He left, closing the door gently behind him. They sat. For a minute, there was only the occasional crackle of the fire. To Kaylee, each snap of the logs felt more and more like her concept of reality fracturing into pieces.
Jade was mute. She sat rigidly upright, twiddling her thumbs and looking everywhere except at Kaylee. She acted, Kaylee thought, like a dog who knew she’d done something very bad.
“So…” Kaylee said. “I’m a dragon-kin, huh? And you’re a…dragon Tamer? Was that it? You…tame me?”
“Ugh…” Jade said, clearly relieved the silence had been broken. “Not tame. It’s a stupid name from back when people in my position actually did commune with dragons to create alliances for Kings and Lords. But that was, like, way back when dragons still attacked people and stuff.”
They lapsed into a semi-uncomfortable silence.
“And you never thought to tell me about any of this?”
Jade gave her a sad smile. “No offense, Kaylee, but in what conversation did you think I could just slip that in? Oh, hi, Kaylee! Can’t wait to go to school today, and did you know I’m part of an ancient society of humans who work with dragons, and lo and behold you’re a dragon-kin and nobody knew! Isn’t that guy in biology cute!”
“Point taken,” Kaylee grumbled.
Jade put a gentle hand on her arm. Kaylee winced, hoping it didn’t spontaneously transform into scales. “I swear, Kaylee, if we’d known for sure you were a dragon-kin, I promise I would have told you right away. The thing is, being a dragon Tamer, a Protector, a Merlin, all of it? It isn’t an easy life. I kind of hoped you weren’t what we thought. I didn’t want that for you.”
Kaylee didn’t trust herself to speak for a moment. Her throat had grown strangely tight, her emotions warring between anger and overwhelming gratefulness. She couldn’t hate Jade, and it was becoming clear Jade thought Kaylee was furious at her. And in a way she was. But Jade was her best friend. She wouldn’t have withheld all this from her without a reason.
And apparently it was for a very deadly reason.
“Thanks…” Kaylee said, throwing her arms around Jade and pulling her close. “Just promise, promise, if there’s any other massively big secrets you have, please keep them to yourself. Unless it involves me almost dying and shifting into a magic chinchilla or something.”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t keep my secret for too long. I only started with the Convocation a few summers ago. Middle school is when they think you’re old enough to start training to be a Protector or a Tamer. My grandfather was a Tamer for a dragon named Orochi back in Okinawa, and he managed to convince my parents to let me join the Convocation when the recruiters showed up.”
Kaylee curled her nose. Mr. and Mrs. Azuma were practically like her second parents. They were the kind of people who covered you in bubble wrap before letting you out of the house, not the kind to let their daughter handle knives as long as her forearm.
“They were okay with you doing all this?”
“I went to training camp,” Jade said. “They do a pretty good job of getting you prepped for whatever’s out there. Plus, there are perks my parents couldn’t ignore: college tuition paid for, health care, serious job connections. Even if I don’t want to be a Tamer for the rest of my life the options are there.”
“Still…” Kaylee says.
“And the job has grown way less dangerous than in the past,” Jade said. “The dragon-kin usually take care of themselves. Tamers generally only have to step in when they’re assigned to young dragon-kin.”
“Like me.”
“Like you.”
Jade shifted in her seat. “But recently…there have been issues.”
“The Slayers,” Kaylee said.
“Yeah.”
“And who the heck are they?”
Jade waved a hand. “They are a whole other problem. I’ll let Alastair explain that. He’d do a better job of it anyway. The main thing is you’re safe for now.”
“Yeah, the main thing,” Kaylee repeated absentmindedly, flexing her fingers in front of her and having a hard time imagining them not turning into claws.
“Hey,” Jade clasped her hands. “What you did, without any training, was amazing.”
“But the scales…”
“Are exactly what a dragon-kin is supposed to be able to do. I’m amazed you could shift at all. And using elemental magic to summon lightning? That’s crazy advanced stuff.”
That made Kaylee feel better. Only a little, but better.
“You’re not a freak,” Jade mimicked in the narrator’s voice from a puberty video they’d been forced to watch in 6th grade. “Your body is undergoing changes that are completely normal.”
