Winging It by Deborah Cooke
He tackled the woman and she screamed as she fell. I saw that he had ripped out her eyes with his claws, then left her writhing in anguish and bleeding in the snow.
Then he leapt for me.
I shifted shape with a roar. Then I seized Kohana and willed myself into the dreaming. He yelped but I didn’t let go. With the ring gone, I had to use the view of my left eye again to orient myself. I found the spell light in the dreaming and latched on to it.
I raced down the conduit of spell light, even as Kohana struggled against my grip. He was swearing and spitting and biting, but I didn’t care.
We emerged suddenly in the wasteland of the Mages’ collective memory.
‘Stupid …’ Kohana began, but I ignored him.
Instead, I breathed dragonfire at the forest. The trees closest to me erupted with brilliant orange flame, their dry wood crackling as it burned.
‘What the fuck …’ he murmured, but I breathed fire in the other direction. I still had a death grip on him, but he wasn’t fighting me anymore. The fire danced high on both sides of us, orange and hot, as the smoke rose from the burning forest.
‘You could help,’ I said and cast him aside. ‘Don’t just stare.’
He was visibly astounded. ‘They’ll lose their recollection. Of everything.’
For once, I could give him a look of disdain. ‘That would be the point.’
Kohana turned to look at the burning forest. ‘Brilliant. It’s fucking brilliant, unless …’
I had no time to chat. I didn’t know what they might be able to do to retaliate, and time was of the essence.
They still had Meagan and Jessica and Derek and the guys in their grasp.
I flew low over the forest, spewing fire in every direction. The forest was soon aglow with a thousand flames, a raging inferno of light and heat.
To my relief, Kohana quickly decided to join forces with me. He swooped in to throw thunderbolts and heat lightning, his efforts spreading the fire beyond my reach. We flew back and forth, working together, relentless in destroying the hive memory of the Mages.
Far away, I could hear them screaming in anguish.
It worked for me.
And when Kohana and I met over the blaze of destruction we had created, he smiled at me. There was something a whole lot like admiration gleaming in his dark eyes as he surveyed me.
‘Not bad, Unktehila,’ he said quietly. ‘Not bad at all.’
‘We need to work together,’ I said. ‘All of us, in union against the Mages. It’s the only way we’ll win.’
He didn’t say anything, just gave me that inscrutable stare.
And extended his claw.
Was it a trick? Or was he sincere?
Tick-tock. We had to get back.
I chose to trust him.
For the moment.
I placed his last feather in his claw.
He laughed and produced the NightBlade from the cluster of thunderbolts in one claw. He flourished it, swishing it through the air.
‘You got it!’ I cried.
‘It’s mine to destroy,’ he said, then shot into the sky. He ascended in a spiral of ebony feathers, seeming to fly straight at the sun. He was faster than ever. I could never catch him.
And really, I didn’t want to.
I went back to save the others.
Chapter Sixteen
I closed my eyes and abandoned the destroyed hive mind of the Mages. I willed myself back to the fight in the cemetery and opened my eyes to find a kick-ass fight in progress.
I leapt right into the middle of it, with a roar.
The Mages were at a serious disadvantage. The older Mages – and probably the ones who had been initiated longer – had collapsed on the ground. They writhed wordlessly in the snow, their gazes blank. I could only assume that they had no memory other than what had been in the memory hive. The woman who had led them was only twitching where she had fallen, great bleeding holes where her eyes had been.
Their loss had trashed the ranks of the Mages. I could see Adrian, casting spell light with furious intensity, and Trevor, singing his heart out to cast spells, along with about a dozen other young Mages and Mage apprentices. Their spells cavorted in the air, all golden light, gathering power before they attacked.
The cemetery was full of wolves, all of them leaping and snapping and biting at the surviving Mages. I’d never seen such a furious pack of dogs, and I guessed the Mages hadn’t either. Then there were the cats, slashing and spitting and ripping the guts out of anyone they could reach. And there was Urd, gesturing to her stone army, guiding them through the fray as they pounded and smashed fragile human bones.
