unlock the door and gesture for her to enter.

  She did, trying to prepare herself for inevitable disappointment and—

  She stopped in her tracks, staring in disbelief at the egg perched in a glass case at the center of the room. It was beautiful. No—that wasn’t enough. It was breathtaking—the size of a basketball and the color of pure gold, its surface intricately etched with what looked like feathers. Or maybe scales…?

  “Oh my God,” she murmured, approaching slowly. Maybe her grandpa really had stumbled on something big for once. After all, she’d devoured every book in his research library over the last two years and had never come across anything remotely like this. “It has this sheen. Almost—I don’t know—like it’s not even real.”

  She found herself reaching out, her hand pressing against the glass. This wasn’t just some fossil. This was a real egg—perfectly preserved as her grandpa had said. Had it really been frozen in a glacier for millions of years?

  “Isn’t she beautiful?” Grandpa asked in a reverential whisper. “I’ve spent my entire life searching for something like this. People will come from around the world to see it—once they hear what we’ve found.” He turned to her, his eyes glistening.

  “But what is it?” she asked, reluctantly turning away from the egg and back to her guardian, her eyes filled with questions. “What could it possibly be?”

  “Why, isn’t it obvious?” He stepped toward the case, a slow smile spreading across his whiskered face. “It’s the world’s last dragon egg.”

  Chapter Three

  Damn, this helmet itched like a flecking bond’ura flea.

  Caleb Jacks forced himself to sit straight and tall on the hard wooden bench, staring directly ahead at the other soldiers in his unit. It had been a bumpy two-hour trip to Old Oak Grove, Texas, with no window
s or fresh air in the truck, and by the time they pulled up to the museum, Caleb was about ready to vomit in his helmet. But he couldn’t let his discomfort show, couldn’t afford to stick out in any way—not after he’d spent months securing a spot on this elite, black-ops team.

  It hadn’t been easy, especially getting placed on this particular mission. But the Dracken had done an excellent job at forging his paperwork, and his years of experience living on the streets down in Strata-D had made him strong and smart. He just channeled his twin brother Connor—the true soldier in the family—kept his head down, followed orders, and didn’t complain. He was, as his commander complimented, a natural choice for the mission.

  Caleb swallowed back a chuckle. If only the old bastard knew how right he was.

  Cold air flooded the truck, and he forced back a shiver as the rear door opened. All eyes turned to watch their superior heave himself up onto the truck bed, his heavy frame shaking the vehicle as his boots hit the floor one by one. He was dressed in the same standard-issue bulletproof vests as the rest of them, with only a shiny American flag pin to set him apart as the leader of the team. It still amused Caleb to see these people have so much pride in a country that would soon be accused of burning the entire world to the ground.

  Just before the back door closed again, Caleb observed two men standing outside. Dressed in black suits and wearing mirrored sunglasses, they whispered urgently to one another. They were the brains of the operation, he noted grimly. The only ones who had any clue what this mission was really about. The rest of them were simply dumb muscle, obeying orders without question. They couldn’t be blamed for what these two men planned to unleash on the world.

  “Okay, ladies,” the leader sneered. “You’ve all been briefed on your mission. Anderson,” he barked at the burly, dark-skinned man at the end of the row, “you work to disable the security system and video surveillance. Burn any tapes you find. I do not want to see any of your ugly mugs on the nightly news.”

  “Yessir.”

  “The rest of you, seek out the objective and secure it by any means necessary. But please, for the love of Christmas, be careful with it. You scramble this sucker and the Pentagon will have my ass.” He leered at his men. “And then I’ll have yours.”

  The men tittered nervously while Caleb resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If only they knew how durable their precious “objective” actually was. Hell, you could take a sledgehammer to the egg and you’d be hard pressed to make even the slightest dent. There was a reason, after all, why it’d survived for millions of years.

  The captain kept talking, but Caleb stopped bothering to listen. He had his own mission to think about, after all. One far more important than these duffers could ever imagine. His heart thudded in anticipation just thinking about it as he stared down at his hands.

  Two long years he’d been here, waiting for this night. Two long years he’d spent alongside his Dracken brothers and sisters—preparing for the Reckoning. Two long years and now the hour was finally here. He was here. The one Darius had chosen—out of everyone else—to carry out the most important mission the world would ever know. Sure, partially it was because of his age—he blended in with the rest of the operatives better than the older Dracken would. But still, he had been chosen. He had been entrusted with the future of the world. The street rat criminal of Strata-D. The guy everyone had dismissed as worthless. He would change the world forever.

  And he would finally meet her.

  His heart hammered foolishly at the idea. The legend. The Fire Kissed. The girl who would fly. Was she inside the museum even now, unknowingly waiting for her destiny to unfold? He tried to imagine the look on her face when he told her who she really was, what she would do. Right now, she probably thought herself a normal girl. He used to think he was normal too. She would have no idea of her role in changing the shape of the world.

  He couldn’t wait to tell her.

  Are you in there, Trinity? he asked silently as the truck door creaked open again. Because, ready or not, here I come.

  Chapter Four

  A dragon egg?

