by Lilly Wilder
“I was worried about Cal. So I tracked his phone to the forest, but I didn’t find him. I found you.”
Finn shoved his hand in his jeans pocket and fished out a phone, which I presumed was Cal’s.
“He wasn’t there.”
“So where was he? And what was that thing I saw?”
“I don’t know. It was dark. You must have been seeing things.”
“I know damned well what I saw. Misty was the one who had a lot of wine, not me.”
Finn sighed again.
“Cal has a cabin he goes to sometimes. I thought he might be there, but he wasn’t. When I came back, I was attacked by a wild animal. It came out of nowhere, and that’s what you saw. It didn’t have anything to do with Cal.”
I thought back to the conversation I’d had with Cal and how I’d told him about the sense I’d developed as a child for when people lied to me. That never went away, and over the years I’ve developed a strong sense for bullshit. I looked at Finn carefully and narrowed my eyes. He wasn’t being entirely honest with me. There were no visible signs, but there was a feeling in my gut that he was hiding something from me.
“Finn, I know there’s something else going on. What aren’t you telling me?”
“It’s better for your own sake if you stop pressing me for an answer. I get that you like Cal, I really do. I mean, why wouldn’t you? He’s a great guy, but there’s still a lot you don’t know about him and it’ll be way easier on you if you let me go and never think about us again.”
I have to admit that at the time I was sorely tempted. Over the course of two nights I had experience a great deal of turmoil. Maybe Finn was right, and it was going to be better for me to just leave it, but I couldn’t, not after what I’d seen. There was a mystery here, and for better or worse, I couldn’t let it go. I had to take a chance and convince Finn that I could handle this, because right now it was like I was talking to a brick wall.
“Finn, I saw a dragon.”
It seemed like the most outlandish thing I could say, and I thought that nothing else would get his attention. I didn’t think there was any truth in the matter though, but when his eyes widened and his jaw dropped, I suddenly realized there was more to this than I had suspected. The reaction I expected was for him to have rolled his eyes and told me to stop being crazy, and then to have told me that it was really something mundane, but was it possible? Could there really be a dragon?
“That’s crazy! You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve had enough of this. I don’t have to be here and be interrogated by you,” he said, rising from the couch. I stood in the way of his exit though and glared at him. His false protestations didn’t fool me. I knew that something was wrong.
“Finn, are there really such things as dragons? I didn’t believe it, but that tail…how? How did you survive a battle with the dragon? How are you not dead? Where’s Cal? Did Cal get killed? I deserve some answers and I’m not done with you until I get some.”
At that point, I think Finn knew he was fighting a losing battle. His shoulders slumped. Maybe it was something of a relief to him as well to finally be free of the burden of this secret.
“Did Cal tell you anything about me, or about any secret part of his life?”
“No…the only secret he mentioned was about his ex.”
“What did he say?”
I held my hands open. “Nothing anyone else wouldn’t have said.”
“Tell me exactly, please.”
“He told me that they were together for a long time but that eventually it felt like something was missing, and neither of them could figure out what it was, and then it took too long, and they broke up. He said he didn’t think they’d get back together again.”
“I see,” Finn said. A strange look came over his face and then I began to piece it together. I now knew why Finn had been at the construction site so worried about Cal, and why he had been acting so strangely towards me. I remembered how he had winced when I told him that Cal and I had been on something that was like a date. And it made sense why he only wanted to go to find Cal alone, without me, and why he would risk his life to save Cal.
“You’re the ex, aren’t you?” I gasped. I had my confirmation from the way Finn looked at me. “Oh my God.”
“So you can understand why I’m a bit more invested in this ordeal than you are,” he said.
“I get it, but that doesn’t mean we can’t both be worried. Okay, that’s one mystery cleared up, so what the hell is happening? Are you going to tell me about the dragons, or why one of them took Cal away? I can’t actually believe I just said that…”
“If you can’t believe it then you might want to stop this now, because you’re going to have to open your mind to the impossible. Do you think you can do that Danni?”
“I know, I can.” For Cal, I could do anything, and I wasn’t about to come up short in a competition against Finn, especially not now I knew that he was my rival. “Besides, if you’re telling me that dragons exist then we have to tell someone! This is big news. We can’t just keep it between us.”
“No,” Finn said harshly. “If we’re going to do this then I need to know that you’re going to keep it a secret, and I’m only telling you because it seems like you care about Cal and it looks like I’m going to need all the help I can get. But what you hear, what we see, can’t get back to anyone. We’ve kept our secret for generations, and I’m not about to let you go and ruin our lives for us.”
“Wait…we’ve…you mean you’re a…dragon?”
When I mentioned the word, Finn drew himself up to his full height and stood proudly, holding his head up high. He seemed to glisten with energy and his eyes gleamed brightly.
“I am, as is Cal. Our dragon names are Finnbrocken and Callaheedrist. We were bonded for a long time but, well, what Cal told you was largely accurate. There is still a deep well of feelings between us though, and I do not want to see him hurt.”
