Shattered

by Mari Mancusi

  The love and affection that shone from his eyes made Trinity’s heart ache. All her life she’d wondered about her father. Who he was, what he was like, how things would have been different had he been around. Now, with this one look, all the puzzle pieces finally slid into place and she saw the life she’d been meant to live unfold before her. A life with no foster care, no broken promises, no lies. A life with two parents who loved her—and each other—and would do anything to keep her safe.

  Which was exactly what they had done.

  “Dad,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “About Mom…”

  His expression tightened. He shook his head vigorously. And Trinity realized he knew. Somehow, deep down, he already knew.

  “There will be time for talk later,” he said, gesturing to the stairs. “Right now, it’s time to meet Virgil.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  The ladder creaked under Trinity’s weight, and for a moment she was worried it would collapse out from under her. But she pressed on and managed to make it to the bottom floor, the hum of a generator soundtracking her steps. When she reached solid ground, she looked up, watching Emmy glide gracefully down to join her. Her father came last, shutting the trap door behind him and locking it securely. For a moment, everything was completely black and Trinity couldn’t see the hand in front of her face. But just as panic began to rise in her throat, her father flicked a switch and the room was bathed in light.

  “Welcome to the lab,” he said, meeting her at the bottom. “Sixteen years in the making. All leading up to this moment.”

  She looked around, trying to take it all in. The space was long and narrow, lined with all sorts of unidentifiable equipment stacked from floor to ceiling—large metallic bins, control panels with flashing lights, a few beakers bubbling on a Bunsen burner. She didn’t know where to begin to look.

  “Was this…a bus?” she asked suddenly, noticing the glass windows lining the room, looking out onto solid dirt. “Did you bury a bus?”

  “Four buses, actually,” her father explained. “And one RV. Old rundown ones we bought from a junkyard. I think the men we hired to bury them thought we were building a meth lab.” He laughed. “If only they knew the truth.”

  Trinity walked the narrow aisle, observing all the equipment, her heart fluttering in her chest. They’d obviously been hard at work at something. But what? What did all this stuff mean for Emmy?

  “Hey, Virgil!” her dad cried. “They’re here.” He turned to Trinity. “We have sleeping quarters off of the main laboratory in the RV in case we’re here all night. A full kitchen, satellite TV, everything we need to hunker down long-term if need be. Virgil doesn’t like to leave the place unguarded, even for a moment. Much of the stuff in here is irreplaceable.”

  Before Trinity could reply, a balding man, who appeared to be in his late sixties, popped his head out of the rear doors. The guy from Wal-Mart, she realized with a start. When his eyes fell on Trinity, a huge grin spread across his face. He stepped into the bus, heading over to her with eager blue eyes. Like Connor, Caleb, and the rest of the time-traveling Dracken, his eyes seemed to have an unearthly glow.

  But the man—Virgil—did not stop when he came to her. Instead, he pushed by her and went straight to Emmy. She watched as he reached out, stroking the dragon’s snout. “Amazing,” he said in a reverential whisper. “Simply amazing. I can’t believe she’s really here.” He looked up at Trinity. “Thank you for bringing her to me. I’m sorry you didn’t get the message earlier as you were supposed to. If all went to plan, she never would have hatched here. But you’ve obviously taken good care of her. She’s large for her age and looks healthy too. That’s what’s important.”

  Trinity frowned. Never should have hatched…No, he said she never should have hatched here. But she hadn’t hatched here. She’d hatched miles from here…Another state entirely.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, opening her mind again to listen to what Virgil wasn’t saying. But all she could get was an overwhelming sensation of relief radiating from him. As well as a natural affection and respect for Emmy. He didn’t want to hurt the dragon. In fact, if anything he was giving off a protective vibe as he scratched her behind her ear.

  She decided it was time to get to the point. “So, uh, what is all this?” she asked, waving a hand around the room. “What’s it all for? And how is it going to help Emmy?”

  “All in good time, my dear,” Virgil assured her, giving Emmy one last pat then rising to full height and turning to face her. “But first I think a little background is in order. I’m guessing you have a lot of questions.”

  “That’s the understatement of the century.”

  “Come,” he beckoned. “We’ll go into the RV and have a little snack. And I will explain everything.”

  Trinity wasn’t hungry in the least, but she followed Virgil anyway, her father and Emmy taking up the rear. They walked through two more of the buses, the first lined with more equipment, the second serving as a storeroom for supplies. At last they reached the RV, which was still set up as it would have been aboveground—a kitchen and dining room area in the main room and a bedroom in the back.

  She sat down at the dining table, still feeling more than a little freaked out. She watched as Virgil reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a bowl of fruit and set it down in front of her while her father rummaged through the cabinets for a moment, emerging with a box of Oreos.

  “It’s been both a blessing and a curse to have a Wal-Mart right above us,” he said with a grimace, reaching into the bag and pulling out two cookies, popping them into his mouth.

  “Uh, yeah,” Trinity said, staring down at the food, not sure what to say. The whole thing was so surreal it was making her head spin. She watched as Virgil went back into the fridge and pulled out a large rack of ribs, setting it on the ground before Emmy.

