For practice, I placed a soccer ball, a tennis ball, and a ping pong ball in front of me on the grass. Although you’d think that bigger objects were tougher to move, this wasn’t entirely true. According to Professor Binion, all of this was about precision, and the smaller the object was, the more difficult it was to articulate exactly where you wanted it to go. So, I could move the soccer ball in a perfect square in the air, my hands on my hips, kind of just half-assing it—but when it came to the ping pong ball, I was pretty good at lifting that thing and then accidentally making it fly half-way across the field. Oops.
On one of these ping-pong occasions, I heard clapping off to the side and turned to find Quintin there, laughing at my mistake. I lurched down, grabbed the tennis ball, and threw it at him, just narrowly missing.
“Oh! So close, Ivy,” he said sarcastically. Then, he stepped into the field and approached me, arching his brow. “I watched you for a while, though. You’re getting better.”
“Thanks, I guess. I wish I could say it was easy,” I told him.
“You’re still pretty fucking new at this whole thing,” Quintin said.
“I know. But it’s hard not to get really impatient about all of it. Especially since I can’t leave the academy grounds until my powers grow.”
Quintin nodded. There was a strange silence. He seemed to be analyzing me for some reason. I laughed and said, “I don’t think you’re the mind reader here, Q.”
“I know. I’m just. There’s so much about me that you don’t know,” he said.
I tilted my head, overwhelmed with the comment. This was true—and I’d hardly had time to think about it. Quintin was a dragon—a monstrous, fire-breathing, terrifying, and dangerous dragon. I had no clue what he studied as a dragon, or what it even meant to be a dragon going into the future.
“What do you look like?” I finally asked him, my voice only a whisper.
Quintin turned his eyes to the ground. “I wouldn’t want you to look at me any differently. I can’t imagine what you would think.”
“You’ve already seen so much of me at my worst,” I told him. “And I could never, ever think of you badly. Not now.”
Quintin exhaled. A few little flicks of fire came out with the breath. It would have been funny, and maybe I would have laughed, except his eyes looked deathly serious. He closed them for a second, then furrowed his brow.
“I’ll do it. But only because nobody else is really on campus. It—it really could terrify you, Ivy. I want to warn you.”
I stepped back and spread my arms out. “Go on. I showed you my ping pong routine. Now, you show me yours.”
Quintin thrust his shoulders back violently. As he did, enormous wings shot out from his shoulder blades, ripping through the fabric of his shirt. Immediately, his jaw jutted out, and large green scales flung themselves across it. His teeth grew long and sharp, just as his snout erupted out and long. He fell forward as his wings flapped, and I saw that his legs had already changed, becoming scaly and long, with large talons on each toe. His tail stretched to the far end of the soccer field. I fell back, not out of fear, but out of surprise at just how fucking big he was. Probably thirty feet long, his teeth as long as most of my body—able, for sure, to rip through my skin and muscle without even breaking a sweat.
The dragon called Quintin hovered above the soccer field, flapping his wings and gazing at me. He had the same eyes as when in his human form, and they glowed beautifully, dangerously. Again, I demanded of myself why I wasn’t afraid. It seemed so bizarre as I stood up, lifted my chin, and reached up—almost wanting to touch him, to know him in this other form.
I should have been screaming.
I should have been crying with fear.
But instead, my head stirred with lust. I was turned on, stepping closer to him, feeling guided by some other kind of force or power, something I couldn’t fully name.
It brought me back to what the boys had told me about our connection.
I felt it more and more with every second.
This dragon, he was growing in his love for me. He would do anything to protect me.
I grew wet between my legs. I wanted to clamber up the dragon and wrap my arms around him, feel the violent beat of his heart beneath my body. My lips opened in shock at the power of this emotion.
“Quintin, you’re incredible,” I murmured, although I was sure that the words had been lost in the air.
Suddenly, there was a violent burning coming from the locket. I couldn’t help it: I screamed as pain permeated up and down my body, seeming to come from the locket itself. On cue, Quintin, the dragon let out a wild roar and yanked his head back, as though he’d just been shot. He crashed to the ground, falling like a rock from the sky, and smashed his head against the soccer field. I cried out in shock, no longer remembering the burn of the locket, and crumpled to the ground near Quintin’s dragon head.
Chapter Fourteen
I had no idea how long I had sat there next to the dragon. His eyes had closed and he let out little, soft puffs of air. Tears rolled down my cheeks as the locket continued to burn against my chest.
Suddenly, I heard my name called out from across the soccer field. I flashed my eyes up to see both Raphael and Ezra, hurtling toward us. As they raced forward, the dragon began to shrink back into human form: his long snout lurching back into his face, the green skin turning pale and human again. I continued to look at the dragon, then back at Ezra and Raphael. Nobody seemed to know what to do.
"What happened?" Ezra cried.
How the fuck could I explain? I turned back to Quintin and watched as his large, glowing eyes closed. As he fell into unconsciousness, we realized that he had marks all over his body—violent ash marks, as though someone had tried to curse him.
“No. No. What is this...” I whispered. I grabbed my gloves from my pocket, just in case, and touched Quintin’s arm delicately, trying to wake him. “Quintin. Baby. Can you hear me?”
