Emergence of Fire

by Holly Hook

  "Well, that didn't work," I said, trying to stay calm for his sake. "Dirk, can you go back into human form? Try. It's been almost twenty-four hours."

  He nodded and ducked back into the barn. I waited for a minute, and then two, checking the entire time to make sure the Slayers weren't coming yet. The road in front of the Machers' house remained clear.

  Inside the house, the landline phone rang. The Machers got phone calls night and day, but there was no way I could leave Dirk to go answer it.

  Dirk remained a bronze shape in the barn. He shook his head. Trying to retake his human form was useless.

  "Well, there's one thing that will get you out of the barn," I said. "You can burn it down."

  Dirk's eyes widened, and he shook his head.

  "Fire can't hurt you," I said. "Hurry. Don't you want to do something cool? You're living a geek's dream!"

  He snorted in laughter but hesitated. Even from within the barn, I could read his body language. Dirk hung back. He didn't want to get in trouble with his parents. His father had constructed this barn years ago, thinking he might grow crops.

  "Your parents wouldn't want you to get killed," I shouted. "Burn it down. Don't worry about them."

  But he shook his head, trying to communicate something. He had a worry that was holding him back. I eyed the surrounding yard but there were no trees close enough to catch. The barn was away from the Machers' beehives.

  "Look, you aren't going to burn down the town. The rain I caused made things green up. That'll help keep it from spreading. And if I have to, I can summon another storm."

  Dirk nodded as if to tell me that I had better do it quickly.

  The thing was, I wasn't sure I could do it at all. The storm had come last when I was trying to keep Adler from taking me down to the caves. I hadn't even tried to do it. I'd only been trying to protect myself, just as I had from the guy at the mall. That seemed to make the magic work. Could it awaken to protect someone else?

  In the Machers' house, the phone rang again. It could wait.

  “Dirk, you literally just have to breathe on the wall of the barn. Well, I'm assuming that's how it works.”

  He sucked in a breath and then breathed out towards the wall. Nothing happened. He grunted as if in disappointment.

  “Try again,” I said. “Maybe you have to be angry for it to work. That's what got me to make that guy burn from the inside out.” I hated bringing it up again. “Think of something that really upsets you.”

  Dirk paused again, and I knew he was trying to do just that. He remained still inside the barn. Then he shook his head at me, eyes shining with fear.

  I took a breath. This was a low blow, but it was necessary to save his life. The Slayers were getting closer to arriving every passing minute. “Dirk, I also have to tell you something. I've been dating Sven. I know you're hoping that we can be more than friends, but we hit it off and we really understand each other.” I grasped the edge of the barn door as I spilled the truth. “I should have told you that a while ago. Dirk, you're a great friend and you always have been. I don't want that to change—”

  He sucked in a breath.

  And let loose a torrent of flames at the barn wall.

  I jumped back as heat blasted me in the face and the wall caught. Straw curled and erupted with fire as Dirk backed away, trying to avoid it, which was ridiculous. My gut turned over with the thought of what I'd done to him. Dirk wouldn't look at me. Instead, he faced the wall as if willing the flames to climb higher, which they did. Tears filled my vision. Now two people were becoming more distant from me and the loneliness crushed my chest. Leading Dirk along had led to this moment of watching everything burn and pop. The fire spread across the wall, filling the barn with smoke that carried an autumn scent.

  But I didn't cough. Neither did Dirk. He waited as the smoke turned opaque, blocking him from view. I wanted to say something to him, anything, as I didn't need to see to know he was stewing inside the flames. Smoke curled into the sky while the phone inside the house rang yet again.

  "I'll be right back." I had to leave him for a moment. No one would go into the fire to kill him, right? The Slayers didn't have fireproof suits—just metal armor. Besides, I would watch from the house. Standing out here and listening to the silence he gave off was deafening.

  I ran into the house. The Machers had left the back door unlocked for me. They were once again trusting and still not back. I hoped the smoke gave them a sign that something was wrong. They might know a hiding spot better than I did. I'd only ventured into the caves once. I imagined that his parents had gone in dozens if not hundreds of times.

