by Shea Berkley
Grandpa lets go, and I take off after the guy. It’s only a little run. How hard can that be? A streak of khaki, like a slash of dirt, pinpoints him on the opposite side of the yard. He enters the woods, and with my long-legged stride, I steadily gain on him. When I come alongside him, I see his surprise, but he quickly hides it. I suppress a grin, but inside I’m glad I’ve made a dent in that irritating smile he wears.
The first part of our run is about the lead and who can hold on to it. After twenty minutes, my lack of endurance begins to show. I resist the urge to call on a jolt of energy. It would be so easy. I can feel it humming in the earth beneath my feet—ready, waiting for me to accept it.
Seeing me struggle, Wyatt’s muscles loosen and he starts in with the big talk. “I hear your mom’s got an open-door policy.”
I grit my teeth. It’s not like I can deny it, but I don’t like him or anyone else talking about it.
Either he’s a real jerk or he’s trying to tick me off because he keeps yammering. “You should hear the stories. She was a wild thing back then, and a handful in more than one way.”
We come to a hill, and I get a good grip on the backpack straps, taking the weight off my shoulders as best I can, but the climb still burns my lungs.
Wyatt paces himself, more like a machine than a human. I don’t even hear him breathing heavy. “From what I’ve heard, she’s still got her looks.”
I don’t respond. How can I? I’m using all my energy to keep pace.
“Surprising, though. Most women like her tend to get that used look by now.”
The smell of burning cloth reaches my nose. My hands are gripping the straps, and beneath my fingers, the fabric edges are singed. I shoot a quick glance at Wyatt to see if he notices.
“Still,” he says, all innocent, “if she comes back, I wouldn’t mind seeing what all the fuss is about.”
I feel the rush of heat and battle to keep it down. “You really don’t want to get me mad.”
“That’s what I hear. Now take that anger and push it down into your belly. Let it fuel your need to beat me to the top of this hill.” Wyatt pumps his legs harder and begins to pull away from me. “Come on.”
I really want to beat him. I hunch down and push myself, but the guy stays one step ahead of me.
At the crest, he pulls me to a stop. With my breath heaving in and out, he spins me around so my back faces him. “Sadly, you suck, so more rocks.”
I glance over my shoulder. “I was right behind you—”
“Yeah, but I heard you breathing. I don’t like heavy breathers.” He collects five rocks from his pack and jams them into mine.”
“You’re carrying rocks?” My surprise shows in my voice.
“As many as you…well, not now.” He turns me around and pushes me forward. “Let’s go, anger-management boy. Reece should be getting back soon. That’s when the real fun starts.”
Wyatt stops me three more times, once because I slowed down, once because I was sweating too much, and the last time—just because. By the time we get back, I’m carrying all the rocks. I stumble into the barn, sweat stains my shirt, and my face is hot from anger. Wyatt managed to hit on every one of my insecurities from Mom to school to Kera. I collapse to my knees, chest heaving, lungs burning, and rip off the backpack. Rocks the size of my fist and larger skitter across the barn floor.
“Pick them up,” Wyatt says as he strips the empty pack from his back.
The fire in me is so hot, I can feel it smoldering, can smell the smoke. I rake off my shirt and chuck it at him.
A sudden shot of water hits my chest, resoaking my torso and splattering my face. I blink away the droplets and glare at Grandpa. He shrugs. “You looked hot. Am I right?”
I stand and shake off the water.
He smiles. “It might work.” His smile fades. “Now go pick up those rocks.”
I snatch one of the straps and drag the pack across the floor, collecting the rocks as I go. When I’m done, I deposit the bag at Wyatt’s feet.
He nods. “Let’s gear up.” He cinches a twenty-pound vest to my bare chest and a pair of heavy weights over my ankles. “I don’t know where Reece is, but until he shows his sorry ass, you’ll be doing what I tell you.” He tosses a jump rope at me, and I catch it. He pulls out his phone and begins to text someone. It’s got to be a girl. No guy smiles that cheesy when he’s texting some other dude. After a second, he frowns at me. “What are you waiting for? Start skipping.”
