by Celeste Raye
Frank frowned. “That’s just an ugly word that people give to a string of bad luck. That’s all it is.”
Stephen noticed the change in the older man’s voice. He wanted to ask more, but it didn’t seem the right time. “Is there anything else you have planned for tonight?”
“No, just relax. Have a drink. Tomorrow we really start training. Tomorrow is when the pain begins.”
Stephen scoffed. “Speak for yourself. My pain started a while ago.”
Frank grinned, and Stephen made a face at him. The summer was going to be less partying and more fighting than he’d realized. Now that he had a partner, he also had competition. Not to mention the fact that he wanted to impress her. Calypso was special, and he was determined to find out how and why.
The two parted ways, and Stephen went to get a drink after he straightened up. He was thinking about one girl in particular. However, he was greeted with several women that were vying for his attention. Stephen was signed up for the alpha position in his clan, and once it was announced, Stephen started getting more and more attention. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it, but he didn’t like why he was getting it.
He spotted Calypso from afar, but it was hard to get past the redheaded twins that decided they both wanted him. It was a two-for-one deal that he would have taken before that day. But today, Stephen had only one woman on his mind.
When he got to her, she ignored him for several minutes.
“Aren’t you at least going to say hello?”
“I didn’t want to get you in trouble with your female friends. So, get your drink and go back. I won’t blow your cover.”
“Why would I do that when you’re sitting right here?”
She looked at him confused like she didn’t understand what he was doing. Stephen thought it was rather obvious, but she had him wondering if he was looking at it all wrong.
“Why wouldn’t you go back over there? Looks like a slam dunk that you won’t have to work hard for. That’s an easy target where I come from.”
“Where do you come from? Because I think I want to go there.”
“You probably would have liked it there. I went to boarding school for the last few years. All girls. They would have had fun with you.”
Stephen liked the sound of that, but it wasn’t what he was trying to talk about. He didn’t want to think about other women.
“All the women in the world don’t mean anything if someone’s mind is on someone else. It makes it hard to see all of the fruit around him.”
“The low-hanging fruit.”
“Ouch. You don’t like the twins?”
“I don’t know them, but I know their type. Trust me. Me and those kinds of girls never get along.”
“Jealousy I bet. Women are strange.”
She scoffed and then looked away. “I guess we are. It must be hard as a man, though. So many emotions that have to be bottled up all of the time. It seems exhausting.”
“We are not as helpless as you women like to think we are.”
“Well, I wouldn’t have gotten that from the way you fought today. You didn’t seem all that ready.”
“This is my first-time training with Frank. I just got here.”
“Yeah, me too. First day and all.”
Stephen frowned at her, and that just made her smile a little brighter. She liked making him scowl. He was too Cro-Magnon for her.
“You can’t tell me that you haven’t trained before. I saw you in action. Where do you learn to do that at your age? Frank is so good because of his age. Dragonkin get stronger as their life goes on.”
“Well, I have been training for a while. I don’t know what I am training for, but there has been a dark cloud over me since I was born. That’s why I was sent here. I have to spend the summer here, and then I will be able to protect myself, and my mother will let me go and have freedom.”
“It looks like you can already protect yourself just fine.”
“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that. She wouldn’t have approved of it before. She wanted to vet everyone, and some of the best trainers are of the questionable variety.”
He grinned, “Like the monk?”
She smiled. “You’d be surprised what they do up there in the mountains.”
Stephen couldn’t help returning the gesture. Calypso knew that he was comfortable with her. He had a relaxed look on his face, and she liked that they felt the same thing.
“I wish I would have been there with you.”
“Why? So, I wouldn’t kick your ass now?”
“No, because I would have wanted to get to know you sooner.”
Calypso wanted to stay something smart back, but nothing came to mind. All she could do was just smile at his answer. It was a pretty damn good one.
Chapter Eight
Stephen watched Calypso leave a little while after he got to the bar. He wanted to go with her, but she’d made it clear that she was going to bed alone. There was definitely something between them, but she was fighting it, and he was going to have to as well. Stephen wasn’t used to dealing with a woman’s refusal, but he wasn’t too hurt about it. It just meant that he was going to have to work harder on it. That’s wasn’t so bad.
The redheaded twins came back around and tried to catch him in a vulnerable position. He wanted to bury his face into their large bosoms and forget about Calypso, but it wasn’t going to do. He had to go to bed knowing that the only one that was going to satisfy him fully was Calypso.
He woke up the next morning fresh off dreams of the blonde woman. He’d thought about her until he went to sleep and then she’d visited his dreams as well. The first things he wanted to see when he woke up were her smiling face and deep blue eyes. They called to him, and he went to the training session first.
Frank was there and asked him what he was doing.
“I thought we were going to train today?”
“We are, nephew, but I thought that we would at least get some breakfast in you first.”
