by Kyra Dune
“Dad grabbed me and dragged me kicking and screaming and crying out of the bathroom into the hall. He held me down on the floor in full view of the bathroom. I watched my brother die.” She wiped her hands across her face, smearing her pale makeup. “So that’s how I know about hybrids.”
What was I supposed to say to that? My first instinct was to hug her, but I didn’t know her well enough. So I stood there and she stood there with the silence growing between us and the corn stalks waving in the wind.
Hannah huffed out a breath. “Do you want to see your brother?”
My heart leapt up into my throat. “You know where he is?”
“Yeah. Come on.”
We continued around the cornfield to an open area where three large metal buildings stood. They looked like storage buildings to me. I frowned. “This is where they’re keeping him?”
“He’s locked up in a cellar. It’s hard to keep a dragon in jail. Especially a fire dragon.”
I could imagine. “No guards?”
“No one is supposed to know he’s in there,” Hannah said. “But of course, everyone does. The curse of living in a small town.”
I laughed. “I know all about it.”
“They might have security cameras up though,” Hannah said as we walked to the nearest building, “so we need to hurry.”
The door wasn’t locked, we walked right in. Which might have seemed odd to me if I hadn’t been so nervous about seeing Derek. I have no idea why I was nervous, but I was. Hannah found the light switch, and then we wound our way down a path between stacks of barrels and crates. At the back of the building, we found a trapdoor with a thick lock on it.
“Great,” I said, staring down at the door. “I don’t suppose you have the key.”
“No, but you do.”
“What?” I looked at her, wondering what the joke was. But she was serious. “What are you talking about?”
“You can use your power to manipulate the air around the tumblers and pick the lock.”
“Are you crazy?” I asked. “I can’t even stack cups into a pyramid.”
She made a face. “Why would you want to?”
“It’s a concentration exercise.” I felt my face start to redden. “Alice said --”
“Forget Alice and forget stacking some stupid cups. You want to see your brother? Then stop thinking and do what you were born to do.”
I sank down to my knees with a sigh. “I don’t know how to do this.” Laying my hand over the lock, I concentrated on making it open, trying to picture the tumblers moving inside my mind. Nothing happened. “It’s not working. I can’t– Hey!” I glared up at Hannah, who had just smacked me on the back of the head. “What did you do that for?”
She grinned. “Check the lock.”
“What do you mean, check the--” My voice trailed off when I saw the lock was open. “How did I do that?”
“You’re a dragon.” She patted my shoulder. “Now get down there and talk to your brother before we get caught. I’ll stay up here and keep watch.”
“Thanks.” I was still bewildered as to how I had managed to pick the lock while I was distracted, but I was in too much of a hurry to think much about it at the time.
I climbed down into the cellar. One dim bulb cast a pale yellow glow across Derek’s back where he lay on a cot. I took a step toward him, only to stop and clap a hand to my mouth as a wall of stench hit me. The room smelled the way I would imagine a sewer might smell. It was awful. Most of the stink was coming from a hole in the floor, but when I pushed myself closer to my brother, I couldn’t help noticing he didn’t smell so good either.
Keeping one hand pressed up under my nose, I leaned over and shook him by the shoulder. “Derek?”
He moaned, so at least he was still alive. Then he rolled over and my stomach clenched. Derek’s skin was pale and stretched tight over his bones. Dark smudges surrounded his eyes as he gazed blurrily up at me. I wasn't sure he even knew who I was.
I leaned closer despite the stench. “Derek, it’s me, Abigail. Your... your sister.”
“Abigail? Wh-what are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.” I looked him over. He was filthy and his clothes hung off him in a way they hadn’t when we first met. “My god, what are they doing to you?”
“Abigail.” He tried to push himself up with his arms, but couldn’t manage it.
I pressed on his shoulder to hold him down. “Don’t try to get up. You need to rest.”
