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“What did you want with Ruby?”
Ruby La Rosa has been my subject for a lot longer than she’s known. Both her and her father. The truth is, the people who are after them are a lot worse than their mafia. And by the way Islipped into their family exactly to plan, I’d say that Victor would also know that by now.
“Ahh—” He touches the tip of his nose, finally shifting his body around to look at me.
Skully is not someone you want to make an enemy out of. Everyone knows that. But he is only one of the worst people you could meet. There is another who is just as bad. One who makes my skin itch any time I think about him. Or the fact that he can very well be the reason why Skully wants Ruby. Would I have brought her here if I had known that? I don’t know. “The famous question…” He pauses, and I hate when he does that. I’ve never seen him raise his voice. Never seen even a flash of anger on his face. Skully is completely void of showing any source of emotion, and for so long I’ve known I wanted to be trained in the way he trained me. Taught how to weaponize my emotions by showing none. Humans hate that. People hate when they want to get under your skin but know that they can’t.
“Just a question…” I edge closer, raising a brow at him. Skully has indented eye sockets so dark that he almost looks malnourished. It’s how he got his name. Skully. People here are known by nicknames. No legal names allowed. Except mine is my legal name.
“One you’re not ready for the answer to.” He claps his hands and stands from the bench, towering over me. I lean back, resting my arms on the edge of the chair. “Ruby La Rosa isn’t your concern anymore, Hangman. She is simply not your concern anymore.” He pats my shoulder and smiles tensely at me before moving through the aisle. I spin back around to see where he has gone when Poppy emerges, her eyes wide as if she’s searching for me.
I shoot up from the bench. “Pop?” She jogs down the aisle, swiping tears from her eyes. Before I can ask what’s wrong, shejumps into my arms and I catch her small body, pulling her into me.
“Len, we have to get Ruby out of there. This is a trap.”
I shake my head, pulling her back by her arms. “No, Poppy. No. For whatever reason she’s here, it’s important.” Poppy doesn’t know the extent of The Familia. I mean, she knows, but from birth I shaded her from a lot of evil that’s happened here, so in a sense she has been able to move through her life here without thinking twice.
“Wicked! They will kill her!” I’ve never seen her the way she is right now. Her cheeks are bright red, the same color as her eye sockets from all of the crying, and her lips are cracked and chapped, like tears have dried like lip balm.
“They won’t.” I straighten my shoulders.
“And how do you know that?” Poppy snaps, shoving out of my arms. “She’s here because of me. Len! We have to get her out of here before they hurt her, or worse—” Her skin pales.
“They won’t, Poppy.” I brush away her loose hair. “I know because I’m going to be her Dragon.”
Poppy stops breathing, her face falling blank. “You can’t.”
“Yes, I can…”
“You—” Poppy shakes her head, stepping backward and away from me like I’ve fucking hurt her. “You can’t do that to her, Wicked!”
“Poppy!” I growl, taking a short tentative step toward her. “Me being her Dragon means we know she doesn’t die.”
“You’re right.” Poppy swipes her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “But it’s going to make her wish that she did.”
Past
I never thought much about birthdays. They were celebrated differently here to what I’d heard how they were out in the world. We celebrated them by the date we were burned into The Institution, not the day we were born. So today was my thirteenth birthday by TI, and yeah, I had been here a very fucking long time. Long enough to know that this was the only way I wanted to live. I was going to be the next Skully. I knew it. Everyone fucking knew it. It’s why I was his favorite pet, but today? Today was something different. It was four four four. The day of the half-born Dragon. Today was the day I was going to be forged into the next level of my life.
I pulled the rim of my hoodie up over my head, shading half of my face.
“Are you ready?” Poppy asked from behind me. I turned around to see her. Poppy and I were placed together when we first came in. She was a couple years younger than me, so I was already three or four when she came in, but I instantly felt protective of her. Like she was my own sister. Our bond grew from there. She was the only one I really spoke to in TI who wasn’t Skully. The only one I trusted. I didn’t bother with the others, since half of them ended up buried in the Pitt.
I let her worry, tightening my robe and making sure it didn’t have any crinkles. Behind the old asylum was dense bushland, and then hidden deeper in was a set of glass igloos. No one really knew what he did with them but me. All of us lived in the old asylum. A numbered room each.
Poppy patted my shoulder, moving to my single bed and picking up the blade that lay on a black cushion. My room was basic. Wooden walls, a small sink near the end of my bed, and atoilet hidden behind a curtain at the back. Beside the bed was my standing closet, where dark robes hung and other casual clothes remained folded at the bottom. I didn’t wear other clothes. None of us did. There was a constant smell that clung to the ratty curtains that covered the high windows above my bed, and aside from the shitty plumbing and the squeaky bed, I couldn’t be bothered with anything else. I knew that with time, with hard work, I’d move up in the ranks. I’d be able to do more civilian work and help Skully with what he needed.
“Here!” Poppy handed me the blade, and my fingers closed around the base of the knife. “You’re going to probably need this a lot more now.” There was a silence that split between the two of us, and I knew that Poppy wanted to ask questions, but the truth was, she already knew too much. I had overshared with her too often and I wouldn’t do it anymore. “Can you promise me one thing?”
I nodded, even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to promise her shit.
“We get out of this?”
A brick wall fell down between us, but I lifted my hand to her chin, circling the tip. “Sure thing, Pop.” I pulled her into my lips and kissed the top of her head the way I’d done so many times before. “Sure thing.”
Present
Picking up my phone, I shove it into my back pocket, pausing as I take in my old room. Haven’t been back here in years, since I initiated into becoming not just any Dragon, but Skully’s Dragon. Because to slay a Dragon, one must become one.