Some Mages broke rank and ran away, only to be pursued and taken down. Others targeted their opponents with bright spells. There was a lot of blood in the snow, and a lot of fallen bodies. Any ethereal ShadowEater forms had been dispelled, but I doubted that they were completely destroyed.
The amazing thing was Meagan. I could see that she must have talked to Jared. She was standing with her feet braced against the snow, singing defiantly back at Trevor. Her spellsong had purpose as it hadn’t before, and it gathered into a ball of furious light in front of her. Sparks flew from that sphere, flattening anyone who was hit.
She was a natural.
I was shocked to hear her singing Jared’s song ‘Snow Goddess.’ Spell light in a thousand hues of blue and purple emanated from her, forming a barrier between her and the Mages.
I saw then that she stood over Garrett, who was still struggling against his binding spell. He was wriggling and fighting the tight cords of golden spell light, murmuring to himself. Sparks from Meagan’s sphere fell on him and I saw one line of spell snap, then sizzle as it burned.
The ends of the broken spell light danced toward each other, like a pair of snakes that would join anew. Garrett glared at them, all fiery intensity, and they burned back several inches. It was enough that they couldn’t touch again.
Yet.
I guessed that the spell had been fashioned to repair itself if any of it broke. Meagan saw what he had done and changed her tune, making a whole flurry of her spell sparks fall on the spells that bound him. There was sweat on Garrett’s brow, but he laughed as more of the binding broke and he burned it back.
I roared and flew straight to Meagan in dragon form. I helped Garrett free himself, watching Meagan’s back as she tossed spells into the crowd of Mages.
‘Thanks,’ he said, then leapt into the air, shifting en route. He lunged past Meagan and attacked Trevor, his dragonfire vivid against the darkness. I’d never seen anyone shoot such a huge plume of flame, and I stared in awe. He was glorious, his garnet and gold scales flashing in the night.
Meagan stopped singing for a moment, her face flushed as she caught her breath. She swallowed, her gaze fixed on Garrett, then smiled when Trevor fled across the cemetery, with Garrett’s flames right at his heels to encourage him.
I gave Meagan a thumbs-up, although I’m not sure she noticed. She was focused on singing with all her might.
The other guys, though, were still securely trapped. Derek and Jessica were still trussed up as well, and now apparently caught in human form.
Isabelle, to my relief, was okay; she had a buff guy defending her on either side. One looked like a football player, a seriously large guy. The other was more slim. There was something about the way the first guy beckoned to an approaching Mage, as if daring him to rumble, that reminded me of Fish Breath.
And I understood exactly why we’d been adopted.
Garrett returned to defend Meagan, so I leapt toward Nick and breathed dragonfire at the spell bonds that held him captive. Nick roared as he shifted shape and joined the fight. Then I turned my dragonfire on Liam’s bonds.
Nick decked Trevor, silencing his song for a moment. Liam leapt over my shoulder as he shifted shape, too. I barely saw the blur of a malachite dragon rip past me. He seized Adrian by the throat, that Mage having come up behind me. Liam held
I cut Derek free next. Derek shifted shape in a glimmer of pale blue light, then growled. His pale eyes glinted and then he leapt for the woman who had led the ceremony. She was still prostrate in the snow, but evidently he was taking no chances.
He ripped out her throat with one savage gesture.
I understood his point. She would never again eliminate another species of shifter.
He looked at me, blood on his jowls, as if to acknowledge my help. Then he joined the other wolves, disappearing into their midst.
Far above me, I saw the Wyverns gather in a circle and dared to hope that I had fulfilled the prophecy. A heartbeat later, I saw an orange center, surrounded by the black-and-white circle that looked a lot like Rafferty’s ring, then a halo of white that was Wyverns past. I thought I saw the silhouettes of two dragons in the black-and-white part, but it moved so quickly that I couldn’t be sure. The circle spun faster and faster, but I couldn’t look away.