“You... have to go.” He grasped my wrist with a weak grip. So weak it reminded me of Lance, a comparison my brain did not need to be contemplating at the moment. “Go. Escape. Before... before they kill you.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you.” I sat down beside him. “I swear I didn’t know what was happening to you or I would have done something. I don’t know what, but something. They can’t get away with this. It’s wrong.”
“Have to go,” he said. “They’ll kill you.”
“Who, Derek? Who’s going to kill me?”
“Trackers. Kill you like they killed our parents.”
All the air left my lungs in a whoosh like somebody had punched me in the guts. “What are you talking about? Megara killed our parents.”
He shook his head. “Trackers. You have to go.”
Well it made sense, don’t you think? If Alastair had sent trackers to kill Toby and his parents, why wouldn’t he have sent them after my family? Sure, he was my grandfather, but after hearing Hannah’s story I knew when it came to hybrids, blood didn’t always count for much. The only thing I couldn’t figure out was why pin the murder on Megara? There had to be a reason, but only one person could tell me what it was.
I rose slowly to my feet. “I’m going to come back for you. I swear. I’ll get you out of here.”
“No, Abigail. No. You run.”
I shook my head and then walked away without another word. It was so hard to leave him there, but I knew I couldn’t help him without coming up with some kind of a plan first. I climbed back up the steps.
“That bad, huh?” Hannah asked after taking one look at my face.
“Bad doesn’t even begin to cover it.” I brushed past her and stormed toward the front door. I had one thing on my mind and one thing only, confronting Alastair. Never mind how stupid it would be to do any such thing, my mind was not running rational.
Hannah hurried to catch up to me. “Whoa, girl, where are you going?”
“To get some answers.”
“Wait a minute.” She grabbed my arm. “Don’t go off in a huff and do something stupid.”
I spun around. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
Hannah took a step back, holding up both hands palm out toward me. “Hey, I’m not the enemy, remember?”
“Then what are you?”
“I’m trying to be your friend.” She lowered her arms and glanced over her shoulder. “Is he okay?”
“No, he is most definitely not okay.” I could feel tears building up behind my eyes, but I refused to cry. I had to be strong in my anger if I had any hope of getting anything out of Alastair. “He’s half dead down there, Hannah. I don’t know if they’re starving him or what, but he can’t go on this way. Nobody should be treated like that. Nobody. And all because he chose to leave his clan? It’s not like he killed someone.”
Hannah’s gaze shifted away from mine. “Actually, he did.”
“What? Who?” I almost didn’t want to ask. I wasn’t sure how much more shock I could take.
“Zack’s mom.”
I staggered to the side, my legs weak. If it weren’t for a nearby crate which I used to steady myself, I would have hit the floor. “Derek is the one who burned down the auditorium?”
“You heard about that?”
I nodded. My entire body felt numb. “Rick told me, but he didn’t get into the details. Why would Derek--” I gasped as the whole puzzle clicked in my head. “Zack’s mom was a tracker.”
“Yeah.”
“Did she... I mean, everybody said Megara killed my parents. But she didn’t, did she?”
Hannah shifted her feet. “I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so. They were renegades. You were a hybrid. It’s how it is.” Maybe the words sound callous to you, but if you could have seen her face as she spoke them, you would know better. Our gazes met as we bonded over the shared injustices which had marked our lives.
I leaned my head back against the crate. I couldn’t call Derek killing Zack’s mom justice, even if she had some part in what happened to our parents. But I could understand how it might have happened. Maybe I was rationalizing it out inside my head because I didn’t want to think of my brother as a killer. I don’t know. But I knew I had to get him out of there. I had to get us both out of there. Before we ended up dead.
“What are you going to do?” Hannah asked.
“I don’t know yet, but I have to get out of here.” I knew I was taking a huge risk in trusting her, but it felt right. “Will you help me?”
“Oh, yeah. When you’re ready give me the word. I’ll do whatever you need.”
“Thanks.” It felt so strange to be talking like this, to be thinking the things I was thinking. But then my life had turned strange. In the time since Zack first told me I was a dragon, everything had changed. Including me. And changing back was not an option.
