by Laura Wylde
She was rambling, I could tell that she couldn’t quite settle and calm herself because she was nervous, which made me really feel for her. Connor had gotten under her skin and was making her all sad.
“It’s okay…” I started, wanting to reassure her that everything was going to be okay, but Connor had other ideas.
“Why the hell would you be looking for a car? We’re dragons, we can fly.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “You did know that, didn’t you? Or do you need a biology lesson on how dragons work?”
“Oh…” she stepped backward away from us, giving us all suspicious looks. “You’re going to shift?”
“Of course, we are,” he sneered. “How the hell else are we going to fly? I thought you were clever.”
“So… you want us all to fly?” Her hands clutched tightly to her chest. “I don’t like that…”
“Why not? You too good for flying as well? I’m so glad you got put in our group.”
“I don’t think I’m too good for flying, I just don’t like heights, that’s all.”
Oh God, this was going to wind Connor up. I stiffened up like a steel rod as I watched his body language shift and change. “This has to be a fucking joke. Please, Duncan, tell me this is a joke.”
“Connor, please just calm down. We can find a way to work this out, it doesn’t need to be like this…”
“No, no. First Megan is late and now she can’t fly with us. This is just crazy.” He paced up and down, anger rolling off of him in waves. “We need to do this alone. We can’t fail because of her.”
Oh, now he was acting like his work was the most important thing in the world. I nearly rolled my eyes at Connor.
“I will try…” Megan piped up quietly, the fear obviously lacing her tone. “I’m not saying that I won’t, just that I am a little freaked out by the idea, that’s all. It isn’t exactly what I was expecting tonight, that’s all.”
“You want to come with us…” Connor moved closer to Megan and got in her face. “Then you are going to have to fly. It will probably best if you just get on my back, so I can make sure you aren’t endangering anyone else.”
“No way.” She shook her head fervently. “If I am going to ride on anyone’s back, it will be Artemis.”
I was stunned to hear my name mentioned and pleased as well. It was nice to be trusted.
“Artemis? Are you serious?” Connor ruined the moment in a second. “You come with me.”
“I don’t mind,” I piped up, trying to cool this down. “I just think that we should get there already.”
Connor glared at me. “Fine, we will shift. Then Megan can decide which dragon she trusts.”
Oh God, he really thought that he would cinch it with his dragon form. He was so proud of himself and the way he looked when he was his majestic dragon self, but I was as well overshadowed in a much quieter way.
He stepped back and started to tremble, his true animal form bursting through his human skin. First came his black scales, as large as his human head, his sharp spikes, his long silver-tipped tail. Then his wings burst free from him and his eyes took on a much redder hue. Admittedly, he did look impressive, and he was much bigger than the rest of us, but Megan looked far more fearful than impressed. If she didn’t like heights, then she wouldn’t like being up higher. I couldn’t stop myself from being just a little bit pleased about this.
Duncan shifted next. He wasn’t as tall as Connor, but he made up for it with his wideness. His broad shoulders became large red wings with black tips, to match the color of his tail. Trevor was smaller than all of us, but much faster and he could fly higher too. His sky blue color made it much easier for him to hide when he was up high.
Afterward, Megan looked hopelessly at me. It seemed like she still wanted me to be the one to take her on the journey. I just hoped that I didn’t let her down when I shifted myself. If she was scared of the others, then my green dragon form with gold flecks and gold tipped tail and wings, might frighten her too. But I didn’t have any other choice than to get on with it because Connor was growing increasingly impatient by the moment.
So, I shifted my brain, I went into my animalistic form and my whole body began to shudder. I kept my gaze upon Megan for as long as I could, but it wasn’t long until I grew much too high for her. The relief that usually came with becoming my true self didn’t consume me this time around because I was so worried about her. My main focus was Megan, I needed her to be okay and totally comfortable with this. God, maybe I did like her more than I was letting on, more than I was even admitting to myself. There was something about her that really drew me in, in a way that made me want to claim her as my own. Not that I could because it wasn’t ever just about me. The entire harem had to choose Megan as well and that was never going to happen with Connor.
She doesn’t look too freaked out, I tried and failed to convince myself. This is going to be fine…
I bent myself as flat to the ground as I could manage to allow Megan to step astride me. She hesitated for just a second, but as Connor blew plumes of irritated fire out of his nose, she hurried herself up. I guess the fear of being burned alive by a dragon who had a weird grudge for some reason, overshadowed her fear of heights.
She stepped on my wings and scrambled herself upwards, gripping on to me hard as she did, not that it hurt me, and she climbed up on to my back. As she lay her body flat across me, I could feel her heart pounding hard against me. Poor Megan was far more frightened than she wanted to let on. I communicated this with the rest of the guys, but sympathy only returned from Trevor and Duncan. Connor was enraged. He turned away from me and began to soar. He rose much higher than he needed to, taking himself above the clouds.
Trevor and Duncan followed, leaving me with very little choice but to join in as well. I did so carefully, slowly, trying not to scare Megan any more than she already was. Because I couldn’t fly smoothly and as high as I wanted to, I felt myself wobbling, which was probably worse than going high, but I was doing my best to be cautious. For Megan. I wanted her to be okay in every way possible… because I cared a lot about her.
