“What?” he asked, trying to understand what she was saying as he stifled his desires.
“The bell rang,” Anna said, pulling herself together. “We have to go in. See you at lunchtime?”
Rakan nodded. When they reached the second floor, he watched her walk down the hallway to her classroom. She had undeniable courage. His rök ached to claim her. To meld with her. To feel their minds merge until they became one. But she was human, he reminded himself. She’d never be able to do that. Even if he mated with her.
She waved goodbye as she entered her classroom. He ran up the stairs four at a time. He needed to find the strength to stay away from her. It was bad enough that T’eng Sten had erased her memory once. But it would be so much worse if his mother or Nima’kor decided to intervene.
Rakan slid into his seat, forcing his rök to calm down. They needed to leave Tromso and then Anna would be safe. But to do so, they’d need to figure out who Jing Mei was. If she was Paaliaq, they’d kill her. And if she wasn’t… The idea of his mother taking June’s rök was unbearable. As was the idea of one of his mother’s cronies taking Dvara’s. Rakan’s rök vibrated frantically. He blocked everything out and focused on June’s trail. It was normal. Or as normal as it could be with a triple twisted strand running through it. His mind ran over her and she pushed him back immediately. He smiled. At least that was normal dragon behavior. He poked at the shield she had put up, trying to get her to react again. June’s energy crackled in annoyance. As much as he had hated it when she changed her trail, he wanted her to do it again. He needed to analyze it to prove to Dvara that it wasn’t the same as the void-trails’ trails. She was a dragon and they weren’t.
When the bell rang for lunch, June slammed her book closed and stomped over to his desk. “What’s wrong with you?” she said, leaning forward.
“I was just playing,” he answered. “What’s wrong with that?”
“You send the coach to the hospital with your idiotic games and you ask me what’s wrong with that? Are you kidding me?” June kept her voice low even though she was shaking with anger.
“The ball wasn’t supposed to hit her. Dawa—”
“—it doesn’t matter who did what. How can you play with people like that? Don’t you realize how much those girls care about their game? Haakon’s right, you’re both just unruly puppies.”
“Haakon? Who’s Haakon?” asked Rakan exasperated.
“The guy who was sitting right behind you during the game.” June waved her arms in disbelief. “Don’t you even pay attention to who’s around you? Didn’t anyone teach you anything?”
Rakan remembered everyone who had been in the sport hall and even what they had been wearing. And no one had been sitting behind him. The place had been empty.
June leaned forward over his desk, her cobalt eyes flashing. “I’m sorry I tried to help you the other day,” she hissed. Her energy snapped at him like sparks of electricity.
Stung to the core, Rakan watched June stalk out of the room. “June, wait.” Rakan ran after her, unable to control himself any longer.
“Go away and grow up, Pemba. I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” She pushed him away. “And you had better not be playing with Anna. Because if you are, I’ll have your hide. Stop messing with people. Life isn’t a game.”
Rakan watched Jing Mei stomp down the stairs. A tremor of excitement pulsed through him. She cared about the humans. Her emotions had been thick and clear. She wasn’t Paaliaq. She was a New Dragon like they were.
* * *
Anna warmed up with the rest of the team. They hadn’t played since the coach had broken her ankle, and Anna was itching to get back into gear. But she stopped in her tracks when she saw Ulf come out of the men’s locker room with a whistle around his neck.
No. Not that. Not this. Not. Anna stared in disbelief.
“Oh my God, is he our new coach?” asked Randi as all the girls watched Ulf strut across the court.
“Look at his legs.”
“Look at his butt.”
Anna clenched her fists. “I hate him.”
“How can you hate a guy who looks like that?” asked Dawa.
“Isn’t that your mom’s boyfriend?” asked Siri.
“Yes, and I wish he wasn’t,” Anna answered.
Randi laughed. “You’re just jealous.”
“What are you girls waiting for?” said Ulf. “I only said I’d help out because I thought you were serious about your game.” Ulf strutted over to where they were standing. “You should be warmed up and ready to go by the time I get here,” he said, tapping Dawa playfully on the butt. “Let’s go.”
