Winging It by Deborah Cooke
‘Answer your question?’
‘Not really.’ I lit another match.
‘Those children are the wildcards. You’re one and I’m one, and Jessica and that wolf guy.’
‘Derek.’
‘Whatever. Four species of shifters left, four wildcards to bring it all home – or screw it up, from the Mages’ perspective.’ He shrugged, his eyes glinting. ‘You should be able to work out the rest.’
I let the firelight dance over the quills of the feather, thinking. ‘What kind of extra powers?’
He frowned. ‘Depends on your kind. There’s never been an Unktehila in the dreaming, for example.’
I arched a brow at that.
‘Never,’ he insisted. ‘We keep track of our history.’
I had to wonder what other kinds of bonus powers I could get. And what they could be used for.
What were his extra powers?
I thought I might know. ‘You told me that we would need a spellsinger to fight the Mages. But you’re fighting the Mages and you’re alone. Where’s your spellsinger?’
If ever a bird could smile, he did.
Then he lunged for me. He cast his thunderbolts in all directions, setting off explosions of light all around the bench. Then he snatched one feather out of my grasp and grabbed at the one still in my hair.
‘Hey!’
‘Don’t break your terms, Unktehila.’
‘That’s only one answer!’ I shifted shape as quickly as I could, intending to fight him for custody of one feather, but he ripped hard.
‘I count two!’ he replied.
My hair tore and broke, right when I was in the middle of the blue shimmer of change. He had the feather – and a chunk of my hair.
Before I could seize his traitorous little butt, Kohana the Thunderbird was soaring into the cloudy sky.
I let him go.
For now.
Chapter Fifteen
When in doubt, ask Isabelle and her cards.
It wasn’t a brilliant plan, but it was the best one I had. I was going to send her a message but she sent me one first, asking me to come to her dorm room. When I got there, she had books all over the place. I assumed she was studying.
Books. Told you she was a throwback.
She insisted on checking the burn on my back again. She slathered on some more cream, even though she said it was nearly healed. I knew that – I could feel that it was better.
‘Do you think the guys are okay?’ she asked, her question echoing my own worries.
‘I don’t know. I don’t like not knowing.’ I tugged my shirt back on. ‘Theoretically, they’re just being held captive until the ceremony—’
‘Bound by spells, maybe.’
‘—but I hate not being sure.’ I dropped onto her chair. ‘I’m not a fan of the fact that I don’t know what to do to save them on that night either. On one hand, it seems to be ages away. On the other, I don’t feel like we have nearly enough time to prepare.’ I pulled out my messenger. ‘I got this prophecy. Does it make any sense to you?’
Wyverns past of snowy white
Gather to initiate
The newest member of their kind;
Always with hope that this one unbinds
Past errors and misjudgments
That condemn each Wyvern to lament
That love can never touch her life
Without instead a sacrifice.
Each new Wyvern may hold the key
To change the Wyverns’ destiny.
Isabelle made me read it twice. I was hoping, you know, that it might tweak some kind of Wyvern memory for her.
‘So there’s an initiation test for you, based on your making a sacrifice.’
‘I hate how vague this stuff is.’
Isabelle smiled. ‘Well, maybe I can help. I found something last night. In fact, I can’t believe I didn’t look at this before.’ She handed me a couple of books, her excitement obvious. ‘See? There was a lunar eclipse last spring and then the solar eclipse two weeks later.’
It had happened in April. ‘That’s when we were at boot camp.’
She went on for a few minutes about nodes of the moon and astrological signs, then must have seen that I was glazing over. ‘Point being that astrologically it was time for a new beginning.’ She pointed her finger at me. ‘The cue for the new Wyvern to take center stage.’
‘And the Great Lunar Standstill Derek mentioned?’
‘Just started. We’ll be at the midpoint in January, and it will end in the spring.’ Isabelle tapped her messenger. ‘Right when there’s another solar eclipse, at the end of March.’ She looked at me. ‘Three solar eclipses over a year, and a lunar standstill. What if Wyvern powers are linked to solar eclipses?’
It made a lot of sense. ‘And the initiation?’
‘There’s always a test before the new kid gets the keys to the kingdom. Do you know how to invoke the past Wyverns?’
‘No.’
‘What you should sacrifice?’
I shook my head. There were too many questions and no answers. ‘Am I right in thinking that I have to solve this to save the guys and Jessica?’
Isabelle looked worried. Then she reached up and snagged her tarot deck. The cat watched from the windowsill with interest. ‘Pick a card before you go,’ she said, shoving the deck at me.
I picked and turned it over.
The Moon.
Right side up.
‘Intuition and tides,’ Isabelle said with delight. ‘Mysteries of the feminine variety.’
‘A Wyvern card!’ I said with excitement and we laughed together.
‘I should give this deck to you. It responds so well to your presence.’
‘No, it’s yours. I’ll get another one.’
‘Take a copy of the translation on that book about the Mages,’ she suggested. ‘Maybe something will leap out at you if you let your intuition guide you.’
