Burning Bright

by Chris Cannon

  “Yes.” For several reasons. Not having to live in a house with Ferrin would be the best present ever. Plus knowing that her grandmother had put so much effort and care into something that had sat idle all these years made Bryn’s heart hurt.

  “Let’s go.” Her grandmother led her down to the hairpin drive where a car waited for them. She instructed the driver where to go. Five minutes of twists and turns through the forest and Bryn had no idea how far they’d traveled in a straight line when they came upon a house that looked like it belonged someplace sunny. The stone was the color of sand. There were columns along a massive front porch that led to a front door. The structure was at least three stories high and had wings that jutted out diagonally.

  “It’s beautiful,” Bryn said. “And you designed it?”

  “I did.”

  “Can we go inside?”

  Rather than answer, her grandmother exited the vehicle. Bryn followed her to the front door, which her grandmother opened with a key. Since there were no curtains on the windows enough natural light filtered in so that Bryn could see the amazing spiral design of the foyer floor. Unlike Sinclair Estate, everything in this house was made of light stone, mixed with off-white and light gray. Veins of silver ran through the floor and the walls.

  “It’s amazing. It’s so light and happy.”

  “I’d hoped it would help your mother acclimate to her new situation.”

  Bryn looked at her grandmother. “You knew how disagreeable Ferrin was and you were trying to help by designing the most pleasant house possible.”

  Her grandmother nodded.

  The depth of what her grandmother did hit home. “I can’t imagine how hurt you were…and I’m so sorry. I hope I can make up for some of what she did.”

  “You have, and I think you will,” her grandmother said. “It means a great deal to me that you understand and appreciate this house. I hope Jaxon agrees to move here.”

  Bryn laughed. “This is where I’m going to live, so he better plan on joining me.”

  “I considered giving this to you as your Christmas present this year as a surprise but Ephram would be furious if I didn’t tell him about it beforehand, and Ferrin might be insulted if he was caught unaware.”

  “The part about insulting Ferrin sounds good,” Bryn said. Should she mention something about how her mom had made the right decision? Even though she felt her mom was in the right, because she wouldn’t exist if things hadn’t worked out this way, she didn’t want to offend her grandmother.

  “Something you wanted to say?” her grandmother asked.

  Crap. She needed to think of something else fast. “It’s just weird to be thinking about marriage and moving into a house. I’m in my last year of high school and I have at least four years of college in front of me to become a Medic.” A strange thought occurred. “No one has ever mentioned when I’m supposed to get married. I’m guessing after college.”

  Her grandmother nodded. “Most dragons marry after they finish their degrees, though some marry before.”

  “We’ll be going with the after plan,” Bryn said.

  “That will give us plenty of time to finish your new home,” her grandmother said.

  Bryn glanced around. “It’s lovely.”

  “I’m so glad you like it.” Her grandmother blinked and looked away. “Your mother… she never noticed or recognized the things I tried to do to make her life easier.”

  Damn. Damn. Damn. She needed to say something. “I’m sorry for the pain she caused you, but I wouldn’t be here if she hadn’t abandoned ship. And I do see all the nice things you’ve done to help me acclimate to my new life and to the idea of marrying Jaxon and I really do appreciate it.”

  “Thank you,” her grandmother said. “Now why don’t we go home and look through some decorating magazines and I’ll take you back to the Institute after dinner.”

  “I’d like that.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Bryn had just made it back to her room and changed into her yoga pants and a sweatshirt when someone knocked on her door.

  “Who is it?” Bryn asked, even though there weren’t that many people who’d be dropping by on a Sunday evening.

  “It’s me.” Jaxon’s voice came through the door.

  Bryn opened the door and said, “Maybe we should develop a secret knock so I’ll know it’s you.”

  Jaxon walked in and headed for the library table. “When is it not me?” he asked as he pulled out a chair. “Clint and Ivy arrive by the terrace window. Who else knocks on your door?”

  “Other people visit me,” Bryn protested because he made it sound like she had no friends.

  “Of course they do,” he said like he didn’t believe her. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

  Crap. Did she really want to talk about the whole friendship situation? It might be best just to let this situation play out. If she didn’t say anything what other reason could she give for asking him to come over and talk?

  “Okay. This is going to sound strange,” she said. “And you can’t mention it to anyone…especially your parents.”

  Jaxon narrowed his eyes. “How scary is this confession going to be?”

  “It’s not a confession.” Bryn laughed. “It’s just something that I am supposed to be keeping secret but since it directly affects you, I wanted to let you know.”

  “Fine. I’ll keep whatever it is to myself.”

  “Good.” She sat across from him. “My grandmother, who has excellent taste and is an amazing interior designer, may have started building us an estate.”

  “Excuse me?” He leaned forward.

  Not the response she’d hoped for. “If you remember correctly, your mother expected us to move in with her while our estate was being built. My grandmother loves to design things, and I have no desire to live at Westgate Estate. The good news is, nothing is definite yet as far as the interior goes, so you can still have input. Although I will veto any large W’s that you might plan on sprinkling about the house.”