Kaylee burst out laughing.
“Besides,” Jade said through giggles, “you said you changed your arms and ear. Wait ‘till you can cover your entire body in scales. And grow a tail.”
“Wait, what—?”
But just then Kaylee heard a door in another room burst open. Tibbs’ droll voice could be heard greeting someone. A second later the lounge door swung open and four people strode in.
The first two Kaylee recognized immediately. Mr. and Mrs. Azuma were pretty much just older, taller versions of Jade, well-dressed and everything. Jade had gotten her straight black hair and angular features from Mrs. Azuma, while Mr. Azuma was lithe and thin, with a small goatee stuck on the edge of his chin.
The second two people were new. The first was a man. If Kaylee had to imagine what a half-dragon would look like, then he would have been it.
He was dressed in a three-piece Italian suit, complete with cufflinks the color of fresh magma. His skin was a perfect pale bronze, his hair steel gray. He walked with perfect grace and poise, commanding the room with his very presence. At his side was a woman only marginally shorter, dressed in a peach-colored silk dress. A necklace glittered around her neck, draping over elegant collarbones.
Kaylee had a second to brace herself before Jade’s parents swooped on them.
“Are you two all right?” Mrs. Azuma said, poking and prodding Kaylee like she would shatter at any moment. “Alastair told us what happened. Kaylee I’m so happy for you. So, so happy.”
“We both are,” Mr. Azuma added.
Mrs. Azuma held Kaylee proudly. “We suspected you were, but…”
“Dad,” Jade said as Mr. Azuma began trying to apply a band aid to a small cut on her forehead. “Are you serious right now?”
“From my reports, Jade performed exceptionally,” the new man said, one arm resting casually on the fireplace mantle. The woman beside him smiled. Together they almost looked too perfect, like a portrait sprung to life.
“Of course she did,” Mrs. Azuma said, straightening. “She’s my daughter. I expected no less.”
The man broke away from the mantle and clasped Kaylee’s hands. They smothered hers completely in a warm embrace, like crawling into a cave to shelter from a bitter storm. “We are delighted to have you with us, Kaylee. My name is Alastair Dumas, and this is my wife Amelia.”
The woman gave her an elegant nod.
“I am the head of the Dragon Convocation for the Scarsdale area and surrounding districts.”
“Right…” Kaylee said. “I’m still learning about all that.”
Alastair let her hands go. “And you will be for a while yet, which is fortunate you found us when you did. A storm dragon—”
“Dear?” Amelia said. “Shouldn’t we wait until everyone is here?”
“Ah, yes,” Alastair said. “Kaylee, your mother and father have been notified. They should be here—”
There was the sound of the front door banging open, then hurried footsteps. The lounge door was thrust open and Kaylee’s mom and dad rushed in, trailed by Mr. Tibbs a second later saying, “By all means, right through here.”
“Kaylee!” Her dad said, eyes locking on her. “I heard you were attacked at school!”
Her mother crouched before her. She brushed Kaylee’s
hair away, checking every inch of her face. “Are you hurt? Did you know who it was? Did you have that pepper spray I gave you? I told you to carry the pepper spray.”
“I’m okay, mom,” Kaylee mumbled. “Seriously, Jade was there with me.”
Her mother took one last check, then nodded. “Looks that way.”
“What happened?” Her dad demanded of Alastair. He turned to Mr. and Mrs. Azuma. “Graham? Kim? Care to explain what’s going on?”
“Perhaps you’d like to sit down?” Alastair suggested, gesturing to the opposite couch. “There’s a lot to discuss.”
“No there isn’t,” Kaylee’s mom said, stepping to her husband’s side. “We’d like answers. Why weren’t the police called?”
“Unfortunately that isn’t possible,” Amelia said. “This isn’t something the police can easily handle. If they even believed us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kaylee’s dad said. “Listen here, if you don’t tell us—”
“I’ll get right to it, then,” Alastair said, not looking put off in the least. “Mr. and Mrs. Richards, your daughter is a dragon-kin. That is: a half dragon who can transform parts of her body into certain physical attributes dragons once possessed. She also has the ability to wield ancient elemental powers once bestowed solely to dragons.”
