“Watch it,” the real Colson grunted, and I immediately lunged to the side as he stepped forward, hammer swinging at the two false friends we’d picked up.
False-Mia and Colson leapt over the hammer, impossibly high, higher than I knew my real friends could jump. They seemed to hover in mid-air before landing a few yards away from us, the skin roiling over their bones like they’d been dropped into a vat of boiling oil. Soon, it wasn’t Mia or Colson anymore, but two naked, gray-skinned creatures that looked like they’d scuttled straight out of my nightmares, complete with eyes, noses, and mouths that were half a size too small for their faces, and baring tiny, sharpened white teeth.
“Skinwalkers,” Asher growled.
On my other side, Mia gave my arm a reassuring squeeze. Just that small movement, combined with the warm smile she threw my way, and I knew we’d found our friends at last. “You holding up?”
“I’ll be fine enough to teach these guys a lesson, if that’s what you mean,” I said, drawing Valkyrie.
“Heard the Fae have been looking for you!” one of the skinwalkers hissed. “Thought the Fae would give us a pretty price to bring you in.”
“Alive or dead, doesn’t matter which!” the other added.
“Strangely, it does to us,” I said. “We’re not—”
One of the skinwalkers screeched and dove at me, knife angling at my throat. I moved, but slow, still too slow, and the blade nicked the front of my shirt, severing a bit of the fabric. Colson whirled, hammer coming up. The skinwalker’s tiny eyes practically popped from their sockets as the hammer’s head caught it in the center of the ribcage. The skinwalker exploded into a cloud of dust and darkness.
Its buddy screamed, but Mia yelled, “Glacious!”
The skinwalker halted in its tracks, Mia’s freezing spell slowly covering it until it looked like an ice sculpture from a Tim Burton film. It let out another muffled screech before it shattered. All of us stared in shock at where it’d stood.
“Well…” Asher said to Mia and Colson, “you two are already much better company than they were.”
After more than a few desperate hugs from Mia and slightly fewer reassuring pats on the shoulder from Colson that probably permanently knocked my spine out of alignment, we caught each other up on what had happened since my sudden disappearance.
Most of it I already knew, thanks to Asher. It seemed in the time Asher had left and Mia and Colson had managed to sneak out of the Academy, not much had changed. Kasia hadn’t attacked yet (I relaxed when I heard that), but General Zell and the lockdown were still in place, and things still looked grim.
Casting witch lights from our hands, we continued farther outside the city, trying to stay on the lesser used gravel roads. Though none of us said it, I was sure we were all secretly scared there were more beings like the skinwalkers after us.
“You didn’t hear General Zell give any orders to have us brought in?” Asher asked.
“I already told you we didn’t,” Colson said. He pointed at Asher, “He doesn’t know you’re missing, and he thinks you,” his finger moved to me, “are dead.”
Mia squeezed my hand again. In the moonlight, I saw tears at the corner of her eyes. I squeezed back.
“I’m just glad you two are okay,” I said. “When Zephyr died…When Kasia was there, I was scared, so scared she…”
“We know,” Mia said. “I saw you vanish after what she did to you. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it. I talked to Nolan, to see if there was any chance at all you might have survived without that…without the Dark Prince. He didn’t think so, but I knew, I knew…”
Her smile lit up her entire face. “He’s going to be so upset that he’s wrong.”
“Oh no,” I said drily. “I can’t possibly imagine anything worse than Nolan being upset.”
Mia smiled wider.
The lights of the city were nothing but glittering marbles over the swell of the nearest hill. Ahead of us was a dark spread of land beneath a blanket of stars.
Asher swore as he stepped in a particularly deep pile of mud. “Not to doubt your excellent navigational skills, Colson, but perhaps you have a destination in mind you’d like to share with the rest of the class?”
As if in answer, Colson walked up the nearest rise, put a thin metal tube the size of my finger to his lips, and blew. I expected a shrill, sharp sound, but nothing came out. Colson held it up to us.
“Fetching this is part of why we’re late.”
“With that whistle, can you also tell him not to bowl me over this time?” Mia said.
Colson’s lips turned into what I could only describe as a wickedly devious smile. “I can’t help it if he loves you.”
“Colson…”
I recalled the last time Colson had worn an expression like that. It had been here, in Norway, as well. And when we’d been traveling via…
“We should stand back,” Mia said suddenly. “He might have grown up, but he’s still terrible at landing.”
“He’s getting better,” Colson argued. “He didn’t even pitch you off the second time.”