In fact, we all watched, uncertain what to expect.
Then it exploded in a brilliant blaze of light.
And the circle was gone. There were embers falling in the snow all around, black chunks of ash that sizzled as they hit the snow and then disappeared.
I caught my breath when I saw the ghostly apparition of Sophie high above me. She flickered between human form and dragon form, breathtakingly beautiful either way. ‘Thank you, Wyvern new,’ she said in old-speak, then blew me a kiss.
She dissolved then, disappearing from sight like fog being dispersed by the wind. Had I seen the dark shadow of another dragon fly in the mist with her? Were she and Nikolas together forever? I hoped so.
I didn’t even jump when Urd put her bony hand on my shoulder and squeezed. ‘Wyvern made and curse broken,’ she said with satisfaction.
That was when I knew: I’d passed my initiation test.
The moon slid behind a cloud and the Mages – at least those who had survived – dispersed, running into the night. We let them go. We could tally up later who had survived and hunt them down – as Nick had said before, ridding the world of Mages was going to be a lot like our dads’ mission to eliminate Slayers. It was going to take some time. And we’d made major progress.
The guys landed beside me, shifting shape when their feet touched the ground. They were giddy with triumph, ready to celebrate our success. We had a kind of group hug going, with Meagan and Isabelle and the guys and me.
But we weren’t alone, we dragons and our human friends. The night air crackled with the blue shimmer of shape shifters reverting to human form. Derek shook hands with the guys and introduced some of his wolf friends. None of them had much to say, but they nodded and shook hands a lot.
Wolves mostly became guys, I noticed, while the cats mostly became girls.
Except Fish Breath, who still hovered beside Isabelle, along with Meagan’s adopted cat. Isabelle thanked both cat-guys, and both acted as if they were disinterested in what was being said. I could see by the gleam of their eyes, though, that they were pleased.
And they’d continue to stand guard. I guessed that it was similar to my saving Kohana and him feeling that he owed me a debt. Isabelle and Meagan had saved the cats.
Jessica led the cats to us, falling on her knees in the snow. She looked up at me. ‘I didn’t want to hurt you, but Trevor didn’t give me much of a choice.’
‘Us or you?’ I guessed.
She nodded, her tears falling.
‘You had to swear your loyalty, I’ll bet,’ Meagan said. ‘After they took the lion shifters.’
Jessica nodded again as the burly guy who had defended Isabelle came to her side.
‘If we didn’t obey,’ Fish Breath added, ‘they would have taken the next of our kind.’
‘They’ve done it before,’ Jessica said. ‘We defied them once, and they eliminated the tiger shifters in retaliation.’
‘But it doesn’t matter now,’ Fish Breath said, his tone fierce. His hand landed on Jessica’s shoulder. ‘They broke their word by capturing you. All bets are off.’
She blinked back her tears as she rose to her feet, and he hugged her tightly. He rubbed the back of her neck as she cried out the rest of her fear and my gaze locked with his.
I had a feeling that Jessica and I were going to get along a lot better in the future, since the secrets between us had been revealed.
And the cat shifters were going to be able to tell us a lot more about the Mages. As slaves, they would have seen a lot. Between us, we would find weaknesses we could exploit to defeat them forever.
‘Kohana says he’s going to destroy the NightBlade,’ I told them. ‘He took it.’
Fish Breath shook his head. He was a pretty good-looking guy. ‘He won’t be able to do it. It’s a ploy. They’ll turn its power against him – you’ll see.’
‘Just like they lied to me,’ Jessica said.
‘Then we have to save the Thunderbirds and destroy that knife somehow, too.’ I paused to think. ‘Maybe that will persuade them to join us.’ I saw Derek hovering at the edge of the group. ‘I mean, join our union,’ I said to him, deliberately using his words, and I thought he smiled a bit.
Fish Breath shrugged. ‘Maybe. Maybe not.’
‘You have a name?’ I asked him.