Couldn’t hurt. I loaded the file onto my messenger and turned to leave.
‘Hey, wait!’ Isabelle called when I was at the door. ‘Can you take the cat?’
‘Excuse me?’
He regarded me with slitted eyes.
‘I can’t have a cat in the dorm.’
‘But he’s been here.’
She grimaced. ‘Well, now they know. They say he has to go, but I don’t want to take him to the pound or toss him out.’
‘You have noticed that he hates me.’
‘Oh, don’t be silly. He’s just a big teddy bear.’ Isabelle crossed the room and scooped up the cat. When she carried him toward me, I saw him put out his claws. ‘You’ll get along just fine.’
‘I don’t think so,’ I said at the same time that Puss spat and slashed at me with one claw.
‘Naughty, naughty,’ Isabelle chided him, kissing the back of his head. He began to purr as she talked to him, still keeping a wary eye on me. ‘You’ll get used to each other. But you have to let me come and visit him.’
I really didn’t want the cat. ‘But …’
She held out the cat. ‘He can’t stay here, Zoë. They’re going to take him to the pound tonight if I don’t find him a home. Please?’
The cat glared at me.
There were tears in Isabelle’s eyes.
What could I say?
At least he’d retracted his claws.
I took the cat, stunned by the weight of him. I swear, he made himself heavier, just on principle. I don’t think either one of us was particularly thrilled about the situation.
But neither one of us could say no to Isabelle, either.
‘I forgot to tell you!’ Isabelle said, leaning around the doorframe of her room. It must be said that I looked back with some trepidation. She smiled. ‘I found the cemetery. It’s called Graceland and it’s at the north end of the city.’
Bonus!
I looked for mage spells all the way back to the Jamesons’, but there wasn’t a single one to be seen. I didn’t even see any cats. The ci
I thought about going to that cemetery, just to check it out, but I didn’t want to tip my hand. The Mages might be watching it already. Instead, I found a map of it online and tried to memorize the layout.
Then I made a list of the clues I had in matters Wyvern. I needed all the data I could get to ensure that we could save our friends.
Mrs Jameson thought I was hot for my homework when I got back to their place, but I was doing some more research online. I hadn’t forgotten that Urd had introduced herself and her sister to me – I just hadn’t thought it was important.
Now I realized that Granny never gave me anything that wasn’t important.
Even a clue.
The cat shot away from me as soon as he had the chance, leaping to a windowsill in the living room. The other cat, the one Meagan had picked up, sat on the piano and ignored us both.
Urd and Verdandi, it turned out, were two of the three Wyrd sisters who guard the well at the foot of Yggdrasil, the world tree. Urd spins, Verdandi weaves (or knits), and their third sister, Skuld, has the scissors to snip the thread. They’re supposed to weave the fate of everyone.
Even better, just as Urd had told me, her name meant ‘what was.’ Verdandi meant ‘what is’ and Skuld meant ‘what will be.’
Past, present, and future.
The three realms that the Wyvern was supposed to be able to see simultaneously.
Three solar eclipses.
And a test of initiation that involved me fixing an error of the past.
I was starting to see a pattern. Urd, mistress of matters past, was in my dreams because my initiation test would be soon. I’d guess it would be concurrent with that eclipse.
And I had to nail it to save the others.
All I had to do was figure out what the Wyvern’s error was, how to fix it, and how to invoke the Wyverns past in the first place. All while ensuring that my best friend wasn’t sucked into the maw of the Mages, saving three of my dragon buddies, a wolf shifter, and a jaguar shifter, and getting my parents back together again.
No pressure.
On Sunday afternoon, Meagan was doing her piano practice while I worked on my endless homework at the dining room table. Truth be told, I wasn’t making much progress.
Because the spell light coming out of her piano was gold.
Spiraling.
Making me shiver.
‘I think you should stop going to those jazz practices,’ I said when she finished a piece and sorted through her sheet music for the next one to practice.
She gave me a look. ‘I don’t agree. I’m finding out lots of stuff.’
‘Like what? Do you know where they are?’
Meagan shook her head and worked a scale with one hand. ‘Not yet. But I know they’re okay.’
The little trill of orange spell light that danced into the air made my tone more sharp than would have been ideal. ‘How okay is it to be captive?’
Meagan stopped and glared at me. ‘Don’t you trust me? Don’t you think I know what I’m doing?’
‘I don’t think you understand how dangerous they are. You’re sitting here, spinning Mage spells. I can see them!’
‘Well, of course I am.’ Her tone was dismissive. ‘I have to practice. Otherwise they’ll know I’m a spy.’
‘Maybe they know it already. You and I have been friends forever.’
‘But I’ve had a crush on Trevor forever, too. He knows that – that’s for sure.’
‘Look. I could beguile you. It might help you to defend yourself.’
She gave me a scornful look. ‘I can defend myself without your help.’ She pounded out a dark melody with force. ‘And if you think I’m going to just stop trying to learn more when I could help Garrett, you really don’t know anything about me.’
