The Queen's Wings

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  I sighed. “Reed doesn’t like humans, right? I mean everyone tells me that. Now all of a sudden he likes one. Me.”

  “You’re not human any longer,” Zhang said.

  “Well, that’s debatable. But anyway, it’s possible he’s feeling a little out of sorts because he can’t treat me like a human, yet he can’t show me the deference he would a Queen. Wouldn’t that explain the frustration? I mean let’s face it. He’s pretty tightly wound.”

  “Well, I can’t argue with that,” Zhang said.

  “It’s obviously me he has a problem with, right? He’s never tried to spit on another Queen before in all his centuries.”

  “True.”

  “So, I’ll tell you the Dragon Slayer’s really big secret. It concerns female dragons.” I dangled the bait. “Then you let Reed go. He’ll go back to duty. I’ll go back to doing whatever it was I was doing, and we’ll keep out of each other’s way. If the other Queens give you a hard time, send ’em to me.”

  “We’ll need to get you a dragon bodyguard.”

  “Get Jack,” I said and wondered if for a moment it was Arianna who’d spoken. But no, she was still silent. “Send Reed to Russia, and I’ll take Jack.”

  “I bet you will,” Reed said through gritted teeth.

  “Hush you. Can’t you see I’m trying to help?”

  “What secret does the Order of Dragon Slayers know?” Zhang pursed his lips as he contemplated the offer.

  “Would that be enough to free Reed?”

  “Providing it has substantial merit. Yes.”

  “Damn it, Zhang,” Reed roared.

  “Reed, be reasonable. We need you in the field. If Carolyn is correct, then all you have to do is avoid her.”

  “I don’t want to avoid her,” Reed said.

  My mouth dropped open.

  “I want to keep her safe. I don’t want to see her sacrificed or captured by rogue dragons.”

  “What you do once I release you is on your own head. However, I’m taking Carolyn upstairs. Once she tells me her secret, I will come back and release you.”

  I did a little happy dance and fist pumped the air. “Whoot!”

  “Carolyn,” Reed called.

  I turned to him before getting on the elevator.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right,” I said. “I know you were aiming at Joachim.”

  “I was. But I meant about Marie Antoinette.”

  I smiled at him.

  When we were in the elevator, Zhang turned to me and asked, “The secret?”

  “The Order of the Dragon Slayers has a way to stop the shifting process in dragons, if it’s caught in time.”

  “Nidhogg’s teeth,” Zhang swore.

  “Of the few women they found—they can see a blue aura around them—only one decided to go through with the shift. They said they can accelerate the process of shifting, but it hurts.”

  “They have no right,” Zhang sputtered. Then he sighed. “At least one came through. Where is she?”

  “She was stolen and has never been heard from again.”

  “That”—he stabbed a finger in the air—“is why they shouldn’t be doing this without our knowledge.”

  “Was this good enough to get Reed out of trouble?” I asked, glad I wasn’t on the receiving end of that finger.

  Zhang smoothed his hand down his long goatee.

  Flash! Ah! Ah!

  I was really hoping I hadn’t said that aloud. But Zhang’s expression didn’t change from pensive. “I’ll release Reed, but we need to get this Queen back. I wish they told us this sooner. I could have put resources on it and that Queen would be safe right now.”

  We returned to the lobby where Joachim and Jane were waiting.

  “I will wait until you have left the building before releas-ing Reed.”

  “Shall I act as your chauffeur again?” Joachim asked.

  “Actually, Dragon Slayer, if I could have a word with you,” Zhang said and motioned toward the elevator. “In my office.”

  Jane and I shared an incredulous glance. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. I wonder if they would do battle?

  “I doubt it,” Jane said drily.

  I hadn’t realized I said that aloud.

  “Neither could afford the consequences if he lost.”

  “Well death does put a damper on one’s day,” I said.

  She gave an unladylike snort. “That’s the easy part. The paperwork would bury us. Plus the bragging rights alone for the other side.” Jane rolled her eyes. “They’re probably going to have a biting conversation over green tea and sushi.”

