Acne, Asthma, And Other Signs You Might Be Half Dragon

by Rena Rocford

  “No!” I leapt from behind the partition and ran for the fight.

  John, closer to the action, jumped and grabbed Takata’s muzzle.

  As I ran, a giant claw hit me. The scaled hand batted me out of the air like a cat toy. Time slowed as the wall of the ship rushed up. I twisted, flipping in midair. I struck the wall arm first, and pain exploded through my body, radiating from my left arm. The world fuzzed out as the searing jolts of electricity zapped through me.

  My vision blurred, and I hit the deck.

  The world reeled. I was going to pass out.

  I blinked my eyes and shook my head, focusing on the pain radiating from my arm.

  Blood dripped from the dragon’s mouth. He rolled his tongue around like he was trying to pick something from his teeth. Beth tore at his mouth with her bare hands, ripping great gashes in it, but it was a losing battle. If she made one wrong move, he’d swallow her whole.

  I tried to roll onto my back, but lightning shot through my arm.

  “Stay down,” Dr. Targyne whispered. Not far from me, he laid on the ground, panting and clutching his side. Felix had been knocked out not far from the doctor. Dr. Targyne inched his way toward me, pulling himself along by his arms. A red streak of blood trailed behind him.

  Takata shook his head, and John sailed through the air, crashing through the cubicles on the far side of the room. Half-walls flew up in a rain of troll debris, and out of the wreckage climbed more trolls. My father swung his head around like a dog, and Beth sailed across the boat, smacking into the metal hull.

  “Manifest,” I said to the doctor.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Why?”

  With my good arm, I held up the Kornus Blade for Dr. Targyne to see.

  White bloomed around the edges of his eyes. “You have it.”

  “Hurry up.”

  He nodded and steeled himself. His face tightened and drained of color as he gasped, shifting. Halfway through the transformation, his cry became an equine squeal. His back was bent and twisted, a mangled ruin of muscle, fur, and bones, but his head and neck gleamed in brilliant white. He tipped his head down to the lump of Lucite and touched it with his horn. The Lucite lump melted away from the blade. A silver light flashed through the room, and I dropped the tiny blade.

  When I looked back, the curling blade pulsed like a beating heart, flashing silver. It grew, twisting to full size, maybe even too big for me. I took the blade in my right hand. It hissed, burning my palm.

  “The feeling is mutual,” I said, standing. I tucked my bad arm against my ribs, but pain shot through me, threatening to blanket the world in darkness again.

  My father roared, and I felt something rip, not in me, but something in the world, as if I’d been wearing a tight suit and it was being unzipped. It made the world feel unseated, as if all of reality would slip and fall. I searched the room for the source of this new threat, and found it standing at the door next to the cubicles.

  On the far end of the room, a man stood. His clean suit and shiny shoes would have been at home in a fancy bank, not standing on the deck of a ship. His hair was combed to a perfect balance between youth and power. But around his designer clothes, streams of magic radiated out from him like the aurora borealis–if the northern lights were all sickly orange and putrid green.

  And the threads of magic ran from my father to this man in a suit.

  With all the players present, the whole picture unfolded in only too much clarity. My father passed power from the victims to this man standing on the stairs. There was only one person he could be: Kurt Stein.

  He surveyed the room with a cool eye, as if a rampaging dragon was perfectly normal. Then he smiled, inhaling like the world had just given him the gift of a great and beautiful day. Black tendrils of magic shot out from his body, searching the room for targets. One wrapped around Dr. Targyne and another found Beth. I jumped clear of the grasping magic. Beth screamed as the power of the dark spell curled around her, draining her life force, binding her to Stein.

  He was using magic to suck her life away, and I had no idea how to stop it.

  Power ran from my father to Stein, supporting the spell siphoning away Beth’s very soul. My father. John’s words rang through my head.

  You kill him.

  It made sense now. My father was Stein’s tool. Stein had immeasurable power at his hands, and my father had no control of his actions.

  You kill him.

