by Chris Cannon
The girl smiled. “Your father will be happy to hear that.”
Wait a minute. “Did you just set me up to see if I’d lose my temper?”
“Yes. Some of us were afraid that you’d lost your connection to who you were. I’m glad to see that’s not true, even if you are going to marry a Westgate.”
“I really wish people would stop mentioning that,” Bryn said. “Well, thanks for delivering the letter. Tell my parents I hope to see them soon.”
The girl nodded and went back to her table. That was weird. Bryn headed out the front door and down the steps of the dining hall. There was no way she could wait to read the letter from her mom, so she walked around the side of the building and stood under a shade tree.
Her heart beat fast as she unfolded the piece of paper.
Dear Bryn,
Your father and I can’t wait to see you. If what we’ve heard is true we should be able to meet with you soon. I’m not sure where we can meet because my father still hasn’t spoken to me, although my mother has responded to my letters. There’s so much we need to discuss. I’m proud of the young woman you’ve become. I’m afraid you’re trapped by choices your father and I made. Please don’t agree to anything you don’t truly want to do.
Too late on that front, but she wouldn’t go back on her word. If Jaxon wanted to bail, she’d be okay with that. Not that he’d ever consider doing that since his loyalty was to his Clan. And after having her heart broken, she wasn’t looking to jump into any sort of romantic relationship, so the frenemies thing she had going with Jaxon suited her just fine…for now.
She glanced back at the letter. If her grandmother or Jaxon came upon this information there would be hell to pay, so she focused on one of her elements, which was fire, and shot flames through her fingertips, burning the note to ash. Now to join her friends.
Clint and Ivy had already shifted into dragon form and were flying overhead. Their black scales gleamed in the sunlight. Bryn closed her eyes and focused her life force, allowing it to grow and expand as her body shifted to what felt like her true form. She stretched, enjoying the warm sensation of the sun on her wings and then launched herself into the air. Pushing down with powerful wing strokes, she gained height, catching up with her friends who were flying figure eights. Nothing compared to the sensation of flying. Bryn looped around in a lazy circle, not trying to fly fast, just basking in the sensation of freedom brought on by the air flowing over her body.
Ivy performed a diving roll, and Bryn followed suit. They played the dragon version of follow the leader. Other dragons joined them in the sky, but kept their distance interacting with their own friends. There was a single Blue dragon flying along the edge of campus; without seeing his face flash across his dragon features Bryn knew it was Jaxon. She couldn’t imagine the pain he must be feeling right now.
Ivy came to tread air near Bryn. “Can you think of anything that might help him?”
“No. And I know Valmont broke my heart, but there’s a chance he and I could become friends again one day. If he’d just vanished from the world…that sense of loss and lack of closure would make me crazy.”
Chapter Five
The next morning the alarm went off in its usual annoying arrhythmia-inducing fashion. Now that she was back to living alone, she had to turn off the alarm in the empty bedroom, too, which was ridiculous. If there was no occupant, the alarm should be disconnected. What did they do for the empty rooms? There had to be a way to turn the blasted things off.
She met Clint and Ivy in the dining hall at their usual table. It took two cups of coffee before she felt capable of stringing words together in a sentence.
Ivy yawned. “I forgot how much I hated those stupid alarm clocks.”
“Me, too.” Bryn checked the time. They’d need to leave for class in fifteen minutes. “How come time flies when you’re eating or being social and it drags when you’re in class?”
“Good question.” Clint slid lower in his chair. “Do you think Mr. Stanton would mind if I napped on my desk?”
“I’m going to go with yes.” Bryn leaned closer to her friends and spoke in a quiet voice. “Do you think the Directorate still has spy cams everywhere?” They’d been installed when tensions had escalated with the rebels during the last school year.
“I’m sure there are,” Ivy said. “But maybe they aren’t watching them as closely.”
“I looked forward to coming back to school like I was coming home.” It was hard to put into words what she was feeling. “But now that I’m here everything feels off-kilter.”
“Like you said in your speech, this is a new year for everyone,” Clint pointed out. “It might take all of us awhile to adjust.”
“Maybe,” Bryn said, “but I swear, it feels like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“The biggest shoe of all has already dropped. Or several big shoes: the attack on campus and the approval of your marriage contract,” Ivy said.
“True. Those were two big whammies…not to mention the whole mess with Valmont.” How could she explain? “I have this feeling the bad stuff isn’t over yet. Like we need to stay on watch.”
…
When they entered Mr. Stanton’s class, the seating chart on the board was comforting until she noticed that she was seated next to Jaxon. Seriously? What was up with that?
Mr. Stanton sat behind his desk, flipping through a booklet like he’d lost the page he was on. Students filtered in. Bryn smiled at Keegan when he waved from across the room. Both of his eyes were green, a Red Dragon trait, so he must have chosen to continue wearing a green contact lens to hide his throwback trait of one brown eye. Octavious and Vivian, the only two Orange students on campus last year were seated nearby with their heads together, whispering about something.
