Onna wasn’t looking at Ava as she talked. Her eyes were on Cale. Ava followed her gaze to the dragon who was frowning over his ticket and scratching his elbow, unaware that he was being observed.
“It’s really cool of you to not tell him,” Ava said. “About T, I mean.”
“Has nothing to do with you,” Onna replied. “He’d never forgive me if he found out.”
Ava, Cameron, and Cale picked up their backpacks and turned toward the gate as Myra and Onna watched. The trio didn’t make it two steps before Cale was tackled from behind.
Rory spun him around, his huge arms trapping Cale’s shoulders in a bear hug. Cale forced himself to breathe, forced himself to remember that he was too old for crying. They stayed that way for a moment, until Cale thought he might not be able to leave after all. When Rory pulled away, he tried his best to smile at his older brother.
“I’m an ass,” Rory said.
Cale grinned. “Agreed.”
“You better be in shape when you get back. Rory messed up his brother’s hair. Victor’s going to want to finish what we started.”
“Right now, I’m just focusing on the survival part.”
Rory hugged him again. Then, he nodded to Ava, and she returned it. She noticed that he hadn’t grabbed her up in hug, but she didn’t mind. She couldn’t blame Rory for being resentful. Even though she hadn’t meant to and still didn’t understand it all, she’d torn their family apart, just by stepping through their front door.
Rory scratched the back of his head when his eyes fell on Cameron. The blue dragon who shared so much of his DNA stood very still, in stark contrast to Rory’s fidgeting. Rory tried to find something appropriate to say, opening his mouth and then closing it again. Finally, he managed two words.
“Do good.”
Cameron’s face was expressionless, his blue eyes like stones.
On the other side of the ticket counter, Cameron took back his stub and his passport and disappeared through the gate. Ava was about to step forward in line when Cale froze in place. She stopped next to him, leaning in.
“Cale, we’re next,” she whispered.
He shook his head, closing his eyes. His heart was beating so fast, he could hardly breathe. His legs wouldn’t move an inch.
“Cale,” Ava said, pulling at his arm.
She waved the couple behind them on, and they stepped around Cale, handing their tickets to the smiling flight attendant.
“I can’t,” Cale said, barely audible.
The last time he’d been on a plane, he’d looked death in the eyes. It called his name. He’d almost lost everything. He’d almost lost Ava.
The flight to Peru had had the opposite effect on her. She wanted to hold her chin high when she passed the ticket counter. Having Cale next to her only made her more sure. If I survived that, I’ll survive anything.
“We’ll get to see the clouds again,” she said.
For a long, long time. The flight to Ireland would take fifteen hours. She’d packed a deck of cards, a Nintendo DS, and an unnatural amount of beef jerky into her backpack in anticipation. But she’d never expected getting Cale on the plane would be the biggest problem.
“Let’s take a boat,” he said, shaking his head and backing away. “Boats are safe.”
“You think we’ll stand a better chance against the no-ir in a canoe in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?”
He shivered when she said the name. Crap, I forgot, she thought. Tossing the word around wasn’t helping to calm him down at all. But the boarding line was thinning, and soon, Ava and Cale would be the only passengers that hadn’t been seated. And the plane would leave without them, the money they spent on their tickets gone. They’d be even further from clearing Cale’s name.
“I’ll just stay exiled,” he said, still whispering. His stomach hurt so furiously, it nearly doubled him over. “I’ll just stay here.”
“Will you be boarding?” the attendant asked in her sugar sweet voice.
“Give us a minute,” Ava said over her shoulder.
“I’m sorry–”
“–A minute,” Ava snapped.
The attendant clamped her mouth shut.
Ava pulled Cale aside and put her hands on his face so that he had no choice but to look at her. His eyes weren’t focused. They darted around like trembling brown spheres.
“What’s my name, Cale?”
He frowned at the question, confused by it. He blinked, his eyes focusing, the traces of blue in his blood enticing him to answer. “Ava.”
“Ava what?”
“Ava Johnson.”
