by Mari Mancusi
“Virgil Hauer?” Caleb exclaimed when she had finished. “Are you sure he said Virgil Hauer?”
“Yeah,” she replied, puzzled. “Why? Who’s Virgil Hauer?”
“Only the Dracken’s chief scientist,” Caleb informed her excitedly. “Or he was, anyway, back in our time. Virgil was a quantum physicist, specializing in time travel. In fact, he was the one who originally perfected the system that sent all of us back. He used to work for the Council until he got angry at how they were dealing with the dragon problem. He broke away from them to come work for the Dracken.” He shook his head in amazement. “I didn’t know him too well. He was pretty high up on the food chain and well, as you know, I wasn’t much more than a glorified errand boy. But everyone looked up to him.”
“I don’t understand,” Trinity interrupted, narrowing her eyes. “If he went back in time with the Dracken, how could he have met up with my dad? This was years before you guys made the trip. I was only a baby.”
“That’s just it,” Caleb replied. “He didn’t go. He disappeared three days before the trip was supposed to take place. He even trashed his own lab beforehand, destroying all the equipment he’d built for the journey. In fact, for about a day and a half, the Dracken weren’t sure if they’d have to abort the entire mission because of the damage he’d done.” His face twisted, remembering. “Everyone was so mad. I was mad,” he added. “At the time I thought, here was this duffhead scientist, screwing up our chances to save the world.” He paused. “But now…”
“Now you’re thinking he might have gotten wind of the Dracken’s true mission?” Trinity concluded, a feeling of excitement welling up inside of her. “Like maybe he realized the Dracken were planning to use dragons to burn down the world and he wanted to stop them?”
And he needed my dad’s help to do it, she thought to herself. Her dad had mentioned his lab being burned to the ground. If he had a lab, he must be some kind of scientist himself. A genius scientist who could help them out of the mess they were in.
If only she’d gotten the message in time. Before Grandpa…
“It would make sense,” Caleb agreed. “He knew the quantum physics of time travel better than anyone. He could have easily reprogrammed the machine to go back years earlier—before the Dracken were scheduled to arrive. He could have looked up your dear old dad and warned him about what was going to happen.”
“He not only warned him. He saved his life,” Trinity reminded him. “But then what? Where have they been all these years? Are they still out there hiding somewhere? Why haven’t they tried to make contact?”
“Maybe they have,” Caleb said. “You were supposed to get the pendant two years ago, remember? Maybe they expected you to bring the egg to them as soon as it arrived at the museum. They might not have realized anything was wrong until you failed to show up the day after the Reckoning.” He shrugged. “And let’s face it, since then, you’ve been pretty tough to track down.”
“Good point,” Trinity replied, reaching for the pendant and turning it over in her hands. The metal felt warm, pulsating against her fingers. “My father,” she breathed. “Still alive. Waiting for me.” She looked up. Surprised. “And I know where he is!” she cried, astonished. With shaking fingers, she reached over to the nightstand, jerking the drawer open. Grabbing the pen and paper inside, she scribbled down what she now remembered her father whispering in her ear. As a baby, it wouldn’t have made any sense. But going back to the memory now…
“Cerrillos Road?” Caleb read. “Fauna, New Mexico? How did you…?”
“I don’t know.” Trinity shrugged. “It just…came to me. Weird, right?”
“Not really. Your father—or maybe Virgil—must have embedded a memory into the Ouroboros,” Caleb said. “It would be the safest way to store it, without writing it down for anyone to find.”
“So then we can find him!” Trinity exclaimed, the unfamiliar feeling of hope now rising in her chest. “We could totally go and find him!” Her heart started pounding wildly. They could find him. He could help them. Everything could be okay and—
“No,” Connor suddenly injected. He’d been so quiet Trinity had almost forgotten he was in the room. “No way.”
She shot him a surprised look. “What do you mean, no way? Why not?”
