Winging It by Deborah Cooke

‘Where to?’ Garrett asked in old-speak. ‘We have to talk.’

  ‘Isabelle,’ I managed to whisper.

  And then the world went black.

  I awakened in human form, crashed on the bed in Isabelle’s dorm room. Liam and Nick were sitting on the floor, Meagan was spinning in Isabelle’s desk chair, and Garrett was leaning against the door, with his arms folded across his chest.

  There was definitely some tension in the air. I noticed that Isabelle was ignoring Nick and Nick was checking his messenger with unnecessary concentration. The back of his neck was red. Liam was glancing between the two of them expectantly.

  Garrett rolled his eyes and seemed impatient.

  Meagan was stealing glances at Garrett and was a flustered shade of pink. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to be dreaming about Trevor anymore.

  ‘Eat this,’ Isabelle said as soon as my eyes opened, handing me a chocolate-coated granola bar.

  Meagan smiled at me, which was an encouraging sign. ‘So I guess this is what you weren’t supposed to tell me.’ There was laughter in her tone.

  I smiled. ‘Pretty much.’

  She slanted a glance at Garrett and her blush deepened. ‘Another one of your dad’s friends’ sons?’

  I nodded, too busy chewing to say much more. I swallowed. ‘I’m sorry. We’re not supposed to reveal ourselves in both forms to any humans.’

  ‘But you defended me from Suzanne.’

  ‘And I’m already in big trouble for that.’ I grimaced. ‘I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you.’ We looked at each other and maybe we would have hugged if we’d been alone. Then I did the introductions. ‘Meagan, Garrett. Garrett, Meagan.’

  Garrett smiled and shook Meagan’s hand, his fingers almost engulfing hers. He’d bulked up even more over the summer. Meagan visibly swallowed, then gave me a look. She dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned toward me. ‘Can my dad be friends with your dad?’

  I grinned, knowing I had to warn her. ‘They can hear you. We have sharper senses than humans.’

  She blushed even more crimson then. Garrett smiled a little but pretended not to notice.

  I took the last bite of the granola bar, feeling my body respond quickly to the food.

  Predictably, Meagan was making all the connections while I was recovering. ‘And that’s why Suzanne calls you a freak?’

  I nodded.

  She grinned at me. ‘I knew you were lying when you said you didn’t believe in the Pyr. I just didn’t guess this was why.’ She glanced around the room, obviously awed that she now knew not just one but four dragon shifters.

  Her gaze lingered on Garrett a little bit longer.

  ‘You would have figured it out.’

  Meagan pushed up her glasses and considered me. ‘So, now that I know some, do I get to know the rest? Or do I only get half of the story?’

  ‘We can’t,’ Nick said in old-speak.

  ‘We have to,’ I argued in kind. ‘She’s got innate spellsinging talent.’

  ‘And I bet we need her help,’ Liam added.

  Garrett inhaled sharply and spoke for the rest, his tone authoritative. ‘Tell her.’

  Meagan glanced around herself. ‘Old-speak,’ she said. ‘I read about old-speak on that Web site. That’s what it was when I thought I heard thunder, wasn’t it?’

  I smiled and nodded. ‘See? Another day or so and you would have had it all.’

  ‘They can talk to each other at a really low frequency,’ Isabelle said. ‘We humans hear it as thunder.’

  ‘Then you’re not a dragon either?’

  ‘Just raised by one.’ Isabelle offered the others some of her chocolate stash. Meagan took one.

  She looked around. ‘What were you saying to each other just now?’

  Isabelle smiled. ‘Something they don’t want us to hear, probably.’

  ‘We were deciding whether to tell you the whole deal,’ Liam said to Meagan.

  ‘Zoë says yes, and we agree,’ Garrett added and Meagan blushed again.

  ‘Because you have a power that Mages can use. They’re trying to recruit you,’ I said. ‘You have to know it all.’

  Meagan’s eyes widened.

  Isabelle cleared her throat, maybe giving Meagan a minute to absorb that. ‘Even though I’ve had the rundown of events, I don’t understand how Garrett broke the spell.’

  ‘Or why you couldn’t,’ Liam said to me.

  ‘Or why you were even here,’ Nick said to Garrett.