After a minute, he pockets the phone and crosses his arms over his chest. He circles me, an assessing slant to his eyes. “Anger takes away your ability to think and process information correctly. Your reactions slow and you’re more prone to make irrational choices. Those choices can get you into trouble. If you pay attention, I’ll teach you how to live smart.”
I give him a nod; it’s about all I can do as the rope whips over my head and under my feet. My skin tingles with the urge to use magic, and I resist showing him just how good my abilities are.
An hour goes by with me skipping rope, doing squats, chin-ups and sit-ups, and getting water sprayed at me. I don’t know what Wyatt thinks about Grandpa and his water fixation, but he takes it all in stride, yelling commands between texts and calls.
After the last drill, I’m doubled over, hands on knees and sucking down air. Grandpa’s distracted by a phone call. From what I can tell, it’s Grandma checking up on us. I’m surprised when Wyatt shoves a bottle of cold water at me. “You’ve earned it.”
I straighten. With shaking hands, I rip off the top and guzzle down half the bottle. Lowering it, I nod my head in thanks.
Wyatt slaps my back, motioning to my drowned appearance. “I’m not sure if he’s keeping you from getting heatstroke or he’s an old ballbuster getting his jollies, but it’s one hell of a show.”
I shrug, keep quiet, and quickly drain the last of my water.
He takes the empty water bottle and tosses it into a nearby trash bin. “Since it’s my job to get into your business…you look like shit. When’s the last time you slept? Really slept.”
I dozed on and off last night, but it’d been forever since I’d had a full night’s sleep. “I don’t remember.”
“You know, there’s lots of stuff that can keep you from optimal performance. I’m talking life, not just sports.”
“I get it. No drugs. No alcohol, and I need sleep.”
“That, and you need to tell me why your skin’s so hot it can melt metal.”
A sliver of alarm shoots up my neck. I look down to see what he’s talking about, and notice one of the old metal clasps riding my hip has melted and fused. Tiny drips of metal shimmer against my shorts.
“Now, I’m just a simple soldier, home on leave,” Wyatt says nonchalantly, but there’s an underlying tension that can’t be missed, “but even I know metal doesn’t melt without some serious heat.” He splays his fingers at me, revealing their red tips. “Touch fire, you get burned.”
I remember every time Wyatt switched exercises, he’d tap my shoulder. I thought he was simply getting my attention, focusing me on the task when I got angry, but he’d gotten burned, which made him curious. There’s no way he could’ve figured out how, so now he’s laying out his cards, showing me what he has in a ploy to get me to reveal what he couldn’t find.
And I’ve got nothing. There’s no logical explanation that will make him believe I’m an everyday, normal guy with anger issues.
“It’s complicated,” I finally say.
“I know you can’t tell by looking at me, but I’m a complex guy.”
“I thought you said you were a simple soldier?”
“I am, with deep complex issues swirling in my head, so listen up. Byzantine tactics are my specialty, which is funny, because I hate being tricked.” He takes a step closer in a way that feels threatening, and he lowers his voice. “You and your grandfather haven’t been honest with me.”
He isn’t going to let this go, but how much can I
tell him? “Yes, we have. Lately I’ve been getting angry.”
“And…”
“Really angry.”
“And…”
“Out-of-control angry.”
“Don’t make me push. I’ll win. You know I will.”
“I light up.”
“You start hitting people? Typical teenage shit. I want to know what’s with the heat.”
He’s not getting it, and why would he? It’s not something someone would think possible. Since he’s standing there, waiting for me to continue, I decide to tell him the truth.
“I don’t hit. I do this.” I hold out my hand and uncurl my fingers. A ball of fire springs to life in the middle of my palm.
Wyatt rears back, his disbelief snapping from the ball of fire to my face. “What the hell kind of freak show are you?”
There it is. I’m sick of everyone telling me I don’t belong, that I’m unnatural. Faldon said it so often, I almost believed him. A burn of anger flashes in my gut. “And when I’m really angry, I do this.” The flame races up my arm and engulfs my body in a blink.