  Even as I dodged another swipe from Stein’s magic hands, I hesitated. This was my father. My father. The one who’d hidden from me, who set the Aerie on fire to make the gryphons run before Stein captured them. But as I watched, power flooded from my father to Stein, and I could sense the unconscious Kin weakening as Stein demanded more.

  My father was distracted with sending power to Stein, and I took advantage of the free shot. I swung the Kornus Blade and caught him in the cheek. A piece of scale the size of my head fell from his face and pierced the deck. I swung again, but he pulled his head back and away from me.

  John skidded to my side and held his hands in stirrup. “Time to fly.”

  Without thinking, I put my foot into his hands and tensed for the jump. John bounced me into the air, and I pushed off his hand into a flip. The shock of sailing through the air jostled my arm, but I held onto the sword. Landing on the bridge of my father’s nose, I thrust the sword down. It tore open his flesh, parting the scales, but it skipped off the bone beneath.

  He roared; the deafening sound vibrated through my bones. I brought the sword down again, and my father’s scream rattled the hull of the ship. When I pulled out the blade, the wound knit back together, just like a troll, only stained in the black magic of Kurt Stein.

  It was like trying to take down a bull with a toothpick. I’d spent so much time debating if I should kill him, I never considered if I could kill a dragon.

  The size of a watermelon, his sokra winked in the light from between his eyes. Never let anyone touch your sokra.

  He shook his head, and I fell to his nose. I scrabbled to catch the edge of a scale, twisting my arm. Below me, the ground threatened to break me should I fall, and if I made a mistake, my father would try to eat me. The world reduced to a bucking pile of dragon scales. I wouldn’t get another chance to end this. He stopped for a moment, and I pulled myself up, wrenching the Kornus Blade free. In the same motion, I launched myself toward the sokra. The blade cleaved the air.

  The sword crashed into the gem. Like a breaking window, the sokra resisted for a moment before sundering under the pressure, shattering the world into splinters, and bits of the gem pelted me.

  Memories–not my own–crashed through my mind. I watched through someone else’s eyes as my mother gave birth. I saw my aunt playing with a whale. I watched the fire burning down the Aerie. I sat beside a woman with wild golden hair who looked like Felix. An older man yelled at me, and my mother threw a glass of wine at my feet. I walked through a forest of impossibly tall, slender trees, as elves danced through the hidden places of the world. I saw caves and warehouses, all filled with Kin, unconscious and fueling spells.

  The memories came faster and stronger, until I was lost. Finally, I saw a young woman with black hair wielding the Kornus Blade, drenched in water and blood, and I recognized her. She was my daughter, and she had come to kill me. Profound pride swept through me. My daughter had taken up the fight; Stein would die for his treachery. I could pass on the torch. The nightmare had ended.

  I snapped back to myself, gasping for breath–gasping for me–and my father’s body fell to the ground. We hit the deck like an earthquake. I tried to tumble away, tucking my arm, but I wrenched my shoulder and smashed my elbow.

  All around me, magic unraveled. Like a thread only partially cut, the power curled, ripping away from the order of the spell. My father was dead, and the magics woven together by his life sundered in an instant. The Kin were free, but my father was irrevocably gone.

  At the end of the cubic
le maze stood Kurt Stein trying desperately to catch the ends of the spells as they unraveled in front of him. He was why my father had fallen. The fire blazed inside me, spilling from my mouth when I screamed. Kurt peered down at me, sneering. Already, the trolls looked confused. The binding spell had broken with my father’s death, but clearly Stein still had command of magic. Some trolls muttered, looking from Kurt to me.

  “I’m going to kill you!” Flames poured from my mouth as I screamed. My world contracted to Kurt and my unreasonable need to stuff my hissing blade through his heart. I sprinted across the floor.

  Kurt slipped into the nearest cubicle. I followed blindly. When I rounded the corner, he stood poised over a unicorn woman, knife ready to strike. Like a snake, I lunged out with the Kornus Blade and knocked the knife aside.

  A black fist of foul magic slammed into my chest, knocking me down. I kicked out with my flailing leg. I hit the floor, and my already injured arm snapped like a pretzel. Screaming, I slashed blindly with the blade into the air above me. The sword ripped through something more solid than air, and a severed pile of black tar fell to the ground.

