“No. Way,” Edwin said when he flipped the page. He held up the book so Kaylee could see another photo, this one of Baba and the same young woman both holding a trophy between them. Kaylee had to squint to see what was engraved on it.
“Order of Merlin Grand Spellcaster. Sounds fancy.”
“It’s the highest honor a Merlin can receive,” Edwin said reverently. “You have to go through an insane amount of training and pass a ton of tests. That’s before you compete against other Merlins. I think they’re only a half dozen in the world with the title.”
They both looked up at the ceiling at once, realizing that one of those was probably passed out above them with a glass of whiskey in her hand.
“I thought…” Edwin said, almost guiltily. “I thought she was a hack. She moved here a while ago and it was my dad who asked her to join the Convocation. He had to talk her into it at first. I wonder if he knew who she really was.”
“If she’s so powerful then what is she doing here?” Kaylee said. “She could be out blasting the Slayers back into the hole they came from by herself.”
Edwin continued flipping through the pages. He stopped on one.
“Oh,” was all he said.
Inside was a single sheet of paper, yellowed with age and curled at the edges. Why Baba had decided to keep it Kaylee didn’t know. Maybe as a reminder for why she’d moved to Scarsdale, why she’d given everything up.
It was a list of names, with the word DECEASED carved next to them, all beneath the header, Disaster in Colorado. Clipped to it was another photo, but no one was smiling in this one. The picture showed what might have once been a house, but now it was leveled, reduced to nothing but charred black splinters sticking up from a mountain of rubble. Firefighters were frozen around them in mid-run as they streamed forward, trying to save anything that was left.
On the sidewalk in front of the house were two women. Kaylee instantly recognized Baba even through the blood and soot covering her face. She was putting a comforting arm around another young woman who had her head cradled in her hands. Kaylee didn’t need to see the woman’s face to know it was the same person who had been with Baba in the other photos.
“You don’t think Baba…” Kaylee started.
“Her name was Mallory Veschet.”
The rug growled. Kaylee’s stomach dropped. She slowly turned to the door.
Baba stood there. Her eyes moved from the rug curled in the corner to the book in their hands, then to their faces. There was cold fury in her eyes. Kaylee could feel the pressure of intense magic shooting off her.
“Since you’re so curious to know,” Baba continued in a dangerous voice. “That destruction was caused by my friend Mallory.” Baba’s eyes moved to Kaylee. “A storm dragon-kin. One of the very few to ever walk the Earth, and also my partner in the Convocation.”
Edwin quickly shut the book and dropped it on the table. “B-baba, we’re s-so sorry—”
Baba held up a hand and Edwin’s words stopped as though they’d been stuffed back in his throat.
“Kids…” she said. “Always wanting to take shortcuts. Never wanting to put the work into actually learning why some things are the way they are.”
“That’s not why we were—” Kaylee started.
“Silence!” Baba snapped and it was as if an iron clamp had been fastened on Kaylee’s lips, sealing them shut.
“You listen and you listen well: Mallory killed twenty people that day. By accident, of course. She lost control of her storm powers and the bolt of lightning she summoned charred the whole place in an instant.” Baba snapped her fingers. “Just. Like. That. Sound familiar, Kaylee? Losing control?”
Baba chuckled darkly. “The Convocation forgave her. After all it was such a tragedy, and even the best dragon-kin have trouble controlling their powers. It’s such a burden.” Baba glared at them. “But that day broke Mallory. She left the Convocation. Left the city. Left me. Now she lives in the middle of the desert in New Mexico. Alone. In a one bedroom house that I’m not even allowed to visit. She was my best friend and closest companion and now she can’t bear to see me because she can’t face what she did that day.”
Baba sucked in a shuddering breath. The magic on Kaylee seemed to squeeze around her tighter, strangling her.
“So forgive me for forcing you to learn so that maybe, just maybe, you can escape the same fate.”
She stepped aside and whatever spell she’d cast that had been holding Kaylee in place broke and she found herself stumbling forward.
