by Sariah Skye
"Damn."
He laughed. "You wanna see something cool?" Gabriel set his mug down on the counter. "Um, a little help?" he motioned to the sleeping cat in his lap. "I don’t want to startle her and have her claw me."
"Yeah." I gingerly reached for the contented cat on his lap, trying to ignore the close proximity as I stood nearer to him again. She let out a little crabby noise but she allowed me to set her on a blanket on the reclining chair without too much fuss.
"By the window," he said, reaching for my upper arm and leading me to the tall plate glass window in my living room. I started a bit at the electricity his touch caused, and he pulled away.
"Sorry…"
"It’s okay," I said, allowing him to guide me to an empty spot on the floor.
It was cold outside, but he slid open the window anyway, causing a draft that made me shiver. Dragons were rarely cold but it must have been the nerves; they were all on hyper mode.
"Okay, now you can feel…it’s cold but not windy, right?" I nodded, and he continued. "Okay, now this might not work at all, but we can try. It depends on you."
"’Kay," was all I said, as he shut his eyes and began to channel…something. Concentrating, he moved his palms across from each other in a circular motion, as if turning a ball that was in his hands, but nothing was there for a few moments.
"Close your eyes," he instructed, and I did.
"Okay, now when you feel it’s right, lean forward and blow gently towards my hands. If it works, you’ll know." I nodded, didn’t dare speak and break his concentration.
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to feel, but I felt the energy level in the room gradually increase, not sure how but I could feel it there like a certain…heaviness. It was lighter than air and yet, it touched every fiber of my being. I could hear a small breeze whistling from outside, felt a slight tickle of cold on my nose.
I leaned closer to him and slowly pursed my lips together and exhaled, gently as he said. I didn’t feel it at first but suddenly I felt a gust of wind zipping around me, so cold the hair on my arms stood on end. Or maybe that was the energy.
"Open your eyes," he said softly.
I did, and I could see the white gauze curtains over the window blowing as if from a strong storm outside. It rustled the pages of a magazine on the couch and the papers across the room on my fridge were threatening to fall from the wind. Amazed I looked back towards Gabriel, his wavy hair blowing in the frigid cold, but he was smiling widely.
"You conjured the wind?" I questioned, not sure what I had done.
"I did but you made it stronger," he said, his palms were upright and outstretched, he pulled them in then, willing the air to come with him. It followed his request and was once again contained in the little imaginary ball in his hands. "Do you see it? In the air in here?"
I leaned closer and closer still, squinting my eyes until I saw the tiniest of sparkled specks, twirling around and around like the storms on Jupiter’s atmosphere. "The sparkles?"
He nodded. "That is you. You breathed on the air, even in your human form and you amplified my magic to nearly three times the strength of what it was. You did that, not me. All I did was grab the air from outside. Eventually when you get more control, you won't even need to use your dragon fire; it'll just happen."
I moved my fingertips to my lips, feeling awed and a new sense of elation. "Can I do it again?" I had to watch this time.
"Of course," he said, and I blew a little harder this time. The wind gusted then throughout the apartment, small speckles of glittery dust danced on the wind around me, blowing through my hair, across my shoulders. It was charged, almost like you could feel lightning impending before a storm. I watched, enchanted as the wind blew photos of my fridge, blew the curtains around like a tornado. Gabriel moved his hands apart and the wind grew stronger still, nearly blowing me over, startling Sona from a sound sleep where she let out a yelp and dashed for cover in the bedroom down the small hall.
Quickly Gabriel pulled his hands together with a clap, and the wind was gone but the charged energized dust fell to the ground slowly, becoming less visible as they fell until they were eventually gone.
I grinned. "Crap, that was awesome!"
Gabriel blinked, like he had something in his eye. "Yes, it was. I can’t believe, you…" he trailed off, turning away. "You trust me?"