  The phone continued to ring on the kitchen wall. I seized it, realizing that with it ringing this much, it might be more than a customer calling for honey or a missing paper.

  “Hello?”

  “Felicia.”

  “Principal Adler.” Hearing her voice didn't unnerve me now. The Slayers were a bigger threat. Maybe she could help with Dirk. But now I knew her vow didn't extend to phone calls. She could only avoid me in real life. It was the reason Sven wasn't dead yet.

  “I've been following you at a distance,” she said. “I saw that you went into the Slayers' house. And yes, I know that's their house.”

  “You put the tracking device on Sven's car,” I said.

  “Yes,” she said. “After twenty-five hundred years, one learns how to blend in with human society.”

  “You don't understand what you did!” I shouted as the memory of Sven's confusion washed over me. “Sven wanted peace between us and you ruined it! Now he wants to kill dragons like the rest. He doesn't remember that we even spent time together.”

  “I know what I did,” Adler continued, calm. “Felicia, he would have—”

  “Turned on me. I know,” I said. “Except, he wouldn't. He's proven that. If he wanted to kill me, he would have done it down in the caves, before I even knew what I was. Or he would have done it when he was shooting arrows in front of me in his backyard. Yes, I went into his backyard. He proved that he didn't want to kill me. If you bring back his memory, he might help us stop the Slayers from the inside. Right before you wiped his mind, he said he wanted peace.”

  She stays firm. “I will not do that, Felicia.”

  “Why are you being so stubborn?”

  “Did you know Wiglaf himself was the one who betrayed your birth parents?”

  She let that hang as I stood there with the phone to my ear. “He what?”

  “The man who started that boy's Society once courted your mother,” Adler said.

  Silence followed. I gulped.

  “She was the dragon in Beowulf?”

  Adler cleared her throat. “Yes.”

  “But that dragon was going around, torching villages,” I said. “It couldn't have been her.” The image I'd been forming over the past several days shattered, screaming. Meanwhile, the flames from the barn rose higher with Dirk still inside. Any second, he'd be able to break out of the weakening structure.

  “She had justification under the circumstances. Her most valuable possession got stolen, driving her to do what she had to. And that was her egg.”

  My stomach rolled with all the revelations as I recalled the story we read out loud in Mrs. Cornea's class. It made horrible sense and also justified Adler's actions. To her, at least.

  “She got her egg back, but by then, Beowulf had gathered his men,” Adler continued. “Wiglaf, your mother's former suitor, was with them. He turned on her. And before that even happened, it's possible he helped to kill your father. He died a few years before the battle.”

  “Stop,” I said.

  “You need to know this, Felicia. Wiglaf then took her treasure. He became a rich man. I could barely save you in time.”

  Sirens went off in the distance.

  I swore.

  “Felicia, is something the matter? I know the Machers are at probably at the butcher.”

  Should I tell her? Shaking my head, I paced
as far as the phone's cord would allow. “Dirk needs to get out of the barn,” I said. “I could spy on the Slayers. Sven doesn't know what I am anymore, and they were talking about taking a party into the caves. One of them followed me back here and saw Dirk in the barn and I wasn't able to stop her from getting back to the Water Company. Now Dirk has to burn down the barn to get out and I think the fire department is coming.”

  Someone had seen the smoke and made a call.

  “Oh, no,” Adler said. “I can't come to their place while you're there, but I will watch for the Slayers and try to distract the firefighters. Get Dirk to the quarry entrance and urge him to hide in the pit. Steve will know what's going on He'll meet you there.”

  She hung up, leaving me with what I'd done.

  Sven might come with the Slayer party and Adler would be ready to meet them all.

  It was possible that by telling the truth for once, I had killed him.

  Chapter Ten

  “Dirk!” I shouted, running across the grass.

  He was already trying to escape the burning barn. With all the straw inside, the building had gone up fast, but the flames hadn't spread to the surrounding trees. A loud thump sounded as he rammed his body into the side wall. Fire curled out of the front doors and roared. There was no way he'd hear me from within the noise.