  “Have at it, girl,” he said with a smile.

  The dragon didn’t need a second invitation and set about attacking the raw meat with gusto. Trinity smiled. The guy obviously knew the way to a dragon’s heart.

  Virgil slid into the booth, placing his elbows on the table, head in his palms. He stared at Trinity for a moment then shook his head and turned to her father. “She’s beautiful,” he said. “You have a beautiful daughter.”

  “A beautifully impatient daughter, I should think,” her father said with a small laugh, giving her a knowing look. “So how about you get talking, old man? Tell her what she needs to know. After all, she’s waited too long already.” He winked at Trin, and she couldn’t help a small smile, still hardly able to believe her long-lost father was actually sitting in front of her.

  “Okay, okay,” Virgil said, waving him off with mock grumpiness. “Kids today.” He huffed, turning back to Trinity. “Well, I’m glad you’re sitting down,” he said. “Because what I’m about to tell you is going to rock your little world.”

  “Let me guess. You’re from the future,” Trinity said, meeting his eyes with her own. “And you came back in time to stop the dragon apocalypse.”

  Virgil raised his bushy eyebrows. He glanced over at her father and then back at her. “How would you know that?” he demanded.

  “Trust me, everyone’s doing it these days,” she replied wryly. “Now get to the part where you have a master plan to save Emmy.”

  “She’s definitely your daughter,” Virgil grunted at her father. “Okay, okay, smart girl. Since you seem to know it all, I suppose you also know that I was once a member of an organization called the Dracken. They enlisted me to help with a plan to send them all back in time to the Reckoning, so they could steal the world’s last dragon egg out from under the government and help with the hatching. The idea was simple: if we could raise dragons the right way, we could use them for the greater good. They could help save our world.”

  “Right,” Trinity said. “But that wasn�
�t their true plan.”

  “But that wasn’t their…” Virgil sighed. “Right, right. But just so you know, I didn’t know about this so-called true plan until a few days before we were meant to leave. And when I did find out Darius’s true intentions, I wanted no part of it. For them to go back and purposely set about destroying innocent lives, all in some misguided religious campaign…well, let’s just say that wasn’t my idea of saving the world.” He shook his head. “So I went in and destroyed all of my equipment, hoping it might keep them from making the trip. But after I did all that, I realized it still wasn’t enough. And that’s when I decided to come up with my own plan.”

  Trinity nodded eagerly. “Which was…?”

  “You gotta understand, I love dragons. I had my own, once upon a time, a gorgeous yellow diamond named Solaris. She was killed in a fight with one of the hybrids.” He shook his head. “Worst day of my life, let me tell you. There’s nothing more awful in the world than losing one’s dragon…”

  Trinity’s mind involuntarily flashed to Caleb and Fred, and her heart ached a little. Then she shook her head. She needed to stay focused here.

  “In any case,” Virgil was saying, “after seeing what the Dracken had planned, I came to the conclusion that there could be no safe way to bring dragons back into the world after all. Sure, they had gifts that could save mankind. But the risk was too great. There were too many people, like the Dracken or the government, out to exploit them for their own gain. And even if I stopped the Dracken and the government, who’s to say there wasn’t some third group out there, ready to take their place and start the apocalypse all over again—whether on purpose or by accident?”

  He frowned. “But at the same time, I couldn’t let the Council just sweep in and destroy Emmy in her egg. After all,” he added, glancing affectionately at the dragon, “she’s the innocent party here.”

  Trinity let out a breath of relief. She hadn’t realized, up until that moment, how afraid she actually was that this master plan could involve Emmy being put down like a rabid dog.

  “So what are you going to do instead?” she asked, her voice trembling. “What can we do about Emmy? How can we keep her safe?”

  Virgil paused and she found herself tensing, knowing somehow that this was it. That they had reached the moment of truth. That what he said next would change everything forever. That nothing would ever be the same again.

  Virgil pursed his lower lips. “We’re going to send her back in time.”

  Wait, what?

  Trinity stared at him, at first certain she must have heard him wrong. Of all the things she’d imagined him saying since she had found the Ouroboros to begin with, this was certainly not one of them.

  “What do you mean, send her back in time?” she managed to croak. Was he for real? She rose to her feet, her stomach clenching. She glanced over at Emmy, who was still busy crunching on the ribs. Looking over at the RV’s rear door, she wondered if she and the dragon could make a run for it. It seemed crazy to even try. But the guy was old…and Emmy wasn’t exactly defenseless.

  “Hang on!” Virgil scolded, catching the look on her face. “Before you start to freak out on me, don’t you think you should at least hear me out? I’ve waited sixteen years for you to show up. All I’m asking is for five minutes of your time.”

  Trinity hedged. “Fine. Start talking.”

  Virgil nodded vigorously, wiping his brow with a napkin. Then he swallowed down a strawberry and cleared his throat. “This is not some haphazard plan. You see, I’ve been studying dragon origins for most of my adult life. Interviewing them in the Nether, charting family trees. And through this, I have been able to pinpoint the exact period of time when dragons were on top of the food chain. Sending Emmy back there now will enable her to live out the rest of her life in perfect freedom and among her own kind.”

