Phoenix

by Finley Aaron

  I bet they’re beautiful.

  “Okay, you saw it. Can we go back to the cabin now?” Jala asks.

  I’m pressed against a boulder as big as a car, my knuckles white with excitement as I grip the cold rock, watching, studying the castle windows for any sign of movement, any indication of whether he might be home and what part of the house he may be in.

  “I want to see him,” I whisper, willing him to appear. Come on, Ion. Walk in front of a window. Look outside. I just want to catch a glimpse of you. It’s been a year. Just a glimpse.

  “You know this guy is dangerous, right?” Jala leans against the boulder, her back to the castle, her arms crossed over her chest. “I mean, he’s a dragon, for one thing.”

  “Yes, he’s a dragon, and so am I,” I remind her. “But has he ever done anything to you, specifically, to make you think he’s dangerous?”

  “He almost killed your father.”

  “I know.” I’m sick of hearing about it. “But that was a long time ago, and they were fighting. I want to know—has he ever done anything to you. Any violence? Threats?”

  Jala makes a grumbling noise. “He’s always very polite, but he has these looks, you know? These intense looks, with his eyes. You just know he’s dangerous. He could turn into a dragon at any moment.”

  “Are you scared of him?”

  “I’m there for a reason, you know. My grandfather and I, we do his back adjustments and massages. He has a lot of tension. He needs us.”

  “But are you scared of him?”

  “I respect him. I respect that he’s a dragon. But I’m not his arch-enemy, or whatever your family is. I’m not there to trick him.” She uncrosses her arms and gestures to me.

  “I’m not going to trick him. I’m just going to win his affections. I’m not a threat to him.”

  Jala crosses her arms again. “Just what, exactly, are you planning to do?”

  “When you go in tomorrow for his chiropractic massage appointment, I’ll go with you. We’ll explain that I’m the substitute, that I’m going to learn how to do his adjustments since your grandfather is getting old and you want to go home and visit your family from time to time. It makes perfect sense. It’s a great cover.”

  “And then?”

  “And then I learn how to fix his back.” I stop studying the lifeless castle long enough to look at Jala and see if she’s getting any of this. “I’m a dragon. I know what the issue is with our backs, where our wings grow out. The bones get out of joint sometimes. My dad has the same problem. My mom fixes it by plowing her elbow into his back like a pile driver.”

  “Ion’s not really the pile driver type.”

  “I know. But I can fix his back for him.”

  “And?”

  “And one thing will lead to another.” I go back to studying the castle.

  “I’ve been fixing his back for years,” Jala reminds me. “One thing has never led to another.”

  “You’re not a dragon. I am.”

  “You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?” A note of realization hits Jala’s voice.

  Caught.

  “I know exactly what I’m doing.” I try to sound like I know what I’m talking about, never mind that I’ve only ever been on a few dates, and most of those were group things with a bunch of friends, out to dances or couples tennis, or whatever. And never with a dragon. “I’m trying to save my species from extinction by finding a mate.”

  “You don’t know what you’re doing.” This time, the tone in Jala’s voice is conclusive. She’s made up her mind. “Have you ever even kissed a guy?”

  “Ion is a dragon.”

  “Not relevant. You have no idea what you’re getting into.”

  “Shh! He’s there! That window, third turret from the left, two down from the roof.”

  “Probably where he keeps his prisoners. You know, the ones who show up to seduce him.” Jala makes a face, but looks where I’m pointing.

  “Shh!” I insist again, not that he could possibly hear us, but just because I don’t need her arguing with me when I’m trying to focus. He’s there. Right inside that castle turret. So close I could see him if he would just look outside.

  The curtains move—just those curtains, not any others, so it’s not as though there’s a surprise breeze blowing them, unless that window is the only one open. But why would it be open unless someone opened it? Either way, there is almost certainly something on the other side of the window. As a dragon, I have super-sharp vision, even when I’m in human form. But I can’t see through curtains.

