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“Time for you to give up. Lick your wounds and go back to playing pool. Hell, I’ll even get you a beer, but tonight your little lady is coming home with me,” I said. He snarled and was frothing at the mouth. He looked more like a wild animal than a man. He rose to his feet, one arm dangling helplessly by his side. I was just feeling sorry for him now. “Come on man, we’ve had our fun and games. I’d like to get on with the rest of the night now. Just accept that you’ve finally met a bigger dog in the yard.”
“Problem you have is that you’re a lonely dog. I’m not. I have friends,” he said, hissing through his teeth. Blood sprayed through the air and as he said this a group of men came forward, flanking him. Each one looked tougher than the last. They had chains and switchblades and other weapons, and suddenly my odds had worsened. Sure, I had my own skills and talents, but when the numbers weren’t in your favor.
“Come on guys, this was a fair fight and your boy here lost. Isn’t there any honor among you?” I asked. They just snarled and then came towards me. More of them were joining from the rest of the bar, and it looked as though I was going to have to take on an entire army. I glanced from one to the other, gauging my chances. I played the fight out in my mind, but every time I did so I knew that one of them was going to get a lucky strike. All it would take was a knife plunged into the right part of the body to bring me to my knees, and then they would go to town. They didn’t seem the types to stop until I was a bloody pulp either, and I didn’t have any plans to die just yet. My father might have thought I was a failure, but I was good at one thing: surviving.
And sometimes when you needed to survive you did the one thing you were always warned against doing. But, hell, it’s not as though anyone would believe these guys if they ever told people what they saw.
I stepped backwards, cloaking myself in darkness. I spread out my arms and felt the arcane energy swirling within me. I began to let it out. I felt the sweet pain as my soft flesh turned into hard scales. The air suddenly became alive as I tasted everything, my tongue lashing out of my long mouth, my teeth looking as sharp as daggers. My eyes glowed and burned with the fury of an ancient, lost race. I relished the look in the men’s faces as they tried to make sense of the nonsensical. They were seeing something that shouldn’t have been possible, yet it was happening right in front of their eyes. I knew the questions thatwere running through their minds; had they done too many drugs, had they drunk the wrong thing? I peeled my lips back in a smile though, revealing all my teeth.
It turned out that they weren’t entirely crazy. They had some sense about them after all as they did the rational thing when faced with something terrible and gave up. The knives and chains and other weapons fell to the ground limply. They were ashen with fright and staggered back, rushing to the safety of the bar. The air was alive with their helpless cries. Only the girl was left. She stared at me. I shifted back into my human form, wearing my smirk, thinking that the night was still going to be ours. After all, hadn’t I proven myself to her? I was the superior creature, and I had surely deserved a night with her.
But her lips quivered, and I could see the fear in her eyes. She turned on her heels and ran as well. She hammered her tiny fists on the doors, staring back at me as though I was a monster that was going to tear her apart. She slipped into the darkness and suddenly I was left alone in the parking lot, with shadows of blood staining the ground around me. I looked up to the sky, thinking that if I wanted, I could have taken flight and scorched the bar, burning everyone inside it.
But I wasn’t a monster.
The night hadn’t ended as I had planned. I was forlorn and forsaken, and I wished that things would be different. This place was never going to be welcoming to our kind, and I hated that Dad was right. Damn him and his righteous words. For a moment, I was so sick that I even pondered returning home. The echoes of Mason pleading with me to stay whispered through my mind, as did Brett’s sobering, disappointed glare. But I had vowed to leave, and I would look weak if I went back. There had to be something for me out here. They had to be somewhere for me to belong.
I took a breath and then shifted back into a dragon. I launched myself up with a great leap from my powerful, stocky legs, and then soared into the sky. I felt the wind rushing along the span of my wings and looked down at the blinking lights of the city below. It almost looked as though the stars had fallen to earth. These humans did not know how lucky they were to have so many of them all clustered together. I found the current of the wind and let it carry me away, high among the wispy clouds where I could hide in the darkness, and where I hoped I could find some solace.
Chapter Five
Kadie
I held a few strands of hair as I walked back into the settlement. My hair was soft and long. I twined it through my fingers. I know we weren’t supposed to like our human forms, but I did enjoy how soft it was compared to the hard scales when we were dragons. I wore a long, flowing dress that hugged my curves. My skin was exposed to the cool night air and goosebumps rose upon it. Others looked at me. I felt uneasy, as though I did not truly belong here. I knew I harbored thoughts that were different from the others. Father tried to set me right, and I wanted to believe… I wanted to fit in. It was just so hard sometimes. The houses we had built were sturdy and made of brick. There was a pyre in the middle of the settlement, a bright flame that represented the fire within us all. It was the flame of dragons, the flame of eternity. It danced and crackled, and I felt drawn to it, as all dragons did.
