Dragon Riders

by Elle Casey

His smile slipped.

  Céline reached out and covered my hand with hers. “Jayne, you said that you were time-slipped. How can we help you return to your rightful place?”

  I just stared at her for a few seconds, not sure how to answer that ridiculous question.

  “Did I say something wrong?” she asked.

  “Well, yeah. I mean, I’m barely out of changeling status and you’re a five hundred year old silver elf, or whatever. I was kind of hoping you’d have the answer to that one.”

  “I could help. I know someone who has the power to send her back,” Ben said.

  I shook my head. “No fucking way.”

  Dardennes cleared his throat and stared me down.

  “Fine. I mean, no friggin way. Ben, sorry, no offense, but I don’t want you involved in anything that has to do with me and a witch’s spell. Believe me…I’ve been there, done that, and regretted it every time.”

  His expression went very dark and the temperature in the room rose. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”

  I laughed at his temper tantrum and brought a little elemental vapor into the mix to help cool his butt down. His hair got sweaty and his face broke out in droplets of water. “That’s where you’re one hundred percent wrong. Unlike everyone else on this plane, I know exactly who you are and exactly what you’re up to. But because I don’t want to sacrifice my future life, I’m going to keep my mouth shut about it and just say, no thank you. Offer not accepted. I don’t need your help.”

  Dardennes cleared his throat. “That might not be exactly correct.” He sounded uncomfortable.

  “Which part of it?” I asked, not liking where the conversation was headed.

  “It is possible that you would need Ben’s elements to help return you to where—or when—you belong.”

  “Why? Because I sure didn’t need them to get here. It was a spell that…someone in the compound cooked up for me.” I didn’t want them to know it was Red. Any revenge on that guy was going to be served up by me alone. And he was the one who’d nominated me for the fae council, so I did owe him that. Without that status I would have been totally in the dark about every decision ever made by them, and I didn’t even want to contemplate what would have happened to my friends or me without that inside information.

  “Moving fae through time is always risky business,” Dardennes explained. “But with the elements involved, you can—as I understand it—use memories that played out in the correct time and place to more accurately pinpoint your destination.”

  I nodded as the sense of that sank in. “It’s true that my elements hold all the memories of the fae and other creatures that have passed through it.”

  “Exactly,” Céline said. “And each element holds a piece of that history’s puzzle. Sometimes a memory is held in Earth, sometimes in Water…”

  “And sometimes in Wind and Fire,” Ben added, the sweat now gone from his hair and face. “Face it, Jayne. You need me.”

  Like I need another hole in my ass. I gave him a fake smile because I wasn’t capable of a real one. “Okay then. I guess you get to be hero for a day.”

  He shrugged. “Assuming it’s the right thing to do.”

  I pointed at him but addressed the silver elves. “And that, ladies and gentlefae, is the real Ben Hawthorn. Always in service of himself while he pretends to give a shit about anyone else.”

  He glared at me. “That’s not what I meant.”

  Dardennes held out his hands in a calming gesture. “How about we take a quick break to eat something and then we can come up with our plan for getting Jayne back on track?” He looked at Ben. “Regardless of your motivations, I am confident that you do intend to help and that you see the wisdom of fae not working out of time, particularly an elemental as powerful as our Mother.”

  He dipped his head very slightly, possibly agreeing with the truth of what Dardennes said or maybe just acknowledging that he heard him. It was impossible to tell what Ben’s real intentions were, and Dardennes was a fool if he thought he could know anything about what went on in Ben’s head or his tiny, shriveled heart. But I did know one thing…if that Dark Fae assbag tried to send me to another place and time where I didn’t belong, I was going to do everything in my power to drag him along with me. If it took four elements to move through time properly, then four elements I would have. Boom.

  “Excellent,” said Céline. “I’ll go see what I can do about whipping something up.” She left us and went to the front of the plane.

  I focused on Dardennes. “We can’t screw this up. I need to get back to my friends.”

