“Can you retract them? You can’t go out in the world with damn dragon wings. That will tip off the humans to our existence for sure.” Greyson steps forward.
“I don’t know. I think that’s why Beth called you here.” Draven glances at me.
“None of us know anything about shifting.” I shrug. “You seemed like the best resource.”
Raven loops her arm around Greyson’s. “How do you shift between your forms, babe?”
“I don’t know that it will work. I have an animal counterpart and just tell him to shift when I want to shift back and I imagine myself in my human form.” Greyson rubs the back of his neck.
“Can you just imagine yourself like you were?” I ask.
“I’ll try, but what if I do and I can’t get them to come back?” Draven asks.
“Maybe we should get him a mirror?” Kira asks. “That way he can study what they look like so that he can visualize them when he wants them to come back.”
“That’s an excellent idea.” I nod. “Learning to fly or having eyes in the sky could be a game changer on a mission.”
“Yes, absolutely.” Jayden nods.
Adrian grabs a full-length mirror while Greyson gets another one and they position them around Draven so he can see his back. It’s a bloody mess at the place where the wings ripped free of his back. My stomach roils a little but nowhere near as bad as it used to at the sight of so much blood.
“All right, you have a good image of them in your mind?” Greyson asks.
“Not yet,” Draven says. “Let me see if I can spread them out a bit to see them more clearly.”
Draven’s brow furrows in concentration and a second later, the huge wings are spread out in a ten-foot wingspan behind his back. He flexes his shoulders and the wings flutter a little behind him.
“That’s fucking wicked,” Dax says.
“Okay, now imagine your back the way it was before the wings came out.” Greyson points to the mirror.
We all watch in fascination as the wings slowly retract beneath his skin the flesh knitting itself back together like they were never even there.
“I didn’t realize how heavy they were until they were gone. I feel lighter and I’m starving,” Draven says.
“Shifting takes a lot of energy so you’re going to be a bit like Raven and Beth after you shift,” Greyson says with a chuckle.
Raven elbows him in the gut and I nod my approval. We can’t help that we’re starving all the time now. It’s the damn increased magic.
“Okay,” I say. “I think we need to get back to the training field before the rest of the campus gets there for their training session.”
“What training?” Dax perks up.
“Beth went completely apeshit and made training mandatory all day every day,” Raven says. “It was glorious. The only way to get them to stop bullying each other is if they’re too tired to care about anything else.”
“That’s brilliant,” Dax says.
“Something needs to change,” Kira agrees.
“Is Draven free to go?” I ask the healer.
“Yes, I didn’t find anything wrong with him, just the dragon wings.” The healer nods.
We make our way out of the academic building and across campus to the forest that surrounds the training grounds.
“I don’t think you should train just yet,” Kira tells Draven. “Just because the healer couldn’t find anything wrong doesn’t mean you’re totally back to normal.”
“I’m fine. Actually, I feel better than ever. Except maybe the hunger.” Draven squeezes her hand.