“Just give me a moment to wrap my head round this.” I walked away from him and returned to my seat. My head was swimming and I felt like I needed some sturdy support underneath me. The moment he told me he was a dragon, he seemed to bristle with some extra energy. It certainly explained what was so different about him and Cal to other people I dated. There was still wine in the bottle on the table and I thought that it might do me good to have some. It wasn’t like things could get any crazier.
“So you and Cal are dragons. Right. But you don’t look like dragons.”
“We have the ability to shift,” he said calmly.
“Of course you do,” I rolled my eyes.
“It’s an ability we developed a long time ago. It helps us blend in with the humans. We are a proud species, but we learned a long time ago that our presence would only cause great war and destruction, for humanity can’t help but hunt us, and since there are few places in the world where humans haven’t reached, we were forced to develop other means to survive.”
“But dragons are mythical, aren’t they?”
Finn smirked. “There’s a reason you think that. We didn’t want any humans trying to hunt us, so we hid ourselves well for all these years. But over the years dragons have become a part of legend rather than history, but all legends are based in truth. There was a time when we roamed across the world as freely as birds. It was a great sight to see a thunder of dragons soaring through the sky. Now we are reduced to hiding in the darkness and wearing these skins to wander around the world.” A wistful look came over his eyes and he turned his hands upside down, looking at his human limbs.
“You seem a little stronger than the average human.”
“There are certain advantages we have,” he explained, “but all you need to know is that dragons exist, we’re a secret, and we’d like to keep it that way. It’s rare that a mortal should ever learn of our secret, so you should feel honored.”
To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I felt.
&n
bsp; “So you can just turn into dragons? Do you get to choose when it happens?”
“We do. Think of it as changing into pajamas after a long day at work. It’s relaxing, and a release.”
“Do all dragons only mingle with their own kind?”
“No, some do form attachments to humans and end up fully immersing themselves in human society and culture. Some dragons even refuse to change into their true form because they become so enamored with their lives that they don’t want to risk it. Others, like me and Cal, try to escape whenever we can.”
“And the person who took him? What of them? Are they an evil dragon or something? Is he in danger? Is he even still alive?”
“He is,” Finn said grimly, “but he might not be for long. We have a…rival.”
“Oh, this should be good,” I said, letting my hands fall into my lap. “Go on then, give me the whole story.”
“He calls himself Zee, but his real name is Zerinthor. He’s a black dragon, one of the most powerful of our kind, and he has always been prone to evil. Even when we were younger, he took great delight in bullying the smaller dragons. He always wanted to prove himself the best of us, in everything, and if he ever lost a competition, he would seek revenge. Despite all this he managed to find love. His bride, a white dragon called, Dovalia, doted on him and saw something that we could not see, but they were devoted to each other. That was until one day Cal, Dovalia and myself went off flying. Zerinthor was brooding and was annoyed that Dovalia was spending any time with us, but it didn’t stop her. Looking back on it, I wish it had. We were flying across the ocean, and we were far from any boats or planes. The sea was as smooth as a mirror and reflected back the moon and stars. Cal and I danced together, and Dovalia flew alongside us, until we saw a storm. It crackled with lightning and the wind whipped up the sea, causing small tornados and whirlpools to spring up. It was bestial and tormenting and was quite a sight to see. We hovered there, our bodies illuminated by the bright lightning, the thunder was an echo of our beating wings.”
Finn paused. His face looked ashen and I could tell that he was in great pain. I felt pity for him.
“We should have stayed there,” he said, his emotion cracking, “we never should have moved closer, but the storm was tempting, and we were young and foolish. We were dragons, and we thought we could survive anything.”
“So you made Dovalia go into the storm?”
“No, it was the opposite in fact. Dovalia had something of a wild streak, which you only noticed if you got to know her properly. It was probably the same thing that led her to fall in love with Zerinthor. She saw the storm and wanted to get as close as possible. She said she wanted to feel the lightning singe her wings. In our arrogance, we weren’t going to let her show us up and return to tell Zerinthor that we were cowards, so we flew in with her. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. The wind crashed against us and was so fierce that we almost ran into each other. The lightning cracked down and the rain slashed down, peppering our bodies. As soon as we entered the storm, I knew that we had made a mistake. I called to Cal for us to go back and he agreed, but Dovalia was shrieking wildly. She flew away from us, ignoring us, and we had no choice but to watch as she flew into the storm. Her white body was stark against the dark storm and I held my breath. I wanted to go in after her, but Cal said that it was suicide. We could both see that it was dangerous, and neither understood why Dovalia was staying in there for that long.
We flew as close as we could and roared for her to come back to us. She looked back and made some flamboyant moves, telling us that she was in control of the whole thing, but then a burst of lightning caught her on the wing and made her flinch. She lost her momentum and was flung away. If it had been a normal day there wouldn’t have been any danger, but the tornados caught her and flung her around, whipping her with rain and air and the water it had caught up. We cried out and she flailed, trying to escape, but she was in a prison, and was swallowed up completely. She was buffeted back and forth and eventually expelled. She crashed to the water. Her wings were torn and broken, her head lolled at an unnatural angle. She splashed into the water and was sinking down. Cal and I dove to rescue her, and we plucked her body from the sea, but there was nothing we could do. She wasn’t breathing, and there was no light in her eyes.