“Now get out,” Baba said. “I don’t want to see you for a week.”
She paused as she turned away from them.
“And if I ever catch you in this room again, it won’t just be the end of your lessons; it’ll be the end of you.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Kaylee was more than happy to listen to Baba. When Jade and Maddox had asked why hers and Edwin’s training had been put on hold they had both managed to come up with one excuse or another and then change the subject completely.
By the time their lessons resumed, however, it was as if nothing had happened at all. Baba still grouched and groaned at their lackluster progress. Chairs still spontaneously caught fire, and Kaylee still had only managed to shift parts of her body and sporadically call on her dragon-kin elemental powers. Normally this would be a big deal, but with Thanksgiving fast approaching, and with it the threat of the Dragon Moon, their focus had been crunched down into ‘near-panic’ mode. It was only in the brief moments of relaxing with her friends that Kaylee found any peace, and even then it was fleeting.
“Yo, Kaylee,” Jade said. She waved her smoothie in front of Kaylee’s face. “Come back to me. You’re like a million miles away.”
Kaylee pulled herself away from gazing out over the food court.
“Listen, is it that math test again?” Jade said. “I told you I’m sure you did fine.”
“It’s not that,” Kaylee said, though for once she wished the worst thing she had to worry about was whether she’d correctly remember the Pythagorean Theorem. “I’m just…beat, I guess.”
Jade gave her a sympathetic look. “I can imagine. With all the training, and the little…celestial problem we have coming up, it’s a lot.”
Kaylee burst out laughing. “Celestial problem?”
“Just calling it like it is.”
But Jade’s line had broken the lock of worry on Kaylee’s mind, and she found herself relaxing as they talked, the tension she’d felt knotted up in her shoulders running down her back and away.
The mall was packed. Shoppers scurried to and from each store, lugging dozens of bags and wrapping paper between them. Thanksgiving decorations snaked around the railings of the second floor and an impressive papier-mâché turkey stood on display at the nearest turnstile. But Kaylee knew just beneath all of these decorations were the Christmas ones, just waiting for their chance to shine.
They’d come here with the goal of visiting someone Edwin said would know where the star-kissed meteorite would be. They hadn’t told Jade or Maddox how they learned the Slayers needed that item, (neither of them wanted an early death), but the two of them were more than happy to come along anyway.
“Ugh!” Kaylee clamped her hands over her ears as another Christmas carol came over the loudspeakers, immediately replacing the one before it. “Anyone who plays Christmas music before Thanksgiving should be punished by law. Minimum ten-year prison sentence. I can’t believe they’re starting so early this year.”
Jade took a swig from her smoothie, swaying gently to the rhythm of the music. “Actually, they started playing this right after the fourth of July.”
Edwin and Maddox emerged from a video game store across the food court. Well, technically, it was Maddox coming out of the store, and Edwin scampering out like he’d just narrowly escaped the bowels of hell. Maddox was chatting excitedly about whatever game he’d just bought, pointing to it and shoving it in Edwin’s face. To Edwin’s credit,
he was trying to look interested, but Kaylee could tell his mind was on other things, as it often was.
Kaylee shook her head. To think there was a guy out there who was more interested in thousand-year-old texts and dusty ancient charms than the latest console game was something she never would have believed existed.
“Maybe I should get Edwin to cast a spell to shut down the electricity,” Kaylee said as the music grew in volume, reaching levels she considered to be cruel and unusual punishment. “Then maybe we’d get some peace.”
Jade’s euphoric expression flickered. “You’ve been…spending a lot of time together lately?”
Kaylee pulled her gaze away from Edwin and Maddox, who had stopped to get smoothies of their own. “I mean, I guess? We still train a lot together. And we’ve been working a lot on the Slayer problem. A couple weeks ago he showed me this mausoleum in the cemetery. You know the one on Baker road? Super creepy, but I had no idea about how some dragon-kin were with the Slayers.”
