by Michelle Fox
A long silence stretched between us. My sister froze like a fish cornered by sharks. Eyes pleading, I willed her to sing. When the silence continued, I considered singing a light compulsion, but I wanted it to be her decision. She would hate me if I forced her.
Finally, she gave a sharp nod and slipped her hand into mine, holding me tight. "You're my sister. Of course, I'll help you. I just hope my song is still there." She took a deep breath and let loose a soft, raspy note. It wasn't the best music I'd ever heard, but it was music, and the magic of it stroked my skin.
"Keep going. Don't stop," I said. "You can still sing."
She tested another note, this one creaking and breaking, but she didn't stop. Another note followed that and then another. Soon, a full scale warbled from her throat, growing stronger and more sure the longer she sang.
Turning her attention to me, she sang to my health, soothing me with a sweet melody and using darker notes to deal with the pain. Her music vibrated through me, shaking the pain loose and casting it away. The gnome dug his thin fingers into my thigh, fishing for the bullet and I felt nothing.
Closing my eyes, I let myself drift on Siya's song, soaking up all the magic she spun for me.
"There. The bullet is out."
I opened my eyes to see the bullet the gnome held between his thumb and finger.
"She can seal the wound now." He looked to my sister who changed her song, adding an element of closing and new growth.
I watched as my skin healed from the inside out. The gaping hole in my thigh filled with new flesh and then the edges of my skin grew toward each other, knitting me together bit by bit.
"Thank you," I said to both the gnome and Siya.
"That's amazing," Sara said.
"Blood is dangerous underwater," I said. "We've learned how to contain it."
"Sharks," Alec said.
"Yes. Sharks." Although other scavengers would come, too, at the scent of blood, sharks were the most dangerous and aggressive.
I swung my legs around, planting my feet on the floor. It was time to finish this adventure and go back home. "Has anyone seen Niall?"
Alec and Sara shook their heads.
A pang of worry went through me at their reaction. If I'd escaped, Niall had to be free, too. It should have been easy for him to get away, but none of us had seen him. That sounded like a sour song full of bad omens to me.
"Who is Niall?" asked Siya.
"His brother," I said pointing to Alec.
At the same time Alec pointed at me and said, "Her mate."
Siya's jaw dropped. "What? A mate?"
I shook my head. "It's...complicated."
"Is he a merman?" She gave me a wary look.
"No, but—"
"Then he's not a mate."
"Let's just find him," I said, sidestepping the whole thing. Mer did marry outside our species, but it was rare and usually with a human. If any of my tribe had ever mated a dragon, I'd never heard about it. Making eye contact with the gnome, I asked, "Where would they keep a dragon? Or a man who can turn into a dragon?"
The gnome's mouth moved for a second, and then he spit something into his hand. I caught a glimpse of it as he put it in his shirt pocket. It was the bullet he'd taken from my wound He'd been sucking on it. He gave me a defiant look when he saw I'd noticed, but didn't address it and I let it go, deciding there were more important things to worry about.
Clearing his throat, he said, "There's an aviary on the far north wall."
"An aviary?" My language skills told me that was for birds. "Niall is much bigger than any bird."
"But he flies, yes? Then the aviary is the first place to look."
***
I took a few moments to change into my clothes before we headed for the aviary. Sara had brought them with her in a little backpack. I must have grown accustomed to them as I didn't hate the way the jeans pinched me quite so much this time.
Once I was dressed, Kollox led us to the aviary which consisted of an enormous building with a soaring ceiling made of skylights. The desert sun beat down through the glass, but air conditioning blowing through the vents at the tops of the walls kept the building comfortable. Birds and winged creatures of all kinds flitted in the air. Our arrival disturbed them and sent dozens flying away from us and into the far recesses of the aviary.
In the distance I thought I saw a Pegasus. "Is that a—"
"Yes," said the gnome. He waved us forward. "This way."
We followed him on a narrow gravel path, dodging leaves from overgrown plants and the sharp tendrils of bushes. Flowers bloomed everywhere, filling the air with their exotic fragrance.