I was taken aback by his question. "What do you mean? I trust you? I mean, I…." I wasn’t sure until he asked the question, but something inside told me I did but I couldn’t vocalize it just yet.
"You see me as an ally, at least… or else you wouldn’t have been able to amplify my magic," he said, befuddled with amazement. "I was figuring you would just extinguish it."
I shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant. "Well, you know…I am a freak, I do freakish things." It was odd though, that I seemed to trust him already as I never trusted anyone but, there was just something about him.
"Don’t! Don’t ever say that again!" With a serious, stern look upon his face, intensity in his eyes he grabbed me firmly by the shoulders. "You are not a freak, not by a long shot. You have to stop saying that. Your days of thinking like that are over, do you hear me? If I’m going to be around at all, you have to start seeing yourself as I see you: as a miracle. Not a freak. You are going to do some unique things, but they aren’t freakish. You are only made to feel that way by an ignorant society. Do you understand me, Leorah? Do you?"
Feeling stunned, wide eyed I slowly nodded. "Y-yes, I’m sorry, I guess, old habits—" Suddenly my breath was taken away from me as he pulled me closer and pressed his lips against mine, cutting off my words.
My neck and arms went slack, and I used his warm body to support me as I melted into him, his lips entwined with mine and every particle in my body was awake, on fire, charged as he kissed me. My first kiss…ever.
He surprised me when he pulled away, looking at everything but me like he was ashamed. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that."
I put a fingertip on his chin to force him to look back at me. "Don’t be sorry. Not for that." I smiled.
He smiled back in reply, but there was something conflicting in his eyes.
"Well," he said, standing. "I suppose it’s late, I should let you get some sleep."
Refusing to get up, I just sat there stubbornly. "I’m a dragon, I don't need that much sleep. If you leave I’m just going to be up watching TV." I didn’t want him to go. For the first time ever, I felt the need to be near someone that wasn’t my brother, or grandfather. It felt good when he was around, talking to him made me happy; probably happier than I ever felt. Ever.
He sighed. "I have something I need to do, okay?"
I winced. "Oh well, I—" I put a finger to my lips, where he kissed me. I could still feel the pressure, the heat of his lips there. I didn’t want the sensation to go away.
"It’s not you. I’m just afraid…" he trailed off, heading towards the door.
Quickly, I dashed up to him, reaching for his forearm. "I don’t work tomorrow. I have the day off." I wanted to ask if I could see him again, but the way he was acting, something hesitated inside me.
"I will see you later," he said. He opened the door, and paused.
Feeling slighted, I crossed my arms in front of me, fixing my face in an expression of neutrality. I didn’t want to show him how I felt. "Well, then. See you." Pretend we didn’t just kiss. Pretend it wasn’t amazing!
He gave me a small smile. Reluctantly, he reached for my hand and put it to his lips. His brown eyes lit up briefly as he said, "Farewell, milady." He let my hand fall to my side then and was gone out the door, the sound of it shutting felt like a weight on my heart.
I stood there blankly, feeling a million things I’d never felt in that very moment that I had never felt before, completely dazed and confused.
"Meow?" Sona had emerged from the bedroom. I slid down the wall until I was sitting, pressing my palm against my cheek, nuzzling the spot where he kissed
. Sona brought me out of my daze with a lick of her sandpapery feeling tongue on my arm.
I hugged her near me, appreciating the tangibility of her presence. She was here and suddenly, he was not.
"What the hell was that?" I whispered to her. She said nothing, as I expected but I had no idea myself.
Chapter 4
Much as I anticipated, I did not sleep well last night. My mind kept playing movies of Gabriel over and over: the electricity I felt when I was near him, the magic we (literally!) made and of course…that kiss. It was amazing. Then I began debating; was the kiss amazing because it was my first and only one? Was it actually quite bad and I had nothing to compare it to? Did I kiss him or did he kiss me? I was pretty sure it was he who kissed me so…why all the strange behavior, and tearing out of my apartment like he couldn’t get away from me fast enough?