“That’s right. You Chose me. And if you think I’m going to let some stupid black lizard get anywhere near you, then you don’t know me.” She pointed her finger at the doorway. “Now, get on that plane.”
He could feel his heart beat slow down. The nonsensical thoughts that had been bouncing around in his head settled, then dissipated. Her face was so sure, so unflinching. Man, she’s good.
After two hours of playing solitaire and four orders of apple juice, Cale couldn’t stand Ava’s head bobbing around. She was fighting sleep so hard it grated against his nerves. He lifted the armrest and nudged her over toward him. Without protestation, she curled her arm around his knee, breathing gently on his lap.
Cale didn’t think he would ever find pleasure in watching someone sleep. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, like it usually was, and he wished she had let it loose as he brushed his hand against the curls. He ran his finger down her cheek. Her skin was the perfect color, a light brown dusted with cinnamon.
It came to his lips again, from someplace deep inside him. Sarai. He closed his eyes and tasted the word. It was sweet on his tongue. He moved his lips as he whispered it.
Cameron observed the interaction with curiosity, the same way he observed most things, his wide eyes absorbing his brother and his rider.
“You think she’ll go through with it?” Cale asked him quietly, using the language unique to their nest. “With the pact?”
Cameron would give an objective answer. Cale knew that.
Cameron thought for a moment, then frowned, suddenly distracted. He realized with a disappointing jolt that he was thirsty. He sipped the water that the attendant had left on his tray, barely even skimming any off the top.
The blue dragon waited for the water to slide down his throat. It was a slow process, but Cale was patient, giving his brother time to finish. Out of respect, Cale looked at Ava again instead of at his brother. It would always be strange to Cale that eating wasn’t a social event in the blue world. It was almost embarrassing, a diversion from what really mattered–a debasing necessity.
When he had finally finished, Cameron cleared his throat and spoke in blue tongue. “As you know, I am very good at analyzing personality types.” He handed the rest of his water to Cale, who drank it so quickly that a bit of it ran down his chin.
Cameron continued. “I am also good at assessing compatibility based on a person’s past actions. But if you were to ask me to judge a person’s character, as you just have, I’m afraid I would come up short every time.”
Cale frowned. “I disagree.”
Cameron almost smiled at his older brother. “You would know the answer to your question better than I. You are the best judge of character I’ve ever met, Cale.”
Cale shook his head. “You’re wrong about that, too.”
Cameron tapped his fingers against his tray. “I’ll give you an example. You are, I believe, Onna’s only friend. This is because most see her as a manipulative, selfish, narcissistic bully.”
“She is all those things,” Cale said.
“And still, you see good in her when others don’t.”
“But you’re attracted to Myra, and she’s even meaner than Onna.”
“She’s not…that mean.”
Cale chuckled. “You don’t have to explain to me. You like her. Go for it.”
Cameron shook his head. “Th
ere it is again. What is it in you that compels you to tolerate me?”
Cale shrugged. “You’re my brother.”
“I’m also Rory’s brother, but he knows nothing about me, nor will he ever care to.”
“It’s not that he doesn’t care, Cam. He just doesn’t understand how you are.”
“And you do?”
“I try to.”
Cameron looked away, picking up a magazine that he knew would not hold his interest for more than two minutes. “Perhaps you should try to understand our mother in the same way,” he said.
Cale gritted his teeth. Really? Now is when the Vomit Club is in session?
“I do love her, Cam.” He stalled, correcting himself. “I did love her.” He sighed. Even talking about them made his chest tighten. Karma wasn’t even his mother anymore. It was all too confusing, too much. “I loved her the same way you love Mac.”
Cameron didn’t answer. His face was unreadable.
When they landed in Ireland without a beast ripping into their aircraft, Cale took a deep breath and let it out slowly. They waited near the taxis, their bags in hand.
“I don’t know when I’ll see you again.” Cameron looked around, soaking in the postures and attitudes of the hundreds of people bustling by him. “I have no words of wisdom to leave you. So, goodbye then.”
