by Ava Walsh
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” he croaked.
“You really can’t die of this now, because I don’t think we’d be able to fix that virgin thing with you in this state.”
His mouth twitched into a smile before falling back to a straight line. “I’d find a way.”
“Of course you would. Do you need anything? Can I bring you something?”
“I need”—he coughed and she saw the splatter of blood on his hand—“to not die.”
“Oh, that.” She waved her hand in the air, trying to lighten things a bit. “Yeah, I’ve totally got that all worked out. No worries.”
He blinked at her. “Really?”
She grinned. “Yes. We have to wait until the moon is out, but yes. There is a spell.”
“What does it do?”
“Well, that’s actually the extra cool thing. It makes you into a dragon shifter, too.”
“Really?”
She shrugged. “The only way to survive knowing the secret is to be part of it.” She wondered then if that was why Sindri had given her the power. If he hadn’t, she would have died after freeing him because she saw him. Maybe that’s what he meant when he said that she was lucky he wasn’t malicious. He could have just let her die, and she would never have known why. Who knows how many people she might have told? She could have started a chain of cursed deaths. And if Sindri was evil, he might have allowed it. Well, none of that mattered now.
“Yup,” she said. “Then we can fly around together. You probably didn’t know this, but in dragon form my magic is way stronger. Just wait until you see the magic you can do.”
“What’s the catch?” He coughed again and wiped sweat from his forehead.
“What do you mean?”
“Has to be something bad about it or everyone would do it.”
“Well, first, only those with magic can become a shifter. So it wouldn’t be everyone. And yeah, it’s a difficult spell. And it does require a sacrifice.”
He looked at her, waiting.
“We have to kill a virgin.”
His mouth hung open. “We can’t do that!”
“No, shhh.” She put her lips to his for a second. “I figured something out. It doesn’t have to be a human virgin. We’re going to kill a wolf virgin.”
His face fell into a frown.
“I know it’s still not ideal. I don’t even like the thought of killing a little wolf, but when I’m a dragon I eat lots of different animals, including wolves. It’s part of the food chain. And if it means we don’t have to kill a person and you don’t die and I don’t die, then I’ll have to be okay with killing a wolf.”
He nodded. “I guess that’s better.”
“You being alive is better.” She smoothed back the hair that clung to his forehead. “If I have to, I will kill for you.”
The look he gave her was so full of love and longing that she wished they could take care of the virgin thing right then. But he would live. He had to. And they could do it right. Make it special. And not when he was all sickly and half dead.
Chapter 8
Kiara didn’t know how long it would take to get everything set up to do the spell, so as soon as the sun started to fall she went to retrieve Spence. From his bedroom she snuck downstairs to where his parents were in the living room doing paperwork and watching TV. She cast a charm on them so they wouldn’t go upstairs to check on their ill son.
Then she bundled him up in sweats and layers of shirts, wrapped a blanket around him and helped him out of the window. Dropping out of the window was still easier than trying to cloak them both to get him out of the front door with his parents right there. He shivered, despite the warm night. She gave him a warming potion that she’d luckily thought to put in her tote bag, which seemed to help a little. They walked into the woods, Spence half shuffling.
It took a long time for them to reach the clearing where they did their magic. She drew out the circle of the spell with her toe in the dirt. In her bag she had all the ingredients needed, and she placed them in the correct places around the circle. She gazed up into the sky. The sun had gone, but the moon wasn’t high enough yet. She clenched and unclenched her fists. Was it too soon to get the wolf? What if she waited too long? She hadn’t found any sort of cage, but she had a rope.
Eventually, she couldn’t wait anymore. If the wolves had gone out to hunt or left their nest for another reason, she might have to follow their scent for a while. This wasn’t the time to take the chance that they wouldn’t be available when she needed them.
“I’m going to change and go get the wolf,” she said.
Spence sat on the ground, leaning against a tree, clutching his blanket tight. He nodded at her and turned his head to cough up more blood. The cough was getting worse; the blood was getting worse. He looked more and more green and had thrown up so many times that he had only been able to dry heave for hours.
She cast her usual protection spells and shifted into dragon form, then cloaked. “Can you see me?”
He shook his head, then whispered, “You’re so cool,” before closing his eyes and resting his head against the tree.
Kiara went to find the wolves. Their scent was clear and vivid to her as a dragon. That part always amazed her. Humans were so cut off from the animal world. They had no idea of most of what was around them. Even though she spent a lot of time as an animal, when she was human she couldn’t access the same sense of smell and hearing that she could while in dragon form.
She crept up to the wolf den, where it appeared that they were all sleeping in a big pile. They looked so cute, all together like that. But this was about Spence. It was either one of these little pups or a person, she reminded herself. And it was meant to be a sacrifice. As he’d said, there’s always a catch. If it was easy then everyone would do it. This was meant to be difficult. And it was.
It almost wasn’t fair. They could smell her, but they wouldn’t see her coming. There was so little they could do as she walked over and gently lifted one of the cubs into her mouth. The adults stirred and growled and bit at her, but without seeing her they only had her scent to guide them. And she was out of there before they knew what was happening.
