Beneath Stained Glass Wings

by K Kazul Wolf

  35

  The Past and Future

  I meet Vito’s eyes again, finding the smallest smile spread across his lips.

  He opens his mouth, like he’s about to say something, but snaps it shut. Then he opens it again. “Hi, Ava.”

  My arms move before I can stop them, reaching up and pulling him closer, tighter, not only being able to hold his head but him. Vito. My Vito.

  For a moment he doesn’t move except to stiffen against me. Then, slowly, his arms curl around me and he tucks his head into the crook of my neck. He takes a shaky breath, then clutches me tighter.

  He’s here. Not only here, but I can talk to him, I can hold him like this and he can hold me back. I want to fade into his arms, become a part of him so we’re never separated again.

  Then I remember his bruises, the cuts lining his neck. I let my grip slack, but I don’t let go. I can’t. “B-but, your injuries.”

  He shakes his head, ever so slightly. “I won’t push too hard. I know.”

  His voice is deeper than it once was, raspy from disuse.

  “It’s so strange to hear you speak.” It’s strange to feel him, to find soft skin under my fingertips instead of hard scales.

  “It’s strange for me, too.” He chuckles.

  I soften at the sound of his laugh, at the hills and valleys that I haven’t heard like this in so long. I let myself breathe in the spicy musk of his scent, close my eyes and let myself relax for one moment. Maybe I haven’t destroyed everything I’ve touched. The skin on his back may be scarred and scabbed, but he’s whole.

  And…he’s naked.

  “I…um…” I let go, pushing him a bit away and meeting his eyes as heat crawls underneath my skin.

  His brow is furrowed, eyes asking, What’s wrong?

  “I know it’s been a little while since you’ve been human, but, um…” My eyes scan the room as best they can while avoiding him. There, the small blanket I woke up underneath. “Clothes.”

  His form stiffens. He takes his arms away from me, and despite wanting to place them back where they belong, I get up and grab the blanket, handing it to him without turning around.

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  I spin around to find Vito wrapped waist-down in the blanket and Maur standing in the doorway. Of course.

  A grin spreads across his face as he tosses a wad of tan and white at Vito. “Looks like I’m just in time with the new supplies. I thought you might need these.”

  Vito nods, then belatedly opens his mouth to mutter, “Thank you.” His eyes flick to mine for an instant before going back to Maur.

  My skin is on fire. At least he hadn’t come in a few moments earlier; that would have been…bad. I never thought about how his clothes wouldn’t exist after this much time—not that they would fit anyway.

  Maur waves a hand at Vito. “Come on, let me help put new bandages on your wounds in this form.”

  Vito nods again, taking one last glance at me before he leaves the room.

  I lean against the wall, letting out a deep breath and closing my eyes. He’s okay with me. More than okay with me. My name is on him, the first of his words strong enough to come to the surface on its own, no Maur needed. My heart races in my chest, threatening to burst out.

  And Maur. He’s still here, wherever here is. He hasn’t abandoned us.

  But what do we do now?

  “Well, I guess I did teach you something right after all.”

  I open my eyes to catch sight of Maur strutting into the room.

  “Where are we?”

  He crosses his arms and leans against a wall. “We’re in an abandoned building, still inside this market-turned-rebel town of yours. Now, don’t start throwing a fit. I know what I’m doing by staying here. That Carita of yours can track our energies all she wants, but she won’t be able to find this place.”

  “What? How?” Her, not able to find an entire building? Why couldn’t we have left?

  “You have a terrible habit of underestimating me, serpent,” he teases, but doesn’t smile. “I have a mirage around the place, so to a passerby it doesn’t exist. She’ll search the poor houses on the side endlessly, but she’ll find nothing. Luckily, the whole neighborhood is next to abandoned. It should take people some time to notice that there’s a space missing.”

  Slowly, I nod. It’s somewhat like the mirage Hamahl had used to cloak me before. It would take a ridiculous amount of power to cover a whole house, but Maur is a dragon.

