Winging It (18 page)

We laughed together and I had a minute to think that everything was back to usual.

She rolled over to face me and I had a heartbeat to brace myself against whatever she was going to say. ‘Hey, I meant to tell you. Jessica found this site today, about the
Pyr
.’

My throat got tight. ‘The what?’

Oh, I am such a lousy liar.

‘The dragon guys! I told you there has to be one at our school.’

‘Oh, right.’

‘Why aren’t you interested in this? You draw dragons all the time.’

‘I dunno. Maybe they make more sense to me as fiction.’

Right. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

‘As if,’ Meagan scoffed. ‘Real is ten zillion times better.’

I didn’t say anything to that.

‘So, listen, this site says that the
Pyr
have these powers.’

I looked around the room, wishing I knew where this was going. ‘What kind of powers?’

‘One’s called beguiling. They kind of hypnotize people by creating flames in their eyes. People stare at the flames and the dragon guy makes suggestions and they end up agreeing. How cool is that?’

The only possible solution was to sound skeptical. I tried. ‘Flames in their eyes? Really?’

‘I think it would be awesome to see that dragon guy again. I wouldn’t mind at all if he beguiled me.’

‘I think it sounds silly.’ My tone was cranky and gruff, sour enough to spoil Meagan’s mood.

Smooth move, Zoë. Lie to her and piss her off. That’s the way to treat a friend.

I heard Meagan typing in the darkness once she stopped talking to me, so I tugged out my messenger as well. Garrett had sent a message that he’d found some information and would call me in the morning to tell me about it. Nick was outraged that Kohana had attacked me. Both of them were very, very quiet about Jared.

‘Huh,’ Meagan said suddenly. ‘Jessica thinks you were holding out on me, too.’

‘What?’ That surprised me.

‘She says you must have been trying to keep Liam to yourself.’

I’d had enough of Jessica. ‘No way. Liam is just this guy I grew up with—’

‘Zoë,’ Meagan said, interrupting me firmly. ‘I’m not fooled. Whether Jessica’s right about this or not, you’ve been lying to me since spring break.’

Caught. If I could have thought of a good comeback, I would have argued my own side. As it was, I was totally out of my daily allotment of lies. I just shut up.

Meagan sniffed with displeasure after a moment – sounding a lot like my mom – then rolled over so her back was toward me. She wasn’t asleep. I could still see the glow of her messenger and hear the sound of her typing.

I knew who she was messaging.

Jessica. Jessica. It was always about Jessica. Jessica was right and I was wrong, and there was nothing I could say to change that.

Why did Jessica give me the creeps? I’d assumed I was just jealous of the attention Meagan was giving her. But maybe it was something else.

Or maybe thinking it was something else was a pathetic cover for jealousy.

There was only one way to find out more.

I told myself that I might like Jessica better if I just talked to her for once. It sounded like something my mom would say. I wasn’t convinced, but I’d give it a try.

Because, you know, I didn’t have anything else to do.

We were back to our awkward pattern again the next morning, much to my regret. Meagan and I walked to school in comparative silence. Actually, we kind of trudged along. It was painful, especially when I thought of how easy it used to be between us.

And I couldn’t think of a good way to fix it.

Just how much trouble was I already in for shifting to fight Kohana? It was easier to dismiss the prospect of exile when I was angry and acting in the heat of the moment. Walking along with Meagan, I could only remember the burn of dragonsmoke on my hand and shiver. I’d gotten injured, too. There was negative reinforcement.

How was I going to negotiate a treaty with the wolves? I hadn’t any clue how to go about it.

It was galling to admit that my dad might know something.

Jessica waved from the doorway to the school. Waiting, as usual.

‘What about those trig problems?’ she asked, all aglow with the thrill of solving them.

‘The third one was tricky,’ Meagan said. ‘Because of the wording.’

‘Right. You had to look for the arctangent.’

‘You guys want to sit together at lunch?’ I asked.

They both looked at me as if I’d just dropped in from Mars.

‘On Tuesdays, we go to the library instead,’ Jessica informed me. ‘C’mon, Meagan.’

‘Didn’t know the library was off-limits,’ I said. ‘I’ll keep that in mind.’

I hauled open the door to the school. Meagan hesitated for a minute, but then she stayed with Jessica.