  “Better them than me.” I had to get out of here before Reed was set free, but I didn’t feel like waiting until Joachim got back. Still, being kidnapped by the cult or some randy drakes didn’t appeal, either.

  Is Jack in town? Arianna purred.

  Welcome back, I thought, not hiding the sarcasm.

  “I’m not sure. You want me to check?” Jane asked.

  It turned out he wasn’t, but when he found out I needed an escort, he said he’d be right there. Right there turned into an hour, but the reception area had new magazines so I kept myself entertained.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be in Russia?” I asked when he strode through the doors.

  “I am.” He winked. “Don’t tell my boss.”

  “I think I can avoid that subject with him.” I fiddled with my sunglasses. Should I show him my new eyes, or would he think I was fishing for a compliment? “How did you get here so fast from Russia?”

  “That’s classified.”

  I had a feeling he wasn’t telling me the whole truth, but Arianna was so happy to see him, she was hopping up and down—which was a really weird sensation. It was like my stomach doing the hula.

  “So where to my Queen? I hear Aruba is nice this time of year.”

  “Yes,” Arianna stole my voice to say. I wrested control back from her. “But I really need to get back to work.”

  There’s no reason we can’t do it from Aruba.

  She had a point. I considered it before I remembered my books were probably getting lonely without me. “To New Haven.”

  Jack shrugged. “As my Queen commands.”

  Jane gave me the thumbs-up as we left. “Have Jack drive you to my house when you’re done. They’re sending over some dragon commandos to be your personal guards.”

  And from the look on her face, they didn’t send the ugly ones.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Thirteenth Rule of Dragons: The sentence for harming a Queen is death

  “Aruba?” Jack asked when we were outside.

  I was getting better at stifling Arianna. Doing the mental equivalent of sitting on her, I said, “Actually, I was missing my hoard, and I really need some normality. Can you drive me back to the office?”

  “Say no more,” he assured me.

  I had that Kokomo song in my head, as we drove to the hangar. Jack took a call early on in the drive. I could hear another dragon on the other end due to my new enhanced dragon senses, but unfortunately it didn’t let me translate what they were saying.

  Arianna wasn’t any help either. She never learned more than the rudimentary words in Draconic. And since Jack wasn’t asking for food or complaining about the temperature, we were in the dark. He didn’t sound happy, and it turned my paranoia meter up a notch. But then again, I had a hard week.

  Just a week?

  I’d traveled to Mexico and Paris. Had a stay in a lab in New York and in a hospital in Connecticut. I met a Dragon Slayer. Kissed a dragon. Slept with another one. Found out another was possessing me. Was almost kidnapped. Almost was sacrificed. Became homeless. And slugged Zhang in the puss. Zhang wasn’t having a good week either.

  I let myself into the hangar while Jack continued to argue on the phone. Going into my office to check my email, I remembered rather quickly that two dragons wrecked the place. I set about organizing the mess. Dug
out my cell phone from my purse and ordered a Dumpster and charged it to our operating account. My books were right where we stacked them though. I petted them and organized them by genre instead of alphabetical order.

  My stomach growled when I got to the cookbook section. Then I realized I was really hungry and ordered mild buffalo wings and some cheese fries for lunch. I probably should have ordered something for Jack.

  I went out to the car, but he wasn’t there. He was parked next to my Taurus. Peeking in my window, I saw a J.D. Robb novel sitting all alone in the backseat.

  “I’ll rescue you,” I said.

  After snagging it, I locked up the car and flipped through the book until I found a hot spot with Eve and Rourke. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up just as I reached the hangar door.

  “Jack?” I called, looking around. I didn’t peg any dragons or anything out of the ordinary. Craning my neck to see if anyone was flying over, all I saw was blue sky.