  But…what are we going to do next?

  “Are you all right?”

  Vito stands in the doorway, a plain white shirt draping off a frame that’s slightly awkward and as lean as he is as a dragon, tan pants reaching past his thighs. His hand is smothered in bandages, where he has four digits on his right hand instead of five. His shoulder is wrapped up, too, but I can’t tell from what. He’s taller than I would have thought, having to duck under the frame.

  Maur clears his throat. “I bought some supplies while I was out—yes, I used an illusion, serpent. Don’t look at me like that.”

  Vito’s eyes flick to Maur, his lips pulling back.

  I take a step forward and his focus turns to me. I shake my head. It’s not a nice nickname, but it’s a nickname.

  With a deep breath, Vito walks into the room.

  Maur’s eyebrows raise. “Well. I’ll get to packing everything while you two catch up.” And he leaves the room.

  I glance over at Vito. How time has changed him, aged him into something beautiful. Except…the bandages lining his body. The brokenness that I brought onto him.

  I open my mouth, the words jumbled in my head. “Vito…I…I’m so sorry.”

  He blinks. “About what?”

  “Everything,” I whisper, glancing at his feet. “About dragging you along with me to the ground without you knowing what you were getting into, without knowing… Without knowing I killed your family.”

  “Ava…” He takes a few steps closer.

  I press my hands against the wall, breathing in, breathing out. I can’t read his voice like I can read his face, it’s tone too unknown to my ears. And it terrifies me.

  “She… You know we were raised by the same nest-mother, but we didn’t share blood. And after hearing what she tried to do to you? I wish we hadn’t shared an adopted parent, either.”

  I glance up and his eyes are away from me, studying the wall next to me with an intensity that might burn through it.

  “It hurt to find out one of the people who had been there my whole life was gone. Even if she lived to torture me. But after hearing your story, Ava…” He keeps saying my name, almost like he’s looking for excuses to roll it off his tongue. “You were at impossible odds. You are my family. And your father…I know what he meant to you.”

  I shake my head, taking a shaky breath. “I-it’s still not okay. To drag you this far, to make you— Let you—” I reach out and take his hand, the one with the bandages over them. My eyes drift over the rough fabric, avoiding the area that hurts the most to look at. “What did she do to you?”

  He grimaces, a dark look coming into his eyes, unlike anything I’d seen on his face, human or beast. “It…it’s over. That’s all.”

  Tentatively, with unsure fingers, I reach out and take his uninjured hand in one of my own. We’re the same people, I’m still myself and he’s still him, but…there’s a difference in our relationship now. And it scares me.

  “You don’t have to say anything,” I say quietly, curling my fingers in between his. “But you know you can tell me.”

  He twines his fingers around mine. “Thank you. I know. It… It was…” He struggles with his words and I give his hand a squeeze, let him know it’s okay. “She tried to…experiment on me. She wanted to use me to find a weakness in the dragons. She-she had your gloves. From how she said it, I thought she was holding you hostage, too. But…you’re okay.” He reaches out, running fingers along the side of my face, and I nearly close m
y eyes to feel it better. “That was the most painful part. She did horrible things, but I couldn’t do anything, not with you in danger. Even with my finger, and my wing…”

  He closes his eyes, a shiver running down his body. I bring my other hand to clasp over his own.

  “I can’t fly anymore,” he whispers.

  My heart freezes and my blood runs cold. “Why?”

  “Sh-she…she cut it off, at the last joint. Maur tried to help, see if he could heal it, but it isn’t something that can be fixed.” He opens his eyes. “I traded being able to fly for being able to turn back into this form, it seems.”

  “No.” My voice comes out more powerful than I mean, making him tense. I can’t imagine what he’s been through, and it hurts to know that I can’t understand it. “You’ll have a pair of wings. I’ll make you a pair and you’ll be airborne again. I swear it.”

  He opens his mouth, the words not coming out. His eyes shine, tears slowly falling. He lets go of my hands and reaches out to hold me, clutching me tightly as quiet sobs rock through him.

