Her dad squeezed her hand again. Kaylee watched emotions war on her mother’s face. There was blame there, but resignation, and a lot of regret.
“I have no idea what Uncle Randy went through during the years he was gone,” her mom continued. “And I guess in my own way I still haven’t forgiven him for leaving like that. But then I haven’t forgiven myself, either.”
At this she took Kaylee’s hand in her own. “The important thing is that I won’t let what happened to Uncle Randy happen to you, Kaylee. I know the signs, and you won’t go through the same things he did.”
“I know, mom,” Kaylee said, feeling her face redden beneath her mom’s intense gaze. “And I’m not just going to run off like that.”
“You’d better not, or we’d hunt you down and drag you back,” her dad said, winking.
“Really, Tim?” her mother said. “After all that’s happened you’d go with a joke like that?”
“Er…no. Sorry, bad taste.”
“We’re here for you, Kaylee,” her mom said. “And yes, if Uncle Randy wants to see you…then maybe he should. I think he has a right to. When you’re ready, of course.”
“He can see her when I’m ready,” her dad grumbled, stabbing his spaghetti again.
“You can still have a normal life,” her mom continued. “We’ve been talking to Alastair about what the life of a dragon-kin is really like. Once you learn to control your powers, you have no obligation to stay within the Convocation. They can help you, sure, but you can go to college, move away, get married, have adorable grandchildren I can visit anytime I want…”
“Mom!” Kaylee snapped her head around, afraid someone might hear. Her face was heating up again. “Let me just get through freshman year, okay?”
Her mother smiled indulgently, not looking sorry at all. She slapped her hands on her knees and slumped back in her chair. “I’m glad I got that off my chest. Now we can eat in peace.”
“It’d be a first for this family,” her dad said into his plate. Her mother jabbed him with her elbow and he splattered spaghetti sauce.
Kaylee twirled a piece of sausage on her fork, twisting it this way and that, letting her mind wander. Like Jade had said, the Convocation wasn’t a lifetime gig. She still had choices. Or at least the illusion of choice. It seemed with every person who insisted she could do what she wanted, there came another danger and problem she had to deal with before it could happen.
But that was her responsibility now, wasn’t it? She wasn’t, and would never be, normal again.
Across from her, Kaylee’s dad was wiping stray sauce from the corner of her mother’s mouth. They laughed and the hint of a smile twitched at the corner of Kaylee’s lips. For the first time since getting her powers she wished—just a little bit—that this had happened to someone else. That she was not who she was.
Because ‘normal’ for a dragon-kin wasn’t normal at all.
And there was no going back to the way things were.
Chapter Twelve
Kaylee spotted Maddox hunched over a back table in the library, papers scattered haphazardly around him. She’d just come out of a brutal Sociology test. Her head was spinning with all kinds of facts and figures that she would probably never need to know again. At least, that’s what her brother Reese had said about most classes in high school, and he was in college now, so that meant he was at least a bit wiser than her.
Kaylee quickly checked in the window of the library door to make sure she didn’t look like something that’d rolled in off the sidewalk, then pushed her way inside and walked over to Maddox. As she approached she saw he was playing some kind of war game on his phone beneath one of his textbooks.
“You winning?” Kaylee said over his shoulder.
Maddox jumped. He quickly stuffed the phone under his shirt. “I was just reading over Confucius’ Law of Thermodynamics, Mrs. Lockshan.”
He saw it was Kaylee and gave her a relieved grin.
“Oh…I thought you were the librarian. I can’t tell you how many times she’s given me detention for not studying.”
“I’d believe it,” Kaylee said. “Don’t worry, I won’t report you.”
He unleashed a dazzling smile. “I’d appreciate that.”
Kaylee had to force her legs to bend properly so she could sit across from him.
