Rowan stands in the center of a crudely drawn circle, symbols I don’t recognize etched into the dirt around him. His hands are raised as he conjures a weak passage of light purple, nothing like the ones I make. Sweat pours down his face as he struggles.
A man bursts through the trees. Harper makes a choked sound beside me, and I know from his reaction and the resemblance that this is his brother. James is smaller than Harper, with the same golden eyes. James tackles Rowan just as the portal begins to widen, and the light sputters out as they hit the ground.
“You’re wrong about me!” Rowan screams, as he struggles to shove James off him. “I’ve already succeeded. I’ve already found a partner.”
When he snaps his fingers, a chill runs down my spine as something massive emerges from the darkness—a dragon. Not like the cute cartoon ones from movies, but a massive, scaled monstrosity with eyes like burning coals and teeth longer than my forearm. Its eyes glow with an unnatural purple fire, and its wingspan casts the entire clearing into shadow.
“Attack them!” Rowan commands. “Show them what real power looks like!”
The dragon tilts its massive head, regarding Rowan with something that looks disturbingly like contempt. It doesn’t move to obey.
“I said attack!” Rowan shrieks, his composure cracking. “I summoned you! You obey me!”
The dragon turns its massive head, regarding Rowan with those eerie purple eyes. It doesn’t move to attack. Instead, it lowers its head until it’s eye-level with Rowan, nostrils flaring.
“Rowan, get back. You can’t control it,” Jonathan says though I can’t see him.
The older man doesn’t listen. He should have. The dragon lunges forward, its claw raking across Rowan’s side. His expensive shirt tears like tissue paper, and blood pours from the wound as he stumbles backward, screaming in pain.
The image shifts again and the last thing I see are three urgent figures, my brother, James, and a woman that must be Elaine. I’m terrified even though the dragon can’t touch me, but they aren’t running in fear. They move together, circling the dragon. My brother is shouting something, hands glowing with a power I recognize because it runs through my own veins. James shifts partially, claws and fangs elongating as he dodges a swipe from the dragon’s tail.
They’re working together. Fighting together. Trying to subdue the monster that Rowan brought to the city.
The vision starts to fade around the edges and then it’s gone. I’m back in the living room.
“Did you—?” I start.
“I saw it,” Harper confirms, his voice rough. “I saw all of it.”
“They were working together. Your brother and mine. They were trying to stop Rowan.”
Unfinished Business
Harper
Reaching out to the spirit world paid off in a big way. And watching the necromancer in training learn his craft was intriguing.
But cleaning up afterwards? Much less glamorous.
“Is any of this yours?” I ask as I sort through the table where Dodger set up a little altar, which still smells faintly of sage and something metallic. “Should I put it aside for you?”
“Nah,” he answers. “I improvised.”
Dodger’s spread out on the couch, one arm flung dramatically over his eyes, the other dangling toward the floor. His chest rises and falls with each deep breath. Leaving all the cleanup to me. It’s no bother since he did all the heavy lifting, but the way he’s settled in makes me suspect this division of labor might become a habit. That is, if we become… the kind of people who build habits together.
Usually, cleaning relaxes me. The repetitive motions create a rhythm that lets my mind empty.
Not this time.
“You really think you contacted James?” I ask as I bring the trash can from the kitchen into the living room.
Dodger’s chest expands with a deep inhale before he answers. “I think so. We weren’t really seeing through their eyes, so it’s hard to tell.” It was more like being a fly on the wall or seeing a movie than experiencing it through someone else’s eyes.
“He wasn’t in the first vision we saw.” I pause. “Vision, is that the right word?”