  “At the compound, yes. I understand.”

  “No, not at the compound. The ones with Ishmail Windwalker.”

  Dardennes leaned in closer. “What did you learn from him?”

  “Learn?” His question made no sense to me.

  “He disappeared from our time and was never seen again. Did he tell you why?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think he’d been in your time yet. He was only nineteen cycles when I met him, and from what I understand, he was like…a thousand years old or whatever when he disappeared, right?”

  Dardennes stared off into the distance as he spoke mostly to himself. “It is always difficult to know how much information to share with another soul…how much they must learn on their own through experience and how much benefit there might be gained by having advance knowledge. Perhaps it is better to live in ignorance.”

  “Scrying is done to gain advance knowledge,” said Ben. “It is not unheard of.”

  Dardennes’ eyebrows drew together as he frowned. “Scrying is dark magic and not worth the cost. It is forbidden.”

  If Dardennes had bothered to look at the Dark Fae elemental in that moment, he would have noticed the guilty and then self-satisfied expressions that flitted across his face, but the old man was still off in la-la philosophy land.

  I shook my head at them both. They had no idea what they were in for, but I wasn’t going to act as a fae scrying machine and clue them in. They’d just have to wait and find out on their own. “I’m not going to tell Ish anything in particular, but I will warn him about getting lost in the elements. What I want to know is how does he go from being a dragon rider to being a wind elemental?”

  Dardennes came back to the real world and stared at me. “Pardon me?”

  “I said, how does he become a wind elemental?”

  Dardennes was struck mute, so I kept going. “All he does is ride his dragon around and eat weeds and stinky meat to stay alive. He doesn’t do anything with the wind. He’s a totally vulnerable human.”

  “Then you must teach him,” Dardennes said, looking anxious. “He must learn about his connection.”

  I looked at Ben. “I think that’s your department.”

  He shook his head. “No way. I’m not going to his time. I’m staying here.”

  “Coward,” I hissed. I knew he was going to drop everything on me.

  “No, Ben is correct to avoid doing that. The consequences could be quite drastic.”

  “But it’s okay for me to go?” I pointed at my chest, pretty sure they were saying it didn’t matter if I got all jacked up.

  “No, not necessarily, but you have already gone. And as you’ve said several times, you must retrieve your friends.”

  “Who you left behind,” Ben added.

  I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. I’m going. I’m not afraid like some fae are. Just tell me how to do it.” That was a bit of a lie. I was afraid, but I wasn’t going to let that fear stop me from what needed to be done.

  “Food first,” Céline said, putting a platter of sandwiches down in front of us and a second one in front of my friends across the aisle.

  I hadn’t realized how starving I was until the food was in front of me. Before I bit into my meal, though, I checked between the slices of bread.

  “Is there something wrong?” Céline asked.

  “Just making sure none of the meat is st
ill wiggling.”

  The three fae sitting with me laughed. My friends all slowly peeled off the tops of their sandwiches and checked the insides with trepidation.

  “It’s cool,” I said across the aisle. “Ham. Not moving. Totally safe to eat.”

  Long and Tony put their sandwiches down, but Brad and Mike ate like they were starving.

  Conversation ceased as we chowed down, the only sounds being the loud chewing of sandwiches that tasted way better than they probably should have and the crunching of potato chips served in individual bags. I let my mind wander to the moments I’d spent with Ish. Dardennes said that I could figure out where I had been by identifying the memories contained in the elements, so what did I remember of my time there? The Green had been younger, more energetic. More powerful. Less weighed down by time’s passing. I could almost feel the tendrils of Green power that wrapped around me when I’d first connected, how electric they were and nearly uncontrollable…

  Someone’s hand on mine woke me out of my near-dream. “Wait for me,” Ben said. “You need all four elements, remember?”

  I opened my mouth to say something sarcastic, but stopped when I realized everyone around us was totally frozen. They were either in mid-bite of a sandwich or in the process of chewing. All the sound in the plane had disappeared but the rustling of my clothing as I moved in my seat.