Stephen felt deflated because he hadn’t even thought about that. All he had thought about was the fact that he wanted to see Calypso. He hadn’t realized that there were other things that needed to be done. He ran a hand through his dark-blond hair and grinned.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea, Uncle. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You’re thinking that you and Calypso make a good match.”
Stephen’s head jerked up. He was, of course, thinking that very thing, but that didn’t mean that he wanted everyone to know about his feelings. Stephen wanted to understand his rushed feelings for the woman before he talked to Frank about it.
“I don’t know about that, but she is certainly a gem, isn’t she?”
The older man agreed, but Stephen could tell that he was holding something back.
“What is it, Frank?”
“Just know that sometimes people and their families are far more complicated than they first appear. If you are going to pursue her, Stephen, just make sure that you really want her.”
Stephen was confused, but Frank didn’t make his words clearer. He was tired of old people and their circular reasoning, but he tried to ignore it. It wasn’t like Frank was going to tell him what he needed to know anyway.
“Well, at the moment, I really want to be with her, but she shrugged me off.”
“Calypso has been gone for a while and hasn’t been around her kind for over five years. It’s just going to take her some time to adjust. Right now, she just needs a friend. Go get breakfast, and then we will have our first flying lesson.”
“I know how to fly, Uncle.”
“Yes, but I need you to know well enough to battle in the air. That is where most of our fighting occurs.”
“Do you really think that there is going to be another war? The packs are at peace. None of the major families are fighting. I don’t see why we have to take all of these precautions in the first place.”
“When you have lived as long as I h
ave, you will realize that peace never lasts forever. Something will always disrupt it.”
“But you’re talking about it like it’s going to happen soon. That’s how my family has been acting too. I feel like something is going on and no one will tell me the truth. I was hoping that you would.”
“I wish I could. But I can’t.”
Frank knew that he was trying to make him feel guilty, and the kid was doing a good job of it. He wanted to tell them both what he knew, but timing was everything and it just simply wasn’t the moment for all of that. As much as he liked to believe that they could figure it out, Frank knew that it wasn’t time just yet. It was coming, and soon, but he wanted the young people to live a little while longer before they had to know. He was going to change everything, and Frank wanted to give them more time. He saw the blossoming love between them.
Once he realized that Stephen and Calypso were interested in each other, Frank got worried. He loved his nephew, and he didn’t want to get in the middle of it, but at the same time, there was going to be pain in knowing Calypso. They weren’t going to have much time together.
That got him thinking that maybe it was best to let it play out. If she were going to come to an end so young, let them have happiness first.
Frank went to get his breakfast and then he went to meet his two students. They were ready for flight, and after they both changed into their true form, they took off. He watched them both for a time, but it only took about a minute for him to notice that Calypso was already trained well in combat flying as well. He was going to have to ask her about that later, why she was even there if she was so well-versed in all kinds of combat. Frank also wanted to know why her mother acted like she was vulnerable. It was all just a bit too off for him.
They went far off, over the ocean and then north until it was cold. They could see their breath in the air, and Frank made them stop.
“Now that we’re out this far, where do you want to go?”
Stephen looked to Calypso and she shrugged. “I’ve pretty much seen it all.”
“Take us to see the monks.”
Calypso looked over at Stephen’s suggestion and grinned. “I wouldn’t mind visiting the temple. It’s a bit of a ways, and we’d have to fly high enough to not be detected.”
Frank agreed and smiled at her knowledge. He also noted how well his nephew was listening to her. He was hanging on her every word, listening and retaining far better than if he would say it himself.
“That sounds like a good idea, Calypso. I would love to learn more about your training. Here I thought you were in boarding school.”
“I went for a few weeks. The rest of the time, I paid someone to send my calls through and I could do whatever I wanted.”
“And you chose to train with monks?”
Calypso grinned at Stephen. “It felt like the thing to do. You’ll love it there.”
She was excited to go; it was clear on her face, and Frank was eager to see where she’d been. He was learning quickly that the daughter was much like her mother. Freya had done her own thing, made decisions against family just to have her way. Calypso was walking in the same footsteps. That information alone settled his nerves. Maybe their kind really did have a chance.
Chapter Nine
The trio didn’t arrive in the Himalayan Mountains until late in the night. They had the sun to their backs the whole day, but then at some point, they were meeting it as they arrived. They were all tired, but no one would say it out loud. Everyone was trying to prove something.
Frank was trying to prove to himself that he wasn’t as old as the young people around him suggested. He wanted everything to work out how it was supposed to, but his vanity was bothered by their comments, even if they were just said in jest.
Calypso seemed always to be proving herself competent in a world full of men. She wanted people to see her as an equal in a social structure that frowned on that sort of thing. It was old class rules when she was with the dragonkin, and it had been so long since she had been around it that it was hard for her to adapt to such a set-up without some sort of push back.
