by Amelia Jade
***
Amber slowly stirred awake, once again sad that Zeke’s arms were not there wrapped around her in the morning. She couldn’t wait for the day that became a reality. Somehow.
They had talked during the night, and she had expressed her increasing desire to stay with him, to be near him. It would be complicated, and they would have to find a way to ensure she could stay in Cadia legally, without being hunted. But she was willing to work it out with him. Once she had her legal papers, she could travel in and out every now and then, so she could at least tell her friends and remaining family she was okay.
“Quinn?” she asked, sitting up. “What’s the plan for today? Did you eat already?”
There was no response.
“Hmm?” she said aloud to herself, rising from the couch where she was sleeping these days.
She surveyed the house. There was no sign of her friend. With a yawn she made her way up the stairs. Judging by the sun it wasn’t overly early anymore. Quinn was usually up and at it, ready to tackle the day. Sleeping in was not like her.
The bed upstairs was empty and made up. Quinn was gone somewhere. Amber shrugged and went down to fix breakfast. It wasn’t the first time Quinn had gone places in the morning, though Amber was usually up by then. Perhaps she had left at the same time as Asher. That would make sense.
It was an hour later when the door burst in, Quinn flying into the room like a whirlwind.
“Hey, what’s the big rush?” Amber teased.
The humor died as she saw the look on Quinn’s face.
“We’re in trouble,” her friend said, moving over to the television and turning it on.
“What? Why? What’s going on?” Amber said, moving to her friend’s side.
“This,” Quinn said as she flicked it to a news channel.
There was a big picture of Amber on the page, with the word Missing under it. The anchor was speaking, but she didn’t hear the words.
“Oh. Shit,” she muttered, sinking back into the couch as all the implications began to sink in.
“Yeah, big oh shit is right,” Quinn said. “Now everyone will know you’re missing. Including the people here in Cadia.”
“Fuck me.” Amber was paralyzed. She didn’t know what to do.
Everything that she had been thinking of—her future with Zeke, their growing relationship, and a new life here inside Cadia—the entire illusion suddenly shattered and came crashing down around her. Tears welled up in her eyes, and several made their way down her cheeks.
But Amber was tougher than that. She was upset, and her world was falling apart. But it wasn’t over yet. She allowed herself several more moments of emotions, and then she shut the taps off at the source, using the back of her sleeve to wipe her face.
“Okay,” she said. “What do I do now?”
“You have to get to safety,” Quinn said.
“What? What do you mean?”
Her friend shook her head sadly. “They’re going to come looking here. When word gets back to those in Cadia that you’re missing, that you never made it back, they’re going to automatically assume that Zeke had something to do with it. After my adventures in being here illegally, you can bet your ass this is going to be one of the first places they come looking. You need to leave, and right away. Get out to the forest, perhaps. Hole up in a cave for a bit in the middle of nowhere. Zeke can visit you at night; nobody will bother him about that. Until we can get this all figured out at least. Although I hate to do it to you, you have to go. You’re not safe here anymore.” Quinn looked at her apologetically.
“It’s okay,” she reassured her. “I know you’re not doing this for yourself, but for me.” She swept Quinn up into a hug. “Okay, so I need to get some supplies together I guess, and make a run for it.”
The two women worked quickly and efficiently as they stuffed one of Asher’s old packs with as much food and a few bottles of water—there were plenty of freshwater springs around—along with some of Quinn’s spare clothing and a few tools to help make life easier.
“Okay, you probably don’t want to carry much more. Once Zeke finds you, he can continue to bring you more supplies until we figure this out,” Quinn said.
“Thank you,” Amber told her, “for everything.” She swept the other woman into a big hug. “I’ll see you as soon as I can.”
“Be safe. I’ll stall and try and throw them off your scent if they happen to pick it up,” Quinn said as Amber opened the door.
Amber looked out across the flat landscape. The forest appeared near the mountains to the west and northwest.
“Wish me luck,” she said with a shake of her head.