"It smells so pretty," Siya said.
"No fish," I said. "Hard to smell bad without fish."
"I'll take your word for it," Sara said. She stopped and spun in a slow circle. "This place makes me nervous. We have no idea what's in here."
"Do you see anything?" Alec asked her.
She screwed her eyes closed and held her breath for a moment. Then, opening them, she shook her head. "I'm blank. That's not normal."
"Maybe it's because there's nothing to worry about. The sheik is dead, and all we have to do is find Niall and we're done," Alec said.
"Something's not right, though. I can feel it. I just can't tell what it is," she said. Then she stiffened and stumbled.
Alec caught her. "Sara? Are you all right?"
When she lifted her head, I gasped. Her eyes had rolled back, leaving nothing but the whites visible. I made to run to her, but Alec held up a hand.
"Wait. She's having a vision." Alec helped Sara to the ground, whispering quietly to her in a soothing brogue. Holding her torso in his lap, he rocked her back and forth.
"Is she okay?" I asked.
He lifted his head and looked at me. "I think so. Visions like this attack her physically. She comes out of them with war wounds."
"I can sing if you want. Try to take her out of it," I offered.
"No. The vision just comes back later then and harder." He waved down the path. "You two go and find Niall. We'll stay here."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm a dragon. Whoever is so foolish as to attack me dies." He gave a smile that showed all his teeth. "Go find my brother. I'm worried about him."
I looked to the gnome. "Where would he be?"
The gnome pointed to the far corner. "The cages for the bigger beasts are back there." He headed in that direction and we followed after him. Birds continued to flit back and forth, disturbed by our presence.
"They're beautiful," I said, my head back as I watched them fly. "So many colors."
"They're venomous," the gnome said, his voice flat.
"What?" I asked.
"The sheik gave them Basilisk DNA. Their spit can now kill anything the size of a human."
I shuddered. "There's a basilisk around here somewhere?" I'd never seen one before, but my ear for language knew what it was and gave me a rough translation—small and full of venom and anger.
"Never trust anything in this place," Siya said, her expression dark.
"The basilisks died," Kollox said. "Not everything survives this place. And the birds will leave you alone if you leave them alone."
I frowned, watching as two bright green birds soared above us. I'd come to this bone-dry place to save Siya, but couldn't walk away from the others trapped here. Once I got Siya back home, I wanted to find a way to free the others. No one deserved to be locked up and experimented on. Except..."We can't set the birds free."
The gnome shook his head. "No. You can't."
"What about you?" I asked. "Did he do anything to you?"
The gnome shrug and pointed to his bad leg. "Broke a few bones, gave me a few injections, but I'm the same gnome I was when he brought me here. I had hoped he would make me part giant so I could squash him like a bug." He twisted his foot in the dirt as he spoke. "But nothing ever happened. Eventually, he stopped trying and made me a caretaker. I know almost every an
imal and being he has in his miserable collection."
"Well, now you can go back home," I said. "All of you."
"My home?" He snorted. "I don't know where that is. I've been here so long. No, I think I'll stay here until I can remember what it's like to be free. I'll keep the dangerous things locked up. There's no freedom for anyone if they're loose in the world."
I wanted to urge him to reconsider, he didn't owe the sheik's experiments his life, but we'd reached the cages. Tall and made with metal bars thick as my forearms, they stood in a long row on either side of the path. I peered into the first one and jumped back as something hissed a shower of sparks at me.
"Phoenix," Kollox said. "She's always angry. Even the sheik stayed away."
"Do you have a key?" I asked studying the cage's lock.
"No, and I wouldn't give you one if I had it. She's likely to burn us all to the ground."
"I'm going to get you out of here," I whispered to the phoenix. "Just as soon as I find the key. Then you can go home."
She stared at me unblinking but didn't hiss again.
Projecting my voice into the aviary, I addressed all the cages. "The sheik is dead. We're here to set you free."