Stephen was proving his own strength to himself after the woman had taken him down. It wasn’t an easy feeling for Stephen, but he knew that some things had to be learned for whatever it was that the family thought was coming down the line.
So, when they touched down and shifted, no one said anything. They were all out of breath, and Calypso was the first to recover.
“It’s not too far from here, but I don’t want to freak anyone out. They don’t know that I’m coming, and in my dragon form, it will be hard to decipher who I am from the others.”
“The others?” Stephen hadn’t said much since they arrived. He had many questions, but didn’t want to seem too curious, not with Frank around and watching everything. He didn’t want that to ruin the moments he had with Calypso.
“Yes, there is a pack of dragons here. They are very old. Most people think that they don’t exist anymore, the Montellos.”
She looked at Frank and asked if he had heard of them.
“I have. Are you sure that they are still alive?”
Calypso agreed. “They are. I have met with them many times, even lived with them for a spell. I learned a lot. They are the number one pack to turn to if you want to disappear.”
Frank was shocked. His mouth was open wide and he didn’t have anything to say. He was still trying to get over the fact that a family he had once thought was destroyed was actually still alive.
“Is that where you learned that shadow jumping?”
“Something like that. I picked things up here and there. The monks have taken on most of their moves as well. It isn’t as elaborate because they’re human, but they can still do some amazing things. They were patient and willing to teach me.”
The two men didn’t know what to say. She was different when she was close to her old home. Calypso found that her feet remembered the rocky steps quite well. She knew when to grab the side of the wall and when not to. The other two did not have the same advantage, though.
Frank and Stephen were much slower, and she had to stop several times to let them catch up. “Don’t you get energized here? There is a lot of power in these mountains, or so they believe. It is supposed to energize you so that you will always have the strength to take down your enemies.”
They shrugged. Calypso waved them off. She hadn’t been back in a few years, but the feel of the electromagnetic pull from the mountains was familiar and something that she missed quite a lot. To Calypso, it felt good to be home, and she had to stop herself from moving faster to get back.
When they finally had the temple in their sights, she was unable to hold back any longer. She was far too worried about going to see Bhut. He was her mentor when she was there in the past, and she’d missed him. He’d helped her find whatever peace that she currently possessed.
She removed her shoes and said a prayer before her two companions did the same. She was eager to get inside, but she waited for them to remove their shoes as well. They didn’t ask why, and Calypso appreciated that they followed her lead. It made it a lot easier to deal with.
Calypso didn’t say a word as they walked into the ornate temple. It was strange to see such jewel-encrusted heirlooms, but the place was full of great riches. It was out in the middle of nowhere, and for a human, it would have taken days to get to it. Calypso moved ahead. She remembered all of this from before, so she wasn’t as taken aback as her companions were.
She stopped when they got into a room that was filled with monks in rows, praying in silence. Calypso had to stop herself from showing her excitement. She wanted to yell her hello, but instead, she got next to one of the monks in the back row and took the same position. It was so familiar to her, and she was already feeling the peace.
The three did not rise again until the prayer session was over and everyone started to stand up. There was still no talking, but Calypso waved to Bhut, and they moved
along in silence together. Once they were out of the prayer room, Calypso gave him a hug and introduced him to the two men with her. The old, wrinkled man smiled with his dark, black eyes.
“It is good to see you again. I was worried that I might not before the Schell come back.”
“It hasn’t happened yet. No talk of that today. I just wanted to say hello. I was asked where I would want to go, and you came to mind. It’s been too long.”
Bhut smiled and agreed. “It has been too long. I have missed you. We all have. You always brought the sun with you. Fitting that you came during the sunrise.”
Calypso grinned and then they all walked to another labyrinth of rooms to have something for breakfast. They were all given rooms to sleep in, and, exhausted from the trip, and they were all asleep quickly.
When they awoke, it was almost the end of the day and Calypso was awake first, talking to Bhut. She was willing to answer his questions, but she was steadily trying to get the truth. Calypso felt like he was on the verge of revealing something important when Stephen walked in.
Bhut made an excuse for why he had to leave and he was gone in moments.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt anything, Calypso.”
“You didn’t. We were just talking about old times and old theories, nothing too exciting, I assure you.”
“I don’t know about that, Calypso. Everything about you is different and new. There is nothing boring about you, and I don’t think you could be, even if you wanted to be. I’ve never met someone like you before, and I’ve met a lot of women.”
Calypso felt her face getting red, but she tried not to let it bother her too much. She was doing her best to avoid his gaze, but then he was in front of her, tilting her head back.
“Do you believe in fate?”
She scoffed. Calypso didn’t want to talk about fate. That’s why her whole life had been one way or another. It was all because of destiny. Calypso liked to think that she had more control over her life than that. She didn’t want to believe that it was all some grand scheme that she found herself in, merely a cog in the wheel.