  But he seemed to have heard the sirens because another desperate thump followed.

  Maybe that was what he was worried about. Alerting the fire department. The giant plume of smoke would be visible to everyone in town. Understanding the body language of dragons only went so far. Now I had to keep Dirk out of trouble.

  And by extension, the Machers and the rest of us.

  Another thump followed, and the burning wall of the barn exploded outward. Embers flew as Dirk spilled out, unharmed. His scales shone in the sun. But there were no reflected rainbows now. He looked toward town, red eyes widening again. I could guess what expletive that meant.

  "Come on," I said, waving to Dirk. "The quarry pit. You can hide there. I'll say I flicked a cigarette into the barn and that caught the straw on fire."

  He narrowed an eye. I didn't smoke, and he knew.

  "Go!" I shouted, glancing behind me.

  I didn't want to know what Adler would do to slow the police and fire department, but I imagined it would be something reckless. She was no better than Jens and just as desperate. But at least right now we were on the same side. I slapped Dirk on the back leg and urged him to follow me. The two of us ran across the yard and towards the distant back fence that separated the property from the back of the quarry yard. Both stretches of land were big, and the quarry was wide open, but at least Steve wouldn't stop us. I hoped Adler called him and told him to get any workers back there out of the way if any worked on Saturday. I hoped the weekend had emptied the place.

  Dirk's golden brown wings brushed the grass, and I had to stay out of their way. I might not get hurt by fire, but I knew getting knocked the ground by them might cause injury. We crashed into the forested area at the back of the Machers' property. The sirens intensified behind us and I glimpsed faint red and blue lights reflecting off the surrounding trees. Crap. Picking up my pace, I reached the tall, chain-link fence first and nodded to Dirk. The authorities were close. At least they'd get distracted by the burning barn.

  But they wouldn't miss the dragon for long. Or the new hole in the side of the building.

  But Dirk paused at the ten-foot-tall fence and eyed it like he wasn't sure what to do next. His wings hung as he studied the sharp wire at the top, designed to keep out kids who might try to sneak onto the grounds and fall in the pit.

  "You can jump over that," I shouted, unsure if he could hear me over the sirens. The fire department had to have reached the front of the property by now. Even Adler couldn't get here fast enough. She lived across town unless she'd been staying at my place. "You can fly over that!"

  Dirk shook his head, fear blossoming.

  "Don't tell me you're afraid of heights." I turned and faced the fence. There was no way I was getting over without injuring myself, and I had to stay with Dirk. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to hide, unlike me.

  The shouts of men floated back to us. I turned, unable to see the barn through the trees, but I had the sense the police would search the property soon enough. A plume of smoke drifted overhead. Dirk lowered, trying to hide in the foliage, but it was hopeless. Bronze scales didn't blend well with his surroundings.

  "Dirk, jump or fly. It's your only shot. The trees should keep them from seeing you. Then you can go down in the quarry pit and hide. Jumping or flying won't kill you." Was I still telling the truth?

  He stayed down and nodded. At last, I got what it meant. I was to climb on his back. Dirk didn't hate me that much. He wanted to get me out of this jam, too.

  Tasha would have abandoned me. But despite me ruining his hopes with a few sentences, Dirk was still sticking with me.

  So I climbed onto his back. I had to put my foot onto his front leg to climb onto the space between his wings, but once there, I felt secure. Dirk seemed to detect the same because he rose, making the underbrush whisper.

  And then he took off.

  With a mighty whoosh, wings spread as his powerful legs launched us into the air. The fence dropped below us as air whipped against my skin. Tree branches missed by inches, then fell below us. But the flight—more like a glide—was short-lived. Dirk descended onto the barren ground of the quarry field, close to an ancient shed not used any time in the past decade. A jolt ran through my body as we landed and gravel slid out of the way. Dirk paused as if recovering from what he'd done. Then he craned his neck and looked back at me as if to say, I'm never doing that again.

  "Fine," I said. "The pit. I'll come with you. Adler will tell your parents where you are. And the caves will be better than the barn." Would Dirk be able to see down there?