  Kurt yelled.

  I slashed again, but the dark magic wrapped around the tip of the blade and wrenched it from my hand. The hissing blade soared through the air over the edge of the cubicle behind me. I swiveled my head back to Kurt, who now stood over me, black tentacles of magic extending out from behind him. It handed his knife back.

  “Who do you think you are, child?” he asked. “Do you know who–”

  Beth launched over the side of the cubicle and tackled Kurt, interrupting his introduction. They crumpled into a pile. “Get the sword!” She wrapped up Kurt’s arm, but he hacked open her leg with his knife. Beth’s scream pierced me.

  John leapt over me to wrench the knife away from Kurt and took a steel blade to the face. “Go,” he yelled over Beth’s screaming.

  I jumped to find the sword, but a black rope of magic wrapped around my throat like a whip. Where the dark magic touched my skin, filth rained down on my soul, as if I ate tar. The putrid magic seeped into my very being, and I turned to face him again. Kurt held Beth in two of his black tentacles, and three tentacles struggled to keep John at bay. Kurt looked only at me. Fire rose in my throat, and I spit at him in rage. I was every shred a dragon, and that thing had my friends in its filthy claws.

  Rage fueled my transformation, and I unleashed my fire.

  Kurt smiled as my fire splashed aside, harmless.

  I blinked. How could he just–

  Dragons don’t come back.

  I pulled my head back, but I couldn’t move. Jerking away, my scales tore under the magic collar. He meant to capture me.

  I’ve just traded him one dragon for another.

  I dug my talons into the deck and tore the metal between my claws. My struggles cut off my breath, tearing the skin, but it held me fast.

  Kurt chuckled. “Do you know what I do, child?”

  What happens if he touches my sokra?

  The moment the question crossed my mind, a memory flooded to the surface of Kurt touching my father’s. He thought he had known some magic that could guard him, but he’d been wrong. In that moment, my father’s mind had been open to Kurt, and Kurt broke the warding spell, invading my father’s mind completely. He’d failed to protect himself, and he’d given the thief another weapon.

  I snapped back into my own mind, reeling from the intensity of the violation and failure in my father’s memory. Cold panic stole across my heart. My claws rent holes in the metal decking, but I couldn’t break free. Twisting my head back and forth, I threw myself against the bonds, but Kurt walked forward, calmly claiming his prize.

  An eagle’s screech sliced through the air, and Felix dove at Kurt in full gryphon ferocity. He hit the mage like a bird of prey, sinking his giant beak into Kurt’s shoulder. The blackness dissolved, freeing me. Beth and John fell to the ground, suddenly released. A ball of green light flashed outward, and Felix flew through the air like a rocket, slamming into the ceiling. He fell, a lifeless ragdoll with wings, and crashed into a row of cubicles, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.

  I ran for the Kornus Blade, tucking my broken leg up. The pulsing white blade stuck out of the bulkhead.

  “Stop!” The word rang through me, and I whipped around to face Kurt again. My tail brushed the hissing sword, and through the scales, it stung.

  Kurt strode toward me. Wind howled through the cavernous hold, but it didn’t ruffle his hair. The damaged, cubicle walls fell down in the gale, and trolls braced themselves against the winds. Despite the detritus in the air, Kurt’s gaze never left me. I was captivated. I sat back on my haunches and curled my tail around my feet like a cat. I couldn’t move

  “That’s better,” Kurt said, looking me over.

  My tail twitched at his words, as if my tail knew I should be running for my life.

  “That’s it.” His calm words were better suited to coaxing a wild animal than conversation. Petrified, I watched him, and he never broke eye contact, swallowing me in those great basilisk eyes. “You are a pretty one aren’t you?” He put a hand on my shoulder, and I shuddered at his touch.

  My tail twitched into the Kornus Blade, and that pulsing monohorn blade sliced into my scales. Pain seared through me, jerking me free for a breath. Kurt had a hand on my shoulder, and his other hand reached up to touch my forehead.

  He was going for my sokra.