He smiled and put out one big hand. ‘Kincaid. Most people call me King.’
‘King works for me.’ I shook his hand and my fingers disappeared in his warm grip.
‘Never been much for dragons, but you’re changing my mind.’
I smiled, knowing that he’d noticed that I wasn’t much for cats. ‘Right back at you.’ We grinned at each other.
‘We’re all in this together,’ Derek said. ‘Thanks to Zoë.’
Everyone nodded agreement and then Derek tipped his head back and let out a howl. It sent shivers down my spine, even more so when the other wolf-guys took up the call.
We had a lot to learn about each other, but I was optimistic that we could do it, and that we could work together to completely defeat the Mages. We were three-quarters of the way to making the union that would save all of us shifters.
There had to be a way to trash that NightBlade. It was just another riddle, waiting to be solved.
I saw that Garrett had taken Meagan’s hand and that they had slipped away from the group a little bit. He bent to talk to her, his expression tender. She pushed up her glasses and smiled at him, almost radiant with pleasure.
‘Privacy time,’ Derek murmured as Garrett bent lower and I looked away.
I smiled.
Then I saw Derek smiling and I blushed.
‘Good job, Zoë,’ Liam said, giving me a quick hug.
‘Happy birthday, Wyvern,’ Nick said, punching my shoulder lightly. ‘Nothing like kicking a little butt to mark the big day.’
‘But it’s not …’ I began to protest.
Nick tapped his watch. ‘Five past twelve. You’re officially sixteen.’
They all hooted and congratulated me.
Then we had the best snowball fight of all time, racing out of the cemetery toward the lights of the city as we lobbed snow at each other. We were all laughing and stumbling over ourselves, loud and having a lot of fun.
I’m sure there were dozens of scandalized humans calling the cops on us, disruptive teenagers that we were.
I stopped on the perimeter of the cemetery to look back. Urd wasn’t following me anymore and there was a hooded statue in front of that block of stone again. It didn’t have a drop spindle.
The monuments were all just as they had been. Motionless.
I wasn’t sure whether the mess of fallen Mages would be there in the morning or not. I didn’t much care. They could weave spell light to defend their own secrets. Ours were secure.
The wolves and the cats had taken their own, to celebrate their lives and mourn their losses, which was just as it should be.
<
‘You, uh, want a ride?’ Nick said to Isabelle, shuffling his feet a bit in the snow. She looked at him, her expression a mix of caution and hope, but he smiled at her. ‘Truce?’
Isabelle thought about it for one heartbeat. ‘Okay.’
Garrett turned to Meagan. ‘One last ride before we meet again?’ he offered with a smile, and Meagan lit up.
‘Just you and me,’ I said to Liam, giving him a nudge.
‘And one big cat,’ Liam said. King shimmered and shifted, standing regally on the sidewalk as he awaited his chauffeur. ‘Come on, King. I’ll give you a lift.’
* * *
I got home exhausted but triumphant.
I wondered whether my dad would even notice my return.
It was late, later than I should have been out, so I climbed the stairs to our loft quietly. I didn’t want to use the elevator, because it made a ton of noise, especially to dragon ears. When I got to the hallway that led to our door, I even took off my boots and carried them.
I punched my code into the keypad of the dead bolt, hating all the little beeps and whirs. In the daytime you could barely hear the lock.
At night it provided an avalanche of sound.
The hinges even creaked on the fricking door when it opened.
And that was when I knew there was something different.
A trio of candles burned low, perched in their holders on the coffee table. There was an empty bottle of wine and a pair of glasses there, as well as a pile of luggage just inside the door. A witchy pair of black boots with spike heels and pointed toes looked as if they’d been kicked aside.
I recognized those boots.
I also recognized the sweater that had been flung over the back of the couch. I recognized the scent of a familiar feminine perfume.
And the door to my parents’ room was securely closed.
I smiled as I flicked the exterior door shut behind me. My mom wasn’t just home.