Ulf took them through an intense workout, focusing on their offensive game and drilling them through wave after wave of fast break attacks.
Anna sullenly followed the giggling girls into the locker room after practice. As much as she wanted to hate everything about Ulf, she had to admit that he was a good coach. Except that he touched the girls whenever possible. Which was bad enough, but what really got to her was that the girls responded like kittens wanting more.
“He’s good,” Siri said to Anna. “And you have to admit he’s hot.”
“He’s too hot,” said Randi, fanning herself. “Have you ever tried to see him in the shower? Like you just walk in – ‘oops didn’t know you were here’? I would…”
“I wouldn’t,” said Lysa flatly. “He doesn’t seem real.”
Anna smiled at Lysa. Thanks.
“Who cares?” said Randi. “His body is real. That’s enough for me.”
“Looks don’t mean anything,” June said.
“That’s easy for you to say,” replied Randi. “You’re dating a guy who models.”
Anna blocked the rest out, hoping that Ulf wouldn’t be waiting to drive her home.
* * *
“We seem to be enjoying each other’s company, Pemba,” said Ulf, coming out of the men’s locker room. “We keep running into each other.”
As Rakan hesitated between answering him, punching him or ignoring him, Dvara appeared by his side.
“I’m sorry, I must’ve made a mistake,” Dvara said, glancing at Ulf. “I didn’t think it was my brother’s company you wanted to enjoy.”
Ulf laughed. “You are most decidedly more… enjoyable,” he said in a half whisper before switching to a matter-of-fact tone of voice as Anna and some of the other girls came out. “You have talent. It’ll be a pleasure to teach you a few things.”
Rakan turned away in disgust. “I’ll walk you home,” he said to Anna when she joined them.
“There’s no need,” said Ulf. “I’m driving there anyway.”
“I’d rather walk,” Anna said coldly.
“I’ll accept the ride,” Dvara said, glancing at Ulf. “That is, if you don’t mind?”
Rakan glared at his sister, but she ignored him and smiled sweetly at Ulf.
Ulf’s eyes slid down Dvara’s chest. “My pleasure.” He looked back at Anna. “See you at home.” He flashed his perfect teeth. “For dinner.”
“I’m not your daughter,” Anna shot back.
“Don’t worry, I never thought you were.”
* * *
Rakan shifted back to their rooms as soon as he had walked Anna to her door. “Why did you ask Ulf to drive you home?” he asked Dvara who was reclining on the couch.
“Because every time you see Anna, you forget why we’re here,” Dvara snapped. “This way, I knew you’d come home.”
“I know why we’re here. I just don’t think that Jing Mei is Paaliaq,” Rakan said. He sat in his favorite window perch and watched the trails below. “She’s a New Dragon.”
“Rakan,” Dvara said, taking a deep breath. “We’ve been through this before. Yarlung said that both Yuli and Nima’kor are certain that none of the Old Dragons left the Fragments long enough to have had a child. Even with the time differential taken into account.”
“What if her parents have never been on
the Fragments?”
Dvara stared at him like he had grown two heads. “You think Paaliaq and Haakaramanoth are her parents?”
“It would explain why Jing Mei has blue eyes instead of Paaliaq’s green.”
Dvara shook her head. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right to me. I think Paaliaq found a way to change her eyes and is pretending to be a whelp.”
“So why does she care about humans? She’s not using them. She’s trying to help them. Remember how she took the shield off Anna after I had manipulated it?” he said, not wanting to talk about the argument with June that had convinced him she wasn’t Paaliaq.
“She could take the shield off so that you would start to trust her, or believe that she really was clueless. And she hasn’t morphed once since we’ve been here, has she? How could a puppy who seems as young as Jing Mei not morph for that long? It’s not possible. She can’t be as young as she seems. And besides, if she really was Paaliaq’s whelp, her mother wouldn’t let her roam Earth pretending to be a human. Even with the protection of four other dragons.”