Ilvar was standing before the others, gesturing with his wide arms, no doubt speaking of the old times and the old world where things were always better. He was a powerful man, with his black hair slicked back, his jaw strong and square, his eyes piercing into every part of the world. Whenever he looked at me, I had a sense that he was looking through me, as though he was able to see the parts of me that I would rather remained hidden. Other dragons sat before him and nodded along to his sermon, rapt with attention.
“… and they would fly among the sky, looking down on the world because it was theirs to do with as they pleased. That is the same right that we deserve. It has been too long since we have taken the truth of the flame to heart. It has been too longsince we have been as we once were. Standing on this land has sapped us of our strength. It has robbed us of knowing who we are inside. We have had to transform ourselves to fit in with this world, and so we have become less than we once were. We have already seen what it is to be dragons who shirk the old ways, who submit themselves to destiny and become meek. They are an insult to our ancestors, and we should not become like them. But I fear it is inevitable over time. We should seek to keep hold of what was important to us, to remember all the values that were carried here by our ancestors, and we should not let this world take them away. I hate that we have to remain secluded here, that we have to wear these masks to hide our true faces, but one day, that will not be the case. One day, we will be free, and everyone will see us in our true glory.”
There was a thunder of applause as people worshiped his words. Ilvar threw his neck back and stretched his arms out. He wore a tight t-shirt that showed off his muscles. He was certainly a physically impressive man, but there was something too hard about him, almost as though he was made of rock. He then saw me, and he smiled. He strode through the crowd, welcoming their kind words as he approached.
“Hello, Ilvar,” I said.
“Kadie, it’s a pleasure to see you here. I hope you liked what you heard,” he said with a broad smile.
My lips twitched nervously. “You always know how to engage a crowd.”
“Well, I think it’s easy when people listen to the truth. That’s all I try to do, tell the truth. I let it flow through me, channeling it from our ancestors.” I wasn’t sure whether he believed this or whether it was just a metaphor. I did not wish to doubt him though, so I nodded and smiled, acquiescing to his judgment.
“Come with me, I would like to speak to you about something,” he spoke as though it was a request, and yet it seemed like an order. He turned swiftly, not giving me a chance to respond. He seemed to assume that I was going to do as he asked no matter what. I supposed I should, since he was the leader. Father would have been disappointed in me otherwise.
I followed him back to his house. It was the largest building in the settlement and had once been used as the council chamber. Ilvar’s father had taken it as his own residence though, saying that the leader of dragons needed a suitable home. Ilvar had carried on this tradition. There were various ornaments and pieces of artwork dotted around the place, all of them depicting dragons of some form of draconic ancestry. There was an easel set up and a painting was in progress. Black lines slashed the white paper. I thought it looked angry.
“Do you like it?” Ilvar asked, noticing that my attention had been drawn towards it. “It’s my latest piece. I want to try and capture the struggle we all feel about being in this place.”
He walked over to a cabinet and poured us a drink. He handed me a glass. The drink was smokey, and it left a burning, choking feeling down the back of my throat. “I don’t like much of what humans have invented, but I have to give them their due; they know how to make good liquor,” he said as he raised his glass. I merely sipped it and nodded. He gestured to me to take a seat. I perched on a small couch. He joined me, sitting a little closer than was comfortable.
“I’m glad we get to have this chat, Kadie. You know, it’s people like you who are going to be the future of this place. When I took command over my father, he told me that I would need to be strong, and that I would need to always keep one eye on the future. That leads me to you. You’re growing into a fine dragon. I’m sure Marcus is proud of the person you are becoming.”
“I hope so,” I said, unsure where he was going with this, but I felt an uneasy knot of tension.
“I have been meaning to ask him something, but I wanted to talk to you first. I do believe in the freedom of personal choice. I think sometimes we can get too lost in what our parents expect of us, don’t you?” he asked, arching an eyebrow.
“I suppose,” I said, just so that I could say something. I really didn’t know where he was going with this.
“Kadie, have you given thought to who you are going to take as your mate?” he asked. The question came into the air like a cannonball. I cringed and felt embarrassment heat my cheeks. I looked away immediately. I hadn’t thought about it at all. I still considered myself a girl, even though I was well of age.
“No,” I said.
