Winging It

by Deborah Cooke

  5. As a result of #3, I am no longer a complete write-off in gym. I still can’t catch a projectile or aim one at anything with accuracy, but I’m less likely to trip over my own feet when I run. So, I’m not quite such a liability on, say, a baseball team. Volleyball and basketball are still disaster areas, but again, it’s progress.

  6. As a result of my breach of the Covenant last spring when I flashed some dragon goodness at Suzanne, the über-bitch has not come near me since April. Complete bonus.

  7. As a result of #1, the dragons I draw are better. I can check dragon anatomy with a mirror if there’s room to shift. My dragons are more fierce and more lifelike, very much in demand as notebook embellishments at school. It’s strange to be popular in any way for any reason, but I’m getting over it. Kind of.

  8. I have breasts. They’re small, too small to bounce even, but at least there’s some dimensionality there – and some justification for lingerie.

  Again, I’ll take even incremental progress if it’s all that’s on the menu.

  THINGS THAT COMPLETELY SUCK ABOUT DRAGON SHIFTER POWERS

  1. The Covenant means that I can’t tell humans about dragon business. This includes Meagan. This means I end up having to lie to her to protect the privacy of the dragon shifters.

  2. My mom is right about lies – they’re like cockroaches; there’s no such thing as just one. The domino effect is alive and well in my life of lies, and I hate it. Because Meagan would still be my best friend if I didn’t have to lie to her all the time.

  3. The one human guy I know who knows the truth about my shifting talent is apparently no longer speaking to me. Or has forgotten about me. Or something equally ego-bolstering. I can’t ask Meagan for advice on Jared because I can’t tell her the whole story, because of #1.

  4. I still have no real clue about how to fully develop my Wyvern powers, or even what they all are. There is no manual or other record. It’s completely unfair that my friend Isabelle, who is practically family, was the last Wyvern in a past life, but doesn’t remember any of it. This is really annoying. No. It bites.

  5. The only possible reference book – less than ideal because it’s so damn enigmatic, but at least it’s something – is in the possession of Mr Elusive, referenced in #3 above.

  6. There was another solar eclipse on October 2, but nothing seems to have changed. I expected it to have some impact on my powers.

  7. The next total solar eclipse happens August 12, 2026. Almost two years! With the Mages hunting shifters, I might be dead by then.

  So, if nothing else, the next Wyvern would have some reference materials, courtesy of moi.

  I came out of my room later, but only because I was starving. My dad was in the kitchen, measuring out pasta. There was butter and Parmesan on the table and a green salad. He didn’t turn around when I arrived, just added another serving of pasta. The water boiled and he dumped it in, stirring. The timing was perfect, as if he’d anticipated my arrival.

  But then, he does have the gift of foresight.

  ‘I have had two firestorms,’ he said quietly.

  I blinked in astonishment. He was confiding in me about his relationship with my mom. This was a first.

  Then I blinked again at what he’d said. The firestorm is the mark of a dragon shifter meeting his destined mate and the opportunity for that dragon to conceive an heir. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime – even a long lifetime – opportunity. ‘I thought we only get one.’

  ‘That’s what we’re told, but I had two.’

  Before I could ask about the other woman in his life, he continued. ‘They were both with your mother, although the first was in a previous life for her.’

  I waited. I didn’t dare say anything in case my dad stopped the story.

  He stirred the pasta, staring into the steam. ‘I thought that I was lucky to have a second chance, but your mother is right. There are things I have not done differently.’

  He fell silent for longer this time, so I prompted him. ‘How so?’

  ‘I have not found a way to live more fully in the human world, as well as in our own. I have also failed to find the balance in raising children, between too much control and not enough.’

  Children. My eyes widened at that. ‘Children? As in more than me?’

  He nodded. ‘There was a son.’