  “What just happened?” I asked, pulling my hand out of Ben’s reach.

  “You started the process of going back.”

  “How in the hell did I do that? I was just daydreaming!” Panic started to take over. How could I be time-slipping myself without even trying?

  “I’m not sure how you did it, but I got the impression that you were pretty desperate to get back to your friends, so maybe that’s what started it.”

  “Oh, shit.” I looked at my half-eaten sandwich. “I’m totally out of control.”

  “Let’s just finish it.” He held out his hands and stretched them across the table at me. “I think we can do it.”

  “You think we can?” I shoved my partially eaten sandwich in the pocket of my scrubs and took his hands in mine. They were overly warm, which was no surprise considering who he was. “That’s inspiring.”

  He gave me a half grin. “I heard you like to fly by the seat of your pants.”

  “In your latest scrying?”

  He lost his happy look. “It’s a tool, Jayne. I would expect you to at least appreciate the fact that tools were made to be used.”

  “The only tool here, is you, Ben. And you are being used, FYI. I didn’t say anything in front of everyone else because I didn’t want to fuck up the future, but I’m going to go ahead and say this to you in this little privacy bubble while I have the chance: you’re not going to win, Ben. Your plan is not going to work.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” His jaw bounced out as he gritted his teeth in anger.

  “Wrong, dong. I know exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve literally been there and done that. I spent a year playing your game, but in the end, we won.”

  His eyes narrowed. “If that’s the case, then why is the Overworld overrun with demons? Why are your friends lost in time? And why are the Light and Dark fae working together?”

  I instantly felt sick. He had a point. He had several points, actually. And it made me furious enough to loosen my tongue a little too much. “Because someone else is pulling the strings now. You’re no longer in the picture.”

  His face went white. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I had an aching feeling in my gut that I’d gone too far. He tried to pull his hands away, but I held fast. “Nothing. Forget I said it.”

  He yanked his hands out of my grip and sat back. “I’m not helping you until you tell me. What happens? To me, I mean.”

  My tone turned to one that sounded a lot like begging, much as I wanted to avoid that. It was never good to show Ben a vulnerability, but I was desperate and I couldn’t hide it from my voice. “I really can’t tell you, Ben, or it’s going to screw everything up.” Giving him inside information on how to defeat the Light Fae was the very last thing I should be doing, but that was basically what he was asking for. And now he was going to withhold his elements unless I capitulated. How in the hell am I supposed to get myself out of this shit fest?

  His eyes went very dark. “Tell me, or your friends will perish.”

  I was nervous, but I couldn’t let it show anymore than I already had. “Perish? What the hell, man. Showing your age a little, aren’t you?”

  He glared at me. “I’m serious.”

  I rolled my eyes and sighed. The only way out of this mess was to bullshit my way out, and I was nothing if not a good liar. I’d practiced enough on my parents and teachers to be at expert level. “Okay, fine. You want to know what happens to you, I’ll tell you.” Come on, bullshitting power! Don’t fail me now! “You are elevated to the status of dragon…master, and you’re so busy riding your dragon around being a badass all day every day that you kind of stop caring about what us lowly fae are doing on a daily basis.” I threw my hands up and slapped them down on the table. “Are you happy now? I probably just ruined about twenty fae lives by telling you that.” My legs were jiggling like mad as I nervously searched his face, wondering if he was buying my story. It wasn’t exactly a lie; he did end up riding a dragon around all the time…and the word ‘master’ was kind of similar to ‘companion’. A little. So what if I left out the fact that he was stuck in the Overworld while he was doing it and that he was taking remedial lessons from said dragon so he could learn how to be a decent fae instead of a world-class assbag? He didn’t need to know that part until later.

  His voice was soft. “You’re saying I become a dragon rider?”

  “Yyyyes?” My eyebrows were almost in my hairline at that point.

  “Is that an answer or a question?” He lost some of his dazed look.