  ‘I figured out the book and came to tell you about it,’ Garrett said. ‘Zoë wasn’t at home or at Meagan’s place, so I followed your scents and realized pretty quickly that you were in trouble.’

  ‘Lucky for us,’ Liam said. ‘What about the spell?’ he asked me.

  ‘The ring didn’t work this time. And my nail didn’t cut the spell mesh the way it did before.’

  ‘Shit,’ Nick said. ‘Do you think they’ve changed their spell?’

  ‘Time to tell us what you found in that book,’ I said to Garrett and he nodded.

  ‘It’s strange and you’re not going to like it much.’ Garrett pulled out his messenger and tapped up the file. ‘I should probably share the scanned file with someone for safekeeping. I don’t want them to guess that we have it, though.’

  ‘Send it to my desktop,’ Isabelle said. ‘I’m not Pyr and they’re less likely to target me.’

  I wasn’t sure of that and I could see that Garrett had his doubts as well. ‘Send it to Meagan, too,’ I suggested and she gave him her messenger address, stammering a little.

  I liked that he pretended not to notice.

  He sent the file and Meagan started to read it on her messenger even as he talked about it.

  ‘Like I told you earlier, the original is really old. It looks handwritten and the book has ancient binding. I hid it in my mom’s bookstore, because we might need it again.’

  ‘It was in Latin?’ Liam asked, pulling up the file on Isabelle’s desktop. She had a big screen and we all looked at the text. It made no sense to me.

  Garrett nodded. ‘Once I scanned the pages and digitized the text, I ran it through a utility that translated it to English. It was pretty slow and there are breaks where letters weren’t legible.’

  ‘And probably other places where it’s just enigmatic,’ Meagan said.

  ‘Right,’ Garrett agreed. ‘The text seems to be a handbook or guide for apprentice Mages.’

  ‘Lots of music theory,’ Meagan said, nodding as she scanned through it. She paused and frowned. ‘They find minor keys particularly powerful.’

  I remembered what she’d said about Jared’s music and sat up to contribute what I knew. ‘The humans who can become Mages have an innate musical talent. They call those people spellsingers. Their musical gift allows them to evoke a strong emotional response from other humans, in essence to enchant with their song or their music. If they never met a Mage, they would just be good performers with this gift.’

  ‘But the Mages pervert this natural inclination and use it to gain power over other people,’ Garrett said. ‘And more is better. So they specifically listen for people with this talent and try to recruit them.’

  ‘Apprentice Mages, like Trevor,’ Liam said.

  ‘And Adrian,’ I said.

  ‘Whatever happened to him?’ Nick asked.

  ‘He was there tonight, wearing a glamour. Didn’t you see that blond kid dressed as a construction worker?’

  The guys were shocked. ‘That was Adrian?’ Liam asked.

  ‘Live and in person.’

  ‘So, there are Mages and apprentice Mages,’ Meagan said, returning to the story. ‘But what’s the point?’

  Garrett gestured to the displayed text. ‘The point is to bring back the master Mages. The master Mages pushed their powers to the limit and lost their physical forms. So the plan is to build a big enough group of Mages to create enough spellpower to make it possible for the master Mages to manifest again.’

  I nodded. ‘
So they get power for their spells by eliminating shifters and assuming our forms—’

  ‘Which the master Mages can then utilize,’ Garrett added.

  ‘—plus recruiting spellsingers to increase the power of their spells.’

  ‘But what about Jessica?’ Meagan asked. ‘What were they doing to her tonight?’

  ‘I’m not exactly sure.’ Garrett looked grim. ‘But the master Mages are called ShadowEaters.’

  Chapter Eleven

  There was an outbreak of questions at that, but Garrett answered one from Meagan first.

  ‘How?’ she asked when there was a lull.

  He smiled at her, and I wondered whether something was starting between them.

  ‘The book lays out a development plan for apprentice Mages. It starts with the question of identifying spellsingers, then has lessons on building spellsinging power, and the casting of spells for deliberate results. There’s a lot of talk about shadows and darkness and death that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.’

  ‘Might be a code,’ Meagan said. ‘That was a common way to hide arcane knowledge in books. Zoë and I can probably crack it.’