And just like that, Cameron Anders left, his duffel bag over his shoulder.
“So…he’s going to a monastery?” Ava asked. “How is he getting there?”
“No idea. I’m sure he’ll have to use his second form to get there at some point. He’ll swim, I guess.”
“And the next time we see him, he’ll be a monk? Like with the robe and the circle cut in the top of his hair.”
Cale laughed as he hailed a cab. “No. I don’t think so. Most blues spend their whole lives trying to gain access to one of the two institutes of learning. The academies or the monasteries.”
“Why didn’t he go to the academy? That sounds a lot less fruity.”
“I don’t think you realize how hard it is to get in.”
She frowned as they got into the cab, and Cale directed the driver.
“So they didn’t accept him.”
“Oh, he got in. When he was twelve years old. One of the youngest blues in history to attend.” Cale smiled fondly at the memory, though for Cameron and Karma, it wasn’t very funny. “He got expelled. Popped his headmaster in the face for calling reds ‘hardly worthy of dissection.’”
Ava laughed, covering her mouth in an attempt to hold it in. “Cameron got in a fight?”
“Yep,” Cale said, still grinning. “I was so proud.”
“But Karma….”
“She’s a prodigy, you know. She studied and taught at the academy for years before she married Mac. Cameron joining the monastery is even worse than him getting kicked out of the academy. It’s practically treason.”
“It can’t be that serious.”
Cale shrugged. “All I know is that the monks think differently than the scholars. They act differently. I’ve never met one, but my m-,” he cleared his throat. “Karma hates them.”
Ava thought about that as she sat beside Cale in the cab. Cale gave the driver turn by turn directions, using an inner compass to lead him to the center of the red dragon world.
“So, your d–I mean, Mac, must have been really proud of Cameron, yeah?”
Cale shrugged. It was still hard for him to talk about his father. “I don’t think Cameron or Karma ever told him why he came back home. His father probably never asked.”
Ava frowned. “How could he be so disconnected from his own son?”
Cale scowled at her, the wounds Mac had left still raw inside him. “Your father couldn’t wait to smack you around. At least Mac respected him enough not to beat him up.”
Ava winced at Cale’s comment. It had been a while since she let Jim cross her mind. She looked out the window, trying not to let Cale’s words stick to her. That was how she had kept her sanity for all of those years. It was how she had survived. You don’t feel it, Ava. It doesn’t hurt.
“Ava, I shouldn’t have said that,” Cale said softly.
His heart ached inside him. He knew he’d hurt her feelings, but she’d never admit it. She was tough. She’d tell herself it didn’t matter.
“They’re just words Cale. You didn’t mean it.”
“No excuses. I shouldn’t have said it. I’m sorry.”
Ava felt tired suddenly. And angry at herself, for her own reasons. “Parents do dumb things. But you love your dad, Cale. Just because he’s being blind doesn’t mean you have to close up and not feel anything. That’s what I would do. You’re not like me.”
The rain pelted the windows as Cale stared. He knew Ava was right. He knew he loved his father. But there was a big hole in his heart that reminded him of what his father had done, all because he hadn’t agreed with Cale’s choice, all because he wanted better for him. Somehow, Mac’s love had turned to banishment. Cale knew that his father never, not in his or any lifetime, thought that Cale would choose Ava over his nest.
“I don’t know what to do,” Cale said.
“Feel sad. Feel angry, like you just did. Feel hurt.” She flicked his ear playfully, trying to ease the tension. “It only makes you braver. Cowards fight the hurt away.”
He stared at her. Her fierce eyes, the way her lips curved, the way she held her chin up. “You’re not a coward, Ava.”
She gave him a crooked smile. “I was. For a really long time. I didn’t know how to feel pain until I met you. And even still, I fight it off all the time.”
“I make you feel pain?” Cale frowned. The thought made him sick.
“Mostly you teach me how to be happy. How to care about people.”
Cale stretched, his smile spreading slowly across his face. “Yeah, I’m pretty awesome.”