Then there was the realization that, Holy shit! I was powerful! If they only knew; all those dragons that taunted me in school, poking fun at me because I didn’t have any magic, or specialize in any element like everyone else, and how ridiculous was it that I breathed sparkly mist like Tinkerbell’s fairy dust. But what was the point of it all?
So…I could stop and amplify magic, at my very whim. So what? What good was it going to do me now? Perhaps I could go around schools and anytime dragons get too rowdy on the play fields I just exhale and put an end to the incident.
Then there was Gabriel. Was I really going to allow some guy whom I barely knew change his whole life around just because someone decided his destiny a long time ago? And why now? And was he even being truthful? So he had the dragon tattoo. Or, mark, whatever. He had the magic. He could just be a super-hot human who just knows how to do magic. None of that had anything to do with me.
I won’t even start about…the kiss.
I lay in bed and stretched my arms over my head, smiling as I thought about it. Why did he freak out like that? Maybe it was just too soon for him. Or…
…maybe he wasn’t who he said he was.
I groaned, thinking of the words my grandfather often said to me: "Leorah, there are good people out there, and bad. Sometimes it’s hard to tell who the good ones are from the bad. Sometimes people are going to take advantage of you. Someday someone is going to come along you are going to have to decide if they are worth trusting, and only you can make that decision because you are more than you realize. You are special. You’ll show them all, one day."
I pulled the blanket over my head, hoping it would drown out his words as they echoed over and over in my mind. I never thought much of it, just a loving grandfather giving advice to his favorite (okay, only) granddaughter. But now I wondered…did he know something? Something I didn’t?
I sat up and tossed the covers off of me. It was time to go have a talk with my grandfather. Even if he was just being wise, perhaps he could tell me if he had ever heard anything about this Order…he was old enough, he might remember it and could tell me if what Gabriel said held any truth.
With new resolve I showered, got dressed in a super low cut tank top under a tattered red plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans with holes in them. My parents hated anything but the traditional dragon robes and other such attire—especially human clothes that were anything less than perfect or revealing. I tossed my strawberry hair up in a ponytail and with a quick pat on Sona's head, I grabbed my keys and handbag and sped out in my car down the highway. The closest portal to Anarach was about fifteen miles away, east; about two small towns over.
Along the way I called Kit at her shop to tell her I was going to be gone for a day or so, I wasn’t sure. Time moved by more slowly in the dragon realm and just in case I was there longer than expected I wanted to make sure she came in and fed Sona. Thankfully she already had a key from the many times I went home and needed her assistance to care for the cat. Kit was of course panicked but she understood.
"What ever happened with that guy that was in the shop the other day? The cute one with the glasses that freaked you out so much?" she asked, before I could hang up the phone.
"Oh, uh…nothing really. He thought he knew me but turns out he didn’t," I lied. Well, it was kind of true, I suppose.
"Oh. Is everything else okay, Leo?" she asked concerned. Out of everyone on Earth (well, the human version of Earth), Kit probably knew me the best and could sense something was obviously wrong.
"Yeah…just…well my brother is getting engaged. Some family shit going on…it’s a bit…unexpected," I said, settling on an explanation. Wasn’t entirely a lie, I was pretty sure when my parents found out they’d go crazy but, that’s for my brother to deal with, not me.
"Ah, okay. Well don’t worry, take as long as you need. I'll just make Maddy and Em work some more; I'm sure they'll love that," she said with sarcasm. "I’ll make sure Sona is taken care of. Oh and I’ll light a candle for you at my altar tonight, I hope everything goes well," she said, speaking of her Wiccan altar. Kit was a witch—the non-magical kind, or so I assumed.
"Thanks, Kit," I said, and we said our good-byes and hung up.