  Gobsmacked is the only word that fit the expression on Jaxon’s face.

  “I’ll just wait until you can form coherent sentences,” she said.

  “I’ve put zero thought into where we’ll live or what type of house we’ll have,” he said. “That’s years away.”

  “Four years,” Bryn said. “At least that’s what my grandmother said.”

  “Right. After we graduate from college…that’s when we’d marry and move in together…into a house your grandmother decided to build for us. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

  “Nothing about my life falls into the normal range,” Bryn said. “Telling you about this seems strange but keeping it from you seemed less than honest.”

  He nodded. “I appreciate that you shared the information rather than keeping it from me, but I’m not prepared to deal with that level of reality. Your grandmother does have impeccable taste. The only W’s I’ll require are on the front gates. That is non-negotiable.”

  “I can live with that.” The monogrammed silverware she would bury in a storage closet somewhere, never to be seen again.

  He eyed her suspiciously. “Do you have any other disturbing news you’d like to share, or are we done?”

  “We’re done.”

  “I’m going to pretend we never had this conversation.” He stood and exited her room.

  She locked the door behind him. Should she have mentioned the friend issue? Maybe, but it could have been so awkward. This way he wouldn’t be mad at Christmas if her grandmother did give her the house as a present. The idea made her laugh. A house, actually a ginormous estate with more rooms than any sane person would ever need, might be given to her as a gift. Her life was bizarre.

  …

  The dining hall was noisier than normal for breakfast on a Monday. Bryn frowned as she stirred sugar into her coffee. “Why is everyone so chatty this morning?”

  “Once again,” Clint said, “you are out of the loop.
”

  “Of course I am.” She sipped her coffee, assuming either he or Ivy would fill her in.

  “Rumors about evil Silver dragon-pires have gone mainstream,” Ivy said. “And everyone is freaking out.”

  “Understandable, but how did people hear about them?” Bryn asked.

  Ivy and Clint exchanged a glance. “Well…a college student was found last night after curfew. He was disoriented and feverish, so the guards took him to the Medics rather than throwing him into one of those lovely cells under the library.”

  “Thank goodness,” Bryn said. “With the way things have been going around here, I’m surprised they didn’t arrest him for loitering.”

  “Apparently, he’d volunteered to help track down any suspicious characters on campus,” Ivy said. “And he ran into more trouble than he could handle.”

  A feeling of unease brushed across the back of Bryn’s neck like a chill breeze. “Was it Zavien?”

  “How’d you guess?” Clint asked.

  She didn’t want to mention that she’d known of his involvement and not shared, so she improvised. “After his involvement with Nola, it sounds like something he’d do to show whose side he’s on.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” Ivy said. “But there’s more to the story. Supposedly, he was wearing a wire, but when they found him the recording equipment was gone.”

  “So whoever fed on him figured it out and took the recordings,” Bryn said.

  “That’s the general theory,” Clint said. “I’m surprised they didn’t order us all to stay in our dorms today.”

  “The dragon-pire could be anyone or several anyones so there’s no telling where you’d be safe. I guess the moral of the story is don’t go anywhere alone,” Ivy said. “And speaking of going places, how did lunch with your mother and grandmother go?”

  Bryn slumped in her seat. “About as good as it could.” She told them about her grandmother’s announcement that she’d never forgive her daughter for what she’d done. “I feel like I’m caught in the middle of this surreal argument no one can win.”

  “What your parents did was incredibly brave,” Ivy said. “Abandoning their entire way of life for love.”

  “Although karma does seem to be kicking you in the ass by tangling your life up with Jaxon’s,” Clint added.

  “Did you talk things out with him yesterday?” Ivy asked.

  “No. After lunch with my mother and grandmother it didn’t seem like such a big deal.” Plus she didn’t want to seem desperate. “I figure my relationship with Jaxon will change and evolve over time. Asking him to define it will just make the whole thing more awkward.”

  “And it seems plenty awkward already,” Clint said.

  “Thanks for pointing that out.”

  In Advanced Elemental Science, Mr. Stanton hadn’t bothered with a seating chart, which was unusual. Bryn sat next to Clint and Ivy. Jaxon sat a few seats away.

  “Class, I need your full attention. I’m sure you heard that the guards found a disoriented student and escorted him to the Medics for treatment. It has been determined that someone drugged him and then siphoned off his Quintessence. While I have heard the term dragon-pire thrown around campus, there is no such thing. In the past there were cult members who attempted to feed off all the clans in order to obtain their breath weapons. Doing this supposedly made them more powerful overall and had the side effect of turning their eyes and hair silver which is why they were called Silvers. Given their level of mastery over Quintessence, they would then alter their hair and eye color to blend in with the general population.”

  “Dragon-pire seems more accurate,” Clint said.

  “It’s also more inflammatory. And it implies some undead villain from a movie who converts people into children of the night. I don’t know who coined the phrase, but whoever it was”—Mr. Stanton eyeballed Clint like he knew the truth—“should stop using the term.”

  “Not to be disrespectful,” Jaxon said, “but what we call them doesn’t really matter. What matters is finding them and stopping them.”