  Fingers grip the fabric and move it to the side. Another hand appears, this one working the window latch, and I realize what looked like a big arched window from this distance, is actually a casement door, with a balcony.

  The glass pane swings outward.

  A man steps out.

  Ion.

  He’s even more handsome than I remembered him. His dark hair hangs loose nearly to his shoulders, and his goatee is trimmed in a crisp anchor shape, which accents his jawline. He is tall, his slim waist emphasized by the cut of his coat, a classic smoking jacket like out of an old movie. He is so classy, so sophisticated.

  Positively dreamy.

  “Get down!” Jala whispers and tugs on my arm.

  “He can’t see me.” I’m staring, yes, peering past this big rock, trying desperately to see his eyes. I want to know what color they are, exactly.

  He casts a sweeping glance across the valley. We’re probably a mile from him, but with my dragon vision, I can see him almost as though I’m looking through a pair of binoculars. His gaze comes to rest in our direction, and I finally see his eyes.

  Pale, pale green. Almost a silvery green. Like the mountains, and the northern lights, like the haze of dawn and new things.

  Jala’s voice cuts off my thoughts. “If you can see him, he can see you. He’s a dragon, too, remember? Get down.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  I duck, pressing my back to the rock, trying to catch my breath.

  Why do I feel winded?

  Did he see me? Is that why he was looking this way? For the first time, I wonder what my hair looks like, and wish maybe I’d bothered with makeup. I’m not even wearing my contacts, so my crazy magenta-violet dragon eyes were probably glowing all jewel-like through the woods at him.

  “Oh, no! Do you think he saw me?” I cover my face with my hands, though it’s pitifully too late and pointless now that I’m behind the boulder. “Is he still there?”

  Jala raises up in a crouch and peeks over the boulder. “I can’t tell. You’re the one with the amazing dragon vision.”

  I flip around and peek over the boulder. “He’s gone. The window’s closed. I don’t think he saw me. If he saw me, wouldn’t he still be standing there looking to see if I peek back out at him?”

  “Unless he went back in so he can come out here and track you down.”

  I stare at the castle, studying the rest of the windows. “I don’t see any other signs of movement. Why did he even come to the window, do you think?”

  “Maybe he sensed he was being spied on.”

  “Can he sense that?”

  “How would I know? You’re the dragon.”

  “Has he ever said anything that would indicate he can sense things like that? I don’t know that many dragons, mostly just the ones I’m related to. Who knows if some of the others have special powers, or extra senses, or whatever?” I slump back down into a seated position, with my back to the boulder. I miss my sweater.

  “He doesn’t really talk to me.” Jala slumps beside me. “Do you think he has powers or extra senses?”

  “I don’t know.” I weigh whether I should tell her what I learned about him. Since I still need to convince her to help me, maybe it’s best that I let her in on what I gleaned from my mother and grandfather. “After last summer, I wanted to find out everything I could about Ion—to find out if I’d be crazy to come back out here.”

  “
You are crazy.”

  “No, seriously, I learned some things.” I raise back up and peek over the boulder. Still no sign of life from the castle. “Maybe we should head back to the cabin. It’s going to be dark out in a few hours.”

  “Walking?”

  “I don’t dare fly as a dragon, not if there’s any chance he saw me.” I rise and brush the dirt off my skirt before picking my way back toward the spy cabin. It’s a couple of miles away over some fairly rugged terrain, and I’m barefoot from being in dragon form. Fortunately the ground here is mostly pine needles, which aren’t too prickly for my calloused feet. I grew up walking barefoot in mountains just as rugged as these.

  “What did you find out?”

  “For one thing, I quizzed my mom. You know how, years ago after she finished at boarding school, before she even knew she was a dragon, she met Ion and he went with her part of the way back to the village, right?”

  “I’d heard something about that, but I thought he was working as a spy for Eudora, or trying to kidnap your mom away from your dad, or something.”