“Luck,” Quinn said, giving her shoulder a squeeze.
Amber rolled her shoulders once, and set off.
She could do this.
She would do this.
Chapter Twelve
Zeke
“Again!” Blaine barked.
Zeke gritted his teeth and reached out for the fire within him, the burning inferno that was the spirit of his animal. It remained ready and willing, though his brain was flagging. Each time he tried to harness it, it took longer and longer. He knew he was coming dangerously close to the edge, and he had no idea what would happen if he tried one time too many.
Probably nothing good. Which is why this isn’t going to be that time.
With a grunt of mixed pain and effort, Zeke called upon that power. It uncoiled within his brain and lunged for freedom like a rampaging bull. But he was stronger. Mental fists grabbed it and wrestled it down, making the power bend and swirl according to his commands, not its wishes. The energy coalesced, a shield wall of pure flame that extended in a very tight oblong shape around him. He held it there, controlling it.
This was the opposite of what he and the other cadets had been trying to do with their shifting prowess. They had been learning how to control their powers, to dampen the energy released during their shift.
Now Blaine was teaching them how to use it as a weapon.
Zeke felt the fire try to escape, to continue the transformation, and he increased his grip. The red-orange ball of flames didn’t harm him. He barely felt its warmth, though he could see the stones beneath him were beginning to glow as they absorbed as much heat as they could.
“Good!” Blaine shouted. “Now put it away.”
Zeke nodded to himself, and began to wind down the power, urging it slowly back inside of him, bit by bit. This was the trickiest part. He could let it fully out and shift, but that wasn’t part of the drill. The drill was to be able to control his powers without always shifting. There was much more he could do as a dragon shifter than Zeke had ever known.
But his dragon resisted. Its anger burned hot, and it wasn’t so willing to continue being used. It fought against him, and Zeke felt his mental control slipping. He focused himself, falling to one knee as he closed his eyes, trying to exert control over his feral half.
“Zeke, that is enough. Put it away!” Blaine roared from outside his sphere of flame, his voice loud enough to carry through the blazing inferno.
“I. Can’t,” he forced out, the battle inside of him raging on as his dragon sensed he was winning.
“I said put it away!” Blaine ordered again.
Zeke felt the flames grow warmer.
“Owens, Dominick, get back into the Academy,” Blaine ordered, his voice fading as if he were backing away.
The flames around Zeke brightened some more as the dragon took yet more control.
The ground shook.
“That’s enough, Zeke,” came the gentle but firm voice of Daxxton Ryker, Wing Commander of Top Scale Academy and one of the most powerful dragons in the world. He must have landed nearby, Zeke realized. Only a dragon landing hard could shake the ground like that.
“I’m. Trying,” he yelled, his own anger at being unable to succeed fueling the fire brighter.
“Try harder. Use your mental reserves. You must control it.”
>
His fists punched into the ground on either side of his knee as he renewed his attack on his dragon, trying to force it away. But even as he gripped harder, more of it slipped by. If Zeke lost—if his dragon were to gain control of his physical body—who knew what would happen? He mustn’t let it happen. Daxxton would probably be forced to kill him.
Not an ideal ending.
The sphere grew slightly larger as the dragon won more control.
“I can’t. Control it.” His words came out in short bursts as he forced himself to breathe.
“Very well,” Daxxton said. “This might hurt a bit.”
Zeke heard the other dragon inhale mightily, though his eyes were still screwed shut, head bowed as he fought from one knee, fists pressed against the burning hot rocks below him.
Suddenly he knew what was going to happen. Zeke was burning fire. A fire that was now raging out of control. Daxxton, as a Gold Dragon, could summon Frostfire. Frost was just frozen water.
He was going to try and put the fire out.
A voice spoke from deep within Zeke.
“No,” it said, a deep, throaty bass that carried easily all the way back to the Academy where all the instructors and other cadets were now gathered.