“We felt our bracelets burning,” Raphael said, lifting his arm to show the subtle glow of the gold band. “We knew there was something wrong.”
“And we knew where you were, too,” Ezra affirmed.
Raphael swept forward and brought his muscular arms beneath Quintin. It all happened so quickly.
“Why is he covered in burns?” I cried, watching as Raphael lifted him higher.
“They don’t seem to be anything but superficial,” Raphael called back. “But let’s get him to a professor. Come on!”
I kept up with them, running all the way to the main building. Raphael was careful to keep Quintin’s head from sloshing around to the side. As he raced, I noticed that his legs seemed to grow bulkier, almost wolf-like—and wondered if he could transform himself on-command when he wanted to run a bit faster, operate outside of his human form.
When we reached the main building, I gasped for breath and staggered inside after them. We blinked around the darkness, unsure of who on earth would still be at the school the day after Christmas.
“Professor Binion. He’s here,” I said suddenly, rushing up the staircase to his office. I knew he lived just down the hall and that he’d decided to move to the main building to keep better watch over me. I’d only seen him once since the beginning of Christmas break and had honestly hardly thought about him—choosing instead to get into whatever trouble I could with the boys.
Now, I needed him.
Raphael and Ezra caught up to me just as I smashed my fist against Professor Binion’s door, calling his name. When I turned to check on them, Raphael said, “It seems like most of his original burns have already healed themselves.”
I gave him a confused look, which he answered with a shrug. “Shapeshifters like us heal really quickly. But he’s still unconscious, which means whatever hit him... it was fucking dark. Really powerful.”
I didn’t have time to answer. Suddenly, Professor Binion appeared in the doorway, wearing a pair of jeans, a regular t-shirt. He seemed in the middle of rea
ding something, and his spectacles hung low on his nose. He frowned at us, then turned his attention to Quintin.
“Get the boy in here. Now,” he ordered.
I sped into Professor Binion’s quarters. I was surprised to see how normal it seemed—just a small bedroom, a little kitchenette and a living area. He’d arranged himself a little Christmas tree in the corner, with twinkling decorations. A photograph of him and an older woman sat on the corner table. Could that be his mother, someone he’d left behind in the tribe?
Raphael spread Quintin across the couch. His eyes remained closed, but his body—naked except for his boxers—remained a bit bruised.
“He was covered in burns,” I told Professor Binion.
Professor Binion dropped to his knees in front of the couch and spread his hands out in the air over the top of Quintin’s body. He muttered several incantations under his breath. Quintin’s face seemed to relax even more. Several of the bruises repaired themselves, falling from blue to pale skin again. I realized I shook with fear and tried to calm myself. Ezra placed his hand in the small of my back, and the locket glowed against my skin—this time without pain. It seemed more an assurance that we were all together. That this time, at least, we would be all right.
Quintin had always said he would protect me.
But what happened if I couldn’t protect him?
Professor Binion stood. He removed his glasses and cleaned them off on his t-shirt, then turned. “The incantations I just prepared should calm him down and slowly bring him back to consciousness. It’s a rare thing for a dragon to go unconscious. What happened?”
Neither Raphael nor Quintin spoke.
“He wanted to show me,” I said, my voice staggered and strange. “He transformed and—and it all seemed okay for a while. But then, he suddenly crashed to the ground.”
Professor Binion furrowed his brow. He didn’t ask how Ezra and Raphael had discovered us; I was grateful for this since I didn’t want to get into the whole locket thing with my professor.
“Magic must have penetrated the protective charms around the academy,” he muttered. “Dark magic. Incredibly dark. I haven’t seen anything like this in quite some time.”
I balked, remembering what Aunt Maria had always told me.
“I thought the charms around the school were meant to be the most powerful in the world,” I said, my nostrils flared. “I don’t understand how something like this could happen. It seems irresponsible.”
Professor Binion looked terrified. I could see it, the emotion of it, shaking around behind his eyes. But he put a protective barrier around his emotions just a split-second after that, surely knowing that I dug around back there, hunting for some kind of information.
I was that strong because he’d trained me to be, which meant he knew how to guard himself against me.
“Ivy, I’ll set upon strengthening the charms this afternoon. Nothing like that will break through the grounds again. I can assure you,” he said.
“But if you already thought the original charms were strong enough, how can you be sure?” I demanded.
Professor Binion looked aghast. He ran his fingers through his grey hair and tugged at it. I wondered at the stress I’d caused him through his entire life: how he’d always had this plot, to be my professor, to train me. He’d gone against everything he’d ever known, for my future.
And here I was, demanding more of him.
But it mattered. Quintin had nearly been killed.
I simmered with rage and confusion. Ezra’s hand wrapped tighter against my back. I knew he could feel my anger since his bracelet glowed on his left wrist.
There wasn’t time to fight it, though. Suddenly, Quintin opened his eyes and coughed and sputtered for thirty seconds, as though he had journeyed from death back to the land of the living. He turned to look at me, his eyes enormous, and he reached out to grab my gloved hand. I squeezed it hard, tears coming to my eyes.