  ‘I never thought of that,’ Garrett said. ‘That’d be great.’

  ‘If we have time,’ Nick said.

  ‘The first section ends with something called the Invocation of Midnight. It seems to be a ceremony that allows the Mages to become ShadowEaters. It’s like a graduation ceremony, but there are lots of warnings about not doing it too soon.’

  ‘When’s too soon?’ Liam asked.

  ‘I’ll guess it’s when you can’t shift back to your human form,’ I said and Garrett nodded.

  ‘That seems to be what happened to this last bunch. They did it too early, before there was enough spellsinging power for there to be a return trip.’

  ‘A successful ceremony requires the NightBlade.’ Meagan mused, scrolling through the text.

  ‘What’s that?’ Liam looked from Meagan to Garrett.

  ‘It doesn’t say,’ Garrett answered. ‘At least not clearly. But you need it for the ceremony at the end of the next section, the Invocation of the Eclipse.’

  ‘Why?’ Nick asked.

  ‘Because in that one you make a sacrifice with the NightBlade.’

  We shuddered in unison.

  ‘Is that what we saw?’ I asked. ‘Is that what they were doing to Jessica?’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Garrett said. ‘Or maybe it was just practice. Because the Invocation of the Eclipse has to happen on the night of a full moon.’

  Isabelle got up and checked her calendar. ‘That’s not until November fifteenth, more than two weeks away.’

  The day before my birthday. Coincidence?

  ‘But why Jessica?’ Meagan asked. ‘What did she ever do to them?’

  There was a beat of silence. ‘Did any of you see her shift forms?’

  ‘She looked like a cat at the end,’ Liam said.

  ‘A jaguar,’ I corrected. ‘They wanted her because she’s a shifter.’

  ‘Wait a minute,’ Meagan said. ‘You lost me on the curve there.’

  ‘The Mages are targeting different kinds of shifters,’ I said. ‘The idea being that once they’ve eliminated all of us, they’ll control our forms.’

  ‘And the ShadowEaters can use them,’ Meagan said with a nod.

  ‘Last spring this Kohana guy, who is a Thunderbird shifter, told Zoë that there were only four kinds of shifters left,’ Liam said.

  ‘Right before he lied to Zoë and tried to make it three,’ Nick said.

  ‘Because he’s helping the Mages, maybe hoping to get some amnesty for Thunderbirds,’ Garrett said.

  ‘Thunderbirds, dragons.’ Meagan counted on her fingers, then looked around.

  ‘Jaguars and wolves,’ Liam supplied.

  ‘You had a wolf with you,’ she said to Liam. ‘Is he one?’

  Liam nodded. ‘You know him from school.’

  She glanced at me.

  ‘Derek,’ I said and her eyes widened.

  ‘Is that why he likes you? Because he knows what you are?’

  ‘He likes you?’ Nick teased and I blushed right on cue.

  ‘What about Jared?’ Isabelle asked.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said to Meagan, trying to ignore them. ‘But he did know what I am, right from the start.’

  ‘He seems to turn up at the right times,’ Liam said. ‘Should you trust him so much?’

  ‘He says he can see several minutes into the future,’ I told them. ‘A very short range of foresight. And he can smell even things that we can’t discern, like emotions.’

  ‘Wow,’ Nick said. ‘That’s cool.’

  ‘It would be better if we knew more about his allegiances,’ Garrett said.

  ‘He says he’s like an emissary from the wolves,’ I said. ‘They have a prophecy that they have to make a union with other shifters and follow the dragon, but some aren’t big on having a girl as pack leader.’

  ‘That’s his story,’ Nick said. ‘How do we know it’s true?’

  Nobody knew the answer to that.

  ‘So how come you’re all at the same school?’ Meagan asked.

  Isabelle cleared her throat. ‘Maybe the Mages are targeting the new generation.’

  ‘And Jessica? What do you know about her and the jaguars?’ Nick asked.

  ‘Nothing. I had no idea that she was a jaguar shifter, not until last night,’ I admitted. ‘I think maybe Derek knew.’ I thought for a minute. ‘That might explain Trevor’s interest in her.’

  ‘But what happened to her?’ Meagan asked.

  There was a beat of silence and then I said it. ‘I think she might be dead.’