Zeke’s eyes snapped open, flames visible in his eyes as they swirled around, a bright red pupil with flaming blue pupils that fixated upon the Gold Dragon.
White Frostfire shot toward Zeke, but the presence within him was in full control now.
The red-orange flames surrounding him suddenly flickered, and then doubled in intensity. Their color changed, and blue-white flame surged out to meet the Frostfire head-on.
Steam exploded as the two weapons collided with tremendous force. The sound pounded at his ears, but while Zeke howled in pain, the presence inside of him, which he could only assume was that of his dragon, wasn’t fazed by it. It continued to cast off the Frostfire, even as the power behind it grew stronger.
More and more of his dragon’s focus was on Daxxton. It had to be, Zeke figured, else it couldn’t be defying the Wing Commander. So its attention had to be slipping from him.
He needed to wait a little more. The flaming sphere was easily handling the Frostfire, the blue flames so intense the rocks beneath him began to melt. Some of them even exploded, peppering the pair with razor-sharp shards. A dozen cuts opened up on his skin, but they were nothing compared to the battle going on between the two dragons.
Zeke kept tentatively exploring for an opening in the sphere of control his dragon was exerting, where he could sink his mental fingers into it and rip control away from his other half. The shell was growing weaker as more power was driven against the Frostfire, which came on in a seemingly never-ending stream. It felt like the battle had been raging for minutes at least, but in truth, it had been no more than three seconds or so.
His dragon hurled its energy at Daxxton and the Wing Commander was forced to dodge aside as an incredible flame of blue-white power shot out at him. The Frostfire disappeared and Zeke’s dragon howled in triumph.
At the same time it left itself vulnerable. Zeke launched himself mentally into the battle at last, re-exerting control and calming the rage that had consumed him. The flame spear that was reaching out for Daxxton died.
Zeke was winning.
He was going to do it! The power was fading, returning inside of him.
Another blast of Frostfire slammed into Zeke from his other side. This one easily pierced the weakening shield of fire and sent the Fire Dragon spinning and tumbling over land. Rocks exploded at the sudden shift in temperature and Zeke was once more subject to the flying shards, as was Daxxton, and the newcomer.
Asher.
But the battle was won, and even as Zeke’s dragon raged against the newcomer, he calmed it, returning it within himself as his body howled at him in pain, covered in frost.
Against his better judgment he summoned a modicum of his dragon flame, just enough to burn himself free of the painful frost. Then he locked it back up in his brain and collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
Around them the steam cloud began to dissipate. Shapes resolved themselves in it as Blaine and the others all rushed forward to help anyone who needed it.
“What the hell were you thinking, Hawthorn?” Blaine yelled as he loomed up over Zeke.
“S-Sorry,” he gasped, still trying to recover his breath. “W-Wasn—”
“It wasn’t his fault,” Daxxton said as he appeared back in his human form, tall, stern-looking, his facial hair trimmed into a goatee, his dark brown hair short and swept slightly to the side. “We pushed him too hard.”
“He attacked you!” Blaine said with barely restrained furor.
“I am quite capable of defending myself,” Daxxton said, mildly reprimanding his second-in-command as Zeke watched, still trying to bring himself under control. “Though Mr. Hawthorn was rather more powerful than I initially judged.”
The Wing Commander looked over at Asher. “That would be twice I have misjudged this class.” He turned his gaze on Dominick. “Perhaps I won’t have to be quite so surprised when you do something impressive,” he teased. Then to the group; “If everyone is okay?”
There were nods all around.
“Very well. Perhaps we will call it a day.”
Blaine nodded, accepting Daxxton’s judgment, though his eyes promised Zeke a world of hurt once he recovered.
Asher extended a hand, apology reflected on his face. “Sorry about that,” he said as he hauled Zeke to his feet.
“It’s totally fine,” he said, still huffing and puffing. “I would have done the same thing. Don’t sweat it, seriously. I was actually going to thank you. So maybe we’ll call it even?”