The room went very quiet. Mr. and Mrs. Azuma winced, watching Kaylee’s parents’ expressions.
“Ah…” Kaylee’s mom managed. Kaylee could almost see her engineer’s mind trying to make sense of this impossibility and box it into a realm of something she could process.
“Oh…that’s nice,” Kaylee’s dad followed up, clearly stunned. “So dragons like King Arthur dragons? That sort of thing?”
“In a crude comparison, yes,” Alastair said.
“I see,” Kaylee’s dad said, clearly not seeing, but taking this a lot better than Kaylee had expected. Then again, he probably heard a thousand ridiculous things every day from children at the daycare. The only difference was that this ridiculous thing was coming from an adult.
“Is this true, Graham?” Kaylee’s mom asked.
“Completely,” Mr. Azuma said.
“I understand it’s a lot to take in,” Alastair said. He rolled back the sleeve of one arm and held it out in front of him. “Perhaps this will help ease your disbelief.”
In an instant, luminescent green scales appeared on Alastair’s arm. His fingers narrowed to rounded claws, which he wiggled. Then a second later they shifted back to normal. “I am a forest dragon-kin, able to wield parts of the natural world.”
“Ah…” Kaylee’s mom said again.
“Kaylee has very similar abilities,” Alastair said, straightening his sleeve. “Though the exact physical properties and elemental magics vary from dragon-kin to dragon-kin. But from our reports we have reason to believe Kaylee is a storm dragon-kin. A very unique and rare kind, if you don’t mind me saying.”
Both Mr. and Mrs. Azuma’s eyes widened.
“Really, Alastair?” Mrs. Azuma said. “You think so? After all this time?”
“It’s possible,” Amelia said. “Jade described what a few others had noticed and they match the profile in our records.”
“I’m sorry,” Alastair said to Kaylee’s parents, giving them a warm smile. “I fear we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”
“Yeah,” Kaylee said. “How the heck am I a dragon-kin? How does that even happen?”
“The dragon-kin gene is a very recessive trait among a select few families around the world,” Jade said. “To get it you have to be born with it, which means someone in your family has to have had it in the first place.”
“Now I want you to think very carefully, Mr. and Mrs. Richards,” Alastair said seriously. “Is there anyone else, anyone at all in your family, that you have the slightest suspicion could also have this dragon-kin gene? I’ll give you a minut—”
“Uncle Randy,” Kaylee said at the exact same time as her parents.
Alastair blinked. “Oh. That was surprisingly easy.”
“That’s because you don’t know Uncle Randy,” Kaylee said.
“We weren’t aware Randall was related to you,” Amelia said, looking as though she knew more about Uncle Randy than Kaylee would have thought possible.
“Most don’t,” Kaylee’s mom said drily. “He’s visited us once and that was a disaster. He hasn’t been allowed back since.”
Mr. Azuma chuckled. “Now I know why I never put the two together. I can’t imagine Randall being related to you.”
“We can’t either,” Kaylee’s dad said.
“Tim…” Kaylee’s mom muttered.
“So Uncle Randy is one of these…” Kaylee flailed her hands helplessly in front of her, “dragon-kin?”
“Yes,” Alastair said. “As are you.”
“Right. Me. So what does that mean? What do I do?”
All eyes turned to Alastair. He looked between his wife and the group, for once appearing a little lost for words.
“Well…you see that’s a little difficult to say. Normally, dragon-kin are discovered and sought out much earlier in their magical development. They’re then overseen in their training along with other hatchlings, and after that assigned a Tamer when they’re older and the threat grows.”
“Threat? What threat?” Kaylee’s mom said, her voice sounding like she was about to bring a little threat of her own.
“We’ll explain in a bit,” Mr. Azuma said, his eyes flicking to Kaylee.
“I know about the Slayers, Mr. Azuma,” Kaylee said.
“Slayers?” Kaylee’s dad said.
“All in good time!” Alastair said lightly. “For now, because Kaylee is a supposed storm dragon and has powers beyond what a normal trainer can help with, I recommend she join my son for lessons in controlling her abilities. He’s a Merlin who is learning from a very qualified mentor. She will be in the safest possible hands for her training.”