She hurried back to the circle and set the pup down. Then she quickly changed back and grabbed the rope.
“It’s just like a puppy,” Spence said.
“I know. Don’t look at it. It’ll just make it worse.”
The wolf pup sniffed around and went to Spence. He reached out to pet it and the pup licked him.
Kiara dropped her head in frustration. “You’re going to make it worse. Plus, don’t forget that it’s a wild animal, not a cute little puppy. I will get you a puppy tomorrow, when you’re alive because this one died to save you.”
“Thank you, wolfy,” Spence said, scratching behind its ears.
Her throat grew thick at the sight. How in the world was she going to be able to go through with this? She tied a circle of rope and made a leash for the wolf. Then she secured the other end to a tree. The last thing she needed was for the wolf to run off when she needed it.
She looked up at the sky and the moon shone back, bright white against a deep blue sky. Was it dark enough? Sindri hadn’t said anything about it being dark, just that they needed the moonlight. And moonlight was what they had.
“Okay.” She nodded to herself. “I think we can start.”
Spence looked up at her, his hand resting on the sleeping pup, who had curled up by his side. At least the pup had been treated well before his death. Maybe he even liked Spence.
She began the ritual, standing in the center of the circle. The plants and herbs were burned, the opening words of the spell spoken. She went to the wolf and, with a deep breath and after casting a sedation spell, she opened his mouth and poured the potion in. He whimpered a bit, but licked his chops and swallowed it.
The sound of wolves howling echoed in the forest behind her. No, not now. She listened but couldn’
t hear with her human ears. She changed into dragon form, but by the time her transformation was complete the wolves were there. They had found the scent and had come for their lost pup. Five adult wolves circled Spence, eying up the pup, who sat still by Spence’s side.
Kiara crouched down and growled at them. They snarled back, revealing their sharp teeth. She took a step forward, hoping they’d be scared and run off. Instead, one swiped at her with his paw. He missed her and caught the side of Spence’s leg.
Spence howled in pain, four bright lines appearing through slits in his sweatpants. He gripped his leg, pressing his fingers into the fresh blood.
Anger flared in Kiara. She swatted her huge paw through the air, knocking into the wolf who’d hurt Spence and sending him flying into the air. The wolf slammed into a tree and hit the ground, whimpering.
The other wolves descended on her. The biggest one snapped his jaws at her and took several swipes, but she was too big for them and too strong. The wolf’s claws glanced off her hard scales. He came back to attack again but couldn’t get to her soft belly—the only place she was vulnerable.
The fight felt unfair to her. She swiped her paw and sent another wolf flying. It was too easy. She didn’t want to hurt them, but they needed to leave them alone to do the spell.
Three wolves remained. They fought their hardest, trying to circle around her and catch her off guard. But she spun, whacking one with her thick tail. The wolf ran off with a limp after hitting the ground. The last two took off running when she bared her teeth and growled at them. She ran in the direction they’d all headed to chase them and make sure they stayed away.
When she got back to the clearing, the moon was higher and the night darker. She changed back to human form, then dashed to Spence’s side.
“Are you okay?”
“It really hurts and there’s a lot of blood.” Spence held his leg and his face was twisted in pain.
She took out a cloth she kept in her bag for wrapping plants inside, and tied it tight around his leg. “We’re almost done.”
She went back to her bag, which sitting in the center of the spell circle, and got the knife, fresh determination washing over her. The wolves had a right to attack, sure, but they’d hurt him, and somehow she felt a little less bad about killing their pup now.
With the knife in one hand, she picked up the pup by the scruff of his neck. She carried him to the center of the circle and laid him down. Whatever anger she’d felt at his protectors was gone when she looked into his sad, scared eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to him. She blinked away tears and held a shaking hand to his throat, the blade of the knife ready. She closed her eyes.
The blood ran down her hand as she held the cup, making sure all of his blood fell into the smaller circle of herbs in front of her. When he stopped bleeding, she laid the body on the ground on top of the blood, then brought Spence closer. She changed back into dragon form. She’d need the stronger magic to pull the spell off.
She cast the final part of the spell, watching the red and green and blue flashes surround Spence as the spell worked. The magic entered his body and he started to change.
First, his skin became a shade of silvery gray and popped out into scales. Then he grew larger, slightly bigger than her, as his bones moved into the shape of the dragon. When his transformation was complete he stood before her, a grand dragon.
But there was clearly something wrong.
“Spence? Are you okay?” Kiara tried not to panic. “Do you feel okay?”
He looked down at his dragon body. He held out an arm, watching the moonlight glint on his silvery scales. Then he ran his paw over the patch of white and gray fur at his chest. He stretched out the paw that ended in more thick fur and yellow claws and looked behind him at his tail that ended in a hairy puff instead of spikes. His yellow-green eyes blinked from a face of fur. A wolf face.
Chapter 9
Kiara shook her head in shock. “I—I—”
Spence turned in a circle, flapping his wings, and raising his body into the air a few feet, then landed.