“Simple. We have no way of knowing if this is some kind of trap,” he replied, squaring his shoulders, channeling his inner soldier once again. “This guy was Dracken, remember?”
“He left the Dracken,” Caleb argued. “He sabotaged their mission.”
“Or so it seemed to you at the time,” Connor corrected. “But you yourself knew nothing of the Dracken’s true purpose back then. How do you know this wasn’t all part of the plan? Make it look like he defected and then have him go back in time early to set things up. Save Trinity’s dad’s life so they could use him to convince Trinity to believe his story. What would Trinity have been asked to do, had she gotten the Ouroboros when she was supposed to, two years before the Reckoning? Bring the egg directly to this guy, Virgil? So he could turn it over to his buddies at Dracken HQ?” He shrugged. “Maybe that’s why they ended up having to send you to go collect her instead. Because they realized they screwed up, picked off the mom too early, before she could tell Trinity what she was supposed to do.”
“That’s one hell of a lot of conjecture,” Caleb remarked, raising an eyebrow.
“But it’s possible, right? It would make sense. More sense, in my opinion, than saving Trinity’s dad because he needs him for some science project he’s working on. I mean, this guy Virgil’s a genius from the future, right? Why would he need help from some twenty-first century duff?” He glanced over at Trinity. “No offense.”
“Plenty of reasons,” Caleb broke in before she could reply, his voice rising in annoyance. “He’s a stranger in a strange land. Maybe he needed this twenty-first-century duff to show him the ropes. Gather materials, find them a place to hide out, drive a car. Or maybe Trin’s dad is a genius scientist in his own right. Maybe he was working on some technology similar to Virgil’s. And Virgil knew he could trust him because he’d want to protect his daughter. And with the Dracken assuming he died as he was supposed to, he could work under the radar and put a plan in motion.”
“Maybe,” Connor said, not sounding like he thought any of this was likely. “But we don’t know for sure. There are too many unknowns, too many contingencies, and right now we can’t afford unnecessary risk. Especially after what just happened.” He frowned. “You saw the TV. The whole world is out looking for Emmy. If she’s spotted…”
“So what’s your plan then, oh mighty dragon hunter?” Caleb retorted, scrambling to his feet, his hands on his hips. “Just hang out here and wait for them to track us down? What are we going to feed Emmy in the meantime? How are we going to exercise her?” He shot a glance at the adjoining room, where Emmy was still busy eating. “You’ve seen how depressed she’s been since we got here. What’s she going to be like in a week? A month? A year? What about when she starts going wild with hunger? She’s not going to be cool with being cooped up here, watching BBC shows on the television, I can tell you that right now.”
“Caleb,” his brother said in a warning tone.
“But hey, maybe that’s what you’re secretly hoping for,” Caleb plowed on, glaring back at his brother. “In fact I bet it’d be pretty convenient for you to just sit around and wait for someone to come and take out Emmy or Trinity for you. Mission accomplished without getting your hands dirty. That’d be pretty sweet, huh?”
Connor rose, stalking over to his brother and grabbing him by the collar. With exaggerated force, he shoved him against the wall, causing a framed print of a desert cactus to crash onto the floor. Emmy poked her head into the room, whining nervously as she glanced from brother to brother.
“You listen to me,” Connor growled, his face only inches away from Caleb’
s. “If I wanted Emmy dead, she would be flecking dead, rotting out in the Texas sun with vultures picking at her bones.” His eyes glowed in fury as he stared his brother down. “But no. I’ve done everything in my power to keep her safe. It was your recklessness that got us in this mess to begin with. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let you continue to put our lives in danger with your impulsive schemes.” He shoved Caleb against the wall again before releasing him, stalking to the other side of the room.
Caleb glared at him, hatred burning in storm-tossed eyes. “You’re going to keep them safe, huh?” he spit out. “Funny, I remember you making a similar promise to Trinity’s grandpa. But that didn’t work out so well for him, now did it?”