I leaned on the piano, desperate to make her listen. ‘Meagan, I can see the spell light all around you. You’re not just making it. You’re attracting it.’
She smiled with a confidence I didn’t share. ‘All the better to fool them into trusting me.’ She held up her hand, her finger and thumb an increment apart. ‘I’m this close to learning the location of their hideaway.’
‘They’re messing with you.’
‘You’re not the only one who knows anything, Zoë.’ Her lips set. ‘Derek and Liam and Nick and Jessica and Garrett are okay. For now. Trevor promised me that.’
Was it true? Did I dare to believe it?
Had Trevor lied to Meagan?
I watched the golden spell light dance around her head as she played, swirling like a swarm of fireflies, and I had to wonder.
Was it Meagan who was lying to me?
How far had she been tugged into the Mages’ plan?
Was that why she wouldn’t listen to me?
If so, how could I save her?
My dad came back on Sunday afternoon.
I sensed his return even before he called Meagan’s mom to say I should come home.
I packed up my stuff with mixed feelings. Had my mom come, too? I thought not. How could my dad have failed to change her mind? Didn’t he care? Didn’t he want her to come back? What was I going to say to him?
I was worried about leaving Meagan alone. I might have stayed a few days, choosing my friend over my dad. I lingered in the living room to say good-bye, but she ignored me. In fact, she seemed to be so busy with her piano practice that she didn’t even care that I was leaving.
I trudged home, uncertain what to expect. On the way there, I sent Jared a message, asking – no, begging – for his help with Meagan.
I got a single line reply:
She knows what she’s doing.
Perfect.
Whatever I had expected to find at home, it wasn’t what I found. Mr. Super-Neat had dropped his bag in the middle of the floor and left it there. That was more characteristic of me. He sat on the couch, still wearing his jacket and boots, staring into space.
I’d never seen him look so despondent.
Defeated.
Lost.
I slammed the door behind myself, just to make sure he heard it, and he jumped a little. He forced a ghost of a smile to his lips. It faded so quickly that if I’d blinked, I would have missed it. ‘I’ll go shopping tomorrow,’ he said, his voice flat. ‘Why don’t you order pizza tonight?’
Would my real dad please stand up?
The cat had slipped through the door before I slammed it and now sauntered into the loft. He sniffed my dad’s bags, then headed for the kitchen. I figured he must be hungry and gave him some water, as well as a bowl of the food Mrs Jameson had given me. She’d bought it for Meagan’s new cat – now named Mozart – and had given me a care package of it.
The cat didn’t eat the food.
My dad didn’t eat the pizza.
The cat took up a vantage point on the far side of the loft and watched my dad.
My dad stared into space.
I even loaded up an old movie that night, the one with Sean Connery providing the voice of the dragon. He hates that movie. Just hearing the title of it mentioned gets him all fired up (ha) and launches him into his Dragons 101 lecture.
On this night, he just stared at the screen, indifferent.
Which said it all.
I went to bed.
I’m not sure he noticed I’d left.
The cat trotted behind me with purpose, then leapt to my windowsill to stare at the night.
‘You’re going to need a name,’ I said to him and he gave me a look, as if I had no business choosing a name for his regal fabulousness.
His choice.
The short version of the story is that Meagan and I argued big-time on Monday.
I said (again) that she should bail on jazz practice.
She declined.
I said that she shouldn’t let Trevor drive her home.
She declined.
I insisted on being allowed to accompany her to jazz.
She declin
I intended to do it anyway, but I got another note from Muriel the guidance counselor.
Yup, I was enrolled in the program for kids of families damaged by divorce.
Go ahead. Guess when the classes were.
You got it. Mondays and Thursdays, right after school. Attendance not optional.
I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d been a Mage.
On Friday night, I dressed for war.
I chose my favorite black jeans and my black lace-up boots with the heavy soles. My purple hoodie zipped right up to my chin and barely squished under the black leather jacket I’d permanently borrowed from Nick’s mom, Alex. I had the ring on my finger and I shoved my rune stone into my pocket. I tucked the last feather of Kohana’s into the pocket inside the left front of the jacket, pulled on a pair of acid green gloves, and was ready to go.
My dad didn’t seem to notice my departure. He was still in the living room, breathing smoke, his eyes like embers in the dark.
‘Going to Isabelle’s!’ I shouted without looking back.
I raced down the corridor and swung down the stairs of the building, erupting into the night. I could feel the glow of the rising moon and jammed my hands into my pockets as I headed for the cemetery.
To my astonishment, Fish Breath was right behind me, power-trotting through the snow. Maybe he’d heard me say I was going to see Isabelle.
I thought it was a bad idea for the cat to accompany me. He weighed a ton and I had a long walk ahead of me. The last thing I wanted was to need to carry him.
And Isabelle would flay me alive if I lost him.
Furball believed otherwise. We had a dispute in the street, during which I tried to persuade him to go home and he took a swipe at me with those claws of his when I tried to make him. I gave it up and kept walking. He trotted behind me, keeping up and only periodically complaining with a meow or two.