DragonSpell

by Natalie Lougher

  “Because this one isn’t on a canvas.” I heard the older man’s voice finally speak from off-camera, saying the room was ready and I grinned when I heard him.

  “Hugh! Get over here so I can see you and say hi!” I called and heard the rough, familiar sound of his laugh.

  “In a minute, lass! We want ye to see something!” At his pestering, Edan sighed and stood up, walking over to his laptop and picking it up.

  “Come for a walk with us.” He joked as he made his way down the hall, everyone trailing behind him, and all Rachel and I could do was sit and wait, seeing nothing but the blue of Edan’s sweater.

  “Are you ready?” he asked a moment later, when he came to a stop and we agreed. “Close your eyes.” I did as I was instructed and closed my eyes while he turned the laptop around to face the room and I heard Rachel’s quiet gasp beside me.

  “It’s unbelievable.” She breathed and I licked my lips, my eyes still closed.

  “Can I open them now?”

  “Aye, you can open them.” When my eyes opened my mouth fell open in wordless shock at what I saw. An entire wall of a room had been painted to look like the fish-bowl shaped bay their land sat upon and right in the center of the wall, was a big, burgundy and silver dragon with its wings half-extended and its green eyes looking right me. Tears filled my eyes and coursed down my cheeks as I realized this is probably how I’d looked to Ciara when I’d first shown myself to her and I sniffed and scrubbed at my eyes and cheeks but the tears still came.

  “Ciara...”

  “This is the twins’ nursery. I’ve spent every possible minute in here since you left us working on this. It still isn’t complete, I want to put some rocks along the shoreline, maybe do a bit more to the sky, but the part that matters the most I couldn’t be prouder of.” Her voice spoke from off screen and I wrapped my arms around my middle, too overcome with emotion to speak. Rachel wrapped an arm around my shoulders to give me a hug and she kept looking at the big mural in front of us.

  “Is that really what she looked like? I’ve obviously never seen her in that form. The eyes are familiar from our Skype calls but I never saw her with wings.”

  “Aye, right down to the silver sheen of her tummy and wings and the green cat-eyes.” Stephanie’s voice agreed and Rachel smiled.

  “Wow, you were amazing.”

  “Ciara, I don’t know what to say. It’s so...” My voice trailed off again speechlessly and I knew from experience that the pretty young woman was preening somewhere off-camera. Everyone started to find places to sit in the nursery and now that Hugh was finished doing whatever he’d been doing, he leaned towards the camera with a wide grin and a wave.

  “Greetings lass! It’s good to see ye again!”

  “You too my friend. You’re definitely a sight for sore eyes.” The housekeeper Madeline, who had also been missing from the gathering in the parlor suddenly appeared with little Alexandria in her arms and as she bent to put the baby in her crib, Ian appeared carrying little William and I bit the inside of my lip painfully at the view. Ian was seven years older than I was and to see him with a baby in his arms broke my heart and made me yearn for what our future might hold. Rachel must have sensed what I was thinking because she shot a quick glance at me and nudged me discreetly with her arm.

  “Good with kids and he’s gorgeous. Just teach him how to surf and he’ll be perfect.” She whispered and I smiled fondly as I watched him set the baby down in a neighboring crib.

  “He says he already knows how to surf. He learned while working in Australia a few years ago.”

  “Then what are you waiting for, woman? The cast is off, so sprout wings and go to him!” She joked quietly and I glanced at her with raised eyebrows. The dragon part of me was dead. She died on the cliffs at midnight and I knew that because I had been taken off the Cameron property without issue and had driven onto it and off it again without so much as a tingle after my week-long stay at the hospital. And my eyes had gone back to normal, I didn’t have the green dragon-eyes that I’d lived with since my first change. And yet, my friend kept hinting that I could change forms any time I liked. I kept passing it off as gentle ribbing but it wasn’t something she was letting go of and it made me wonder why.

  “So I have to ask,” I began as everyone in front of us got comfortable and they gazed at me expectantly. “Everyone is still okay there, right? Nothing’s going on?”

  “Everything and everyone here is perfect, Lani. The darkness we felt before you arrived disappeared the minute you roasted that last Fae. No broken mirrors, no inexplicable faces appearing in the mirrors behind us. No flocks of black crows. You cleared us of all of that.” Edan assured me and I relaxed and smiled, but my smile froze when I caught the look on Madeline’s face.

  “Madeline, what is it?” at first, the plump young woman squirmed uncertainly in her seat and then she shrugged a bit sheepishly.

  “It’s nothing Miss Lani. I’m just thinking about some of the other tales I’ve been hearing around town about weird things going on.”

  “Like what?” I exchanged glances with Rachel and Hugh gave Madeline a chiding look.

  “As I said Miss Lani, I’m sure it’s nothing. Just a bunch of superstitious people telling tales of kelpies along the riverbanks and the Sluagh visiting people’s dreams.” When she mentioned ‘Sluagh’ I shivered, remembering my own dream about the spirit who snatched Rachel, carried her over the sea and dropped her into the unforgiving water in a bid to steal her soul.

  “Is this kind of chatter normal? I’ve heard of kelpies I think.” Rachel spoke up and everyone in the room kind of shifted and exchanged glances.

  “Aye, these are normal parts of Scottish fokelore. Nothing more.” Hugh assured us but something didn’t sit right with me and I shared another look with Rachel who clearly felt the same way. “What’s got your scales up, lass? You don’t look like you believe us.” Hugh joked and I shook my head.

  “When Rachel and I were on the tour bus and we passed your estate, I started talking to the tour-guide and asking her what she knew of your place. All she could tell me was that Ciara and Edan were expecting a baby, and you were thought to be going crazy with all of your talk about black magic.” I began and Rachel started nodding faster in agreement, her dark curls bouncing around her shoulders.

  “Yes! And if Hugh’s talk of black magic was enough to make people think he was crazy, that means it wasn’t common conversation in town. But if it is now...” Her voice trailed off as I looked at her, nodding my head slowly and all of the Scots grew very still.

  “What? Kailani? Rachel?” Ian spoke up at last, his blood suddenly feeling a little cooler in his veins.

  “I don’t know. But something’s not right. You’re sure you all are safe and nothing out of the ordinary has happened there?” I asked, my voice serious and everyone nodded quickly.

  “We’re all fine Lani. You made sure this land would be protected while you were here, what with the banishing spells you performed and the runes in the lane-way gates. We haven’t so much as had a bad dream since you left.” Ciara promised.

  “If anything happens and makes you think ‘hmm, that’s weird’, I want to know about it. Something’s not right.” I instructed them, and while everyone on the other side of the video-call nodded silently, no one mentioned that, for the duration of two or three blinks of an eye, the sharp green-eyed gaze of the dragon stared back at them, just like it did from the mural behind them. This dragon clearly wasn’t dead after all.

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