“I could have told you that if you’d asked,” Jade said.
“Oh. Right, I guess so. But yeah, it was cool.”
An awkward silence fell between them, something Kaylee could remember happening only a handful of times in all their years of friendship. It had been happening a lot more lately. “Is…something up?”
“Nothing!” Jade said. “Nothing. I just didn’t know you’d been un-grounded that early.”
“Well I technically wasn’t. Edwin came to my room—”
Jade’s eyebrows rose.
“Not like that! He just knocked on my window—”
They rose higher.
“Jade! Seriously!” Kaylee gave her arm a playful shove. “Just…No. He needed my help figuring out what the Slayers were trying to do.”
“Oh,” Jade said.
“Oh?” Kaylee said.
Jade slurped the final bits of her smoothie, drawing it out until Kaylee wanted to snatch it from her.
“Jade?” Kaylee said. “What’s. Up?”
“Nothing. I mean, you’re just spending a lot of time with him, and we haven’t gotten to hang out too much. It’s nothing, really,” she said quickly. “I’ve got a lot on my mind too. The Tamer’s test was announced the other day…”
“The what?” Kaylee said.
“I was going to tell you sooner but when I found out about it I thought you were still grounded,” Jade said. “It’s this test Tamers-in-training have to take before they become full members of the Convocation. Normally it’s given our senior year of high school before we go to college, but it varies by the skill of the Tamer. Even with our little…screw up, the heads setting it up announced that I can take it my junior year. It’s earlier than they’ve ever given to any Tamer before.”
“But that’s great!”
Jade gave her a strained smile.
“Unless…you don’t want to do it,” Kaylee finished.
“I don’t know what I want!” Jade said. “My parents expect me to. My grandfather was a Tamer and my parents were always involved with the Convocation so it’s like a family thing. I’m just not sure if it’s what I want to do.”
Kaylee swirled the remains of her smoothie at the bottom of her cup. She knew Jade’s parents were nice, but they were also tough. Not exactly in the outright forcing-Jade-to-do-things-she-didn’t-want-to-do way, more like the we’re-silently-disappointed-in-your-life-choices way. Which was always worse. And if being a dragon Tamer was what her parents had their mind set on Jade doing, then there wasn’t much that would convince them otherwise.
“You’ve got two years before you have to decide,” Kaylee said, patting Jade’s arm. “Maybe by then your parents will have changed their minds.”
Jade let out a bitter laugh. “Not likely. But thanks.” She glanced over at Edwin and Maddox, who had gotten their smoothies and were coming over. “If I do take the test, though, I’m not sure what I’d tell Maddox. If I pass, we won’t be training together anymore.”
“Ah…” Kaylee said. For the first time, she caught a different feeling in Jade’s expression: longing. She didn’t know how she’d missed it before, and for just a moment Kaylee was overcome with jealously before managing to push it aside. Jade liked Maddox. So what? It wasn’t as if Kaylee liked him either. She didn’t. Did she?
Kaylee stared at a spot on the table. What did she think of Maddox? Her thoughts had been so snarled the last few weeks she couldn’t untangle them easily anymore.
And then there was Edwin…
“The Kings of Smoothies have returned!” Maddox boomed, arriving at their table. “Enough idle chit chat! A rare and magnificent quest for the rare and powerful artifact shall commence!”
“After we hit up the consignment store on the second floor,” Jade said as she and Kaylee stood.
“Directly after the consignment store!” Maddox agreed. Edwin rolled his eyes, taking a long pull from his smoothie.
The group headed upstairs to the store, the boys lingering outside while Kaylee and Jade ducked in. Jade immediately headed to the latest arrivals while Kaylee stayed up front, lazily flipping through the racks of second-hand blouses and pre-worn jeans. Jade enjoyed this, but Kaylee wasn’t a passionate shopper even at the best of times. But if it made Jade happy then that’s all Kaylee cared about. Kaylee didn’t even realize how different their lives had become since joining the Convocation, as if now they were just two ships barely missing one another as the wind took them different places.