Connor lunged at him, his fist connecting with Caleb’s face so fast that Trinity couldn’t track the movement. But she heard the cracking sound as the blood fountained from Caleb’s nose.
“Connor!” Trinity cried, horrified. She looked from brother to brother, now locked in a standoff, each glaring at the other with so much fury that if looks could kill, Trin was sure they’d both be messy puddles on the floor.
Caleb brushed the blood from his nose with his sleeve and took a threatening step toward his brother. Without thinking, Trinity threw herself between them.
“Stop it!” she screamed, her voice cracking. “Both of you! Just stop it! You’re brothers! You’re supposed to be on the same team. On my team,” she added, choking on the words. “Please. I need both of you.”
“And what if you can’t have that?” Caleb asked in a tight voice, staring down at her with angry eyes. “What if you had to make a choice between us? Who would you choose?”
Trinity looked from one brother to the other, words failing as the lump in her throat threatened to throttle her. “That’s not fair,” she choked out at last. “That’s so not fair.”
“Yeah, well, welcome to my world,” Caleb spit out, glaring down at her, trapping her in a furious gaze. Then he turned his head, swinging around and heading for the door. It slammed shut behind him, leaving Connor and Trinity all alone.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Did you want room service or something?” Connor asked, looking down at Trinity with concern in his eyes. “Or I could order some Chinese delivery. What is it you like—extra duck sauce?”
She sighed, forcing herself to shake her head. The simple gesture seemed to take all her remaining strength. “I’m not hungry.”
Connor gave her a rueful look then climbed onto the bed beside her, lifting her head and laying it in his lap, stroking her hair with gentle hands. As he worked through the tangled curls, she half wondered if she should be objecting to this display of uninvited intimacy, but somehow she couldn’t seem to muster the strength to argue or pull away. Instead, she found herself closing her eyes, surrendering to his touch, allowing him to soothe her frayed nerves with his magic fingers. Connor always knew the right thing to do, the right thing to say to make her feel better.
Caleb on the other hand…
“Should I go after him?” Connor asked, catching her glancing at the door again. It had been about a half hour since Caleb had taken off on them. Without his cell phone or his room key. She kept expecting a knock on the door, but it didn’t come.
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m done chasing him down, begging him to come back every time he storms off. He’s got to learn—he can’t say things like that and then expect everything to just be okay.” She forced her eyes away from the door. “Just let him do his thing. He’ll be back once he calms down. He always is.”
Connor sighed. “I worry about him,” he said. “He’s going to the Nether way too much. He looks like death warmed over and his mind is beyond fragile. We need to be careful about sharing too much of the plan with him, as long as he’s palming.”
“He keeps saying he’s just doing it to see Fred,” Trinity said. “But I think there’s more to it than that.” She frowned. “Do you think we should stage an intervention or something?” she added. “You know, like they do on TV?”
“Do you think he’d listen to words of wisdom from the guy who just kicked his ass?”
Trinity made a face. “Good point.”
Connor groaned, raking a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Trin,” he said for what felt like the thousandth time since Caleb had left. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Probably about the horrible things he was saying to you,” she reminded him. “He knows Grandpa’s death wasn’t your fault. He was just trying to hurt you.”
“Are you sure about that?” he said slowly. He paused, the silence stretching out so long between them that she wondered if he actually wanted an answer. Instead, he spoke again. “It wasn’t nice of him to say. But that doesn’t make what he said untrue. Which is probably why it made me so mad.”
“What are you talking about?”
He scrunched up his face. “I promised you I’d protect him. I said I wouldn’t let anything happen to him. And then…” She could hear his hard swallow. “And then I did.”