  ‘I have a brother?’ I was stunned that no one had ever mentioned this. My brother would be a dragon, which meant he would have lived for centuries and I could hit him up for advice …

  ‘You had a brother. Sigmund is dead.’ My father sighed. ‘But not before he turned Slayer and wrote a book documenting the ways to destroy the Pyr.’

  My mouth went dry. A Slayer? Slayers were extinct now, but they’d existed when I was born. Slayers were Pyr gone bad. They were selfish and evil and …

  My brother became one? It’s always a choice. Why would he choose to go bad?

  What else didn’t I know?

  Wait – if my brother had written a book, I could guess which one. I named the book that Jared had, the only book on our kind that was known to exist. ‘The Habits and Habitats of Dragons: A Compleat Guide for Slayers, by Sigmund Guthrie.’

  My father nodded again, sadly.

  There was another one of those huge silences, just the ticking of the timer filling the kitchen.

  I had to know. ‘What happened to Sigmund?’

  ‘He died, during my second firestorm with your mother.’ My dad paused again. ‘I used to see him sometimes, walking among the dead.’ The timer rang and he moved to drain the pasta. Relieved to have an excuse to abandon the subject, maybe.

  My dad is not big on confidences and confessions. I could see how hard it was for him to tell me this much, and I appreciated that he was trying.

  Although it sure wouldn’t have hurt for him to have told me this sooner. Didn’t I have a right to know?

  He was just bringing the plates to the table when my messenger rang. Of course, I had it on me – it’s like another part of me. My link to the universe.

  It was my mom, calling from the airport to say that she was going to my aunt’s place in England and giving me her schedule. She didn’t ask about my dad, and he didn’t ask to talk to her.

  She sounded awful, as if she was still crying. I know my dad strained to hear her side of our phone conversation, his hunger for the sound of her voice more than clear in his expression. He tried to hide it from me but failed.

  We ate in silence after she hung up, until I suddenly put down my fork. I couldn’t stand it anymore.

  I was going to take a page from Jared’s rule book and push a little. I was, after all, a dragon girl.

  ‘I was going to ask Mom tonight whether I could go to a concert on Saturday.’

  He didn’t glance up. ‘Don’t forget you’re grounded.’

  ‘You could hear me out.’

  He flicked me a look. A wary look. ‘And what concert is this?’

  On the upside, he was giving me a chance. On the downside, he was using ‘and’ questions. With my mom, ‘and’ questions are a bad sign. She asks them when she’s already made up her mind to say no – ‘and’ questions show that we’re just going through the motions of making her look unbiased before she does say no.

  I decided to hope that my dad didn’t play the same way. ‘Jared’s band is playing downtown. You remember Jared.’

  ‘And where is this?’

  ‘At a co-op place downtown that doesn’t serve booze …’

  ‘No.’

  Come to think of it, a few more ‘and’ questions to argue my case might have been good.

  I stared at my dad in dismay. His face was set, which meant his mind was made up. I tried again. ‘But you’ve met Jared. I thought you thought he was okay. He helped us beat the Mages—’

  He interrupted me with a fierce look. ‘And how old is he?’

  ‘I don’t know. Twenty. Twenty-one maybe.’ Independent, exciting, rebellious, hot, and a great kisser. I knew th
ese would not be attributes of Jared’s that would change my dad’s mind. ‘Donovan trusts him,’ I said, throwing out the name of one of my dad’s Pyr pals.

  ‘But you are not even sixteen. No.’

  I was outraged. If Jared didn’t think I was a little girl, why did my dad have to? ‘What difference does that make?’

  My dad put down his fork so he could really glare at me. ‘Five years’ disparity at your age makes all the difference in the world.’

  ‘I don’t think—’

  ‘But I do. And I say that you will not go to this concert.’

  ‘I think Mom would have let me—’

  ‘She’s not here. And you weren’t grounded before she left. She would have declined you now, and I forbid you to go.’

