by Holly Hook
"Maybe you have a bigger heart than I thought," Sven told her. "It's the size of a marble rather than a pea."
"Shut up. Untie me before any more dragons get here."
"If they wanted to kill you, they would have already," Sven said. "Doesn't that prove to you they're not what Father says?"
"Dragons have killed plenty of people."
"Only when crossed," Sven said. "I don't know about you, but I'm helping them stop this war." He spoke with eloquence and complete conviction. His voice echoed off the stone of the chamber.
I took a breath. Sven hadn't said this out loud before. He now completely hated the Slayer lifestyle.
Or he was now willing to sacrifice everything to undo what he'd done under the memory wipe. Sven wouldn't look at me now.
"You want to stop Father from launching his attack?"
"Yes."
Sofia did the worst thing and went silent, looking down at the stone floor. Silence dragged out until Dirk said: "I don't want there to be a war. I mean, joining the military is a scary enough idea for me."
"That makes three of us," I told him.
“But we're going against a thousand years of the Society,” Sofia said. “We can't do that. It's unheard of. You're talking about joining with the dragons. Do you realize how crazy that sounds?”
“Yes,” Sven said with no trace of his accent. “I do. But tradition isn't always a good thing, Sofia.”
Sofia let fear rule her thoughts. Her need to fit in drowned out everything else. She acted how Sven had with his blocked memory. What awful psychological tricks had their father inflicted on them? He'd molded two independent people into mindless followers.
“What else is there?” she asked. “Letting Father brush me aside as he's always done?”
“We don't need his validation,” Sven said, leaning down and taking her arms. “We don't need him.”
“You have a rich girlfriend.”
“It's not about money.”
“And I'm not rich,” I said, aware that Dirk was standing in silence as he listened to this conversation.
“You're not rich?” Sofia asked, looking around at the hoard. Her voice once again took a razor's edge.
“No. I'm not. I've lived my whole life on a farm, doing what my parents say,” I told her. “It's not as if I can sell this treasure at a pawnshop. It's what keeps the dragons going.” I still couldn't wrap my mind around being one, despite the events of the past day. “If the treasure goes away, then so do the dragons. They're just trying to stay alive at this point.”
Sofia opened her mouth but no words came out. “There's a human body count in all of this,” she said at last.
“Dragons have to fight back.” The inferno filled my body again as I thought of her stabbing Steve in the underbelly. He almost died from that. “You came in here and started shooting, unprovoked.”
“Felicia, it might be a good idea to back away,” Sven said.
I faced him, cooling. His sky-blue eyes locked with mine. For the first time, he faced me with fear.
Icy terror replaced the heat.
I knew what I'd been like when Sofia fired on me: something to fear.
So I backed away. Sven and I retreated past a pile of antiques as I took a breath and forced it out, trying to balance myself. The icy terror remained. Sofia had a point about the body count throughout history. Even my mother had killed and even though I knew why, the thought would never find a peaceful place to settle.
“Don't let her get to you,” Sven said. “She hasn't seen the light yet.”
“But you saw what I almost did to her,” I said.
“You had no choice but to fight. She made you.”
“I could have run.”
“I know my Felicia isn't one to run. And that would have emboldened her.”
Sven hadn't seen me running from Adler or from home when I found all this out. He never watched me run from his house. And he still didn't know what I'd done to his cousin, his cousin he had mourned. It had to come out, but not with Dirk and Sofia nearby. Sofia would pick up that something was wrong with her brother right away.
“Probably,” I said. The fight felt like a nightmare that would never fade. I feared more of them. “I don't think we can bring her to our side.”
“We will need her help. If she slays a dragon, then she will never come back. She'll taste all the wealth. It corrupts people. And she already came close.”
“Where do you think the Society is keeping all the treasure?” I ask, keeping my voice low.
“That information must be in my father's office. Where there might be information about my mother.”
I looked down at my hands, which were once again normal with no trace of silver scales. “I must be strong now,” I said.
“You would be.”
“I could get into that office if it wasn't for the laser,” I say.
“Yes. But with all the Slayers there, you shouldn't go back. I imagine they're on full alert. My father will keep Beowulf's sword close. You've seen it.”
I shuddered. The handle had enough red Gems on it to detect any nearby dragon even if they were in human form. It looked like a blade that would kill with one well-placed stab.
“But we have to get in there and get the treasure back,” I said. A sense that it was the most important thing in the world swept over me. I'd seen how deadly Sofia was and she wasn't even a full Slayer. She had far less training than the others.
And somewhere above us were a dozen full Slayers, each of who had experience killing dragons.
And now that I knew treasure held magic, I realized how important it was.
“I don't know how,” Sven said.
“Get away from Felicia,” Steve growled from behind me.
I turned. Steve stood in human form, clothed in dusty worker overalls and a plaid shirt. He looked as if he'd just walked off the quarry pit after a long day. And he glared at Sven.
“He's fine,” I said.
“That boy is a Slayer.”
“I am not,” Sven said with conviction. “Not anymore. Don't call me that.”
“He's dressed like one.”