So I knew where I stood.

I opened my locker a bit more savagely than was strictly necessary and threw my books in. I heard a step beside me and glanced up, surprised to find Trevor there.

Smiling.

Like a starving man checking out lunch.

I smiled back.

Like lunch that bites all the way down.

He was as neatly turned out as ever. I swear someone ironed his jeans. He was pretty good-looking, if a bit stiff. As I surveyed him, I had to admit what an oddity he was. He could have been a jock, but he was a music fiend. He could have been a geek, but there was the way he played the sax.

But that was Mage stuff. He was enchanting everyone who listened.

His parents were totally loaded, which didn’t hurt. He had this vintage MG in British racing green that he drove to school every day and they lived in one of those huge houses on Riverside Drive.

If he hadn’t squealed into the parking lot with that car every day, I don’t think someone like Suzanne would even have noticed him. Much.

Someone like Meagan would, though. If anything, Trevor seemed a bit too squeaky-clean to me to be real.

But then, I knew his secret.

And he knew mine.

Maybe he played it squeaky-clean because he really was sneaky. Maybe it was an act. And only the music – or the spell he cast with it – was real.

I had a vague sense of Derek’s presence, somewhere in the hall. I liked knowing he was looking out for me.

‘Get my invitation?’ Trevor asked.

‘Yes, thanks. What a surprise.’ I rummaged in my locker for my sketchbook and pencil box. Tuesday morning was the bright spot of my life – art class.

‘You didn’t get back to me about it.’

‘I didn’t see an RSVP on it.’

He smiled. ‘Just wanted to have an idea of numbers.’

I shut my locker. ‘Sorry I can’t make it.’

‘Busy?’

I shrugged and smiled. ‘Just one of those things. But thanks anyway.’

To my dismay, he fell into step beside me. ‘Maybe you could just stop by for a while.’

‘I don’t think so.’ I tried to be polite. ‘Maybe another time.’ After hell froze over and the planets dropped out of their orbits, the sun splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, etc.

He chuckled and I glanced up to find that his smile had broadened. ‘Or maybe I just have to find a way to change your mind.’

Before I could ask, Trevor winked and turned away, leaving me looking after him. I felt threatened, that was for sure, although I couldn’t imagine what he might do.

I didn’t want to imagine what he might do.

I caught movement from the corner of my eye and saw Derek’s back as he strode down the hall in the opposite direction. Meagan was standing back by the door with Jessica, her gaze locked on me. She looked hurt. I might have said something to her, but before I could think of what that might be, she pivoted and headed to class with Jessica.

Perfect. I could just guess what Jessica was telling her. That I was keeping Liam to myself while I did Trevor on the side.

A perfect start to another perfect day.

I headed for art class, glum. That had to be a first.

‘You okay?’ Derek asked. I jumped, shocked to find him behind me. I hadn’t heard him coming at all. In fact, I’d thought he was going the other way.

‘Sure. Thanks. How about you?’

His gaze searched mine, as if he wasn’t going to take my word on it. ‘You’re angry.’ I watched his nostrils flare. ‘Hurt.’

I had to cede to a sense of smell that sharp. I smiled. ‘You have any human friends?’

His lips twisted and he glanced down the hall, as if scanning for likely candidates. Knowing he wouldn’t find one. Resigned to it. ‘It’s impossible.’ His gaze slid back to mine. ‘Better to run solo, or stick with those who understand.’

He put a slight emphasis on this last word, and held my gaze for an unblinking moment. I couldn’t read his expression. He was just watchful. Intent.

Okay, so he liked me because we were both shifters.

He almost smiled when I thought that and I knew I’d nailed it in one.

Now or never.

‘I want to talk to you …’ I started to say, but he straightened and stepped back.

‘Call for you,’ he said, right before my messenger chimed.

I looked between it and him, and must have looked surprised.

He smiled. ‘Told you.’

‘Two minutes’ warning.’

He shrugged. ‘Sometimes three.’ Then he sauntered away.

Oh, I wanted some of that. It wasn’t much foresight, but it was more than I had. As Wyvern, I was supposed to have buckets of foresight, but thus far I had none.

Zero.

Nada.

And if ever there had been a moment when I’d have liked a peek at the future, this was it.