  Forbid me? How medieval was that? ‘It’s just a concert, and you know that he’s a spellsinger. It’s because of Jared and his abilities that the Mages’ spells were broken last April! He helped to save you all—’

  My dad interrupted me flatly. ‘Zoë, a young man of twenty-one has a vastly different agenda than a sixteen-year-old girl. You are idealistic. You are thinking of love and romance. Jared is thinking of now, he is thinking of sex, and he almost certainly does not have your welfare at the forefront of his thoughts, whether he is a spellsinger or not.’ He picked up his fork and resumed eating.

  I stumbled to my feet. ‘How can you say that about him? You make him sound like a predator. You don’t even know him!’

  ‘I remember being that age,’ my dad said grimly. ‘And Jared’s troublemaking reputation does precede him.’

  ‘This is so unfair. He said that no one trusted him, but I thought Donovan would have defended him to you.’

  ‘I assure you that if you were Donovan’s daughter, you would also be forbidden from attending this concert.’

  ‘You’re not being fair …’

  He looked at me. ‘And how many times have you had contact with Jared since last April? How many messages has he sent you?’

  ‘One.’

  ‘And I will guess that it was in reply to one from you.’

  I blushed, but my dad kept talking.

  ‘And what effort has he made to see you while he’s in town for this concert? Has he invited you? Has he contacted you?’

  ‘No.’ I folded my arms across my chest. ‘But he’s playing at a club where I could go. It’s like an invitation—’

  ‘But it is not one. If he wanted to see you, he would have ensured that he did. He could have come here and met your parents and asked you to go with him. His failure to do any of those things tells me all I need to know about a romantic future with this young man.’

  ‘So, it wouldn’t hurt for me to go and find out for sure.’

  He gave me a cold look. There was a lot of dragon in that look. I should have flinched, but I looked right back. He spoke very softly. ‘I guarantee you that if you go, Jared will recall that you are attractive and he will try to make the most of the opportunity you present. Now sit down and finish your dinner.’

  I would not.

  ‘What if he’s my destiny?’

  ‘Is that what you truly believe?’

  I fidgeted. ‘I can’t see the future just yet.’

  ‘I can.’

  ‘You could be wrong.’

  ‘Then we shall address the matter at that point in time.’

  We? No way!

  I noticed the blue shimmer that surrounded us and realized that my father and I were both on the cusp of change, facing off in the kitchen, a situation that could go up in flames. That made twice in almost as many hours.

  And I didn’t care.

  ‘Is the firestorm a lie?’ I demanded. ‘Is that why you’ve had two of them and screwed them both up? I thought a firestorm was supposed to be about destiny and forever! Because if it’s a lie, then you should tell us all now, all us young dragons. You should give us the facts, not the fantasy. You should give us the chance to not fuck up our lives by trying to make your stories come true.’

  He stared at me. I stared back. I’d never talked to my dad like that, let alone used the f-bomb in his presence.

  I felt my face turn red.

  But I didn’t look away.

  Then I spun and took my plate to the sink, still a goody girl deep in my heart. It was a bit late to make an effort to stay out of trouble, but there you go. I dumped the pasta in the trash and rinsed the plate, my hands shaking all the while.

  My dad was still staring at me.

  The way a predator eyes lunch.

  He was mad, but holding back.

  Well, that made two of us. How could he not stop my mom from leaving? How could he think such crappy things about Jared? How could he ground me and lock me in with dragonsmoke without hearing my side of the story? I retreated to my room, knowing that he was the most unfair person on the planet.

  I heard him toss his pasta after mine, right before I slammed my door.

  But he didn’t come after me, or make an appeal in old-speak.

  Maybe he didn’t care about either me or my mom.

  I had hidden my new ring in a secret corner of my desk drawer, where I stash all the best stuff. It was beside the red rune stone that Granny had given me in the spring, with a little gap between them.

  Just so you’re straight on this, I don’t actually have a living grandmother. Never have. Granny is this old woman I dream about sometimes. And last spring, she threw this round, flat rock at me. I’m not sure what it’s for, but it seems like it must be important. It has a rune carved on one side, one that means ‘beginnings’, so maybe that’s why she gave it to me then.