Does she know it? I wondered. Do the others know it? Connor seemed to sense it, but I wasn’t sure about Trevor and Duncan. How would they feel if they knew? It was going to cause issues when we couldn’t agree on her.
“Argh!” I was distracted from my thoughts by Megan’s terrified scream. As I snapped back into the present moment, I realized that I had automatically tipped a little to the side and she was beginning to slip.
In a moment of panic, I twisted myself back upright, but before I could get all the way there, Duncan and Trevor were beside me, ready to protect Megan at any given moment. That was sweet, but what really surprised me was Connor also joining us all. He supposedly hated Megan, but he wanted to save her life just like the rest of us. I had a feeling that there was a lot more to his emotions than what met the eyes. I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, I didn’t know how he really felt about Megan, but it couldn’t be hate, could it?
My mother had always told me that there was a thin line between hate and love and maybe this was proof of that. I never knew what it meant before, but it made sense, didn’t it? After all, the opposite of love was indifference and there was no way that anyone could accuse Connor of that when it came to Megan…
For the rest of the flight to the north of Inverness, we stayed close together as a team. Connor didn’t communicate with any of us, but this was the closest I had come to feeling like we were all together in a while now. I missed it more than I realized, I couldn’t help but love the comradery of us all being together. This gave me a warm glow and a burst of positivity that everything was going to be alright again. We would get through this.
By the time we landed, I was actually smiling, this project was going to be the thing that we needed to bring us all back together. Maybe even inviting Megan into the fold, like a friendship or whatever. As I leaned myself flat against the floor to let Megan slide to the f
loor, probably filling her with relief to have the earth underneath her, I was ready to have an adult conversation with all of us together, getting our point across.
“This is ridiculous.” Oh. But it seemed that Megan didn’t have the same idea as me. “Why the hell did we have to go so far for this? Surely, there are portals much nearer the academy.”
She was upset, I had a feeling it was because of the flying and the way that I almost tipped her to the ground because I was distracted, so I hung my head low as she stomped up and down, a rant flying from her. I knew that I was partly to blame for her mood so I couldn’t annoy myself that she didn’t want to talk.
“What the fuck?” Connor snapped back at her, not taking any of the blame himself. “Are you joking me right now? We fly you all the way to Inverness, saving you a long ass fucking drive, which is good because you don’t have a car anyway, try to look after you when you were scared and this is how you repay us?”
“I was only scared because Artemis nearly let me fall and we were way up high. Anyone would be…”
“Sorry,” I whispered sadly, but she didn’t want to hear it. She was too busy staring Connor down.
“So, is that why you asked the teacher to switch groups on us, huh? Because of the flying? Or was it yet again because you think you’re too good for us? Because I’m getting a bit sick of your snobbery.”
“I’m not snobby!” Megan cries back. “Haven’t you noticed that everyone else has been snobby towards me? Just because I’m Irish. I’m the least snobby person in the whole damn academy.”
“You think because you are related to one of the founders of the academy, you are better than others…”
I had no idea where this was coming from because he also had a relative who founded the academy. It seemed like he was conveniently forgetting about Pendragon for the sake of getting one over on Megan. But the bickering was growing, and I wasn’t sure that I could get a word in edge ways however hard I tried.
“You are the one who actually told me that all the women at the academy want you, and I think I’m better than other people? I don’t think so, Connor. You are the most arrogant person ever.”
Did he really say that? Okay, so we had gotten a lot of attention from the druidesses, but that didn’t mean he had to say something so stuck up sounding. This was really weird, the only thing I could put it down to was that he couldn’t place his feelings for Megan, but that he liked her a lot. A real lot. Like she could be the one for us. I hoped that wasn’t me just getting my own hopes up because that was what I wanted, but it seemed that way. The more annoyed he got by her, the more it seemed like he just wanted her attention in any way.
But the bad way wasn’t going to work out in the end, was it? It would simply push her the hell away.
“I’m just speaking the truth, Megan, and like I said to you before, you are clearly just jealous…”
“Jealous of what? I have made it perfectly obvious that I don’t like you at all.”
“That’s what you say, but underneath that prissy bitch fest you put out for the world to see, I can tell that you just want to be touched. Touched by me because you want to know what it feels like. You are just like the others.
“Urgh.” She shook her head hard. “I can’t imagine anything worse. You disgust me. I hate you.”
“Well, who do you want then? You must want someone at the academy. That’s why you are there.”
“Oh really? Because I thought we were here right now to watch this stupid porthole in the middle of nowhere to check that we aren’t at risk of any demons. See? Not everything at the academy is about love. Some of it is about danger and if we continue to stand here yelling at one another then we could miss out on vital work.”
“We have already missed out because you were late,” Connor barked. “Or have you forgotten that?”
“I was only about three minutes late; you can’t really be that pissed off about a couple of moments…”
“Well, I am. I don’t see why I should have to suffer because of you. This is my work, Megan, my future.”