  Shrugging, I locked the hangar door behind me. I took the shotgun out from between the filing cabinets just in case. While the printer booted up—it was still intact, nothing could destroy that behemoth unfortunately—I ordered two new desks and two speedy new desktop computers. Niall could complain about it later, but he probably wouldn’t even notice. In the meantime, I was able to set up a makeshift desk using a piece of plywood and two wooden horses I found in the back storage area.

  Checking my email from my laptop, I found nothing exciting. My mother had emailed from the Grand Canyon. She and Dad were on vacation. I peeked at my recommendations from Amazon and then saw a new message come in from Niall.

  He requested I open his emails from the past week and respond to anything urgent. After shooting him a short, “Hey here’s how my week’s been. How’s yours?” note, I logged on as him. Scanning down, nothing popped up at me. I did see some lab reports on the age testing of the papyrus on the Alexandria project he was working on. I copied it to the correct file. The time period appeared to be authentic.

  I answered the phone when it rang. It was Jane.

  “Heads up, Joachim is coming your way. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Reed wasn’t on his heels.”

  “When did they leave?” I glanced at my watch.

  “Joachim about ten minutes ago, and Reed just now. Reed seemed pissed.”

  “So what else is new?” I said. Still my heart beat a little fast at the thought Reed was coming to see me.

  “Joachim and Jack will keep him in line.” That reminded me, where was Jack, anyway?

  “If you say so.” Jane didn’t sound convinced. “Have you thought about where you’re going to set up your court?”

  “No.” I laughed. “I’m a little overwhelmed by it, to tell you the truth. I’d rather research the hoard thefts and, of course, help Niall with his paperwork. He’s translating some manuscripts they found in Pharos at a dive site. Some Indiana Jones wannabe seems to think they’re from the Alexandrian library via the lighthouse.”

  “Under water for thousands of years?”

  I gave her a there-you-go wave of my hand. Too bad she couldn’t see me.

  “Apparently, they think manuscripts that survived the fire were stored in a chest at the lighthouse.”

  “Because that’s where I would put precious documents.” Jane laughed with me.

  “And when the lighthouse was destroyed, the chest and the documents sank into the sea.”

  “Well, we’ve hit two wonders of the ancient world. Perhaps there were plants from the Babylon gardens in there as well.”

  “Sprouts,” I said.

  “Are you kidding?”

  “About the sprouts. To give some credit, the documents have a good chance of being authentic, but the hows and whys of their preservation are what Niall is investigating.”

  “Was he there?”

  “No, he would’ve killed the dragon that started the fire at the library.”

  “I thought it was Julius Caesar who did that.”

  “First rule of dragons,” I said. “Always blame the human.”

  “Maybe it was dragon magic that kept the documents fresh and intact all these years.”

  “I don’t care if they are from Alexandria. I just hope they turn out to be authentic Egyptian scrolls. And that Niall translates them for me. My hieroglyphics needs some work.”

  “You and your books.” Jane sounded like she was shaking her head.

  “You want me to bring anything home for dinner? It seems the least I can do for having me and my court.” I laughed nervously. I had a court.

  “The pleasure is all mine, my Queen.”

  “Oh blow it out your ass,” I said with a grin.

  She was still laughing when I hung up.

  A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I half expected to see Reed’s grim face or Joachim wanting to use the men’s room. But when I opened it, I found myself staring at the dragon who’d tried to kidnap me. His face was mottled and pitted with acid burns. I whipped off my sunglasses, hoping he would remember the don’t-hurt-the-Queen law.

  “Jack!” I screamed, slamming the door shut.

  He powered it back open and I went sprawling on the floor.

  “What do you want?” I asked, wishing the shotgun wasn’t in the other room.

  “You,” he said.

  “Jack is in the other room and Reed will be here any minute.”

  “Liar. Reed is on death row. He won’t see the light of day for a long time.”

  His information was a little old, but I wasn’t going to correct him.

  “Esmeralda will have you executed for harming me.”

  “I’m not harming you. I’m bringing you back to Mexico.”

  “Oh, God, not again. My jet lag has jet lag. If Esmeralda wants to talk to me, can’t I give her my cell phone number?”