  I nodded vigorously. “Yes. It’s an answer. Definitely. You become a dragon master rider. Master dragon rider. Rider of dragons. No doubt about that.”

  He looked at me suspiciously. “What is my dragon’s name?”

  I grimaced. Then I frowned. Then I looked up at the ceiling, pretending to be confused. “It’s…uh…something Gaelic…I think?” I shook my head, like I was disappointed in myself. “Yeah, I can never remember it. It’s super complicated. Shamalamadingdong? Shimbalimbadoodah? I’m not good with foreign names.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “Never mind. It’s not important.” He put his hands out. “Let’s just send you back and get this over with.”

  I looked at the silver elves. “But what about them? What about my friends?” Tony looked so vulnerable sitting there with his sandwich held in two hands as he smiled at something Long had said. Could I trust Ben to do the right thing and make sure that everything and everyone would go back to the way they were supposed to be?

  “I’ll make sure the silver elves take care of everything,” he said.

  I stared at Ben, letting my elements into my eyes. “Ben, look at me. Hear me. Feel my words and my intentions.”

  His eyes swirled black and red. “I see you. I hear you. I feel your intentions.”

  This felt really official. I squeezed his hands just to be sure he and I were fully there in the moment. “I know that you want the Dark Fae and Light to be together. I know you want to assert our places in the human world. I know you are working with Maléna and Leck to make that happen. Whatever you do, don’t change anything. Keep working on that plan. And make sure that Tony and Jayne end up in Miami with Jared. And make sure you take Samantha with you and awaken her fae blood. She’s a very powerful witch, and you will need her magic. You can’t screw this up, or the entire world could fall apart. I mean it.”

  He nodded. “I hear you and I will respect what you’ve said.”

  A voice came from the front of the plane. “What’s going on in here?”

  I whipped my head around
to see Jared standing there. I locked eyes with him and sent him a message through The Green, praying he’d get it before Ben messed things up. Jared. I am the Mother. You will meet me as a human soon in Miami at the train station. Take the human version of me and my friend Tony to your warehouse and make sure we get to the interview with Chase, Becky, Finn, Sam, and Spike. And know that Samantha cannot participate in the changeling test, but that she will be okay. She will join us later. Do you understand?

  He nodded, just as I was whisked out of time and sent into the Void.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  “SON OF A mother effing b-word,” I said, spitting out dirt and sand as the syllables fired from my mouth. My eyes were loaded with grit, but I was able to open them just the slightest so I could see what was in front of me. Rocks. Dirt. Bones. A scorpion…A SCORPION! I jumped to my feet and stumbled backward as the critter scuttled off and found a hiding spot under a pile of what looked like troll remains.

  I placed my hand on my chest as I wheezed in and out. Several coughs blasted out of me when the air came into my lungs dry and full of dust. “What the…” I was overtaken by my hacking and was forced to bend over to catch my breath. When the cavern I was in finally stopped spinning, I stood and looked around. It was pretty dark but that didn’t stop me from recognizing where I was. I spit some dirt out of my mouth, moving my tongue all over my teeth after, trying to get rid of all the grit. Damn, I need a toothbrush. It felt like my teeth were wearing sweaters.

  I turned to my left and listened for the sounds of fighting—they were faint, but they were definitely there. I was once again nearly to the portal to the Overworld. They’re still fighting! Maybe I haven’t missed any time at all! To my right was more darkness, but I knew what lay beyond it, and that was where I wanted to be. I started running, tripping over rocks and stones, holding onto the bag that was slung across my chest and over my shoulder. I patted it down as I went, smiling when I felt the Lycurgus cup inside. I hadn’t yet used it on Falco—or at least, that was my theory since he wasn’t standing there next to me. And if I was correct about that, it meant he wasn’t going to be pulled into the wrong time and Robin wasn’t going to be comasized. Score! That was one mistake undone. Now I just had to undo the fifty odd other ones I’d made over the past forty-eight hours.