Winging It (37 page)

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 Adrian as the Mage shifted shapes in rapid succession, breathing dragonfire until he was singed in every shape.

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.

‘Time to go home,’ Liam said to me, and I nodded.

‘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.

She intended to stay.

I hooted as I bounded into my own room, and shouted with joy. I didn’t care whether they heard me or not. It was ten past two when I crashed.

I’d gotten the best birthday gift of all.

And it hadn’t even made my list of top three.

That night, I dreamed of Urd and Verdandi.

It shouldn’t have surprised me.

I felt chilled in the night, and rolled over. It was good to be back in my own bed and my own room. I sighed and opened my eyes, then blinked.

The tree was back, growing out of the floor and through the opposite wall. Verdandi was knitting and Urd was spinning her spindle. They sat on either side of that dark pit of a well, the snow falling lightly all around them. The stars were out overhead, which made no sense, but there it was.

As I watched, Urd put her drop spindle carefully aside. She took the bucket I’d ridden before, the one with a rope around the handle, and lowered it into the well. She let a lot of rope go before the bucket splashed far below.

She glanced up then and I thought I saw her smile inside the shadows of her hood. Tough to tell if someone’s smiling or grimacing when she has a skull face. Then she drew the bucket up with her bony hands. When it cleared the top of the well and Urd bent to grab the handle, Verdandi put her knitting aside. She straightened her glasses, then got to her feet. There was a ladle tucked beneath her stool, and it shone as if it was made of sterling silver.

Maybe it was made of moonlight.

She dipped it into the bucket and withdrew a sparkling scoop of water. She poured it carefully over the root of the tree, taking care to dampen all the bark.

She repeated the gesture over and over again, watering all of the tree root that she could reach. When necessary, Urd sent the bucket back down the well for more water. They worked steadily and methodically.

I dozed as I watched Verdandi ladle the water again and again and again. Finally satisfied, she tucked her ladle away and Urd stowed the bucket beside her stool. The pair sat down and began to work again, never having exchanged a word. The spindle spun and dipped, wool gathering on its stem. Verdandi pursed her lips as she knit, the product of her efforts spreading over her lap like a snowdrift.

Just before my eyes shut again, I saw it. A fresh green leaf appeared on one branch of the winter-deadened tree. Urd and Verdandi paused in their work to watch it unfurl. It opened with ridiculous speed, becoming a lushly green and shiny leaf about as big as the palm of my hand.

A second bud erupted farther down the same branch.

The sisters exchanged a glance and then Verdandi began to hum a little. Her needles flashed again and the drop spindle spun. But I saw her wink at me, quickly, just before I closed my eyes.

I smiled as I slipped into sleep. I knew the new growth was because of me.

There was a new Wyvern in town and the sisters liked that just fine.

Yes! I woke up ready for the most awesome birthday party of all time. I lingered in bed, enjoying my sense of anticipation. I could smell coffee brewing and heard my mom humming in the kitchen. My dad was on the phone, making last-minute arrangements for something. I felt the
Pyr
coming closer, all of them gathering for my big day. That coppery conduit was all a-sizzle.

This was the good stuff.

I wasn’t expecting the doorbell to ring, not so early. But it did, and my mom came to get me. ‘For you,’ she said, as if she’d never been gone. ‘Imagine.’

I gave her a tight hug – because she had been gone – tugged on some clothes and ran for the door. I was sure it was Meagan, come to dissect events of the night before, or one of the
Pyr
guys.