“Oh, but it’s okay for you to distract me in every class, Connor? Because if you are making rules now then I think we should all have to follow them, even you. Even if you do think of yourself as king of the academy.”
I stared hopelessly at Trevor and Duncan, wondering what we needed to do to make this okay again, but even the peacekeeper didn’t know what to do. It seemed like this was even out of his control. But I needed it to end. I wasn’t really sure how anyone else felt about Megan, but I knew that I didn’t want to push her away no matter what. I wanted to keep her around for as long as I could, just to spend time with her, but what could I do…
“Oh my God.” I pointed towards the portal, but I must have said it too quietly because no one paid me even a scrap of attention. I needed everyone to look at me and I needed that right now… and not just to stop the fight. “Guys, look. Look over there. What the hell is that… that shadowy thing? It’s… it’s creepy.” A cold chill ran all the way through my body. I wasn’t sure how to vocalize this, but I needed to find a way. “Is that a demon?”
Chapter 5
Megan
I wasn’t sure why I was yelling at Connor really; he hadn’t actually done anything wrong, but it felt better than continuing to admit that the flying terrified me… even more so than I thought it would. I couldn’t stop shouting because then I would burst into hysterical tears and I really didn’t want that. Showing any more weakness in front of this guy, who for some reason hated me, was the last thing I needed to do.
“What?” Trevor called out, louder than all of us. “What did you say, Artemis? A demon?”
That was enough to shut the pair of us up. Connor and I both span around to look at the other dragons and we spotted a strange shadowy shape flying out of the portal. Immediately, I tried to convince myself that it was nothing, that we were just seeing things because the teacher told us we wouldn’t likely see anything, but the ice-cold chill that raced through my bones was almost too much for me. It stilled me in a way that I hadn’t ever experienced before.
What is this? My brain screamed loudly at me. Run, get the hell away from this thing…
But I couldn’t move anywhere. I tried to think back over all the reading I had done surrounding demons to prepare me for a moment just like this, but the information was all over the place. There were just so many demons, so many forms that they could take, so many ways they would fight and affect people, so many ways to take them down… I was completely and utterly overwhelmed. I couldn’t even part my lips to let out any noise.
“What do we do?” Artemis asked quietly. “We can’t just let it pass. It doesn’t matter what we were told.”
“We have to contact the teacher,” Duncan jumped in. “They need to do something about this.”
But I didn’t know how, Connor was the main point of contact from our group, and his silence seemed to speak volumes. He was so busy being irritated at me for being late that he didn’t remember his own duties. Well, that was just bloody marvelous. What a shame that I didn’t have the courage to scream at him some more.
The chill grew larger inside of me, it was almost as if the black shadowy shape inside of me was flooding me and completely filling me up. I wasn’t sure if I was about to explode at any point or not. It was hard work. I couldn’t even communicate with anyone that I was struggling, this was the worst thing that had ever happened to me. I could still hear the guys hissing and arguing with one another but I couldn’t make out any of the words. It was all a blur now. In fact, my vision was growing a little fuzzy as well. Any minute now, I was going to lose it completely.
Help me, God help me, I begged to anyone, anyone at all. Someone please, help me. Please…
“Oh my God.” All of a sudden, the warmth of a hand touching my back shattered through the cold. It was still there, like a brain freeze for my entire body, but it wasn’t quite as powerful. “What’s going on, Megan?”
Thank God for Artemis and his sweet sensitive nature. I did feel like he always had half an eye on me, like he was watching me because he cared so much. Now, he caught that there was clearly something wrong with me. Just someone recognizing that was enough for me to break free from the prison just the tiniest bit.
“I… I…” I rasped, but I couldn’t get pass that, so I pointed in the general direction of the shadow.
“Fucking hell,” Connor growled, thankfully directing his temper at someone else this time around. “That bastard.”
In a heart beat, he shifted and transformed into his over-sized terrifying dragon form once more. If I ever thought that he was intimidating as a man, the monster inside of him was a million times worse. But thankfully, this time the beat was on my side as he charged at a million miles an hour towards the shadow… but he missed it. Or more it seemed to vanish into thin air and reappear somewhere else. I knew that some of them could do that, but I forgot until this very moment. Now I really needed my mouth to loosen so I could use some magic.
Duncan and Trevor followed suit, chasing the demon around as much as they could, but it was a real challenge for them to locate it. Artemis waited with his hand on my back until I nodded at him, letting him know that he could go. Much as I needed him to hold on to me like that, I also knew that he had to fight. If we were going to have any chance of defeating this demon, then we needed all of us. Sure, it wasn’t exactly what we had been instructed to do, but we were in too deep now. We had started this fight and we needed to finish it. Whatever the consequences were going to be didn’t matter. We were here now, and we needed to make it right…
As soon as Artemis let go, my body flopped forwards and I grabbed on to my knees, desperately trying as hard as I could to suck plenty of air in. I felt ragged and raw, a little sick to be honest, but I wasn’t about to let that defeat me. There was a reason that the demon affected me, and I needed to believe that it was afraid of me. That would give me the much needed boost of confidence that I needed to get me going. I had to help the dragons.