CHAPTER SIX
Mi Mi was in the kitchen cooking dinner. Alastair was still wherever he went when he wasn’t at home. And I was standing at the door to a room I had no business entering. I had never been in Alastair’s private study, but since he was Head of the Council, I figured he might have some kind of files or something listing where everybody lived. And I also figured the only way I was going to get Zack to talk to me was if I showed up at his house in the middle of the night and refused to leave.
I know what you’re thinking and you’re right. With everything that was going on, Zack should have been the last thing on my mind. I had a brother to rescue and an escape to pull off, only I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving without seeing him one more time. So there I was, doing something stupid and incredibly dangerous. I had no idea what would happen if I was caught, but it would certainly put a hold on things. And I didn’t think Derek could last much longer in his condition.
I opened the door and started to flick on the lights. Then thought better of it. If Mi Mi came upstairs for some reason and saw light under the door she would probably come to investigate. The window shades were up, allowing in enough late evening sunlight for me to see by anyway.
The study was almost as large as the living room downstairs. It was all dark paneling and overstuffed bookshelves, with a sturdy oak desk situated in front of a fireplace. The kind of desk that wraps all the way around, leaving only a space at the back to slip your legs under.
After pausing a minute to listen and make sure Mi Mi was still in the kitchen, I gently closed the door. I went to the desk and sat in Alastair’s leather chair in front of the desktop. If it was password protected I’d be out of luck. My cousin, Curtis, could probably have broken into a protected computer, but I couldn’t.
Thinking of Curtis brought on a rush of guilt so strong tears blurred my vision. I had left everybody I loved thinking I was dead to protect them from Megara and she wasn’t even a threat to them. I didn’t know why she had chased me down at the truck stop, but I was beginning to think it wasn’t to kill me.
Alice had lied to me. So had Zack. And it stung. I paused with my finger hovering over the start up button on the tower. I wanted to believe Zack hadn’t known he was lying, but I couldn’t. If Hannah knew the truth, no way he didn’t. He’d hid things from me and straight up lied to me. I should have been angry and I was, kind of, but it didn’t change anything. It didn’t change the way I felt. I guess if watching him kill someone right in front of me couldn’t erase these feelings then nothing could.
I pressed the button, knowing I was a fool. Zack had made it abundantly clear he wanted nothing to do with me and here I was risking everything to see him. If I slipped up and gave him any clue of what I was planning I had no doubt he would go straight to Alastair. Not only was I risking my own life, I was also risking my brother’s, and for what? Some guy I barely knew. It was crazy, but I guess those kind of feelings always are.
The computer hummed to life. I waited, fully expecting, even hoping, to be stopped cold by a password request since my good sense seemed to be taking a vacation. Instead, the screen came right on. Just my luck Alastair wasn’t the paranoid sort. Unsure of what else to do, I went to the search bar and typed in ‘Zachary Arnold Truant’. A list of files popped up and I clicked the one labeled ‘address.’
According to the file, Zack lived with Alexander and Maria Truant, who I guessed must be his dad and stepmom, and Hector Rodriguez. Huh, he hadn’t mentioned to me he had a brother. But then he hadn’t told me Derek killed his mom either.
Even though I’d been living at the compound for three months, I hadn’t exactly done much exploring so the address pretty much meant nothing to me. I went back to the search bar and typed in ‘map’ and sure enough up popped a map of the entire compound. It surprised me how easy it was, but then again what reason would Alastair have to hide this stuff? Who would care?
Once I had memorized a good route to get to Zack’s house, I found myself thinking about typing my name in and seeing what would come up. Only I didn’t know my name. Not my real name, the one I was born with. I suspected at least my first name was true, because my grandparents had called me by it from the start, but I couldn’t be sure.