A loud rattling sounded as creatures stirred in their cages, coming up against the bars. Snouts, claws, beaks and wing tips poked out between the cages' bars and beady gazes settled on me.
I ignored them, looking for Niall. Not seeing him, I focused on the cage that didn't have someone watching me from inside. My steps quickened along with my heart. Niall should have recognized my voice, should have responded to me.
When I arrived at the cage, I immediately took a step back at what I saw.
"No." My hand rose to cover my mouth. This couldn't be right. I squeezed my eyes shut and looked again, certain I had to be seeing things.
But no. My vision had not failed me. Niall remained the same—still and silent.
Sleeping. He had to be sleeping. I would accept nothing less.
"What is it?" Siya thumped on the trail, coming as fast as her tail would let her.
"Wake up, Niall. Now! Come on! Niall!" I screamed through the cage bars as tears filled my eyes. Niall laid on the floor of the cage, his limbs contorted in strange angles and well beyond hearing me. Whirling to face the gnome, I gulped back my sobs and said, "Where are the keys? I have to get him out of there."
"The sheik had them."
"Where?"
The gnome raised his hands in a helpless gesture. "I don't know. I never saw."
I took off, racing past the cages I'd just passed, returning to the main section of the aviary. "Alec," I screamed as I ran. "Alec."
Birds shrieked at the sound of my voice, launching themselves up into the air in droves, their wings flapping with panic. I didn't care. I kept screaming for Alec.
Chapter Eleven
Alec came running, carrying Sara in his arms. She clung to his neck, her face the color of sun-bleached bone.
"What is it?" he asked.
"He's dead," Sara said her voice flat, her eyes unblinking. "Niall's dead."
"Is that true?" Alec's eyes widened.
"I don't know. Help me open the cage," I said, hurrying back in the direction of Niall's cage.
Alec followed and set Sara down, helping her to sit with her back against the cage's stone foundation before turning his attention to opening it. He pulled on the bars. "They're not loose." Pushing his face between the bars, he yelled at his brother. "Niall! Wake up, brother."
The dark form in the back of the cage didn't move.
"Niall," I said, letting my voice trill into a come-hither note. Still no movement. My stomach clenched and turned into a hard, painful lump. "Just open the cage. We have to get in there." I pulled at the bars myself, although I knew it was useless.
"Stand back." Alec picked up Sara and thrust her at me. "Hold her."
I slid my arms under hers and leaned her weight against the length of my body. "Are you okay?"
She glanced back at me, her face pinched with worry. "It was a hard vision. I need some time to recover."
Alec took in a deep breath and blew flame at the cage's lock. Nothing happened. He paused and sucked in so much air his torso inflated like a puffer fish. The next flame he threw was bigger and lasted longer. This time the lock gave off little furls smoke when he finished. Another breath, more flame. Over and over he focused his fire on the lock. Then, when it glowed red as blood, he pushed at it with his bare hands.
My eyes wide, I watched as the hot metal gave way like warm seas. Using his fingers, he dug out the locking mechanism and threw it to the ground where it hissed from the temperature difference. Blowing on his fingers which were red as the lock, he grabbed the door and yanked it open.
"He's dead," Sara said, breathless as if the words were too heavy for her voice to carry. "I saw it."
Alec ignored her and jumped into the cage. I helped Sara sit down and nodded to Siya. "Watch her." Then I followed Alec, hoping Sara was wrong.
Alec kneeled next to Niall, a hand on each shoulder trying to shake his brother awake. Niall's head rolled from side-to-side, but his eyes didn't open. I knelt too wanting to shake Niall for myself, but once I touched his skin, I could feel the lack of life. He was cold when he should be hot. The pulse inside him had gone still. No life flowed under his skin.
I lifted my hands as if I'd been burned and jumped to my feet, panic fluttering inside me. This couldn't be true. It wasn't right. I bit my lip in an effort to stop the trembling that had consumed me.