  “Thank you,” he whispers, voice all gravel. “Thank you so much, Ava.”

  I wrap my arms around him, fighting against the impulse to hold him as tightly as he holds me. It isn’t fair, none of this is. From the very start, every odd was against us. But right now, in this moment, I don’t feel bitter or angry. I’m grateful.

  We’re both alive.

  Honestly, after everything I’ve seen and everything I’ve done, I can’t ask for anything more.

  36

  The Paths and the Lack Thereof

  “You two,” Maur says behind us. “Are always like this, aren’t you? Goodness, Ava, you and Vito are worse than your mother and father.”

  My lips twitch down at the remark, but Vito doesn’t make to let go and neither do I.

  “What do you want?” I ask, not exactly harsh, but not exactly soft.

  Maur sighs. I turn to glare at him but find him smiling. Well, that’s not expected.

  “We aren’t exactly in the clear, staying here. It’s really only a matter of time until Carita or anyone else finds us behind this illusion—no illusion can ever stand against this much pressure, no matter how well executed.”

  “Carita or…anyone else?” Vito asks, voice rough.

  Maur cocks an eyebrow. “Well, when it was only Ava who had escaped, there was a pretty good chance that Caelum would give up on their search eventually. One illusionist can’t do too much damage down here, not in their eyes. Even though Ava has wings, if she, well…” He struggles for words, a sight that I can’t say I’ve ever seen before. “If you ended up, er, breeding.” He flinches. “Your dragon’s blood would get more and more diluted and those wings of yours wouldn’t get passed down too far, or at least not as they are.”

  “What does my ‘breeding’ have to do with anything?” I tense, turning from Vito, but Vito’s hand stays on my shoulder, a calm pulse against mine.

  Maur splutters again, a sort of entertaining sight. “It has to do with everything, to them. One illusionist and one dragon is no threat to the city in the sky. That’s what they care about, all they care about. They claim to be so powerful, they build myths and legends and fantasies around themselves, those damned dragons.” He says the word like a curse, like he’s not one of them. “But all they ever do, all they ever think and plot about, is losing that power. They’re paranoid, they’re controlling, and they are terrified that the ground may gain more control than them.”

  “You’re saying that they’re probably searching for us as we speak?” Vito asks, his hand tightening slightly.

  Maur nods. “That is exactly what I’m saying.”

  “But Carita said that she’d sent them to the border, looking for us—which I don’t doubt, if she was trying to hide a dragon.” I have to ball my fist against the anger, the betrayal of that one sentence. How she comforted me. “They have the entire rest of the world to search.”

  “True,” Maur admits. “But when they send their hunters out to search and they don’t find a trace of you anywhere, what then? The wingless are trained to track and kill from the moment they’re old enough to walk. When they come back empty-handed, you’d better believe this will be the first place that they will check.”

  “I never—” He may be a strange old dragon, but at least Maur is quick. “Why didn’t we run, then? Why are we still in this town? We need to get out; we need to warn the Azelain.” A coldness creeps into my bones. My mom is coming to help me, and I’m leading her right into the hornets’ nest.

  “Between you and Vito, we couldn’t move very far. You needed to recoup, and if he went much farther, he could have died. Luckily, I learned some healing tricks from some of the best healers in the desert. Not as luckily, I can’t perform those tricks on the move and it has us trapped here. I was considering flying, but now they have wings, too.”

  I look to the ground, grimacing. “I…I’m sorry. If I’d known—”

  “Oh, come now, we all make mistakes.” Maur waves a hand. “I’ll heckle you for your bad choices later, when we have the time to discuss them. However, we’re in the heart of the cobra’s den. We could make a run for it, but with Vito’s injuries, it’s not something I’d recommend.”

  “You don’t have any ideas?” I ask, a desperate edge to my voice.

  “Well—”

  Something bangs against the wall.

  Maur stands straight, eyes widening. “Running. We should definitely go with running.”