  Trinity frowned. That did sound good. But still…

  “I want you to look at her,” Virgil added in a slow voice. “I mean really look at her. Does she look like she belongs here? Can you think of any scenario where she’d easily fit into our world and be accepted by the masses without having her life threatened?”

  Trinity bit her lower lip, her heart beating fast and furious in her chest. She thought of the football stadium. Of the angry mob. “Well, no. Not easily…” That was supposed to be your job, she thought wildly. That’s why we came here. So you would tell me how to do that.

  “No. Because she doesn’t belong here,” Virgil stated flatly. “And she’s little more than a prisoner in our world. Unable to hunt, unable to fly, unable to mate. In our present time, she can’t do anything that dragons are supposed to do. Do you agree?”

  Trinity looked at Emmy, wanting to say she disagreed. That none of what he was saying rang with even the tiniest tinge of truth. But, of course, none of it was stuff she hadn’t thought herself a million times before. The only difference was he had a way to make it better.

  She’d wanted a plan to save Emmy. Now, one had dropped into her lap.

  But still…

  “She’ll have her family back,” Virgil continued. “She’ll have her life back as she was meant to lead it. As long as she remains here, she’ll be hunted, trapped, tormented. She’ll be forced to live out an existence of fear or agony or maybe both.” He paused then gave her a sympathetic look. “I can see how much you care about her. I know you don’t want her in any more pain. Now you have a chance to make things good for her. To let her finally fly free. Isn’t that what you wanted from the start?”

  Trin stared at him dully. It was a question she didn’t want to answer. That she couldn’t answer. At least not without sounding incredibly selfish. Of course she wanted Emmy to be happy. She wanted it more than anything else in the world. And yes, there was no arguing that Emmy wasn’t happy here. And things would only get worse, with the dragon growing bigger and the military closing in. She couldn’t feed Emmy. She couldn’t hide Emmy. She couldn’t guarantee her safety.

  Except now she could.

  “Can I have…a moment?” she asked the two men, trying desperately to hold back the floodgate of tears. “I want to talk to Emmy. In the end, it’s really her decision, right?”

  Virgil and her father exchanged sympathetic glances then rose to their feet. “Take all the time you need,” her father said. He reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We’ll be in the next room.”

  They turned and headed out of the RV, closing the door behind them and leaving Trinity alone with her dragon. Emmy had stopped eating and was looking up at her with concern on her face. She realized she must have missed most of the conversation while she was chomping down on her dinner.

  I don’t understand, she said in a confused voice. I thought you said he would help us? So why are you crying?

  For a moment, Trinity couldn’t speak. She just stared at the dragon as her heart seemed to smash into a thousand pieces. It was all she could do not to run screaming from the RV. To grab Emmy and never let her go.

  But that wouldn’t be right.

  That wouldn’t be right for Emmy.

  “I’m crying because I’m happy,” she assured the dragon. “And, yes, he has a plan to help us. He knows of this place—this special place.” She bit her lower lip. Emmy was smart, but she wasn’t sure she could grasp the intricacies of the whole time-travel aspect of the plan. And she didn’t want to complicate things further. “A place where no one will try to hurt you,” she clarified at last. “A place where you can fly around all day long and hunt anything you want to eat.” She paused then added, “And there will be others just like you for you to hang out with.”

  Emmy’s eyes widened. Other dragons? Like me?

  Trinity felt the tears slipping from her eyes now. “Yes,” she managed to croak. “Lots of other dragons to make friends with and play with. You’ll never be lonely again.”

&nb
sp; That sounds wonderful! Emmy cried, her eyes dancing with excitement. When can we go? She started hopping around eagerly, puffs of smoke escaping her nose. I want to go now! I want to see the other dragons! I want to talk to them—there’s so much I don’t know about being a dragon. I bet they can tell me so many things! She turned back to Trinity. What are we waiting for? Let’s go to this special place.

  “Emmy…” Trinity sucked in a breath. “That’s the thing. You’d be going. Not me.”

  Emmy stopped short. She looked up at Trinity with horrified eyes. What do you mean?

  “I mean…this is a place for dragons. Not people. I’d have to stay behind.”

  What? No! She could see the panic rising in Emmy at an alarming rate. Her nostrils flaring, her scales bristling, her eyes rolling. She shook her head vehemently. No, I won’t go without you. You’re my Fire Kissed. We’re bonded. We’re destined. There’s no way I’m going to leave you behind.

  “Emmy, listen to me,” she said firmly. “I don’t want you to leave me either. In fact, it’s the last thing I would ever want in the world. But don’t you see? This is your opportunity. A chance for you to live the big, fat, beautiful dragon life you deserve to live. I can’t give that to you if you stay here. All I can offer is more danger. More suffering. Possibly even death.”

  She shook her head, the tears flowing freely now. “I made a promise to protect you, Ems. To keep you safe. Now it’s time for me to make good on that promise.”

  The sobs rose to her throat, preventing any more words. She closed her eyes, pressing her forehead against the dragon’s, unable to look at her, unable to face the unhappiness she knew she’d find written on Emmy’s face.