Asher laughed and slapped Zeke on the back. “Sounds good to me!”
There was the sound of wings overhead and a swift shadow flew by so low it almost buzzed them.
“Now, if you want to hit him, I’d be okay with that,” Zeke said, nodding at the Pegasus who landed up ahead, between Daxxton and the Top Scale building.
The pair chuckled at that. There was no love lost between dragons and the flying unicorn Pegasus shifters.
“I wonder what he wants,” Dom mused aloud.
They watched as the Pegasus shifted to his human form, spoke briefly with Daxxton, and then appeared to answer a few questions. Daxxton turned around and Zeke felt his stomach do a flip.
“Uh, why did he look at me?” he asked the others, ice as cold as Asher’s Frostfire forming in the pit of his stomach.
“This can’t be good,” Asher muttered. “Not good at all.”
The trio continued to walk. The shifter finished talking with Daxxton, backed away, and then reassumed its animal form. He cast them a superior, triumphant look, and then took to the sky, winging away with the acceleration only its kind possessed.
“Zeke,” Daxxton called, crooking a finger his way.
“Shit.” The three of them said it almost all as one.
He walked forward, the others giving him some space.
“Yes sir?” he asked.
“I just received some interesting news. Would you like to hear it?” Daxxton asked.
“To be honest, I’m not so sure,” Zeke said.
“Well, I’ll tell you anyway. It was just reported to me by that kind fellow that the human woman, the one who you found, was reported missing after having disappeared from her work site almost a week ago.”
Zeke frowned, trying to keep his outer composure. “Did they not find her after I dropped her off?”
Daxxton looked hard at the cadet. “Was there anyone there when you dropped her off?”
He thought back to the confrontation with the hired mercenaries. “Ah, well, not really,” he said, stammering his reply.
The Gold Dragon shifter looked at him for a long time, and then just slowly raised one eyebrow. “You know, young Ezequiel…” he said, using his full name.
Not good. Not good at all.
&
nbsp; “I’m much more likely to forgive you if you tell the truth, than if you continue to lie.”
Zeke opened his mouth.
“The entire truth.”
“Yes sir.”
So he told him. About his decision to hide Amber away because of his feelings for her. About the trap the gryphons set, and the fact that there had been humans waiting for them, humans that wanted her. That hadn’t had her best interests in mind. Then he told Daxxton that he had hidden Amber inside Cadia, until he could figure out what was going on.
“This is your fault,” Daxxton said at last, his eyes focused firmly on Asher, who along with Dom had come closer as they heard Zeke speaking. “Putting these crazy ideas in his head about hiding fugitives away.”
“Ah, sorry about that sir,” he said with a shrug.
“No response was necessary, Owens,” Daxxton said. His voice was firm, but Zeke could have sworn he saw a hint of a smile on the Wing Commander’s face. “This would explain your interest in the pipeline the other day, however, would it not?”
Zeke nodded.
“Indeed. I wondered why you would feel so strongly about it. Now I have my answer.”
Zeke looked around at his friends. This was not the response he had expected from Ryker. An explosion of anger, sure. But calm, logical thought?
I need to stop underestimating him, like he has us. There is a lot more to Daxxton than I know.
“So why do you think the human company wanted her?” Daxxton asked.
He frowned. “I think they want to keep her silent,” he said bluntly. “The more I think about it, the more I think the humans and the gryphons are working together on something. I don’t know what, but I’m positive of it. There are just too many people who want to do her harm.”
Daxxton nodded thoughtfully. “You might be on to something. It would add a few things up, though I’m not sure of the link just yet.”
“What things, sir?” Zeke asked.
“Well, for starters, the gryphons have been putting more pressure than usual on the Guardian Council. They are trying to vote out the dragons as Executors.”
Zeke couldn’t believe it. “But the dragons have been Executors forever. Ever since the Council was formed. We’ve had extremely few complaints against those who have sat on the Council. How could they expect that to fly with the other races?”