It was getting dark out as they left the cab. They took the rest of the way on foot, past an old, decrepit barn. Cale led the way through bushes and weeds until they made one last trek up a muddy hill. Cale batted aside a tree branch and revealed rolling Irish mountains, nearly glistening in the moonlight.
“Not bad,” Ava said, drawing in the clean, cool air.
After they clawed their way up another hill, Ava could see it. Thatched roofs nestled in a valley between two enormous hills. The smell of sea salt and the sound of waves tumbling against rock told Ava that the ocean was just behind the next hill. Sheep and cows littered the open stretches of grass. There wasn’t a barn in sight. Of course, there’s no need to bring in the flock with a village of dragons keeping watch over them.
Cale made it to the outskirts of the village before he stopped in his tracks. He put his hand up, and Ava halted beside him. He had that look on his face, like his stomach hurt. Ava took her dragonblade out of her pocket.
“Something very strange is coming from the east,” he said, nodding his chin to the left.
“Dangerous?” Ava asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Then let’s go in.”
Cale shook his head. “We can’t go past the fence without permission.”
Ava examined the sad wooden fence. It looked like it was decades old, some of its beams rotting away. Not very impressive.
Cale rang the bell that hung off one of the lopsided posts, and it was a boy who answered the call. He hopped on top of the fence, balancing on the rails with his bare feet like an acrobat. He was shirtless, maybe ten years old, with hair so fair it was almost white. Cale felt like he was looking at a younger Rory. He almost wanted to punch him in the arm and try to steal back his last strip of bacon. Cale had to blink to shake the memory.
“Who goes there?” The boy asked in red tongue. If Cale didn’t know any better, it would seem as though he was playing fort.
“This is Ava Johnson,” Cale said in English, pointing to his rider.
Ava lifted an eyebrow at Cale. Why’d he introduce me first?
Th
e boy tilted his head as he looked Ava over. “And what does Ava Johnson want here?” His Irish accent was so thick, it sounded like another language.
“To meet with the council.”
“The council is busy,” the boy said. “Leave.”
“But we’re tired. We need a place to sleep.”
“We?” The boy squinted at Cale. “I’ve heard the female’s name and not yours.”
Cale blinked. He wanted to lie. He had actually planned to. He intended to say that he was Rory, come to help his younger brother clear his name. But his honesty could not be stifled.
“I don’t want to tell you,” he confessed.
The boy’s eyebrows shot up. “I’ve never heard that as an answer before, not in all my years on this fence.” The boy looked Cale up and down, tapping his finger against his chin. “And why do you not want to tell me?”
“Because you might not react how I’d like you to. I’ve come here to see if the council will help me clear my name.”
“What name?” he snapped.
“Cale. Of Anders Nest.” It was a formal red dragon introduction.
“Ah,” the boy said, rocking back on his heels. The fence groaned like it would give way. Ava fought the instinct to reach out and grab him so he wouldn’t fall, but the boy didn’t seem worried about losing his balance. I wonder how long that fence has been here, Ava thought.
“You are right to try and hide a name like that.” The boy sat on the fence with a thump. “Why should I take you to the council?”
“Because I need help.”
“Where is your father? Your mother?”
“They disowned me.”
“As they should. All of your race will disown you. The grey court is calling for you. Have you not seen the notice of exile?”
Cale clenched his jaw. “I’ve seen it.”
“Turn yourself in to the greys, then.”
“But I’m innocent.”
“Let them judge it so. Off with you. We’ll have no part in harboring a fugitive.”
And the boy made like he was going to leave.
But Ava walked up to the fence. “Listen, kid, we’ve come a long, long way to talk to you people. And if you don’t help this dragon, you’re going to regret it. Because he’s awesome.” She paused, almost overwhelmed by the truth of what she was saying. “And someday, you’re going to wish you had a little more awesome on your side. But he won’t be here, because you were being a snide little bastard and wouldn’t let him in.”
Core Page 20