“Can you change back?” she asked.
It took him a few minutes of standing still with his eyes closed, but eventually his body shrunk and his scales and fur became skin again. She changed back when his transformation back to human was complete. They stared at each other, then he ran to her and gripped her into a tight hug.
“It worked!” he said. “I shifted and I’m alive! I feel great.”
She pushed back to look him in the eyes. “Something is not right, though. You’ve got wolfy parts! You’re like a… a… wolf dragon!”
“I know.” He shrugged. “I guess that’s because we used a wolf instead of a human. You know what’s weird? I can feel the wolf.”
She raised an eyebrow at him.
“It’s like… like if I had gone into his mind when he was alive. Now I can still see in his mind. Like he’s in my head or something. I don’t know. It’s kind of weird, but whoa.”
He tilted his head up into the sky and took in a long breath, then he squinted, looking hard into the night. He started laughing.
“This is awesome! I didn’t know I’d be able to smell and see better. Wow.”
“Wait, what?”
“My whole sense of smell and sight is better.”
“It is?” She made an incredulous face.
“Isn’t yours?”
She shook her head. “Only when I’m a dragon.”
“Huh.”
“How’s your wound?” She untied the cloth from around his leg. The wound looked better, which she’d expected. That was a common thing that happened with shifters. Their bodies were so used to changing that they tended to heal very quickly.
“It’s so much better.” He looked at his leg in amazement. “Can you heal like that, too?”
She nodded. The enthusiasm in his voice relieved her some. He was alive and he would live. The relief still needed to sink in, and she had a deep feeling of dread in her gut. What if using the wolf had been wrong? What if something went wrong or there was some unforeseen problem?
“Hey.” He took her chin in his hand and tilted her face to his, then kissed her. “Don’t be all jealous because you don’t have my extra wolfy powers.”
She chuckled. “I’m not jealous. I’m just worried. I don’t know what this means, and what if something goes wrong?”
“Well, I feel great. I wouldn’t worry about.”
Then he changed suddenly back into his wolf-dragon form. He swung his tail around and put his paws on his face. He looked agitated.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, the worry heightening in her chest.
“I can’t change back.”
“Spence, are you serious? If you’re joking this is the worst joke ever.”
He shook his head, and his eyes were full of fear.
“Okay, well, let’s just fly for a while. Maybe it’s because you’re new. I’ll take you…” She did want to take him to the haven, but when they saw that he was part wolf would they be mad?
A dark shadow fell across them, large and heavy. Kiara spun around and saw Sindri landing softly on the ground. His presence was so huge that he blocked the moon.
Spence fell to the ground, human again, panting. “What just happened?”
“Si—” she almost used his name but remembered he hadn’t given it to Spence. “I don’t know what’s happening. I did the spell like you said.”
Sindri growled at her. “You stupid girl. You think you can trick the magic? You think you can cheat?”
“What? No, I—” She shook her head and backed away from him.
He narrowed his eyes. “Dragon magic is not to be toyed with.”
“But I did what you said!” Kiara fell to her knees, too scared and overwhelmed to stand to face him.
“You did not.”
Sindri pointed to the dead wolf pup’s body with a long claw. “You choose an animal. You were told to use a hu
man.”
“But you didn’t say that. You just said ‘virgin’. You never said it had to be a human virgin!” She started crying and Spence crawled to her side to put an arm around her.
“You have caused a great anomaly in the magic. There may be consequences.” He moved his face close to hers. “There should be. I should kill you for what you’ve done.”
“I didn’t mean to do anything bad or trick the magic.” She tried to wipe the tears from her eyes, but they kept coming as she pleaded with him. “I just didn’t want to kill a human, but I wanted Spence to live. I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to do something wrong.”
Sindri sat on his back legs and set a paw on each of their heads.
“Please don’t hurt us,” Spence said. “We didn’t know.”
“Quiet!”
They sat still, tears flowing freely down Kiara’s face. Finally, Sindri dropped his paws and stood. “I can feel that you had no malicious intent. You’re lucky. I will spare your lives. But be warned. This is not how the magic is intended to be used. I cannot tell you what might come as a result. I would not take him to the haven. It may not be safe for the others to see him. They may want him dead simply because his existence goes against nature.”
“I won’t.” She was calming down a little now that Sindri had said he’d spare their lives. She was unfamiliar with the magic he’d used to sense their intentions, but grateful for it. Maybe it was something similar to a lie detection spell.
“I can feel the wolf in him,” Sindri said. “It makes him strong. Stronger than you. Too strong.” He turned to Spence. “I suggest you use that strength wisely.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kiara whispered. “I didn’t know.”
Sindri nodded at her. “I know you tell the truth. Do not play with magic, child. You’re lucky it didn’t overtake you and kill you both.”
She nodded again and hung her head.
He gave a final snort, then took off into the night. Spence had been sitting beside her. As soon as Sindri took off, he let out a surprised cry and changed back into wolf-dragon form.