Maddox checked that nobody else was close by, but most people in study hall preferred to use the cafeteria. This part of the library was relatively vacant except for a couple guys at another study table flicking pencils back and forth, and some girls on the computer, music turned up so loud Kaylee could hear it from where she sat.
“Between my Protector training, lacrosse practice, and hanging with Edwin when he goes to extra sessions with Baba, I’m beat,” Maddox said.
“You mean our sessions with Baba,” Kaylee corrected. “We only go a few times a week. It can’t be that bad.”
Maddox shook his head, his hair practically shimmering in the sunlight. Kaylee resisted the urge to reach out and touch it. “No, I mean extra sessions. Ever since that night with the Slayers he’s been pushing himself super hard. The guy barely sleeps, he studies all the time, and he’s over at Baba’s like he practically lives there. He’s lucky he’s homeschooled or I don’t know how he’d make it.”
Kaylee frowned. She knew Edwin was already going pretty hard with his studies. Sure, they hadn’t talked that much in the last few weeks, and the intense lessons with Baba hadn’t left much time for idle chit-chat between getting chewed out, but there was more to it than that. Edwin seemed determined to not talk to her, like somehow he blamed her for what had happened that night; or worse, blamed himself.
The thought made sparks snap between the tips of Kaylee’s fingers. She wanted to smack some sense into him. Maybe this was Edwin’s way of coping with things, but it wasn’t like Kaylee didn’t have problems of her own. But was she sitting around holed up at home or throwing herself into extra sessions?
Maddox sniffed the air. “Kaylee?” he said in a low voice. “Your hands?”
Kaylee bunched them into fists and focused on the breathing techniques Baba had practically jackhammered into her. The sparks fled.
“Look,” Maddox said reassuringly. “Don’t be mad at Edwin. I’ve known the guy for a long time, and he’s always had it in his head to be the best at what he does, be that studies or a Merlin.”
“He still acts like an idiot sometimes. A lot of the time.”
“Maybe stubborn. Kind of like someone else I know,” Maddox added. “That’s why Jade thinks…never mind. Anyway, it doesn’t help Edwin that his dad is the head of the Convocation.”
“Does he pressure him or something?”
“The exact opposite, he barely pushes him at all.” Maddox tapped his pencil against his notebook, looking like he was choosing his next words carefully. “It isn’t that Alastair doesn’t care. He does. But the guy’s so busy he feels like Edwin will just motivate himself, and for the most part, that’s true. But it’s a double-edged sword. Alastair won’t push Edwin, but he also won’t praise him either.”
Maddox tilted his head, giving Kaylee a sad, adorable smile. “And now you can see where the drive comes in, even if there’s no reward at the end.”
“Then how’s he supposed to stop?” Kaylee said. “What can we do to make him stop being so hard on himself?”
“Actually, you’ve already done something,” Maddox said. “You became his partner.”
“Me?” Kaylee said, taken aback. “What do I have to do with it?”
Maddox shrugged. “You push him, but in the right direction, and I think it’s helping him. Slowly. You may not see it, Kaylee, but you’re good for him. You guys make a good team.”
Kaylee tried to get her throat to work, but all that came out was a squeak. Maddox leaned back in his chair, teetering on the back two legs. He gave her another heart-stopping smile. “You look adorable when you’re flustered.”
Kaylee gave silent thanks s
he was a storm dragon-kin, because if her elemental magic had been fire, she was pretty sure she’d have burst into flames.
Edwin barely glanced at her when Kaylee arrived at Baba’s house. He was inside, which meant Baba had dropped the protective charms for them, but the batty old woman was nowhere to be seen. Kaylee guessed she was upstairs doing whatever it was she did to look halfway presentable. Probably downing more scotch.
Kaylee put her backpack away and went back out to the hall. She didn’t hear anybody upstairs. The crystals hanging from the ceiling tinkled softly. The off-limits room door was closed.
Kaylee pressed her ear against it. She swore she heard a growl from inside, like a very ornery rug priming itself to strike at any idiot who walked through.