Wyatt jumps back and a sudden douse of water hits me, licking at the flames and cooling my skin until the fire dissolves under the onslaught. Grandpa stands with the hose gripped tight, his phone forgotten on the floor and his lips pressed into a thin line. “What don’t you understand about keeping this quiet, son?”
“Holy hot hell, what was that?” Wyatt yells.
I swipe the water off my face and rake my wet hair out of my eyes. “My problem.”
“You self-combust? That’s not a problem, that’s impossible!”
I throw my arms wide. “Apparently not.”
Grandpa tosses the hose down and storms over. His chest nearly smashes into Wyatt and he grabs the younger man’s shirtfront. “You value your life?”
“You threatening me, old man?”
“Do you have any doubts?” His fingers curve into a tight fist. “I can clear it up.”
Wyatt looks from me to Grandpa. He’s trying to make sense of what he saw. “He caught fire. Real fire. That’s…it’s…you weren’t honest with us.”
“I was as honest as I could be. Would you have believed me?”
Wyatt shakes his head. “I’m still not sure I saw what I saw.”
“He’s a good kid. He doesn’t need any more trouble. All I want from you is your word you’ll forget what you just saw.”
A long moment passes before Wyatt shakes his head. “I can’t.”
Grandpa pulls back his arm, his fist a solid hammer of meat. “Wrong answer.”
Right Place, Wrong Time
“It’s a dragon, Kera.” Leo cautiously moved to the left for a better view and licked his dry lips.
She tugged on the braided strip of ivy she’d rigged as a leash to keep Blaze’s attention on her instead of Leo. Wound around his jaws and neck, it also kept Blaze from spitting fire whenever he chose.
“’Course,” Leo dragged the word out nervously, “I’ve never seen one up close, or far away…well, not one this big. Faldon had a little one about as mean as a feral cat, but…yeah, from all the manga drawings and video games Jason and I have pored over, that’s a real big dragon.”
“Why are you so surprised? I told you I had a dragon.”
“I don’t know.” Leo folded his arms across his chest and cocked his head for a better look at Blaze. “I guess I was thinking along the lines of a tiny lizard you can buy at the pet store, not a fairy-tale creature that doesn’t exist.”
After all he’d seen, Leo still didn’t believe in what the human world deemed impossible? She tugged on Blaze’s leash when he stretched too close to poor Leo, who quickly jumped back. The dragon huffed, turned away, and stared over Kera’s shoulder at a section of the barrier separating the two realms.
Unlike the official gateway heavily guarded on both sides by men and iron, some areas of the barrier had deteriorated almost completely. The incordium blade Lani had used to slice through the barrier and secretly enter the human realm had damaged those places so badly, Kera didn’t even know how to begin to fix them. Left unguarded, those spots were perfect entry points for any creature to use. It’s how the monster came through, and fearing more would follow, she and Blaze had patrolled the area for most of the morning.
“Well, he exists and he needs looking after.”
“Are you suggesting you want me…oh crap, you are.” Leo’s dark skin turned a sickly tan. “Is he…dangerous?”
Her fingers caressed his knobby head and scratched under one of his loose scales until he purred. “I’d call him mischievous. He has a tiny temper, but if you keep him fed and play with him, he’s perfect.”
“How do you play with a dragon?”
“Hide-and-seek mostly.”
“Yeah,” Leo’s voice dipped. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
He was taking it all fairly well. Then again, she found it difficult to see past his comically stunned expression. “He needs more to eat.”
Leo took a step back, his face mirroring his wariness. “I’m not dinner, am I? Look at me.” He held out his arms and turned in a circle. “Scrawny. Chewing on me would be like chewing on the bones of last week’s dried-up supper.”
Kera ran her hand down Blaze’s bony back and smiled. “Bones are his favorite chew toys. The fresher the better.”
She tried not to smile, but Leo’s horrified expression had her giggling.
“Not funny,” he said, waggling a long finger in her face.
She finally caught her breath. “He’s actually quite affectionate. Tame…mostly. He’s growing fast and I can’t keep up with his appetite. I need to feed him properly.”