  With my claws, I wrenched the Kornus Blade free from the side of the ship. In a squeal of twisted metal the sword slipped free, and I sliced blindly upwards, holding Kurt’s gaze. The Kornus Blade cut through bone and muscle with the same ease as a knife through soft serve. Kurt’s hand fell to the deck and he stared into my eyes, disbelief warring with rage and fear.

  His spell broke. The wind stopped, and debris fell to the ground around the hold.

  I plunged the Kornus Blade into his chest.

  The world tore open, and a hole broke in reality just behind Kurt. I flinched away, pulling the blade with me, but Kurt fell into the black hole of darkness, flashing a smile as he fell.

  The hole collapsed on itself, and a wave of force blasted outwards, flinging me backwards like an insect. I smashed into the hull of the ship, and metal screamed and sheared in the impact.

  He was gone. Kurt was gone.

  Water sprayed up around me. Where I’d smashed into the wall the metal had cracked and torn. Water drenched me in a fresh layer of salty cold.

  Because today just wasn’t challenging enough, now the boat was going to sink.

  After

  stood there, holding the Kornus Blade in my dragon hand. The sword was designed to kill my kind, and it throbbed. Water shot out from the holes in the metal, pouring down my scales to the puddle at my feet. Back by the cubicles, Beth picked herself up out of the debris of cubicle bits. She bent down to help John up, but he wrapped her in a kiss. I looked away. Kurt’s left hand lay severed on the deck at my feet, and a band of silver encircled one of the fingers. I looked back up at Beth and John. Anything was better than severed body parts.

  When they parted, Beth radiated a blazing beam of pure power and confidence.

  Some kiss.

  She jaunted toward me, and I found myself keenly aware of the fact that cold seawater sprayed over me while I stood there doing nothing.

  “Hey, Drake, you can’t fit through the doors like that,” Beth said.

  I shivered into my human form, and pointed at the severed hand with the sword. John produced a plastic bag from somewhere, and wrapped up the hand, careful not to touch it. “What do you want me to do with it?” he asked.

  “Burn it,” I said, only half joking.

  John raised an eyebrow. “Can’t we use something like this to track him, you know, if he doesn’t die?”

  Beth looked from John to me. “He isn’t dead?”

  I shook my head. “He was a really powerful mage. I don’t think he’ll die even from
a Kornus wound.”

  Beth blinked at me.

  “I saw it in my father’s memories. It’s hard to explain, but I don’t think that’s the last of him.”

  “What do we do?” John asked.

  All around, the world was coming apart at the seams and he wanted directions from me?

  But if I hesitated now, people could die.

  “Wake everyone up. Get the other trolls to help move everyone to the upper deck. It’ll take longer for the water to reach them there. All we can do is buy time. Beth, find and heal Dr. Targyne, if you can, then find me over there.” I rattled off orders like I knew what I was doing, but inside, my knees shook. Outside, everything shook because I was drenched in cold seawater.

  Dripping–both blood and water–I searched through the wrecked cubicles for Kin. Around me, trolls bustled to follow John’s barked orders. Felix lay in his human form, surrounded by feathers. His jacket had torn open, and a rib poked out through the skin, but he breathed. I knelt beside him, and smoothed back his hair. My tears splashed onto his face, and I collected his feathers. They seemed like golden treasures to me, lying amongst the wreckage. As I put them into a neat pile, the enormity of it all shook through me.

  My father was dead.

  I killed him.

  I’d had these ideas about who my father was, dreams about him as a person. I had fantasies about him coming to pick me up from school, or one day he’d just drop in and say “I’ve retired, and I can live with you now.” Never had I dreamt he was a kidnapping murderer.

  And knowing–knowing beyond a doubt–that my father was personally responsible for the death and ruin of families, I still wanted to know him. How much of him was in me? Would I fall into his mistakes and traps like pitfalls, set there before I was even born just for being his daughter?

  One day, would I be responsible for so much death and destruction?

  Now he was gone, and I couldn’t ask him.

  My hopes and fantasies had been a physical part of me, and I ached where they’d been torn out. I had killed the father I had never known.