Have you ever sat down and considered how much of your identity is tied to your name? No? Neither had I, not until then. It was weird to think if I typed in ‘Abigail Susanna Freeman’ nothing would come up because that wasn’t who I was. Not really. I couldn’t even look up my parents, because in all the time I’d lived with my grandparents, I had never actually heard anyone speak my real last name.
Even over the whir of the computer and the rush of my tangled thoughts, I had no trouble hearing the front door open. Alastair was home. I clicked on the shutdown button. The screen turned blue and words appeared informing me the computer was running updates and should not be turned off or unplugged.
Footsteps on the stairs sent my heart leaping into my throat. I had no explanation for what I was doing in Alastair’s study and no way to know how he might react to me being there. I tapped my fingers on the desk, silently willing the computer to hurry up. Updates seemed stuck on thirty-three percent.
Now the footsteps were coming down the hall. I was out of time. I dropped from the chair onto my knees and pulled the plug. The study door opened and the light came on. I scuttled under the desk, holding my breath and hoping Alastair didn’t have to do any work before dinner. I could hear him moving around, shuffling papers. My hands were clenched so tight it hurt. A trickle of sweat slid down the side of my nose.
Something hit the top of the desk with a heavy thump and I flinched, biting the inside of my mouth hard to keep from crying out. The coppery taste of blood rolled across my tongue. My heart was beating so fast I thought I was going to pass out at any second.
Alastair’s footsteps retreated across the room and the light went out, then door clicked shut. I gasped out the breath I was holding, letting my head fall back against the side of the desk. “That was way too close,” I muttered.
I crawled out from under the desk, plugged the computer back in, and then went to the door. Opening it cautiously, I paused to listen. The voices of Alastair and Mi Mi floated up to me from the kitchen. As I slipped out into the hall, my earlier fear was replaced with this kind of giddy sensation. Sneaking into Alastair’s study and messing around with his stuff was the worst offense I had ever committed. Which sounds way lame, I know.
I went back to my room and stayed there until Mi Mi came to get me for dinner. At the table, I stared at my plate, unable to look at my grandparents. Ange
r was coming back to me and I didn’t want to risk giving anything away. I kept seeing Derek in my mind. I knew Alastair must have ordered him to be treated that way, but was Mi Mi aware of what was going on? I wanted to know so bad I was tempted to ask, but I didn’t dare let them know I had seen my brother.
If they wanted to talk, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle it. How was I supposed to be civil to people who were responsible for the deaths of birth parents? Who had locked my brother up in a cellar and left him to die? Luckily, I was spared having to figure it out.
Alastair didn’t interrogate me about my training as he usually did. He ate in silence, his brow furrowed. Mi Mi picked at her food, looking anywhere but at me. Something was up, but I didn’t care to know what it was. I was too busy concentrating on choking down my dinner.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. The anger was building up inside of me with the passing of each silent second. I had to get out of there before I exploded. I pushed back my chair and Mi Mi finally looked at me, her expression one of concern.
“Is something wrong, sweetheart?”
I shook my head. “I’m kind of tired. I think I’ll go to bed.”
“Oh, well, all right then.” Her smile trembled at the corners. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.” I forced the word out from between my teeth, then turned and walked out of the room without looking back.
Back in my room, I laid on my bed and waited. Until the red sun slipped over the western horizon. Until the moon and stars were bright in the night sky. Until the house was still and silent around me. Then I got up, crept downstairs, and slipped out the backdoor.
Have you ever noticed how creepy it is outside after the sun sets? The darkness seems to crowd around you, thickening the trees and amplifying even the slightest noise. Every house I passed was a hulking shadow.
I walked down the center of the street, grateful for the puddles of light cast by the street lamps. Otherwise it would have been pitch black with clouds covering the stars. A tree branch swayed and I jumped, my heart racing, certain something was about to leap out of the dark at me. Yeah, my imagination was on overdrive. I even kept looking over my shoulder, about halfway convinced someone was following me. But of course, nobody was there. By the time I reached Zack’s house I was a bundle of nerves. I only hoped I didn’t do something embarrassing as a result.