We carried her back home and Zerinthor has blamed us for her death ever since. He’s been trying to get revenge, and it seems as though he found us after years of hiding.”
“Oh my God. I can’t believe what you’ve been through. That must have been horrible,” I said, and I wondered if Cal had been thinking about that when I had told him about my secret, but of course he hadn’t said anything to me. “But surely Zerinthor can’t hold you responsible for what happened? This was Dovalia’s choice.”
“Yes, but he’ll never see it that way. In his eyes Dovalia could do no wrong, and he’s certainly not going to accept that she went into that storm willingly. He thinks that we wanted her out of the way to get back at him for bullying us all through our youth. He sees the world in a twisted way, and I don’t think there’s ever going to be a way to change his mind.”
“But this is crazy! What does he want?”
“All he wants is to make us suffer.”
“So Cal is dead…” I said, feeling a hole opening up in my heart.
“No, not yet. Zerinthor won’t want to end things so easily. He took Cal and left me alive so that I’d chase after Cal. Zerinthor wants to put me through hell. When Cal didn’t return my call the other day, I knew that something was wrong. I had hoped that I was mistaken…but I wasn’t. Now you see why I warned you off. Why it’s better for you if you don’t get involved in this.”
“I’m already involved Finn, and I’m not just going to stand by and let this bully get his way. I don’t care whether he’s a dragon or not. We have to stand up to bullies, otherwise they get away with everything. Do you know where he’s taken Cal?”
“Yes, up to his lair in the mountains.” I arched my eyebrows. “He’s not like other dragons,” Finn explained, “he’s never liked the fact that we have to hide our true natures. As far as he’s concerned, we’re the superior race and we should be at the top of the food chain, not humans. And he thinks it’s a stain on our race that we’ve adopted the appearance of the weaker race. If he had his way, he’d start a war against your race, but he’s not a fool. He knows that he’d never win, so he broods in his mountains, alone and isolated, mourning Dovalia and nursing his hatred for me and Cal.”
“Sounds like he needs some therapy,” I said lightly, trying to alleviate some of the tension that had quickly built up because of Finn’s story. I had known that something was up with him and Cal, but I never would have guessed this, and it still seemed surreal. Then I thought about the broken and splintered trees and imagined them being Cal and Finn’s bodies. If we didn’t stop Zerinthor he’d kill Cal and Finn, and I couldn’t let that happen.
10
It still took some time for the reality of the situation to settle in my mind. Talking about the past had made Finn overwhelmed with emotion and he spent some time composing himself. I was beginning to see that there were layers to him, and I found myself quite drawn to him, although at the same time felt guilty, as though I was betraying Cal. We’d all been through heartache, and we were all still suffering. I felt close to them because they knew how heavy it was to carry the weight of sorrow with them all the time.
The way Finn described being a dragon made it sound exhilarating. His descriptions were vivid and exciting, and I wished I could feel what it was like to soar through the air. I was still unsure about the mechanics of the whole process, and Finn found it difficult to explain much of it to me because it was such and instinctual thing for him.
My brain simmered with questions and I had to stop myself from barraging him with them, for he was still suffering from the tale he had told me and the fact that Cal was being held by Zerinthor. I could tell from the
way Finn spoke about Cal that the feelings between them ran deep, and that perhaps Cal hadn’t been honest with me when he’d said there was no going back. But surprisingly, far from being put off by the two men, it actually made them more attractive; to know that they shared a deep romantic bond was sexy, alluring, and it made me wonder what it would like to have that. However, I did have to put aside my hopes of being with Cal, or Finn for that matter. It was clear that they were meant for each other.
I wanted to get moving as soon as possible, but Finn told me otherwise.
“Isn’t it going to take us a while to get to the mountains?” I asked, “Shouldn’t we be leaving now? The longer we take the more pain Cal is going to be in.”
Finn looked at me strangely.
“How exactly do you think we’re going to be going to the mountains?” he asked.
“Well, I just assumed we’d drive and then hike up…” I said, my voice trailing off as I realized what he was implying. Finn crossed his arms and gave me a cocky smile, then told me that we had to wait until dark so that we could leave under the cover of night.
I had a shower and changed my clothes, and then I sent a message to Misty to tell her that I was going to help Finn look for Cal, although I didn’t tell her anything about their true nature. Finn had sworn me to secrecy, and I wasn’t about to betray his trust. Zerinthor was waiting for us, and I didn’t care how angry he was, he wasn’t going to hurt Finn and Cal. If they couldn’t talk sense into this beast, maybe I could.
*
The day passed and I was growing more agitated with every hour ticked by. I kept thinking of what Cal was going through. There were moments when I was tempted to ask what Zerinthor would be doing with Cal but thought against it. Finn was tortured enough already. He paced the floor and barely settled. He kept gazing at the window, as though he wanted to fly out there straight away.