  Like I said, details on the Wyvern deal are sketchy.

  For some reason, I thought the stone and the ring shouldn’t touch each other and I decided to go with my gut on that. I dug the ring out twice that evening and turned it in the light, wondering why Rafferty had sent it to me.

  And yes, worrying about the ring being a portent of pending Mage hostility.

  Then I worried about my mom, and about my parents maybe never getting it together, about my never getting to see Jared again, and just generally fretted about the entire foundation of my universe.

  Which seemed to suddenly be on pretty shaky ground.

  I did send Rafferty a message, asking him about the ring.

  There certainly wasn’t an instant reply.

  Or any reply.

  Receipt acknowledged. That’s it. It had been delivered.

  I tried to work on an illustration I had started of two of my dragon friends. I was trying to depict Garrett fixing one of Liam’s scales with his dragonfire, but I screwed it up and had to revert to the previously saved version. The only good thing was that I was working digitally.

  I really wanted to call Meagan, even though I couldn’t tell her all of what was bothering me. I pulled out my messenger, fingered it for a minute, then took a chance.

  You there?

  She answered immediately. But then, she always did her homework with her messenger on the desk beside her.

  Z! You won’t believe what happened today!

  I smiled, reassured by her quick reply, then typed my own.

  Neither will you. My mom walked out. Maybe for good.

  My messenger rang instantly on its voice setting. It was Meagan.

  Like I said, she’s the best friend in the world.

  I gave her the squeaky-clean Covenant-approved version of what had happened – because I knew that my dad would be able to hear anything I said to Meagan, even if I whispered, thanks to that super-keen Pyr hearing. (And I could hear him breathing dragonsmoke, weaving it more thickly around the apartment. He was going to be a hard-ass about the Covenant this time, my rotten luck.) Basically, I told Meagan that I’d come home to find my mom walking out the door, that they’d been fighting, and that I wasn’t sure when she’d be back.

  All true.

  Just not all of the truth.

  We speculated on possibilities for a while,
whether they would reconcile, but then I couldn’t stand it any longer.

  ‘You said something happened today,’ I asked, keeping my tone level. I knew what had happened in the bathroom, but I wasn’t supposed to know. I was cool.

  Until she answered me.

  ‘It did!’ Meagan said with excitement. ‘You’ll never believe this, but you know those dragon shifter guys we see on television sometimes?’

  ‘Yeah?’ I sat up, a bit worried.

  ‘One of them goes to our school!’ Meagan crowed, unaware that my mouth had fallen open. ‘And he defended me against Suzanne. Me!’ Her voice dropped to an excited whisper. ‘Who do you think it is? Peter Morris? Mike Gallagher? You know, it could be Tony Amario. I’ve always thought he was a bit mysterious.’

  It was good that she was on a roll. I couldn’t think of a thing to say, but Meagan had plenty of guesses as to who the previously unsuspected Pyr student might be.

  She didn’t know – or hadn’t realized – that there could be a girl dragon in her vicinity.

  At least not so far.

  You might have thought that that was plenty of action for one day in the life of a Wyvern, but one more thing happened that day.

  When I fell asleep, Granny came back.

  With a friend.

  Chapter Three

  I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering in my bed. I rolled over to pull up the covers and saw snow in my room.

  But only when I looked with my left eye. When I opened only my right eye, my bedroom looked perfectly normal. If I closed that eye and looked just with the left again, I was out on the tundra, the walls of my room dissolved, a big tree right where the door should be.

  I knew the eye game well. I’d learned to play it when my Wyvern powers first appeared. That had been the first time I’d dreamed of Granny, when she’d given me the rune stone. She’d also showed me how the eye game worked. It was kind of reassuring to have it make a second appearance – I’d been a bit disappointed by its absence all summer long.