“Merlin?” Kaylee mouthed to Jade.
“I’ll explain in a bit,” Jade returned.
“We…” Kaylee’s dad looked flustered. His head swiveled between Kaylee and her mom.
“I assure you, Mr. and Mrs. Richards, more than anyone I sincerely desire that no harm befalls Kaylee,” Alastair said. “But now that her powers have been revealed, I can assure you others will seek her out. It’s only a matter of time and the right opportunity. She needs to be ready, and only training can do that.”
“Listen, I’m sure you’re right, but this is a lot to take in,” Kaylee’s dad said. “And we just want to make sure Kaylee is safe…”
“Kaylee’s safety will be paramount.” Alastair gestured to a side door. “In fact, let me tell you a little more about the ‘how’. If you’ll follow me, we can discuss details in my study.”
Kaylee’s parents exchanged a glance. Her dad pulled his collar. “Actually, we, ah…might need more time to talk alone about this…”
“I will also be partaking in some Lagavulin 37-year-old single malt Scotch. Quite exquisite. Freshly imported,” Alastair added.
“Oh. Then by all means, lead the way.”
“Come on,” Jade nudged her head to the opposite door as the adults began filing out, Kaylee’s dad disappearing into the other room with a, ‘How old did you say it was?’
The air in the entrance hall felt cool on Kaylee’s skin after the warmth of the study. She realized only then that she had been holding in a breath.
“They treated me like a kid again!” Jade seethed the moment the door shut behind them. “You weren’t in any serious danger. But my mom and dad act like I’d just returned from some horrible war.”
Kaylee didn’t say anything. In all honesty, she was a little bit glad for the extreme concern from her parents, even if she did want to shake Alastair by his fancy suit and demand he spill everything he knew about her.
“Let’s just find this guy I’m supposed to be training with,” she said.
“Oh, that’s easy,” Ja
de said. “He’s usually only ever in a couple different spots.”
Kaylee followed Jade up the wrap-around staircase to the upstairs landing and froze. Standing in the middle of the hallway, broad shoulders and all, was Maddox.
Kaylee hadn’t noticed before when she was trying not to die, but he was gorgeous. He’d changed into some slim jeans and a cotton V-neck shirt that hugged his well-sculpted arm muscles. His jaw was the kind that could split stone, trailing a fine line all the way up to elegantly crafted ears. Kaylee had never really noticed anyone’s ears before, but on him…it just seemed right.
“There you are,” Jade said to him, clueless that Kaylee was unable to make her feet move forward. “Took you long enough to get back.”
Maddox gave a non-committal shrug, his tight shirt raising just a bit so Kaylee caught a flash of a flat stomach. “You two left quite the mess to unsnarl. I had to convince Coach Maxwell Kaylee hadn’t been kidnapped. At least five girls saw her fall. They were the hardest to talk out of looking for her.” He grinned. “But I managed.”
Jade rolled her eyes. “I bet you did.”
“What can I say? I just have a way with words.”
“Kaylee?” Jade gave her a quizzical look when she realized Kaylee wasn’t beside her. “I guess I should properly introduce you guys. Come say hi.”
Kaylee took a deep breath and stepped forward. “H-hi.”
“You remember this lump of muscle, Maddox Rudd,” Jade said.
“Charmed,” Maddox practically purred, his scent brushing over Kaylee as he gently shook her hand. His was calloused and rough, and left hers tingling when he dropped it.
“Are you…Alastair’s son?” Kaylee said, her heart fluttering. “My partner? I mean my training partner. For training only.”
Maddox’s statuesque face crumpled beautifully into confusion. “Nah, your partner’s Edwin. I’m just Edwin’s Protector.”
He thumbed over his shoulder to a door just down the hall. “He’s in his room reading. Again. Couldn’t even bother coming out to see the new dragon-kin.”
“Oh,” Kaylee said, the balloon inflating in her chest receiving a sudden puncture. “That’s good.”
“Yeah, Edwin’s great,” Maddox said. “He can be a little rude and insensitive. Kind of clueless when it comes to girls. People, actually. Most people. But he’s a good guy, really.”
Dragon's Awakening (Heir of Dragons: Book 1) Page 5