  “Agreed, and a lot of people are working toward that end. For now, keep in mind that the sole reason someone is doing this could be to cause friction between the Clans and the Hybrids. Don’t jump to any conclusions about who is behind this. And… It would be best if students didn’t travel anywhere alone.”

  After their last class, Clint and Ivy went to Bryn’s dorm room to hang out and do homework, which meant that Bryn and Ivy did homework while Clint built card houses.

  “Is it cheating if I push the first level of cards down into the carpet a bit?” Clint asked as he slid the card back and forth, embedding it in the carpet fiber.

  “That’s how my dad always started,” Bryn said. She finished writing a five-paragraph essay and then set her pen down.

  “Mr. Stanton was none too happy about the whole dragon-pire name,” Clint said. “And he seems to know I started it.”

  “You do have that special skill set,” Bryn said. “Annoying people far and wide.”

  “It’s a gift,” Clint said.

  “In theory, any dragon could siphon Quintessence from another dragon,” Ivy said. “I can’t decide which would be better. The Silver cult reviving, or crazy dragons who want us to think the cult has revived to make us distrust hybrids.”

  “If it’s just someone wanting to disturb the fragile peace,” Bryn said, “there are a lot of easier ways to do that.”

  “Do you think someone could be doing it to create a distraction?” Ivy asked.

  “Maybe,” Bryn said. “But why? What activity are they trying to keep hidden?”

  “Who knows,” Clint said. “But they managed to shut down the campus for an entire day. If they were searching for something like more of those evil tyrant crowns or a secret doorway leading to a hidden treasure, they would have been able to explore the campus at will.”

  “That’s an interesting idea,” Bryn said.

  A knock sounded on her door. Since both her friends were present, she said, “Jaxon, is that you?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  She stood and opened the door. He was wearing a smirk which usually accompanied some mandate from his mother and her grandmother. She waved him into the room. “What joyous news are you here to share?”

  “Apparently, we’re having a pre-holiday celebration at your grandparents’ house.”

  “We? Who’s we?” Because she was okay with hanging around Jaxon and Lillith, but there was only so much time she could spend in Ferrin’s company.

  “My family, including Asher, and your family, minus your father.”

  It took her a moment to process what he’d said. “So my mother is supposed to mingle with your father?”

  “I thought you’d be more upset that your dad wasn’t included,” Jaxon said.

  Bryn laughed. “Inviting my father to spend time around your father would result in bloodshed, so that part doesn’t surprise me. And I knew my mom wouldn’t be invited to the Christmas ball, but I didn’t expect this. Whose idea was it?”

  “It may have been my mother’s. I think she’s feeling overly maternal and wants to make sure that your mother has a chance to spend part of the holidays with you.”

  “That’s sweet,” Ivy said.

  “And a bit twisted,” Clint added.

  Jaxon shoved his hands in his front pockets. “I have no answers. I’m just delivering the news.”

  There was something he wasn’t telling her. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

  “We’re supposed to exchange gifts,” Jaxon said.

  “All of us?”

  “No. You and I are supposed to show how we’re the perfect couple by exchanging the perfect gifts.”

  “Says who?” Bryn asked.

  “Does it matter? Each couple is supposed to exchange gifts.”

  “Which means my mom will be left out of the loop, which is kind of bullshit.”

  “That may be the point,” Jaxon said.
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  “So you’re inviting Bryn’s mom to a party so that she can be with Bryn during the holidays, but also so you can point out that she doesn’t fit with the group,” Clint said. “Or am I misreading the situation?”

  “You’re reading it correctly,” Jaxon said.

  “This sucks,” Bryn said. “If your mom was the one who was trying to make nice, who insisted on the gift exchange?”

  “Take your pick…my father or either of your grandparents,” Jaxon said. “Honestly, I think you should suggest that your mom refuse the invitation. No good can come of this. You and my mother are the only ones who will be trying to make nice. Everyone else will be attempting to put your mother in her place.”

  “Including you?” Bryn asked. Because they needed to straighten that shit out right away.

  “You’ve made no secret about your feelings for my father,” Jaxon said. “While I won’t be openly rude to your mother, I have no desire to spend time with her.”

  Well, crap. When he put it that way…

  “You thought you had the moral high ground, didn’t you?” Jaxon raised an eyebrow.

  “No comment.” Bryn cleared her throat. “Now that my parents are back in the picture, I will do my best to be grudgingly respectful toward your father, if you’ll do the same for my parents.”

  “That’s not really equal,” Clint said. “Because you like his mom.”

  Bryn laughed. “Clint is right.”

  “That doesn’t change anything,” Jaxon said. “We’ll agree to be civil and moderately respectful. If I were you, I’d call your grandmother and try to cancel the gift exchange idea. Tell her we’d rather exchange gifts on our own or something like that.”

  “Do we have to buy something for each other?” Bryn asked.

  “It’s Christmas,” Jaxon said, like that explained everything.

  “Can we just agree to give gifts to charities in each other’s names?” Bryn asked because that would make her life so much easier.