"But you let him come near me before," I said.
"You weren't in human form at the time," Steve said. "Now you're less able to defend yourself. If I'd known you were going to shift back in front of him, I would have intervened. And he charged you."
Sven shrunk back.
I felt an urge to defend him. “He's in armor because he didn't want to die,” I said. "Sven charged because he didn't know it was me. And what are you? Your grandmother? She was responsible for that, by the way."
“Of course not," Steve said, balking. I'd hit a button.
“No fighting. Please,” I said. “We need to figure out how we'll stop the Slayers from getting down here and taking everything. And my parents need to get out of here.”
“Dirk's dad will take them home,” Steve said.
“I need to see it. Or I'm dragging them out myself.” At least I'd changed the subject.
“He needs to wake them,” Steve told me. His eyes, though human-looking now, were full of warning. He might not kill Sven but he sure didn't want him near me. I couldn't entirely blame him.
“We might find where the Slayers are keeping the stolen dragon treasure,” I told him, unable to believe the ordinary-looking guy before me was a huge green dragon with a sword lodged in his stomach less than half an hour ago. Or that he came close to death. “Sven will help us.”
Sven shifted, and I realized I'd thrown him under the bus by mistake. Steve lifted an eyebrow at him. “You can help us retrieve hundreds of years' worth of stolen treasure?”
Sven gulped. “Yes,” he said, accented again. “I can. But there's an issue of finding out where it is—”
“I'd trust you a hundred percent if you could do that,” Steve said. “Not having all our treasure has had...some unpleasant effects on the newest generations of dragons. This hoard might be big, but hud
dling around it isn't enough to keep our lines going. I'm sterile, so no children for me.”
“I understand,” Sven said. “It's possible the Wiglaf Society has sold some of it over the years, but they must have a stash somewhere.”
“Oh, I bet they have,” Steve said. “It's no wonder they got filthy rich. But if you can help get it back—”
“I will,” Sven insisted. “I'll find out where it is tonight. We don't have a lot of time, but my father still thinks I'm on his side. But as soon as they get down here, it's all over.”
Chapter Three
I was starving, and it turned out there were a few sandwiches left that Steve brought down earlier. He let me have one and although it was cold it did wonders to stop my horrendous appetite. I'd felt it before maturing, but now it had intensified. I ate a second sandwich, too.
And then I watched as Mr. Macher, Dirk's father, arrived in the cavern with his wife. The two of them took my parents out of their small, adjacent cavern, holding them under the arms. Mr. Macher gave me an apologetic glance as he held my snoring adoptive father right there in the cave he'd never see. It hadn't been his choice to bring the two down here and put them into an enchanted sleep with his consciousness-altering magic. It had been Adler's and the other dragons listened to her. She was the unofficial boss.
“Please wake them with their memories intact,” I said. “They don't deserve to have them wiped. If Adler's their friend, she won't do that. Tell her that.”
“I will,” Mr. Macher said. “I'll tell her that, but I can't control what she does.”
“Thank you.” The next time my parents saw me, they'd know what happened while I was down here. The thought was horrifying to them, but they needed to know. It was the only way we would move forward.
I watched the Machers take my parents through a dark tunnel. Even my parents gave off that faint red glow and I could see them even after they had otherwise vanished into the dark. I had night vision.
Sofia had stopped arguing and vanished into her own world. We still had the matter of what to do with her. Steve thought as he paced and settled on putting her in the room that my parents had occupied. “We don't normally keep prisoners,” he said. “But we need to.” He held back anger as he spoke. Steve would try this peace thing out for size. Or Sven's offer to get a lot of treasure back intrigued him.
“Your father's office,” I said to Sven after we had moved her to the other room and given her one of the blow-up cots. “We need to figure out how to get inside. Do you know how your father's arming mechanism works?”
“Well, lasers burn whoever tries to get close to the door when it's locked and he's inside,” Sven said. “And before you ask, I saw him arm it earlier today even though he's not in there. He punches in a code in the main security system, which is downstairs, to activate it. So he can turn it on and off from two different places. Father's worried about an attack on the house."
“We have Adler to thank for that,” I said. I knew she wouldn't try to hinder a plan to get the treasure back, but she knew the Water Company was Slayer Central. But Adler's idea of getting it back would involve burning the Manager's House—Sven's home—to the ground. The only thing stopping her now was all the Water Company employees around the place twenty-four seven.
“And I don't know the combination,” Sven said. His eyes darkened as he cast his gaze to the floor. "Felicia, you shouldn't do this for me. I don't des—"
"Shut up," I said. "That wasn't you who almost killed me. And I think we need to get you out of here, or the sight of this place is going to make you keep thinking about it. As for the office. I might break down the door. But the laser is a problem. How powerful is it?”
“I don't want to know. Father is confident it can keep out dragons.”
“Then it's powerful,” I said. “And we need to shut it down.” I think of the storm I summoned when escaping Adler. “What would happen if the power were to go out at your house?”
* * * * *
Once Sofia was secure and Steve vowed to stay with her, delivering no harm (and vowing not to tell Adler she was down there) Sven and I headed for the surface. I led the way through the caves, grasping his hand with mine.