Once everyone had found his or her seat, Mr. Stanton stood. “Welcome back to school. I hope this year will be a little less exciting than last year. It is, however, your senior year which means you have some decisions to make. What do you want to focus your studies on now and in your college years? What do you want to major in? What classes can help you achieve your goals in life?”
“No pressure,” Clint muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.
Several students chuckled, and Mr. Stanton nodded. “Clint is not wrong. It’s a lot of pressure to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life when you’re seventeen or eighteen. Some of you have family businesses you wish to become a part of. Others are striking out into new areas. Just know that the choices you make now will affect your future, but very few choices can ruin your future. So if you start down a path and decide it’s not for you, it’s okay to change course. No single decision will make or break you. This year is all about figuring out who you are and what you want.”
That sounded good in theory, but Bryn felt like she had very little choice in the way her life was going.
“In the past, I’ve been assigned as counselor for the Green Clan. This year I’ve been asked to work with all of you, so we are going to spend some time discussing what your options are and what course of curriculum you will need to take to achieve your goals.”
He grabbed a stack of booklets and handed some to the first student in every row, who dutifully passed them back. “In the past, we’d all been defined by our Clans. Blues were the elite lawyers and lawmakers. Reds were the middle-class workers who kept our businesses running. Greens were the scientists, medics, and professors. Blacks were the artists and musicians. Oranges were the agriculturalists. No one strayed from the paths laid out for them. Today, what I’d like you to do is study all your options. Put a star next to anything that catches your eye, whether it’s a major that someone in your Clan typically aspires to or not. Of course, the Directorate will have to approve what areas of study students will be allowed to pursue. Having more hybrids on campus could open doors for everyone, allowing dragons more choice in their professions.”
Wow. That was something Zavien had talk
ed about…something that Jaxon swore the Directorate would never allow. How would Ferrin and other rabid traditionalists handle this? They weren’t exactly good with change.
Bryn read through the information about Quintessential Medicine, which was the act of healing others with your life force. She’d already healed several people and while it could be terrifying, it was also fulfilling. It made her feel like she served a purpose in this world, like she could contribute to the greater good.
Since there was no I-want-to-be-speaker-for-the-Directorate section in the booklet, Bryn tried to see what Jaxon was looking at. Law? He wanted to be a lawyer? That made sense. He did love to quote Directorate law or maybe he hoped to change some of the outdated laws. How would his father feel about that?
Jaxon caught her looking at him. “What? Did you think I’d aspire to be a topiary artist like Ivy?”
“Only the coolest people can be plant whisperers,” Clint said in a slightly defensive tone.
Jaxon didn’t respond. He flipped through several more pages and frowned. “Did you notice what’s not in here?”
Bryn checked the table of contents. She scanned down what seemed like a fairly inclusive list of professions. “What’s missing?”
“Librarians,” Jaxon said. “Historians, journalists…anyone who documents and archives history.”
“That’s weird.” Curious, Bryn raised her hand, and Mr. Stanton came to her desk. “Why aren’t historians and librarians listed?”
“I was wondering that myself,” Mr. Stanton said. “We’ll always need individuals to keep track of and report on important events and archive our history.”
“Does that mean that the Directorate wants to take over doing that?” Bryn asked.
“It was probably just an oversight by whoever designed the booklets,” Mr. Stanton said.
Right. What were the odds that he was correct, and not that the Directorate wanted to control how information was reported and recorded?
When class ended, Bryn was excited to attend her Beginning Quintessential Medicine class. It was the first class that would lead toward her goal of becoming a Medic.
Please don’t let it be boring.
Half a dozen other students, all of them from the Green clan, were already in the room. That wasn’t unusual since Greens, who were recognized as the smartest Clan, had always been Medics and professors.
Medic Williams who had healed Bryn on more than one occasion, smiled at them from the front of the room. “I know you’re all excited to start healing, but there will also be reading assignments and tests.”
Great.
“I’m going to pass out a basic medical kit.” Medic Williams walked to each of their desks and deposited a small green-zippered case. “Go ahead and open it.”
Was this just going to be a typical first aid kit? Bryn unzipped the case. A pair of silver scissors, Band-Aids, and what looked like different types of healing salves and some pain killers were organized on one side. The other side contained several foil plastic packets of what appeared to be licorice, chocolate, and peppermint.
“Over time, you can replace the candy with whatever you want, but you should always carry extra calories with you. If you run out of energy when you’re trying to heal a patient, you could both suffer injury or death.”
Totally valid reason for carrying chocolate with me at all times.
“As you know, Quintessence is the essence of all things. It’s our life force. You can manipulate your life force to heal or to alter something about yourself.” Medic Williams held out her hand and her fingernails changed from pink to red. “I’m sure some of you can already do this, but we’re going to practice on ourselves today. You need to be able to focus your life force at will.” She held her hand up again and her nails shifted through a rainbow of colors. “Let’s get started.”
Bryn gathered her life force in her chest and then focused on her nails. She changed them from red to a deep purple. Medic Williams walked around the room checking on their progress. She nodded at Bryn and checked the rest of the class.