“She told us to get started with our normal warmups,” Edwin said when she returned to the main training room. He’d carved a place for himself in the opposite corner, pretty much as far away from Kaylee’s space as he could get. He was moving through his basic motions, keeping his breath even, his eyes fixed ahead at nothing at all.
Kaylee crouched in her usual starting position and began her own warmup. The earlier conversation with Maddox played over in her head. She considered asking Edwin how he was doing, but he looked so put off she was sure it’d be met with nothing but silence.
Forget him, then.
The basic warmup consisted of tightening her focus and working on channeling her magic into various parts of her body. By now she’d pretty much gotten the arms, ears and shoulders down and could almost guarantee they’d shift when she asked. That still left the tail, feet, and wings, but Baba had told her to forget those for a while yet.
“Only highly advanced dragons can shift those,” she’d said, snorting, then spitting a wad of phlegm into the corner. “Not a little tick like you. Now go back to what you were doing. And stop glaring at me like that. You’ll catch ugly that way.”
But even more frustrating than Baba’s insistence that she wasn’t ready had been the elemental magic. Shifting her body was fine and all, but it was wielding magic outside herself that she’d been truly excited to learn to control. So far though, she’d had about as much success wielding hers as Edwin had his.
Edwin cursed as another ball of magic he was trying to summon fizzled out.
Meaning, barely any at all.
“You stop breathing once you conjure it,” Kaylee said. “Try to think about driving the magic away from your body—”
“Thank you, Kaylee,” Edwin said loudly. He turned away from her and began to try again. Kaylee glared at the back of his head, wondering what her chances of hitting him with a pillow from this distance were. Fine then. He wanted to continue sucking then that was his own deal. She had better things to work on.
Kaylee focused on harnessing the most powerful magic that centered around her core. She had begun to think of her magic as different layers. Her basic magic, the kind used for shifting that stayed just beneath the surface of her skin, took coaxing to get it to obey; handling that came easy enough with practice. But it was the elemental magic that was the hardest of all. The most powerful. The kind that summoned storms along with the rest of her elemental powers. That magic required a draw of power deeper than any other.
But that meant it was more volatile.
Baba hadn’t told her to her to start trying it during warm ups. But…she also hadn’t said she shouldn’t.
Kaylee called on that magic now. At first it ignored her summons, darting this way and that. But eventually a bit trickled out to her. A small ball of electricity floated in her hands.
Still focusing on keeping the magic contained, Kaylee began gently tossing it back and forth. The magic fizzed and popped, sputtering every now and then, but she managed to keep it together. She let it land in her opposite hand, then pinched it, feeling a warm tingle travel up her fingers. She pulled the edges of the ball, manipulating it into various shapes and sizes.
Out of the corner of her eye, Edwin had stopped what he was doing and was watching her. Kaylee tried to keep her mind on the magic, but she could practically feel his intense gaze burning into the back of her neck. With a sigh, she let the magic fizzle out and turned to him, hands on her hips. Edwin was looking at her with a mixture of annoyance and admiration.
“Look, if you want me to help you—” Kaylee started.
“I don’t need your help,” he said. “Just because you’re doing better than I am and you’ve only been training for a month or two…”
He went back to his book, holding his hand out and starting to chant under his breath. But it was clear his mind wasn’t in it. His eyes couldn’t stay in one spot and his pronunciations were even worse than normal. Which was saying something.
“Maddox told me you’ve been taking extra lessons,” Kaylee said. “Without me.”
Edwin dropped the book with a growl of annoyance. “He had no right to tell you that.”
“Well you weren’t going to, so how else was I going to learn it?”
“You weren’t. That’s nobody’s business but mine.”
“Oh, so you just assume I shouldn’t know anything about my partner? Just take everything at face value.”
“We aren’t partners,” Edwin said, his fingers stopping as they ran over the cover of his book. “Not anything close.”