Alec didn't give up. He gave his brother another shake. "Niall. Come on, brother. Wake. Wake up. " He fell silent when there was no response and just sat there for a moment, then whispered, "Niall." His voice broke and that's how I knew he'd come to the same conclusion I had: Niall MacTeine, dragon of Inverness was dead.
I backed out of the cage. My chest hurt and I held my hand over the pain, pressing and willing it to go away. I didn't know these people. They had saved me. Helped me. But they weren't my tribe. I didn't belong to them, and they didn't belong to me. In fact, for all that Niall had pledged his life to me, I hadn't seen him as part of my future. So why did this matter so much? It didn't. It shouldn't. I wouldn't let it.
Spinning around on my heel, I left the cage and went to stand over Sara. "Why didn't you save him?" I asked, anger throbbing in my voice. "You said you could see the future. Why didn't you see this?"
Tears glimmered in Sara's eyes. "I saw it too late."
"Then what good is seeing the future?"
"I ask myself that same question all the time," she said.
I ran a hand through my hair, gathering it up in my palm and clutching it so tight my scalp burned. Kicking at a small pebble in the path, I let out an incoherent wail of frustration. Niall was dead. Dead. DEAD.
"Sister?" Siya asked.
"He was my..." I trailed off, realizing I'd been about to say Niall was my dragon. "He was a friend. He helped us save you."
Siya bowed her head. "Then I am sorry to have cost him his life." She lifted her face, her eyes full of anger. "I'm not worth the price he paid."
"Don't say that."
"I'm ruined, Mila." She stretched her mouth open, showing me the butchery inside again.
I flinched and then steadied myself."Only if you believe it. Your tail didn't ruin you and neither will this."
She considered my words for a long moment, then asked, "And what about him?" She nodded to the cage. "Saving me killed him."
"Should I have let you die?" I gave the pebble a hard kick and it shot down the path.
"You should have let him live."
I turned my back on my sister. If I didn't, I would slap her. I'd risked everything to come after her, and now that Niall had died, I couldn't bear to hear how little she thought of herself. She'd always been everything to me. Niall had given everything for her.
Just as I'd been everything to Niall. The thought echoed in my mind. What had he been to me? More than
I expected.
"You can save him," Sara said, her voice quiet.
I froze, my heart stuttering in my chest. "What?"
She closed her eyes. "You can bring him back. Maybe."
"How?"
Ducking her head, she said, "The witch."
I touched my earring. She'd want more than two sleep songs to bring back the dead.
"Then let's go," Alec's voice thundered in the air, startling the birds that had been brave enough to return to their roosts. He emerged from the cage carrying his brother's body. In the light, Niall looked gray as a storm-laden horizon and still as the sea on a bad day. I looked away. The pain his death brought confused me. I'd believed he was just a means to an end. Pleasant but not permanent.
"It might not work," Sara said.
"We have to try." Alec's gaze seared mine.
I nodded. I owed Niall at least that much. To try.
Sara looked at my sister. "The price will be high."
"I've dealt with the witch before, " I said. "I can handle it."
"Choose wisely," Sara said.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"There are many potentials." She pressed a hand to her head. "All the possible futures crowd together and bleed over each other. The future is messy, with many possible paths."
"How do I know which one to choose?"
She shrugged. "You won't. You'll just have to make the best decision you can." She paused and briefly made eye contact with Alec, then Siya and ended with me. "Or maybe it won't even be your decision to make."
"We have a problem. I can't carry everyone," Alec said. "Someone has to stay behind."
"I will," Sara said. "They need to go with you. Not me."
"I don't like it," Alec said. "This isn't a safe place."
"I'll stay in the guesthouse. It'll be okay."
"Are you sure?"
Sara nodded. "That much I can see. I'll be fine. Go do what you need to do for Niall." She stood and went to Alec, cupping his cheek with one hand. "I love you."
He leaned his head into her hand. "I love you, too." Heaving Niall's limp body up over his shoulder he trudged down the path, heading back to where we'd come from. "Come on. Let's get outside so I can shift."