“They aren’t dragons. Why can’t you accept that?” insisted Rakan, facing Dvara.
“You’re the one who can’t accept the facts. You felt June hide her trail like the others do. Why do you need more proof than that?” Dvara held up her hand to stop him from answering. “Whatever. Dragons or not, they’re protecting her.”
“Maybe Paaliaq is already dead,” Rakan said. “We’ve only ever come across one Old Dragon’s trail. Not two.”
“It doesn’t matter what either one of us thinks, Rakan. We need proof. One way or the other. And we need it now. Yarlung is starting to manipulate the other Kairöks to determine which one she’ll promise me to.” Dvara paced around the living room. “I’ll have to accept him. And then T’eng Sten will kill him and…”
Rakan slammed into the punching bag. “But Jing Mei isn’t Paaliaq. We can’t kill her.”
“We can if she’s Paaliaq’s daughter.”
“It would be killing an innocent dragon.”
“No, it wouldn’t. It would avenge Kraal’s death. Blood for blood. You know the Code as well as I do.”
Rakan glared at his sister. “The Code doesn’t say we have to kill her. Only that we can. There doesn’t have to be blood for blood.”
“You drive me crazy, Rakan. You know Yarlung won’t let the other dragons settle on Earth until she has revenge.” Dvara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It’s the only way to be free. Her death or the death of the Draak. Can’t you understand that?”
Rakan sank to the couch. He wouldn’t let them kill June.
Dvara took his silence as acceptance. “If Jing Mei is Haakaramanoth’s daughter we can lure him out by getting her to trust us and then trapping her. If Paaliaq is dead, he’ll do anything to get her back. And if she isn’t… we’ll finally meet her.”
Rakan stared at his hands, wondering how he could protect June. “Okay,” he said slowly. “I can work on getting closer to her.” And then he could warn her. Against his own family.
“That’s probably best. I’ll figure out how to trap her.”
Rakan nodded. Sick about his duplicity.
Dvara sat next to Rakan and nudged him in the shoulder. She sent him a wave of warmth. “I know you hate the idea of manipulating someone, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Rakan returned the wave of energy, but he didn’t dare look at his half-sister. He stood abruptly and walked back to the window. He watched the trails undulate across the street and around the town, weaving back and forth in an intricate dance. If Dvara found out that he was protecting June, she’d never forgive him. And he’d lose the only friend he’d ever had.
Rakan stared blankly out the window.
It was a risk he’d have to take.
* * *
“Why do you always ask me out at the last minute?” asked Anna. She stood stiffly on the porch in front of her house. “My mother cornered me yesterday and made me accept a babysitting job for one of the other nurses.”
Pemba looked confused. “We don’t make plans, at home. We just… do things.”
“Well, here we make plans.” Anna looked down. “Maybe we can get together tomorrow?” Tomorrow was Valentine’s Day.
Pemba leaned back against the wooden railing on Anna’s porch and crossed his legs. “I guess so,” he said. He picked at the hard snow. He shaped the ice-like snow into a smooth ball with his bare hands and threw it effortlessly into the trees on the other side of the parking lot. “So what do we plan for tomorrow? I can teach you how to keep warm.” He took her hand and slid off the glove that hid her Firemark. “I said I would.”
Pemba’s hands were warm and soft against hers. Even after playing with the ice. Her Firemark tingled with the contact, as it always did when Pemba touched it. Warmth rushed through her body. “Why do you wear a coat if you don’t need one?” she asked.
Pemba dropped her hand and stared across the fjord, like a panther observing his prey. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” He jumped off the porch and landed silently. His long black braid flicked behind him like a tail.
Anna watched him disappear into the woods. Why did she always blurt out something stupid every time he touched her?
* * *
Rakan shifted from the park behind Anna’s house to the Botanical Gardens. He jumped lightly onto the big rock in the middle of the clearing where the Old Dragon had long since removed the fake trail, much to Rakan’s frustration. But the rock had quickly become a favorite perch. It had a different vibration to it than other rocks on Earth. It felt like the Fragments, and it made him feel less alone.