  “See, that’s just the thing. Nobody knows what Ion’s motive was, or who he was working for, or why he was there.”

  “But didn’t he lead your mom into danger?”

  “I asked my mom about that.” In fact, I quizzed her so much she got suspicious, and wouldn’t tell me anything more after that, but Jala doesn’t need to know that part. I learned several things before my mom went mum. “Some of his actions, what he did and what he said, almost make it seem like he thought he was helping her.”

  “Helping her?” Jala’s tone says she doesn’t agree at all. “I was a little kid back when all that happened, but people talked about it for years, and from what I heard, Ion led her to the yagi. Like he handed her over to be attacked.”

  “But she was never hurt,” I remind Jala. “Which makes me think maybe Ion knew what he was doing, that he had some other motive in mind. She told me she didn’t feel truly afraid of him. And she was never seriously injured.”

  “She was never injured because your father protected her. And the fact that she didn’t feel afraid only makes Ion all the more dangerous. It’s like he’s able to quiet your instinct for self-preservation. He’s able to undermine your defenses. He’s the worst kind of dangerous.”

  “But he’s never hurt you, either,” I remind Jala.

  She grumbles as we pick our way through the woods back toward the cabin. “Why are you so determined to do this? Why? You have the rest of your life to find some other dragon. You’re going to live for years and years, practically forever. Why do I have to introduce you to Ion this summer?”

  Much as I suspect Jala may be weakening, and might even give in and help me after all, I keep any note of victory out of my voice for fear she’ll backtrack at the slightest hint of it. “I don’t want to meet some other dragon. I want to meet Ion. And if I’m going to meet Ion, there’s no advantage to waiting around. I’ve already waited another year. Besides, Wren laid an egg. My brother Ram’s wife, Nia, laid an egg, too. I want my children to be close in age to their cousins, so they can grow up together.”

  “That’s overrated.” Jala blows out a sardonic huff.

  “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any cousins. You were the closest thing I ever had to a cousin, but you were just a friend, and when your real cousins were around, I didn’t get to play with you. I want that for my kids—family. Real family. This is my chance to give that to them.”

  My words seem to have chastened Jala. “It’s dangerous,” she reminds me, coming back full circle to her initial argument—a clear sign she’s run out of protests.

  “I will take every possible precaution. And if it becomes clear that Ion will not be a good match for me, or if it seems like I’m in imminent danger, I’ll give up on this plan and never mention it again. But I’ve just got to try. I can get out at the first sign of trouble, but I’ve got to at least meet him. Will you help me? Please?”

  Jala shakes her head no emphatically, but instead of saying no, she says, “I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this. If anything happens to you, your parents are going—”

  “Nothing’s going to happen to me.” I cut off her dire predictions before she can put them into words. “Nothing bad, anyway. Oh, thank you, Jala. You won’t regret it. Everything is going to work out just fine. You’ll see.”

  *

  “You’re not even bringing swords?”

  “I’m going to give Ion a chiropractic massage. Why would I bring swords?”

  “To defend yourself! He’s dangerous!” Jala blocks the cabin door.

  “He’s a dragon. I’m a dragon. There’s not anything he can do to me that I can’t do to him. If I brought swords, that would destroy my cover. I’ll be fine.”

  Jala steps reluctantly away from the door, but she doesn’t look happy. “You don’t know what he’s capable of.”

  “Neither do you.”

  “True. But at least I know enough to be afraid of the possibilities.”

  Jala sulks most of the way to Ion’s castle. We hike through the woods—once again, we don’t dare fly. I’m wearing what I hope looks reasonably practical: jeans, just like Jala. Comfortable sneakers, mostly because hiking barefoot last night wasn’t kind to my feet, and also hindered my pace. And a v-necked, short-sleeved shirt in a magenta-violet sort of color that would match my eyes if I didn’t have color-dulling contacts in them.

  I don’t want Ion to know who I am. Not until he’s fallen in love with me, anyway—or enough in love with me that there’s no going back.