“Okay, now that I know you can focus your Quintessence, we are going to go over some ground rules. Anyone who injures their friends, even with their permission to practice healing, will be kicked out of the program. The only person you will practice on is yourself and adult volunteers who I will bring to the classroom.”
Who would ask their friends to do that? The irritated expression of some of her classmates told her that her opinion might not be the popular one. Greens were known for being clinical, but she couldn’t picture Garrett purposefully injuring someone just to test his skill.
“You’ve healed real injuries, haven’t you?” a girl next to Bryn asked.
“Yes.” She wasn’t about to go into gory details.
“You’re lucky.”
Bryn blinked. “No. I’m the opposite of lucky. Seeing people I care about wounded and bleeding hardly makes me lucky.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “Of course not. I meant that you are one of the few who’s been able to practice this skill. I wouldn’t wish injury on anyone.”
The girl’s social skills could use some work, but Bryn would like to have a friend in class, so she let it slide. “Right. Sorry I got defensive. I’m Bryn.”
“It’s amusing that you think you need to introduce yourself. I’m Janelle.” The girl smiled. “Can I show you a trick I’ve been working on?”
“Sure.”
Janelle’s dark hair lightened shade by shade all the way to white and then shifted to dark brown again.
“That is so cool,” Bryn said.
“Thank you. I thought it was fun.” She grinned like she’d done something she wasn’t supposed to. “Greens don’t usually do things just for fun, so no one else has appreciated it.”
“I find fun is an important part of life,” Bryn said. “I like to use Quintessence instead of makeup.”
“You can do that?” Janelle asked. “Show me how.”
“I usually need a mirror,” Bryn said.
“Use one of the foil pouches in your kit,” Janelle suggested.
“Good idea.” Bryn held up one of the foil pouches and focused on her lips. She turned her natural pink color to a coral red. “Just focus on the color you want. I’ve used it for blush, too.”
“Awesome.” Janelle held up her own foil pouch and looked at her reflection, changing her lips to a brick red. “Greens don’t normally bother with makeup, but I like it.”
“That color looks great on you.” With her dark complexion and chestnut-colored eyes, Janelle was beautiful without makeup. But the deep color on her lips made her look amazing.
“That’s not what your skills are for,” a girl next to Janelle said.
“If Medic Williams can do her nails, I can play with lip color,” Janelle said.
“I’ve always wondered if I could change someone else’s coloring,” Bryn said. “Like if a certain someone annoys me, can I shift his hair color to electric yellow?”
“That would be fun to try,” Janelle said. “I guess it depends on how annoying the other person is being.” She nodded toward the girl who’d commented on the lip color.
Bryn laughed. Janelle was pretty cool.
Chapter Six
After classes were finished for the day, Bryn returned to her room. Over the summer, at her grandparents’ estate, she’d adjusted to living in a room by herself. Here back at school, she missed having someone to hang out with in the evenings. Valmont had always been there for her. The pain over his defection had turned into a dull ache, but she missed having someone around. She could call Clint and Ivy, but she’d see them for dinner. Maybe it was time to broaden her circle of friends. Could she talk to Zavien? Part of her wanted to, but she wasn’t sure they could go back to being friends. And Jaxon would have an apocalyptic fit if she started hanging out with an ex-boyfriend who’d been betrothed to one of the key players of the Rebels.
Janelle had been fun, and it wouldn’t hu
rt to have someone she could study with. Did it ever become less complicated? When you were a little kid the only thing that mattered was that you both liked the same cookies or cartoons. The older you became the harder it seemed to make friends.
It’s not like she could call Janelle and ask her to hang out. They’d just met today, and she didn’t want to look like a creeper. So…where did that leave her?
Maybe she’d go to the library and check out one of the Legends books which told stories of times when dragons were allowed to fall in love by instinct instead of being forced into arranged marriages. That thought gave her pleasure for about thirty seconds and then she realized that the books might not seem as entertaining to her as they once had now that she was involved in her own debacle of an arranged marriage. After witnessing the unstable hybrids who had attacked campus, the books didn’t seem so romantic, either. Maybe Miss Enid could suggest something else.
Rather than walking down the stairs and dealing with the social niceties of nodding and smiling at the other Blue students in her dorm, which she didn’t feel like doing, Bryn decided to fly down. She went through the window which led to her terrace. Standing outside, she took a deep breath of the fresh fall air. There was a hint of wood smoke in the wind, like someone had started a fire, or blasted someone with a fireball.
She shifted with ease to her dragon form and then dove off the terrace into the evening sky. Flying was the best. The cool evening air felt like a caress. Bryn aimed for the green space in front of the library and came in slow. She treaded air for a moment and then tucked her wings, dropping to the ground. Not a bad landing. She shifted and entered the library.
The librarian sat behind the front desk, typing on her computer. When she looked up and saw Bryn, she frowned. What the heck? Miss Enid had always been someone she could count on as a confidant and she’d thought of her as a friend.