Though Leo had relaxed, he still didn’t move any closer to Blaze and leaned against a nearby tree thoughtfully. “Tanner butchered the cows your people fried when they came over to play the other day.”
That Leo could equate the destruction of what Navar and his minions had done to the human realm as play took Kera aback. She still had a hard time understanding many of his odd phrases, but she understood this one. Navar loved killing. To him it had been fun.
“I’m thinking, since Tanner can’t sell the meat—big shock none of his vendors trust him—I could get it cheap, but it’s still going to cost.” He pulled out a crisp twenty and handed it over. “This is all I have.”
“I can try to replicate it—”
“And bring down the FBI on our heads? No, thank you! They go ballistic about that kind of stuff here. I don’t want to end up rotting in some secret jail cell for the rest of my life.” He snatched the money back. “Too bad you’re not a jewelry junkie. We could sell the gold.”
“Gold?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty easy to off-load at this pawn shop I know. The guy doesn’t ask too many questions when something shiny is placed on the table.”
She rubbed her thumb across her bottom lip, concerned with the consequences of what had popped into her mind. “Come,” she told Leo, and tugged on the leash for Blaze to follow.
Leo’s long-legged walk quickly brought him beside her. “Where are we going?”
She needed to concentrate and held her finger to her lips for silence. Sending out her magic, she probed the earth for gold flakes, and found traces of gold in a stream up ahead. As if they were magnetized, the flakes pressed together, slowly building into a bigger nugget.
When they came to the stream, she waded into the middle and plunged her hands into the cold water. Minutes ticked by, but she stood still. Waiting.
The click and clatter of rock hitting rock grew louder and then suddenly stopped. When she drew her hands out of the water, she held a yellow, bony rock. She retreated from the water, using magic to instantly dry her clothes as she went. It was hard for her not to stop and marvel at the accomplishment. The more she flexed her magic, the stronger she seemed to become. The feeling was addicting. Her confidence soared like never before. Kera stopped in front of Leo and presented the rock. “Here.�
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The rock glittered in her hand, but Leo didn’t move to take it. “Gold jewelry, yes. A huge there’s-gold-in-them-there-hills rock? Are you out of your mind? I can’t sell that in town. People would ask questions. Overrun this place.” He stepped closer, the flesh around his lips pinched. “People have been known to kill for half of what you’re holding.”
Her confidence wavered. There was so much she still didn’t understand about the human realm, but she wouldn’t give up because of one slight miscalculation. She knew all sorts of tricks, theoretically, and had done a few using the magic she’d borrowed from her father, but that magic was never consistent. Until now, she’d never had her own powers. It would be interesting to see how far they extended.
She closed her fist and when she opened it, a bright gold necklace sat in a shining heap within the middle of her palm. The world tipped for a brief second, giving her a woozy feeling, but it didn’t stop the grin that split her lips. It had worked better than she thought. She dangled the necklace over his hand, and let it drop. “Better?”
He examined the necklace. “Yeah.” Excitement glimmered from his eyes. “Hey, do you do that all the time, ’cause chicks dig stuff like this, and it’d be totally sweet if you could—”
“No.” He didn’t understand the cost of magic. It drained the body, and if done too much, could kill, and she was still very much a novice.
“Oh.” Disappointment clouded his face. “It was just a thought.”
“Using magic for selfish reasons is frowned upon in my world, but you and I have no choice. We can’t let Blaze suffer for lack of funds.”
“Right, ’cause there’s no personal agenda when it comes to saving your metabolically challenged dragon here.” Leo whipped his hair out of his eyes. “Actually, is it wise to do anything? They were hunted into extinction for a reason.”
Kera gasped.
“You’re right, that was bad of me. Sorry, bro…I mean, Kera. Forget I said anything. It’ll take me, I don’t know, a couple of hours to pawn the necklace and get the meat. I’ll meet you back here,” he said in his low, smooth voice, then paused. “You will be here, right? I’m not into death by dragon meltdown.”