She looked up, catching the naked pain on his face, and guilt gnawed at her stomach. She’d been so selfish, so lost in her own grief that she’d barely acknowledged the fact that he would be suffering too. He loved her grandpa. The two of them had first bonded while trying to rescue her from the Dracken, and since then the older man had become almost a father figure to him. And, of course, he would blame himself for it all. He was Connor Jacks, after all, legendary Dragon Hunter. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and save everyone he loved without breaking a sweat.
Except that wasn’t actually true.
“Connor, it wasn’t—”
He waved her off, refusing her attempts to alleviate his guilt and pain. “I promised you I’d keep him safe. I’d keep all of you safe. And I failed. I’ve failed over and over again—no matter what I set out to do.”
“Connor, stop,” she commanded, sitting up from his lap. “It’s not in your job description to keep all of us safe. We’re a team. We all make our own decisions. Grandpa made his.”
A small smile tugged at Connor’s mouth despite his best efforts. “I guess he did,” he said. “And he saved both our lives by doing it. Seriously, that guy was the toughest old bastard I ever met.”
Trin giggled. “He was,” she agreed, the tears splashing down her cheeks. “And he loved you too—he appreciated all that you did for him. I mean, just think—because of you, he was able to live long enough to see a dragon. Do you know how much that meant to him? To see his life’s work literally come to life?” She smiled through her tears. “All of his life people laughed at him. They called him a fool. And because of you, he was able to die knowing they were wrong. That’s something,” she insisted staunchly. “In fact, that’s a lot.”
They fell silent for a moment, each lost in their own memories. Finally Trin dared to speak. “Connor?”
“Yeah?” His voice was quiet, hesitant, as if he were afraid of what she was going to ask. Which wasn’t surprising, she supposed, considering she was a little scared too.
“Do you have a plan?” she blurted out. “Do you have any idea what we should do next?”
She held her breath, waiting for the confident Connor she knew to assure her that he had things all under control. That he knew what they should do. That it all would turn out okay.
“Truthfully?” he asked after a pause.
“Of course.”
She could see his fingers tighten into fists, his knuckles whitening over the bone. He sighed. “I haven’t a damn clue.”
Her heart went out to him, aching at the vulnerability she saw etched across his face. She knew how hard it must be for him to admit something like this out loud. After all, he was the soldier. The one always in control of every situation. And now? He was as broken as the rest of them.
“You know what
?” she whispered. “That’s okay. It’s really okay, Connor. You don’t always have to be the superhero in this story. Maybe give someone else a turn for a change.” She gave him a half smile. “Seriously, I bet I could totally rock a lasso of truth if I had half the chance.”
He didn’t smile back, just stared at her, his blue eyes flickering with something she couldn’t quite define but that sent her heart fluttering all the same.
“You want to go find your father, don’t you?” he said at last.
She found herself nodding. “How can I not?” she asked. “I mean, this is the first lead we’ve had since we escaped from the mall. How can we just ignore it? If he’s really out there, waiting for us…with a plan…”
Connor’s fingers wrapped around her hand, squeezing it tightly. “I know how much you want it all to be true,” he said, looking at her with earnest eyes. “And believe me, if someone sent me a message about my dad still being alive? I’d move heaven and earth to find him. But we don’t know the whole story behind this Virgil guy your father’s supposedly working for. And we have no idea what his true intentions might be.”
Trinity pulled her hand away. “It’s not that I don’t see your point,” she said. “But at the same time, at least we’d be doing something. It’d be a risk, sure. But we could be cautious. We could take steps to protect ourselves. At least we’d be going forward instead of running in place.” She squeezed her eyes shut then opened them again. “I’m sick of hiding. I’m sick of running away. I promised to take care of Emmy and I haven’t had any way to keep that promise up until now. If there’s even the slightest possibility of my dad and Virgil being able to help her? Well, how can I just let that go without finding out for sure?”
Connor was silent for a moment. Then, to her relief, he gave a small nod—a simple gesture but it made her heart soar. She knew he didn’t think it was a good idea. But he was willing to take a chance. For her. For Emmy. For all of them.