  “No. Now come with me quietly.”

  “Or what?”

  He produced a Taser.

  “Those things hurt,” I said. It would definitely round out my week. I could add being Tasered, after being spit in the face by a black dragon, to the So-you-think-you-had-a-bad-week list.

  “You can’t force me on a plane with that.”

  “We’re not taking a plane.”

  “You can’t carry me in dragon form. You aren’t built for it.”

  “I am,” Jack said, walking in.

  I had been wondering where he’d been and how this bozo got passed him. I expected Arianna to take over, but there was only unbearable sadness.

  “What’s going on, Jack?” This couldn’t be happening. Jack was a good guy. He flirted with me. Arianna was in love with him. I flinched away from him when he reached for me.

  “Don’t touch me.” My voice was ragged with unshed tears.

  “Just get on my back and hang on.”

  “I hate flying like that. It’s so cold.” I backed away.

  “I’ll keep it low.”

  I took off for the back storage area, my only thought to lock myself in. Jack was suddenly in front of me, blocking my path. The kidnapper laughed.

  “Why are you doing this?” I searched his face for a clue.

  “Favor for the Queen.”

  “But I’m a Queen.”

  “Yes, you’ll be our Queen,” the kidnapper said and roughly grabbed me by the arm to pull me out of the hangar.

  Any day now, Joachim, I thought as Jack shifted in the parking lot and the other dragon shoved me aboard the large red dragon. Joachim had to be lurking around somewhere. Didn’t being kidnapped count as an event for the Order of Dragon Slayers? Didn’t he say he wasn’t going to let what happened to his lost Queen happen to me?

  I opened my mouth to scream, and Jack launched himself into the air.

  No one came. Not Reed. Not Joachim.

  “Jack, what’s going on?” I asked when we straightened out and flew just above the tree line. He was keeping his distance from Bernardo and, as promised, flying low enough that icicles didn’t form on
the end of my nose. I wished someone would look up and see us and maybe call the embassy.

  “Do you see how dangerous it is for a Queen to be on her own?” he asked.

  “I’m not alone. Reed’ll be on your ass in a heartbeat.”

  Jack’s laugh rumbled through his whole body. “You’re a terrible liar.”

  “I’m serious.” I hissed at him. “And that’s not all. Joachim is around, too.”

  “Why is an enforcer from the Order of Dragon Slayers hanging around our newest Queen?”

  “We bonded over wine.”

  “Don’t you think the Order of the Dragon Slayers would have captured any Queens they found by now without your help?”

  “They haven’t.”

  “You believe Joachim when he tells you these things?”

  “Oh shut up, you schmuck.” I punched him on the armored plates. It hurt me more than it did him. “What’s going to happen to me in Mexico? You can’t be working for the cultists.”

  “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”

  “So what does Iron Britches want with me?”

  “That’s what we’re going to find out.”

  “Does Reed know about this?”

  “Would Reed let you fly away with me if he did?”

  I bit my lip. I didn’t know the answer to that. He was probably sick of my shit. But he did say he didn’t want to leave me alone.

  “Are you going to want me to have your eggs?”

  Jack’s flight stopped, and for a moment we just glided. “Are you asking me?”

  “I don’t know. Would you fly me away from Bernardo and it would be just you and me forever?”

  “No,” Jack said. “It doesn’t work like that. I’m not selfish.”

  “Maybe I am,” I said.

  Jack let out a great shuddering breath, but he didn’t breathe fire or do anything dramatic. I tried to enjoy the view and ignore just how damn uncomfortable sitting on a flying tank was. In the end, I considered flinging myself off but I was too afraid.

  There wasn’t any procession to meet us this time at the top of the temple.

  After Bernardo and Jack shifted back, I was taken deeper into the pyramid until I was so far below ground we could have been in China.

  “In here,” Jack said and tried to lay a comforting hand on my arm.

  And for the second time this week, I cracked a dragon across the face. I tried to put a little more English into it, but unfortunately I was still human.