But right now he was mostly interested in the vantage point he could get from it. He stood on the rock and looked across the fjord at the mountains behind the Arctic Cathedral. He had glimpsed a shimmering light from Anna’s porch that didn’t correspond to any of the habitations he had catalogued. And he hoped it might be the void-trails’ lair.
But there was nothing. Rakan growled at the emptiness, trying to visualize what he had seen from the corner of his eye as he played with the ice on Anna’s porch, wishing he could make an animated sculpture for her. But he couldn’t. She’d freak out. Rakan picked up a fistful of snow and squeezed it angrily into a clump of ice and then opened his hand. He could make it for her now. Even if she’d never see it. He molded the packed snow into a miniature air dragon and held up his hands. For you, Anna. It stretched its wings and flew down the hill towards the fjord.
“What are you doing?” asked Dvara, appearing suddenly.
Rakan jumped off the rock. “Nothing.”
“I can see that,” she answered. “How are you ever going to get Jing Mei to trust you if you don’t spend any time with her?” Dvara looked around the empty gardens and shivered. “Why do you keep coming back? This place gives me the creeps.”
“I like the rock.”
“What?”
“Never mind.” He picked up more snow. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Rakan glared at his sister, but didn’t say anything. The tension between them had increased over the past few days. His duplicity weighed on him, and he felt increasingly isolated.
“You know Rakan, neither one of us has a normal life.”
Rakan snorted. “I’ve never been a kai or shared a bond. I’ve never stood in anyone’s fire. At least you’ve had that.” Rakan threw the snowball into the fjord.
Dvara’s face flushed with anger. “I’d rather be alone than forced to be a kai to someone I don’t like.” Her voice sliced through the evening stillness. “My life has never been my own. And it still isn’t. There are only two things I have ever wanted: to revenge my father and to join T’eng Sten. And if I do one, I can’t do the other. Have you ever even thought about that?” Dvara morphed and shifted deep into the earth’s core, to a place where he’d have to be a fire dragon to follow her. And he wasn’t.
Rakan sank to the ground and leaned against the rock, wrapping his mind around it as if it were alive. He didn’t want to be alone anymore. He wanted to be part of a Cairn. And he wanted to be with Anna. And like Dvara, he couldn’t do both.
When the snow began to fall, Rakan let it cover him where he lay.
Chapter 12
Valentine’s Day
CAN YOU COME OVER?” RAKAN ASKED Anna when she answered her phone the next afternoon.
“Uh, hi Pemba,” Anna said. “I can ask.” She paused. “Are you okay?”
Rakan cringed at the name Pemba. He hated lying to her. “I guess so.” Dvara had come home around noon. And still wasn’t talking to him. “But Dawa isn’t feeling so great,” he said, forcing himself to use her human name.
“Okay. I can ask. Hold on.”
Anna picked up the phone again. “She says she’d rather you come here.”
Anna’s voice so clearly said she was rolling her eyes that Rakan laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are.” Rakan glanced at his sister who was curled up on the couch. “I’ll come. But if Dawa gets worse I’ll have to leave.”
“Aren’t your parents at home?”
“No. I’ll be right there,” he said and hung up.
Rakan sat on the low table in front of Dvara. “I can stay if you want.”
Dvara didn’t answer.
“You shouldn’t have morphed last night. It would’ve been easy for someone to take your rök.” He had stayed all night by the rock, waiting for Dvara to come back.
Dvara snorted. “You’re so naïve. Go play. No one can take my rök.”
“I’m not the one being naïve.” Rakan pulled on his coat. “I hate these clothes.”
“You can always ask Anna to help you take them off—”
Rakan cut her off with a guttural growl.
“I really don’t understand the problem. How can dating her be wrong? Even Khotan has been with humans—”
“—I don’t want to talk about it.” He shifted into the park near Anna’s house. Talking about Anna – or his father – like that with Dvara wasn’t something he could do. He stalked over to Anna’s porch and jabbed her doorbell.
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