  Normally, I suppose it would be helpful for him to know I’m a dragon. He’s probably more likely to see me as a potential mate if he knows up front we’re the same species.

  Normally.

  But there’s nothing normal about being a dragon, and there are so few of us left on this planet that if he knew I was a dragon up front, he’d figure out easily who my parents are (fortunately, I tend to look more like my dad than my mom. Except my dad has a huge bushy beard, and obviously I don’t. But since Ion has mostly only known my dad with a beard, he hopefully won’t catch the resemblance).

  And of course, the reason Ion can’t know who my parents are, is that whole old arch-enemy bit, and who knows what kinds of grudges and vows for vengeance he might hold against us, and the part about Eudora wanting to kill us all off.

  Speaking of Eudora, she lives out here, in a castle not many miles from Ion’s castle. Yet another reason why I shouldn’t be flying around like a dragon—because Eudora wants to kill us all off, or possibly just control us, depending on if you believe my little brother’s theories or not.

  Also Eudora’s yagi are probably around here somewhere, and since I don’t have swords with me I should try to avoid them, too, since yagi can smell dragons and track them down. Although, worst case scenario, I can always change into a dragon to escape from them (not that I want to do that if I can help it, since it would pretty much give away that I’m here and I’m a dragon, and all that).

  I think Jala’s nervous, because she doesn’t talk much, and before long, the castle looms large in front of us.

  It is so much bigger up close. And darker. And kind of…imposing.

  Not that I’m scared, not at all. It’s a beautiful castle. It just didn’t seem quite so real from far away. More like an illustration in a book of fairy tales.

  “What time is he expecting us?” I ask again, even though Jala’s already told me several times her appointment to give Ion an in-home chiropractic massage is scheduled for three in the afternoon. I pull out my phone and check the time. We’re a couple of minutes early.

  “Three,” Jala answers. “I usually try to be early, because when I’m late—”

  “He gets angry?” I fill in as Jala seems to search for the right word.

  “No. Never angry. He’s only ever been nice about it. It’s almost worse.”

  “How is it worse?” We’re walking up the wide stone
steps to the front door, which is actually a mammoth set of double doors each a couple of stories tall.

  “Because of who he is. And why should he be nice to me?” Jala sounds a little breathless. “Okay. I got this. You stand right there, behind me, and a little to the side.”

  I take my position in the indicated spot, where I’ll be visible, but still not the first person he sees. No trickery here. “Okay?”

  Jala shakes her head no, like she still can’t believe she’s doing this, and then reaches for the brass door knocker, which is a sort of gargoyle figure. I can’t decide if the figure looks cheerful or menacing.

  This could so easily go either way.

  The door opens and suddenly I’m looking at Ion. He’s so much bigger in real life. And his eyes—those crazy, silvery green eyes—are looking directly at me. He hasn’t even bothered with contacts or sunglasses or anything, probably because he wasn’t expecting anything new—just Jala, and she knows who he is.

  His nostrils flare slightly, but he turns a pleasant smile to Jala, and suddenly I know exactly what she means about how terrifying it is when he’s being perfectly pleasant.

  “What is this, Jala?”

  “Sorry, I was going to text, you, but I thought it would be easier to explain in person,” Jala hastily recites her practiced explanation.

  The real reason we didn’t warn Ion in advance, is that we didn’t want him to turn us down before I even got a chance to see him.

  Wait a minute, am I still breathing? I totally need to remember to breathe. In. Out. I can do this.

  “…and since my grandfather is getting old, and I’d like to return home to visit family, it just made sense to invite my friend Vivica to fill in.”

  “Vivica?” Ion raises a questioning eyebrow my way.

  Of course, Vivica. Sure, why not? I can’t very well be Zilpha, since it’s entirely possible Ion might have heard the names of my parents’ three daughters, and Zilpha is exceedingly distinctive. So I’m Vivica…the vixen.