  Shouts echoed from behind us and Dirk got moving, hugging the ground as if terrified of getting seen like this. I stayed on his back because I didn't want to slow him down. So far, it was working out. The quarry pit dropped into the earth ahead, and I was right that there weren't any workers out here on a Saturday. Even Steve was absent. But the sight of the pit sent shivers down my spine as I remembered that night that Adler came out, ready to kill Sven. At least Sven didn't remember that anymore.

  Dirk paused at the edge of the pit. From my vantage point, I could look down it. A hundred feet below, the floor stretched out, dotted with equipment. A carved road made of earth and stone spiraled down and an old pickup truck waited at the halfway point, right on the makeshift road. This looked more like the entrance to a mine than a quarry. At least it wasn't a sheer drop, but I could see why Steve guarded this place with that tall fence. The only way in and out was the front entrance and the alleyway that Sven had used.

  Dirk eyed me again, asking where the cave entrance was. From up here, I couldn't spot it. I shrugged. "We should still head down there," I said. "I'm sure the entrance is hidden so Steve's workers can't find it."

  More questions burned in his eyes. I hadn't told him about Steve yet, had I?

  "Steve is Adler's grandson," I finished.

  Satisfied, Dirk turned away, and I grabbed onto the sides of his wings the best I could. They had heated in the sun and not as leathery as I expected. Dirk tipped downward, and vertigo tilted the universe as I leaned back, trying not to fall off. Would balance be one of my powers? Apparently not.

  And then Dirk stumbled.

  Gravel slid and earth crumbled as we toppled to the spiral road below. Then I screamed as Dirk staggered, leaning like he was about to fall off it, but he caught his balance at the last moment and took a deep, windy breath. This wasn't going well. Dirk wasn't as graceful as Adler had been.

  "Please," I said. "Don't kill us."

  He gave me a red glare, but not out of anger. He was more embarrassed than anything and asking why I expected him to be an expert at using this new
body when he had barely walked yet. Dirk had a point. He'd spent the last day cooped up in the barn. This must be like learning to ride a bike for the first time. If the Slayers found Dirk, he might still be easy prey.

  "I'm sorry. Keep going," I said. But he was now looking over my shoulder with a new look in his eyes: one of fear. "Dirk, what are you—"

  The words died in my throat as I followed his wide-eyed gaze to the top of the quarry pit. We'd descended only a short way, but not far enough for me to miss the wide-eyed stare that Sven gave us as he stood there, decked out in his chest plate, crossbow, helmet and quiver.

  "Sven!" I shouted. "You don't see this. It's another mental trick." My lie fell to the bottom of the pit and flattened. It was too late. Sven's jaw fell open as he surveyed the scene and watched as I continued to sit on Dirk's back.

  Dirk growled. I detected confusion and fear.

  "There is a dragon out here," he said. "Sofia was right. We all thought she was lying, but she was right."

  "Sven, you can't hurt my friend," I said. "He's just trying to hide. He doesn't want to hurt anybody. Believe me. The dragons aren't all bad and most of them don't even want to hurt people." I turned as Dirk remained still, determined not to buck me off by mistake. "Please. I know you don't remember our time together but we already talked about this."

  Sven's gaze hardened. I waited for him to wave to the others, but he didn't. He seemed to have come alone. That made no sense. Wouldn't the Slayers all want to work together if there was a dragon on the surface, ready to torch Olivia?

  "That dragon is your friend?" he asked, incredulous. "Felicia, I knew you didn't understand how dangerous they can be, but—never mind. Get out of the way. He probably wants to eat you." Sven reached for an arrow.

  And Dirk didn't miss that fact.

  He growled and leaned to the side, forcing me to slide off. My friend was so worried about Sven hitting me he wanted me out of the way. Dirk was ready to do whatever he could to protect me. I grasped his wing, but after a moment of hesitation, he flapped it and cast off my grip, then pushed me back. I fell to the spiral quarry road, with nothing but emptiness to my side and earth to the other. Dirk blocked the way back to the top. He turned, tail missing me by inches, as he faced his new enemy.