  We fidgeted then, all of us uncomfortable with the prospect.

  ‘But what if she isn’t?’ Meagan asked. ‘What if they’re planning to do this big ceremony on the full moon and sacrifice her then? How can we find her? Could we save her?’

  Garrett grimaced. ‘It could be like stepping into a trap.’

  ‘But Meagan’s right – we can’t just abandon her,’ Nick said.

  ‘If she’s still alive,’ Liam said. ‘We need to know for sure before we take that risk.’

  ‘Can you ask your cards?’ I asked Isabelle.

  Isabelle shuffled for a long time. I wasn’t sure whether she was trying to focus or was avoiding the question. Then she handed the deck to Meagan. ‘You were closest to her. Will you shuffle?’

  ‘Sure.’ I could tell that Meagan was thrilled.

  ‘You need to focus on Jessica. Think about your question.’

  ‘Is she dead or alive?’ Meagan said, nodding with resolve. She closed her eyes and shuffled the cards for a few minutes, then handed them back to Isabelle.

  Isabelle cut the deck and turned up the card.

  The Devil.

  ‘What does that mean?’ Garrett asked, leaning forward.

  ‘Nothing good, I’ll guess,’ Liam said.

  ‘She’s in hell?’ Meagan asked.

  Isabelle shook her head. ‘The Devil is a card that denotes slavery or entrapment. It can mean that someone is a slave to physical pleasure, for example, or that they’re literally beholden to someone else. The person is trapped, either by choice or by circumstance.’

  ‘So, she’s their captive, somewhere,’ I said.

  ‘But why?’ Nick asked. ‘What’s the point?’

  ‘Maybe she’s bait,’ Garrett said. ‘Maybe they think that holding her will draw other shifters.’

  ‘Or the rest of the jaguars,’ Liam suggested.

  Nick frowned. ‘I wonder whether Jessica is their equivalent of the Wyvern.’

  ‘Their wildcard,’ Isabelle said with a nod.

  ‘Kohana told me last spring that there’s a wildcard in every kind,’ I said. ‘One who can do more than most. And he implied that he and I are the wildcards in our respective kinds. If Derek is acting as an emissary, maybe that’s how he got the job.’

  ‘Maybe y
ou wildcards are the ones who have to make the treaty Derek talked about,’ Liam suggested.

  I shivered again then, not wanting to experience whatever they had done– or were doing – to Jessica.

  ‘That’s it,’ Isabelle said with a nod. ‘They’ve cast a spell to draw you together so they can eliminate all the wildcards at once.’

  ‘Because if they eliminate the wildcards, there’s no chance of that union happening,’ I said with excitement.

  ‘Which means the Mages will win,’ Nick added.

  ‘Which would also explain Jessica and Derek being at your school,’ Liam said.

  ‘Kohana, too.’ Garrett said.

  ‘So, are we going to help Jessica?’ Meagan asked, looking around the group. We nodded as one, staring at the card.

  ‘We have to,’ Liam said.

  ‘We can’t leave another shifter trapped like that,’ Nick said.

  ‘But the real question,’ Garrett said, ‘is how we can help her.’

  No one had the answer to that.

  We agreed that we needed to take some time to rest and keep thinking. Garrett and Nick escorted us back to Meagan’s house and Liam remained behind to watch over Isabelle, just in case.

  I probably wasn’t the only one who noticed how Nick and Isabelle were pointedly ignoring each other, and that he didn’t volunteer to defend her. I couldn’t see the point in starting a discussion with him just yet, though, plus I knew that anything I said to him aloud or in old-speak would be overheard by Garrett. I knew the guys were too bagged to carry me, so I shifted to dragon form myself for the sake of expediency.

  We didn’t talk much. I just flew beside Nick over the city, noting how the guys stayed on either side of me. Protective. I liked that. Meagan was clearly thrilled to have another ride from Garrett and her eyes were shining when we set down in the park across from the house.

  We agreed to meet back there first thing in the morning. The guys took off quickly, their scales looking gilded in the streetlights, and Meagan sighed.

  Then she flicked me a look and smiled. She touched her ear, a question in her expression and I nodded agreement. She was right – they’d be able to hear anything she said. She fluttered her fingers against her heart and I grinned.