I looked up into the sky, suddenly knowing exactly who Colson had called. “Please don’t tell me this is…”
I heard the sound of enormous, leathery wingflaps, followed by the sound of cutting air. A dark shape plummeted out of the low clouds, pumped its wings to stop before hitting the ground, then skimmed straight toward us. I stumbled back when it didn’t slow, nearly tripping over my feet. Before I knew it, I was knocked back, feeling the warm, slimy sensation of an enormous tongue attacking me with licks.
“Stop! Stop it, Dragon!” I squealed. “You’re getting slobber—”
I gagged as humid dragon breath washed over me. It smelled of sulfur and rotting trash that’d been recently torched. I gagged again.
“Down, Dragon!” Colson rumbled. “Sit…Sit—Not on Asher, on the ground. There you go.”
After another couple of licks all up and down my front Dragon pulled back. The ground rumbled again as he crouched on his haunches, his immense scaly body bouncing up and down to the rhythm of his excited panting.
“See?” Colson said proudly. “He’s learning.”
I spit saliva out of my mouth, too disgusted to answer. Asher, trying desperately to hide a laugh, waved his hand across me and the saliva instantly vanished. Dragon gave a whimpering whine, like he couldn’t wait to clobber me again. I flicked bits of spit off my fingers and stepped back to take a good look at him.
Colson hadn’t lied: the leathery beast had grown plenty since we’d last seen him, filling out to nearly the size of a semi, with the exuberance of a child who’d devoured a hidden stash of Halloween candy. His once bright green scales that could have been the main attraction in a Mardi Gras parade had dulled to an olive green, with spinal spikes half my size running the length of his back.
“Colson, just how many growth spurts has he had?” Asher said.
“Plenty. And he’s not done yet,” Colson said.
No, he wasn’t, not by a long shot. I remembered the wild dragons we’d seen when we’d dropped Dragon off (the very last time I’d ever expected to see him). They’d been the size of freight liners with enough magic that I could sense them coming, even from miles off. I could feel that similar magic from Dragon now, though it seemed muted somehow. That was most likely due to my lack of magic rather than his.
“Easy, easy.” Colson scratched dragon under the chin. Dragon closed his eyes, ceasing to fidget long enough to give off a rumbling purr. “Lucky he still recognized me. I’ve read stories of trainers getting eaten—”
“Colson,” Mia said warningly. “Please notice that you’re the only one here who’s overjoyed at this plan. You don’t need to spice it up with horror stories.”
Colson grunted, his excitement reverting to his usual serious composure. “Mia and I figured he’d be the easiest way to travel—”
“Excuse me, you thought—”
“He can’t be easily tracked. And if we run into any more glory seekers like those skinwalkers, well…”
As if in response, Dragon stretched his immense wings and let out a loud yawn, complete with a searing bout of flame. Colson grinned.
“So we have a form of…” I watched Dragon thump his tail loudly on the ground. “Transportation. But we’re not sure where to go next.”
“We know where,” Mia said proudly. “Lucien had actually been working on learning more about your god powers with Nolan right up until you left.”
“Are they all right?” I interjected, realizing that as much as I knew about my other friends, I hadn’t considered that my family could be in danger, too. “Lucien and my parents, I mean. They’re doing okay?”
I didn’t miss the brief, worried look Mia shot Colson. He rumbled, “They’re all fine. Your parents think…Lucien’s told them he believes you’re still alive, but they’re distraught.”
I bit my lip as Asher put a comforting arm around my shoulder. I may not have been on the best of terms with my mom before I’d left, but I couldn’t imagine being in her position, not knowing where her child was, or even if she was alive or dead. At least if I’d died there she would have had some closure.
I wiped tears from my eyes. “We’ll have to get back to them quick, then. Let them know we’re all okay. You said Lucien was working with Nolan?”
Mia nodded, looking unsure whether to comfort me or continue on as though I hadn’t interrupted. “Yes, both of them concluded that your god wasn’t the only source of your power. That you were connected or tethered to some other source.”
“The Realm of the gods,” Asher said, nodding. “Skylar had a…Well, she came to that conclusion, too.”
“Lucien gave us a name and place,” Colson said. “Anatole Tye. He’s a historian out in Eastern Poland. He’s supposed to know more about all this realm and gods stuff.”
“We’ve already looked through dozens of texts, here and at the Academy, about the gods and Zukami and we couldn’t find anything,” I said. “You sure this guy knows much more?”
“I have no idea, but Lucien thought it was worth a try.”
I nodded. It wasn’t like I had a better plan to move forward. But between the threat of Kasia hanging over the Academy, and my parents’ agony of not knowing my whereabouts, all I wanted to do was head back home right away, no matter the consequences.
I had to resist that impulse. What little chance we had at figuring out a way to defeat Kasia relied on us being undiscovered out here. We had to grab it while we could.