  Trinity let out a slow breath. She could feel her grandpa regarding her with eager eyes, as if anticipating praise for a job well done. She hated to hurt his feelings—on Christmas Eve nonetheless—but she couldn’t risk him going off half-cocked, spilling the ridiculous story to anyone who would listen. Their museum’s reputation was already in too much jeopardy as it was. And if social services caught wind that her grandpa had lost his mind as well as his bank account, they’d be sure to take her away.

  Time for some tough love.

  “Come on, Grandpa, we’ve been through this,” she tried, as kindly as she could. “A dozen times at least. There are no such things as dragons.”

  “Of course there aren’t now,” he came back, in a duh voice that would rival any six-year-old’s. “They’ve been extinct for millions of years. Probably wiped out by an ice age. But somehow, some way, this egg was preserved. The very last of its kind.”

  She sighed. “But if dragons had been real,” she tried to rationalize, not sure why she bothered, “we’d have found other remains before now. Fossils. Bones. Just like we have with the dinosaurs and a hundred other extinct species.”

  “Perhaps,” Grandpa replied with a shrug. “Or perhaps their bone structure was different from other reptiles of their time. Maybe it wasn’t meant to withstand extreme temperatures. For all we know, maybe their bones completely dissolved, leaving no trace behind. Except…” His eyes gleamed again. “This egg.” He grinned widely. “Thankfully those researchers had no idea how valuable their find really was. Or else I never would have gotten it so cheap.”

  She stopped short. “Cheap?” she repeated slowly. “Define cheap.” She’d assumed since Grandpa had partially sponsored the expedition, he’d have some claim on the egg. She should have known better. Those so-called researchers had been nothing but money-grubbers from the very start.

  “Well, cheap for the world’s last dragon egg,” he clarified. “But well worth it. Just think, Trin, of the throngs that will come once we announce our legendary find. The media, the scientists, people from around the world.”

  “How much?” she repeated, nerves tensing. And where had he gotten the money? She’d cut up his credit cards six months ago, after the whole Nigerian unicorn horn incident. And their bank accounts typically hovered at less than zero status. In fact, the only real cash they’d seen in the last few months was the money she’d given him after selling her mother’s ring…

  Oh God.

  He couldn’t have. Could he?

  “You didn’t. I mean, you didn’t use…” She trailed off, unable to even voice the accusation. But the look on his face told her all she needed to know. And her house of cards officially came crashing down on top of her.

  “Oh God,” she whispered. “How could you?”

  If they didn’t pay their property tax, their house would be seized. It would go on the auction block and be sold to the highest bidder. They’d end up homeless…

  …they’d take her away.

  “I had to!” Grandpa sputtered, his face flushed and his eyes flashing. “They were going to sell it to someone else.”

  “You mean someone who could afford it?”

  “Yes…I mean, no…I mean…” He gave her a tortured look. “You don’t understand. I’ve waited my entire life for this kind of discovery. Something special. Something extraordinary. Something that will shake up the very foundations of paleontology as we know it! How could I let something like that slip through my fingers?”

  How indeed? By habit, she reached to twist her mother’s ring around her own finger, only to be reminded it wasn’t there anymore. Because she’d sold it. To keep her family together. Instead, it had paid for some kind of freakish mythical monster spawn. She wondered if the egg was even real. Had even come from a glacier. She imagined the researchers laughing to themselves as they boxed up some arts and crafts project
and wrote out the bill. He’ll buy it, they’d probably sniggered. The gullible fool will buy anything.

  She glared at the egg, tears welling in her eyes. It was all she could do not to unlock the case and smash the thing to smithereens. She thought about how hard she’d worked. How tired she was. And how none of it mattered in the end. Her grandpa cared more about his precious exhibits than he did about their family.

  “Hey, hey!” She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see her grandpa gazing at her with concern in his eyes. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d be excited. I mean, a dragon egg, Trinity! We’re going to be famous.”

  “We’re going to be homeless.”

  “We’ll buy a new house—a hundred houses with the money we make. We’ll go down in history.”

  “Not before we go down in flames.”

  He stared at her, disappointment clear in his watery blue eyes. “You used to love my discoveries,” he said softly. “You used to get so excited. What happened to you, Trin? When did you stop believing?”

  She shrugged her shoulders, the lump in her throat making it impossible to speak. She remembered all the times her grandpa had come home from his many trips overseas with treasures from around the world. Real treasures—the kind scientists and journalists were chomping at the bit to see. But Grandpa would always make them wait—so she could see them first. It had made her feel so special—to spend hours with him, poring over the discoveries, imagining aloud what the creatures must have looked like when they still roamed the earth. Like some kind of magic—shared just between the two of them.

  But then she’d grown up and realized magic didn’t pay the bills. Didn’t keep families together. And certainly didn’t guarantee the happily ever after the storybooks claimed. Which made it, in her opinion, pretty darn useless.

  “Just go home,” she said in a gruff voice, wrestling to control her upset. “I’ll lock up. We’ll figure out what to do with this…this…thing…on Monday.” Maybe the guys who sold it to him had some kind of return policy…