The Christmas music outside surged louder, and Maddox’s voice warbled as he sang along. Edwin gave apologetic looks to any passing shoppers.
Kaylee was holding up a sequined dress so sparkly it could have doubled as a disco ball when a familiar voice said, “Say, stranger, fancy meeting you here.”
Dani grinned at her, having just emerged from the changing room with a few clothes thrown over one arm, and what looked like a sharp business suit draped over a shoulder.
“Dani!” Kaylee said, scrambling for something to say. Since training with Baba took up most of her after school time she barely saw the other girl except for the few occasions Dani caught up with her, Jade, and Maddox between classes.
Dani frowned, probably sensing Kaylee’s hesitation. “You okay? School stress? Still having trouble summoning storms?”
“Yeah.” Kaylee sighed. “I mean, every now and then I can conjure a little one fine, but much bigger—”
She froze. Dani cocked her head.
“I mean…” Kaylee faltered, “what are you talking about? Storms? What storms?” She laughed weakly.
Dani held back a small laugh behind her hand. “It’s okay, Kaylee. I know about the Convocation.”
“You do?”
“Did I forget to mention that?” Dani said innocently, fluttering her eyelashes. “And no, I’m not a Slayer,” she added when Kaylee took a hesitant step back. “Though I’m flattered you think I’m in good enough shape to be one.”
“Uh—I didn’t—you just don’t strike me as—how long have you known?”
Dani made a non-committal gesture. “Years ago. Maddox and I have been friends since kindergarten. I was over playing at his house one day and accidentally witnessed a visiting dragon-kin shifting his wings and tail.”
“Are you a dragon-kin?” Kaylee said.
“No!” Dani said quickly. “Just a boring old human.”
“But they could erase your memory,” Kaylee said. “Edwin said some of the more powerful Merlins can do that.”
“I guess technically they could have,” Dani said, shrugging. “But at the time they weren’t sure if it would hurt me ‘cause I was so young. Alastair was actually the one who convinced the rest of the Convocation I could be trusted. Now I act as an extra helper every now and then for Convocation activities. Sort of a liaison to the normal world, you know? Anyway…”
She noticed what clothes rack Kaylee was flipping through. “Oh! Shopping for anything special? Anyone special?” She waggled her eyebrows.
“You are going to the Fall festival, right? That’s the perfect chance to bring someone you’re…interested in.”
Kaylee’s eyes casually drifted out the door, back to Maddox and Edwin. Their patience for standing around had run out and they were now whacking a ball of paper back and forth in an impromptu game of badminton.
“Oooh…” Dani said. “Good choices. Which one?”
Kaylee felt her face flush. “N-neither! I’m going, but not with anyone!”
“Shame,” Dani said. She pulled a top off the rack, an angry, broiling gray with hints of sharp blue flecked within it, like lightning. “I think this matches your eyes. You’d rock it.” She laid it in Kaylee’s hands then waved as she walked to the counter. “Gotta go! Picking up my uniform for the district Debate tournament. Tell the others I said hi!”
“Yeah, see you.”
There came a shout of alarm from outside. Apparently, Edwin and Maddox’s paper ball had fallen over the railing and hit somebody below.
“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Jade said from behind her.
“Some ground rules,” Edwin said as they walked to the next store. “Let me do the talking to Trevor. He trusts me the most.”
“Which for Trevor isn’t saying much,” Maddox added.
“Plus, and this is key, I actually know what I’m talking about,” Edwin said.
“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Jade said.
They had reached the very back corner of the mall, just past a sad-looking knitting shop. The nearest signs of life were a closed down taco shack and what might have once been a candy store. There was only a single open shop here. In front of it was a mall stand selling cheap cell phone cases.
“Diamonds for the girls,” the man at the stand said, waving a case at them as they walked by. He pulled up two more. “And of course, flames for the boys.”
Dragon's Awakening (Heir of Dragons: Book 1) Page 17