“I guess that’s it, then,” Asher said, looking at each of us. He eyed Dragon as the beast reached the limit of his ten-second patience and began to bounce again. “I…noticed we don’t have a saddle for him this time.”
“His back spikes are big enough to grab onto,” Colson said. “And his scales are smooth.”
“Speak for yourself,” Mia grumbled.
Asher carefully approached Dragon, hands up. “Steady…boy, dragon, creature…I’m just gonna grab this…” He reached up and gripped one of Dragon’s enormous back spikes. “And…”
With one move he smoothly vaulted up and settled near the center of Dragon’s back. He grinned down at all of us. “Easy—”
Dragon began bucking excitedly, jerking Asher up and down. When Colson managed to settle him again, Asher looked distinctly more disheveled. “Easy,” he said, less enthusiastically.
I stifled a laugh and grabbed his hand as he offered it, swinging me up so I could settle in front of him. I held tight to the spike in front of me while Asher wrapped his arms around my waist, securing me against his chest.
“Now doesn’t this seem familiar?” His warm breath tickled my ear.
“Unfortunately so,” I said.
“Aw, Dragon wasn’t that bad last time.”
“I wasn’t talking about Dragon.”
Asher laughed as Colson eased himself right in front of Dragon’s wings. He leaned over and gently pulled Mia up, his hands lingering on her waist as she settled in. “Sorry,” I heard him rumble.
“You’d better make it up to me later,” she whispered back. Colson grunted. He glanced back at us.
“You ready?”
“Not at all,” I said. “Let’s do this.”
Colson gave Dragon a pat on the side of his scaly neck. Like a bull released from its pen, Dragon bucked once, twice (“Really, Colson?” Asher yelled) before launching into the air. I waited for us to hurtle back to earth, but at the last second Dragon opened his wings. There was a jerk as air snapped against leathery skin.
And then we were soaring.
Between the fever spell I cast and Asher’s furnace-like heat soaking into my back, I stayed slightly warmer than a cavewoman trapped in ice during our couple hour flight. I kept my grip firmly on the back spine. I didn’t dare speak. I didn’t dare move. In-flight was the most I trusted Dragon, but I wouldn’t put it past him to bank suddenly to either side to chase a flock of geese or a 747.
Colson must have gotten exact directions from Lucien, because we flew straight until the sun began to rise and Dragon dipped sharply downward, bursting through the clouds. Below, a sleepy village dotted a valley of green, and for a horrifying moment I thought Dragon was going to put down right in the center of the village and blow the whole ‘supernatural secrecy’ thing out of the water.
Instead, he tilted up and we soared over the valley, dipping again once we’d cleared a ridgeline. Here the surrounding mountains created a rocky wall of outcroppings, barren of most trees, but with enough of a crest for Dragon to have his choice of where to touch down.
“There,” Colson said when the rushing air left my ears and I could hear again.
He was pointing ahead to a small cave in the side of the mountain. It looked too small for a human. Certainly too small for any famous historian who might have answers.
Dragon took his time circling the ridge before dipping low and skidding to a halt right before the cave entrance.
I scrutinized the opening. “Colson, did Lucien happen to mention what this historian was?”
Colson opened his mouth, right as a goblin walked out and I got my answer.
“You’ve come to destroy me at last,” the goblin said reverently, walking toward us, eyes closed, arms outstretched. “I knew, with my immense knowledge and intellect, it was only a matter of time before someone decided I was too dangerous to live.”
He cracked open one green eyelid and spotted Dragon. “Ah, I see my manner of death is to be eaten alive. One moment.”
He vanished back inside his cave. All of us shared a look that could best be described as ‘Better roll with it’, before sliding off Dragon’s back.
The goblin returned, this time with links of sausages coiled around his neck, and fresh steaks hanging from the tips of his outstretched fingers. “To make me more palatable to the creature. I imagine myself to be a bit stringy. Never tested it, of course.”
“We’re not here to eat you,” Mia said. “Or, uh, kill you.”
The goblin slowly opened his eyes. “Oh?”
Dragon whimpered at the smell of meat, but Colson held him back. “Are you Anatol Tye?”
“That I am.” He gave us a bow, steaks splattering on the ground. Dragon whimpered again. “Collector of knowledge, seeker of truth, knower of important, ancient things. Now that a great darkness has struck the world of the supernatural, I knew there were those who would want that knowledge to remain lost forever.”
“We’re not any of them,” I said. “We just need a few answers.”
“I see. And, uh, the dragon?”
“Easier than taking a cab,” Asher said.
“Oh, well. Excellent! Come in then, come in.”
He tossed a couple steaks to Dragon and headed back inside. I threw a look of reservation to the others, and together we entered the cave.