“Quintin!” I was overwhelmed to see him open his eyes again.
I realized then just how terrified I’d been that he wouldn’t come back to life.
Professor Binion grabbed a glass of water from the sink and hustled back to pass it to Quintin. Quintin drank heartily like he’d never tasted water before. He then gasped for air and blinked up at us again.
“Quintin. Do you remember anything?” I asked him.
He frowned. “I transformed for you. And I was up above you, flying, and—and then suddenly there was this horrible darkness. It felt like someone was inserting fire into my mind, trying to tear me apart from the inside. I don’t remember anything after that.”
Professor Binion walked slowly to the window and gazed out. I placed my head delicately over the top of Quintin’s chest and whispered to him, just loud enough for him to hear, “I’m so glad you’re all right. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“I said I’d protect you, didn’t I?” he said, with a sly wink.
This seemed to confirm it: whatever dark magic that had penetrated the charms surrounding the academy had been sent as an attack for me. Worse, maybe the spells had been meant for Quintin—proof that nobody could really protect me.
Professor Binion remained at the window. Ezra, Raphael, and I helped Quintin to his feet. When Professor Binion turned back, his eyes were gloomy, shadowed.
“The charms will be strengthened today,” he told me. “You have my word.”
I hoped I could trust him.
Together, the boys and I headed back for the boys’ dormitory and helped Quintin to bed. We didn’t want to leave one another; we’d been through enough. I sat with Quintin on his bed, massaging his shoulders, and Ezra and Raphael placed a laptop on the table in front of us and put on an old movie, a human one that Ezra said his dad had always thought was hilarious. We sat together in silence, all of us trying (and probably failing) to forget all the bullshit we’d just been through.
I couldn’t help but think it was the beginning of something really, really horrible.
Chapter Fifteen
Celeste arrived back on the evening of December 28. I waited for her in the parking area and flung myself at her and hugged her. She giggled wildly and said, “Dude. It was barely a few days. What happened?”
But how could I describe to her all that had happened? I leaned back and beamed at her, trying to make my face look normal. It seemed like the more I struggled to do that, the weirder it became.
Zoey popped out of the driver’s side and hustled over to me. After a brief hug, she unlatched the back of the car and pulled out two boxes and pressed them into my hands. Her eyes told me what I needed to know: that these gifts were from Aunt Maria. That she missed me, she loved me; she wanted nothing more than for us to be together again soon. I nodded in understanding and then hugged Zoey again.
“Give her a hug for me, won’t you?” I said, my voice a whisper.
“Of course, baby. She sent this one already,” Zoey said.
Back in Celeste’s room, she told me a little about her trip back to Hillside Falls. “It does feel a little bit ominous, I’m not going to lie,” she said, adding a few of her witch spell books, newly gifted, to her shelves. “Even if they’re not in the supernatural world, the people in Hillside Falls are creeped out after those murders. Everyone looks at everyone else, suspiciously. I don’t know. I think it’s really better that you didn’t go—and good I didn’t stay there for long. No telling what they might have done.” After she swallowed, she glanced down at me and leaped from her chair to her bed. “Mom told me a little bit more about what happened over Thanksgiving. I hope you don’t mind.”
I shrugged. What did it matter? I’d seen worse, now.
“That’s so fucking scary, Ivy. I guess I get why you don’t want to talk about it more, but... It fucking sucks. To put it lightly.”
Silence formed after that. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Thanks? Or that’s why I was acting so weird, sorry? But instead, I tore through th
e wrapping paper on the boxes from Aunt Maria, clucking my tongue and saying something I could hardly hear, like, “What did she get me? She knows I don’t need anything.”
“That’s not the point of Christmas,” Celeste said, her voice lighter again.
Maybe it would fix the weird dynamic between us—if only for a moment.
Inside the boxes, Aunt Maria had packed a sort of winter-wonderland of sweaters and socks she’d knitted, cookies and brownies she’d baked, and little poetry books, which, according to the card included, had been written by old shapeshifters in my mother and Aunt Maria’s tribe, long ago. I lifted the book of poetry curiously, marveling at what it might mean to peer into this world I would never really be allowed to see.
“Funny she got you something from people who kind of want to destroy you,” Celeste pointed out.
“I’m sure she just misses how it all used to be,” I murmured, flipping through the book for a moment. “I can relate.”
Celeste considered this. She then dropped to the ground beside me, raised her hand and grabbed the locket around my neck to inspect. Her brows furrowed. “What is this?”
I couldn’t exactly get anything as big as that past my best friend. I took the locket back from her and held it out, so I could see it just under my chin. “Raphael, Quintin, and Ezra gave it to me,” I said.
Saying it out loud like that kind of overwhelmed me. But I pressed on, adding, “It’s connected to them by powerful protective magic. Whatever pain or fear I go through, they sense it.”
Celeste’s lips formed a round O. “Seriously? And does it actually work?”
I nodded and described what had just happened with Quintin and the other boys on the soccer field.
Celeste shook her head wildly. “Dark magic? Penetrated the academy charms? You can’t be serious.”
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