  The banging sounds again and again, coming from completely random directions, making me spin around, trying to follow them, trace their source.

  “Wonderful,” Maur mutters, running toward us. “Well, it was worth a shot, anyway.” He grabs Vito’s shoulder, pushing him to the door.

  “Wait!” I scramble ahead of them, jumping in front of the door. “We need some sort of plan—these aren’t untrained idiots.”

  “Exactly. They won’t be expecting this. If we wait any longer—”

  “Shh.” Vito’s voice is soft, but enough to get both of us to shut up.

  It’s quiet for a second, Vito’s brow furrowed as he concentrates. I bite my tongue on the whats and the whys, Maur starting to scowl.

  “They’re here.” His warm eyes meet mine with an urgency that makes my gut spin.

  “Who?” Maur asks.

  Thunder cracks through the air. It’s muffled by the walls around us, but I can still feel it in my bones, spiking around.

  Maur narrows his eyes. “Well, this makes things a little more difficult.”

  Something slams on the roof, making me jump. “Difficult doesn’t entirely cover it.”

  “What do we do next?” Vito asks, looking between Maur and me.

  The better question would be: what can we do?

  Maur rubs his temple. “Quite frankly, I don’t know. We could go and fight against soldiers trained specifically to kill people like us. We could attempt to run through two parties both very eager for our heads. Or maybe we have a third option.” He looks toward me. “It all depends on you, Ava.”

  “M-me?” I stutter, taking a step back. “Since when did I ever command what two dragons do?”

  “Well,” Maur quirks his head. “Your dragon will follow you anywhere. I think that goes without saying?” He looks to Vito, and the determined set of his eyebrows says enough on the matter. “And taking some of my brother’s pride would be delightful, no question about it, but I’m more of a sidelines kind of person.”

  “What about the Azelain? What if they come, what if both sides turn against them and they…” They may all die if they decide on coming. But can we stop them if my mother convinces them all to come? “Any one of us would kill for a chance to take down that city.” My mom…

  There’s more banging on the roof, scuffling and creaking and cracking.

  Are they fighting or have they found us? What about both?

  If we fight, we’ll die.

  If we
run, we might live. We could bury ourselves so deeply that no one would ever find us, even guess where to look. We could live underground. We could live in the sea, like Maur does.

  But this town, this army, this chance is gone. Even if we have the Azelain, we won’t have wings. And if they do come, and we lose them, I won’t have my mom. Either way, I would leave every single person in this country to suffer, as they’re knowingly or unknowingly shepherded along by a tyrant of a dragon until it’s time for their culling. No matter how tempting the call of freedom is, I can’t quell the anger that roils through me when I think of the city. Even if the battle is hopeless, I want to cause Caelum pain.

  A third option.

  We need a third option.

  “What about Caelum itself?” I have to raise my voice, the commotion rising in sound. I wring my hand around my sabre’s handle, my palm sweaty.

  “What? How is that going to help—” Maur starts.

  “With everyone down here, fighting, who’s up there? Who’s there to protect the king?”

  Maur’s eyes widen.

  Vito turns toward me. “Are you sure this is what you want, Ava?” It isn’t fear that causes the wrinkles around his eyes, it’s concern.

  “Sometimes it only takes one more straw to topple the pile, Ava.” My dad’s voice runs through my mind, a shock to my system. “Never let numbers alone stop you.”

  It isn’t an option. For my mother, for the people, and for Vito, I say, “We fight.”

  Maur presses his lips together, then nods. Vito gives a small smile, then reaches out and takes my hand.

  “Now, serpent,” Maur says, rubbing a finger along his lips. “I know that this is important to you, but you have to understand—the fighting and the killing isn’t important. Now hold onto your yelling; I didn’t just say that to make you irritated. This time.” Thunder cracks through the air, reverberating through the clay walls of the building.

  “They must be defeated, yes.” Maur meets my eyes. “But as long as Caelum exists, the city’s dragons and their rule cannot be overthrown. The illusion is simply too powerful.”