I answered my messenger and it was Garrett. I asked him to hang on for a second.

‘That must be useful,’ I called after Derek.

‘Good or bad, it just is.’ He shrugged. ‘Like Jessica.’

Well, that was fair enough. I watched him head off to class. He moved with an athletic grace, his steady, long stride looking effortless even as he covered a lot of distance. I had the sense he could walk like that for days. He kept to the side of the corridor, evading the gaze and the notice of most of the students.

Like a moving shadow.

Or a wolf in the night. Solitary and purposeful.

I gave myself a shake and remembered Garrett. ‘Hey, sorry.’

‘Got a date?’ he teased and I smiled. We weren’t on video, though, so he didn’t know it.

‘I’ll tell you in a minute. What did you find?’

‘There’s a book in my mom’s store about Native American legends and stories. You know how your mom always says that myths and stories have their roots in a truth?’

‘Right.’

‘Well, here’s one that you’ll find interesting. There are legends in many Native American tribes about Thunderbirds. They’re supposed to be strong and fast, supernatural birds. The idea is that they cause storms by the beating of their wings, they can throw thunderbolts, and they cause lightning by the flash of their eyes. In some tribes, they control rainfall. The Lakota call them
Wakiya.
’

‘Okay.’ I started to walk to class, remembering that Kohana had called himself that. The description certainly was consistent with his powers.

Garrett continued, excitement in his voice. ‘But here’s the thing – in some Pacific Northwest tribes, Thunderbirds are believed to be shape shifters. They open their beaks and pull them back like a hood, then shed their feathers like a coat. They married humans ages ago, so there are families who pass this ability through the generations.’

‘Like us.’ I stopped in the hall, focused on Garrett’s voice.

‘Just like us.’ I could hear that Garrett had one more morsel to share. ‘In fact, the Sioux tell a story that the Thunderbirds fought and defeated a race of reptiles centuries ago. Guess what the reptiles were called?’

‘
Unktehila.
’

‘Bingo. We must have made a treaty based on territory – they said we were defeated because we retreated to our own turf.’

‘Europe,’ I said. ‘And we forgot the deal over time because so many of us were killed.’

‘And ultimately we came back to North America,’ Garrett concluded. ‘That’s Kohana’s beef with the
Pyr.
’

‘And why he calls us oathbreakers.’

So, the Thunderbirds were allying with the Mages to enforce the terms of an old treaty, intending to drive us
Pyr
out of North America and off the map if necessary. And the Mages found that useful. I guessed that Kohana and other Thunderbirds had a trick up their sleeves for the Mages, and wondered what it was.

Did Mages have a weakness?

How could I persuade Kohana and the Thunderbirds to fight
with
us, instead of against us?

‘It says these families tend to live on the northern end of Vancouver Island,’ Garrett concluded. ‘That they stick to themselves and are very secretive.’

‘Sounds like the Covenant to me.’

‘Sure does. Maybe we have more in common than any of us realize.’

That gave me an idea. ‘Can you have another look in your mom’s books?’

‘I think I’ve been through everything, Zoë …’ Garrett started to argue.

‘I need you to look for something different.’ I dropped my voice to a whisper. ‘Werewolves.’ If I was going to negotiate a treaty with Derek and his kind, more knowledge would be better.

Garrett didn’t say anything for a minute. Then he spoke softly. ‘You found one.’

‘Right under my nose.’ The bell rang. ‘I’ve got to go.’

‘I’ll look,’ Garrett said.

‘Good. Thanks. Later.’ And I ran.

Art class was a relief, although I wasn’t exactly as focused as usual. My still life in charcoal was less than my best effort and it showed. Mr Hughes wasn’t fooled. He didn’t say anything, but his lips tightened before he returned to his desk.

He made a bunch of notes and I tried not to be so egotistical as to assume that they must be about me.

I was thinking about everything BUT school, it seemed.

Math class was next and right before lunch. I slid through the back door of the classroom and took my usual seat at the rear. I wished I could be invisible in this class, as I was falling behind on the work. I pulled out the homework that I hadn’t completed and hoped we wouldn’t have to turn it in. Meagan and Jessica were sitting together at the front, whispering. They never got in trouble for that – after all, they were the class stars.