It was a colorful, bright autumn day here in Minnesota, and normally I would relish in the scenic drive but today I was too distracted to even care. The road was fairly empty, thankfully, so I could speed without worrying too much about injuring another driver. I was on a damn mission.
The drive seemed like forever although it was only about fifteen minutes, it felt like hours. Finally, I reached the turn-off road—marked with only a wooden stake with an "X" carved on it—and it was another five miles down a bumpy, dirty gravel road which led me through the middle of a corn field and eventually to a handful of trees which gave way to a full blown pine forest.
I couldn’t drive any further, so I parked my car underneath a small area that I had dug before during my many times out here, out of brush and bushes and hoped that locking it and keeping it hidden underneath some branches would keep it safe. Thankfully this portal was rarely used; I was pretty sure that I was the only one who had used it in the past year.
Slinging my backpack over my shoulder containing my dragon robes and other essentials you couldn’t find in the dragon realm. I shoved my keys in my jeans pocket and made my way to the portal, located about 200 feet away, cloaked by a willow sapling. It was out of place and shouldn’t exist in the middle of such a large forest but the average human wouldn’t think anything of it. To anyone that would, it would look and feel just like a regular tree. Ah, the wonders of dragon magic!
Before I even reached it, I could feel the energy emanating off the concealed portal. There was a fresh set of heavy boot prints around the portal, whose edges hadn’t yet faded with the wind or been trampled by animals or covered by pine needles.
"Huh…wonder who’s been through here," I wondered aloud, not giving it much thought. I made a mental note to question the portal guard on the other side. Typically, that information was private but…being the granddaughter of Elder Aleron even though I was a pink dragon freak did have its advantages if it was one of the nicer guards that stood watch on the other side.
I closed my eyes and reached my hands out to the portal, feeling the air around them crackle and hum like static electricity. I felt the electricity around me as the portal opened. It was only mere seconds of a slight blur and something of a breathless, sucking feeling as my world changed from human Earth to the dragon kingdom of Anarach; most specifically the village of Green Knoll where my family currently resided.
I opened my eyes as the rolling green hills spread out before me, as far as the eye could see. As much as I hated the society, the land was breathtaking. Green hills looking like something out of Ireland rolled and met the piercing blue, cloudless sky. Patches of wildflowers in every color and size broke up the landscape. I smiled, and took a deep breath while taking it all in.
"Leorah, good to see you!" a rather bored looking portal guardian spoke. A green dragon named Baron Maxxus looked up from a book he was reading to grin his wide smile at me.
/> I jumped at the sound of his voice. "Oh, Maxxus…you startled me. I don’t know why; I know you’re always here. Gets me every time!"
Maxxus chuckled. Sometimes he'd been in his green dragon form when I crossed over but not today; today he opted for his rather attractive human form that resembled a handsome old-world Hollywood actor complete with dignified glamour. He had an electric smile and piercing blue eyes underneath a mass of slightly wavy, rusty-hued dark blonde hair. I'd actually known Maxxus before his position as a guard; he was the dragon my grandfather had sponsored for him to get his Court position so we were previously acquainted. My grandfather thought very highly of him and so, I did too.
"You surprised me, too! It’s been weeks since anyone came through on my shift. Nicodemus and I were just complaining about why we were even here…no one’s come through in ages!" Maxxus spoke with a light, British-sounding accent; very proper but not at all stuffy. A lot of dragons in Anarach had some sort of mild accent depending upon where they grew up (and how angry they were). I had lost most of mine living in Minnesota but it came out now and then.
I let out a chuckle before I remembered the fresh footsteps and the warm portal on the other side. "No one at all? Are you sure?" I asked, raising my eye brow, attempting to read his face for dishonesty. "The portal was charged like it had been used recently."
"Not at all. Believe me, Milady Leorah, I would know if they did. Nic and I have a bet going on the first person to come through on our shift, the other owes a beer. Been months since we made that bet, but it makes it interesting," he chuckled, grinning. "I guess he owes me a drink!"