Kaylee was momentarily struck dumb. “I may not have known you for very long, but we are partners. We’re training together, we’re part of the same Convocation. A dragon-kin and Merlin, both magic users, both working together, that’s how it works, right? And if you think for a second that I want to do this alone, then—”
“Partners implies mutual usefulness,” Edwin snapped. “Being partners means we benefit each other, and right now the only person I see being any use to anything is you. Kaylee the rare storm dragon, Kaylee who’s so good at magic, Kaylee, Kaylee, Kaylee…”
“You don’t mean that,” Kaylee said quietly.
“That night,” Edwin said in a pained voice. “I couldn’t do anything to help. I couldn’t cast spells, I couldn’t even put up protection charms to save my friends. All of this training,” he lifted his arms as if hefting up the entire room, “what has it done for me? Baba can yell at me all she wants but it’s like I’ve reached as good as I’m going to be, and it sucks.”
He went to his backpack and started stuffing his assortment of books into it.
Kaylee could only stare at him, her shock slowly being replaced by indignation, then anger. She took a step closer, pointing one lightning laced finger at Edwin’s back.
“I’m only here with you because Alastair said it was supposed to be helping me, not the other way around! You think you have it bad? Try learning you’re some kind of dragon thing and suddenly every part of your life has just been knocked off course so hard you’re never going back to the way things were. You can’t wield a little magic? Boo-hoo! At least you won’t be walking around with the threat of growing a lizard’s tail at any moment, or having Slayers hunt you down.”
Edwin refused to look at her. He zipped his backpack shut and hefted it on his shoulder. Kaylee’s rage flared. A ball of magic built in her hand. It wasn’t large, but enough to show him she meant business.
“You want magic? Here you go!”
She lobbed it right at him. It hadn’t been a hard throw, just enough to get his attention, and yeah, maybe knock some sense into him.
She hadn’t anticipated how clumsy Edwin really was.
He reacted too late, turning towards her attack just in time to have it catch him square in the chest. There was a concussive boom. Edwin went flying back. Crystals shattered as he slammed against the far wall and collapsed on a sea turtle ottoman.
Kaylee went numb.
“Edwin! Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean—it came out way stronger than I—”
Edwin simply sat there, his mouth frozen in an ‘O’ of surprise. Then he began muttering to himself. His eyebrows dipped. His eyes narrowed on Kaylee.
The light in the room dimmed unnaturally, and spirals of orange magic congregated around him.
“That’s how you want it? Fine.” He stood. “Then let’s fight.”
Chapter Thirteen
Kaylee didn’t know whether to be elated or terrified.
On one hand, it looked like Edwin had temporarily—finally—learned how to use his magic under pressure.
On the other hand, he definitely wanted to use that magic against her.
Kaylee leapt back as Edwin whipped his hand at her. Blades of orange energy sliced through the air, barely missing Kaylee’s head as she dove out of the way. For a moment she stayed crouched, marveling at how fast she’d been able to dodge. She’d hated to admit it, but Baba’s training was actually working.
Shocker.
But a second later the spot she crouched grew warm, then scorching hot. Kaylee rolled aside as triple beams of light erupted from the carpet and shot straight up, torching the ceiling.
“Seen enough yet?” Edwin said, hurling another bolt.
“Ha! I could do that in my sleep!”
Edwin growled and waved his hand. He chanted a short spell, not stuttering at all. The sea turtle mobiles (because what else would they be but sea turtles?) spinning overhead suddenly sprang off their hooks and helicoptered right at her face.
Kaylee quickly shifted her arm and sliced through the first one. The second buzzed right by her head, shattering a crystal display behind her. Shards covered her feet, forcing Kaylee to jump out of the way or risk cutting herself.
The lights dimmed even more. More crystals shattered as stray bolts of magic shot off Edwin. Instead of hitting the floor, the broken crystals rose up, surrounding him.
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