“Just like old times,” he said. “Are you sure you don't need a flashlight?”
“I don't,” I said. “I know this sounds strange, but I can see the walls of the cave. They're faint but I can tell where I'm going.”
“I can't see anything. All I can feel is your hand.”
"I think it's heat I'm seeing," I said. "And I can see you. You're the brightest."
Sven smiled at me. "Well, it's up to you to get me out of here again. Which way is up?"
"Come on." We could joke around. Now that we were away from the hoard, it seemed Sven could escape his guilt for a little while. Or maybe it was shock taking over. "It's cooler and closer to the surface in that tunnel to the right. We don't want to go out through the river." I didn't need to say why. The Slayers would have finished their fast food dinner and retreated to the Manager's House to plan the attack. If they spotted us coming from the caves, we'd have a hard time explaining that.
"How can you tell it's cooler?"
"The walls don't glow as much. But don't worry. I can still see them."
The caves slanted upward. The air smelled different up this way and I could detect cleaning supplies, which burned my nose. I had a heightened sense of smell, too. "If we keep following this tunnel, we should emerge through the storage room of the high school."
"But it's Sunday by now and the middle of the night," Sven said.
"It's better than the river," I said. "By a long shot. And then we need to figure out how to get inside the Manager's House."
"We might want coffee first," Sven said. He yawned. "It's way past my bedtime."
"The McDonald's is twenty-four hours," I said.
"Not again." Sven looked away from me.
I'd brought back his decision to go dragon slaying with his sister and the way he followed Steve out of there. "Sorry. This is Olivia, remember? There aren't a lot of places. We could raid the teachers' lounge."
I was right that the tunnel led to the entrance to the high school's storage room in the basement. First, we emerged into a large chamber I remembered. Faint light crept down stone steps I had descended before. Sven and I climbed, and by then Sven could navigate on his own. "This is a relief," he said. "I can see you now."
I smiled. The heat vision faded as we climbed into regular light, which seemed to drown it out. The door to the storage room waited and a faint glow came from under the door. Someone had left the light on. A custodian must clean the school during the weekend.
"Someone's here," Sven said. "Are you sure this is the school?"
"Positive. I can smell toilet bowl cleaner."
"That's romantic."
I grabbed the metal door handle. Yes, it was a brick door, but someone had installed a metal handle on the inside for anyone trying to make a return trip. It was locked, but I took a breath, gripped the handle as tight as I could, and pulled down. The lock snapped since it was meant to keep out Normals only.
"Wow," Sven said. "You can get into Father's office for sure. But I still don't want you to put yourself in danger. I haven't even made up for what I did yet."
"If I don't, then this war won't end until I'm dead and Dirk is dead and Steve is dead. Until we're all dead." As I spoke, the angry heat filled me again. That hadn't faded. It had grown stronger since maturing. There was no going back.
I opened the door and heard one of the metal shelves sliding out. There was a metal shelf in front of the secret door to help hide it. I doubted even the custodian knew there was a secret entrance to Olivia's underground in here, and even if they found it, the mind magic Adler had used all over the caves would turn them around well before they reached the hoard.
We burst into the storage room. The light was on, casting a glow deeper than red just as Sven did. Things looked different from before as
if everything under the light bulb were giving off a faint radiance. I'd never get used to this new vision. The cleaner smell burned as I sniffed. "I have to get out of here. My sense of smell...it's too much." Terror struck my heart and made it race as the last twenty-four hours roared back. I was different now in every way. More confident. Less afraid of confrontation.
And easily provoked.
Despite that, Sven remained the same.
It was why I loved him so much.
"I wonder how coffee will be for you," he said. "Or if you can drink it. I think it's well into the night now. All we have to do is avoid the janitor." He spoke with no accent. Sven was calm, then.
Sven and I emerged into the hallway which was lit by default. The high school kept them on at night to deter break-ins and to allow the police to see inside when they patrolled through the parking lot. Sven suggested we turn them off, but I told him that wasn't a good idea as we walked towards the teachers' lounge. Listening for the janitor (who seemed to not be in this part of the school) I twisted the knob and snapped the lock to the lounge.
Adler would know it was me, but I didn't care.
Closing the door behind me, I watched as Sven went to work brewing coffee in the old, stained coffee pot that all the teachers shared. "Do you like flavored coffee?" he asked, holding up a basket of syrup bottles.
"Vanilla sounds good." I got my thoughts on watching Sven prepare coffee and turned my attention to the clock on the wall. It was past midnight. He was right that caffeine was the way to go.
And Sven made the perfect vanilla coffee. It involved stirring in the flavor, but he knew how to balance everything into a perfect mixture. This was a calm moment before the storm. A thought hit me that now we were away from everyone else, I could open about Sven's cousin and my accidental killing of him, but I didn't want to ruin what might be the last good moment we had together. The two of us sipped the hot coffee in silence. The caffeine gave me a nice zing. It benefited dragon shifters, too. And thankfully, it tasted no different from before.