Winging It (6 page)

I smiled, reassured by her quick reply, then typed my own.

My messenger rang instantly on its voice setting. It was Meagan.

Like I said, she’s the best friend in the world.

I gave her the squeaky-clean Covenant-approved version of what had happened – because I knew that my dad would be able to hear anything I said to Meagan, even if I whispered, thanks to that super-keen
Pyr
hearing. (And I could hear him breathing dragonsmoke, weaving it more thickly around the apartment. He was going to be a hard-ass about the Covenant this time, my rotten luck.) Basically, I told Meagan that I’d come home to find my mom walking out the door, that they’d been fighting, and that I wasn’t sure when she’d be back.

All true.

Just not all of the truth.

We speculated on possibilities for a while, whether they would reconcile, but then I couldn’t stand it any longer.

‘You said something happened today,’ I asked, keeping my tone level. I knew what had happened in the bathroom, but I wasn’t supposed to know. I was cool.

Until she answered me.

‘It did!’ Meagan said with excitement. ‘You’ll never believe this, but you know those dragon shifter guys we see on television sometimes?’

‘Yeah?’ I sat up, a bit worried.

‘One of them goes to our school!’ Meagan crowed, unaware that my mouth had fallen open. ‘And he defended me against Suzanne.
Me!
’ Her voice dropped to an excited whisper. ‘Who do you think it is? Peter Morris? Mike Gallagher? You know, it could be Tony Amario. I’ve always thought he was a bit mysterious.’

It was good that she was on a roll. I couldn’t think of a thing to say, but Meagan had plenty of guesses as to who the previously unsuspected
Pyr
student might be.

She didn’t know – or hadn’t realized – that there could be a girl dragon in her vicinity.

At least not so far.

You might have thought that that was plenty of action for one day in the life of a Wyvern, but one more thing happened that day.

When I fell asleep, Granny came back.

With a friend.

I woke up in the middle of the night, shivering in my bed. I rolled over to pull up the covers and saw snow in my room.

But only when I looked with my left eye. When I opened only my right eye, my bedroom looked perfectly normal. If I closed that eye and looked just with the left again, I was out on the tundra, the walls of my room dissolved, a big tree right where the door should be.

I knew the eye game well. I’d learned to play it when my Wyvern powers first appeared. That had been the first time I’d dreamed of Granny, when she’d given me the rune stone. She’d also showed me how the eye game worked. It was kind of reassuring to have it make a second appearance – I’d been a bit disappointed by its absence all summer long.

Even better, Granny herself was back. I felt like waving hello. She still looked like Mrs Claus, and she was still knitting with silent efficiency. Just like before, she could have been knitting a snowdrift.

But this time, she had company.

There was another woman beside her – at least, I think it was a woman. She was wearing a cape, with a hood, one that wrapped her completely in silvery gray. Her hood was filled with shadows, as if she didn’t even have a head, but I could see her eyes gleaming in the darkness. She had a weird-looking gizmo in her hands, like a top that she constantly kept spinning. She moved so quickly that her hands were just a blur. I watched her, fascinated by the rhythm and eventually realized that she was making thread.

Like knitting wool. Yes! There was a loose stream of white over her shoulder, soft as a cloud, and she was feeding it into the spinning top, pulling it into long, twisted thread.

That must be a drop spindle. I’d heard my mom talk about them before and was pretty sure she even had one.

And sure enough, the spun wool that came from the bottom of the top, all sleek and slender and tight, seemed to be feeding the knitting that Granny was doing.

Would the sheep turn up next? I wondered.

‘I am Urd,’ said the new arrival, startling me with her words. Granny had never spoken to me. She’d just chucked a rune stone at my head. I wasn’t expecting audio. ‘You already know my sister, Verdandi.’

I opened my mouth, intending to ask questions, but Urd suddenly held up one finger. It was creepy, that finger, like a skeleton’s finger. I was kind of glad to not be seeing her face just then.

I did as I was told and kept silent.

‘“Verdandi” means “what is”. “Urd” means “what was”.’ Then she pointed that finger at the ground, down to the root of the tree where there was a dark hole. I’d peered into the hole before. It was like a well, a dark hole that stretched down farther than I could see, with a shimmer of water’s reflection at the bottom.

It gave me the heebie-jeebies, that well. Granny knit faster, as if she were troubled, and her gaze was locked on me. Her lips were tight with concern, the way my mom’s get when she’s fighting against her urge to argue with my dad.

Hmm. Guess she’d gotten over that.

Urd put down her spindle and did a little sleight of hand, reaching into the air and closing her fist on something that wasn’t there. I blinked and then she opened her palm to show me what she held.

Rafferty’s ring.

No,
my
ring.

‘Hey!’ I leapt from my bed to grab the ring from her. She waited until I almost had it, then closed her fist and flung the ring down the well.

I fell to the ground beside the well, too slow to snatch the ring out of the air. I could see it glinting as it fell, a red glow emanating from it. Then it splashed into that water way down at the bottom.

And disappeared.

I caught a whiff of shadows and rot. Whatever was down there, it could stay put as far as I was concerned. The ring, I was ready to concede, was lost. Even in a dream, I didn’t see any reason to dive into a pit that I wouldn’t be able to escape.

But Urd had other ideas. She moved fast. When I would have stood up again, I found her bony hand was on my shoulder. She was strong, stronger than anyone would expect, and she shoved me toward the well. I stumbled, because she caught me by surprise.

I fought and struggled, but Urd pushed me steadily closer. I twisted to fight her grip. She had fingers of steel, and she was winning.

No, she had fingers of bone. Skeleton hands.

I panicked when I saw that. I thrashed. I caught her hood with one hand and pulled, desperate for a grip on anything.

I heard it tear and looked up when I heard her laugh.

Holy frick! Her head was a bare skull.

One with eyes that burned like twin flames. She opened her mouth to laugh at me, and it looked like she had a snake for a tongue. She released me and I fell over my own feet in my hurry to get away from that face.

But she tripped me.

And I fell into the darkness of the well.

Down and down and down. Urd’s laughter echoed all around me as I fell. There was an inky shimmer, like black water, but it was a long way down.

This was not good.

I woke up, my heart hammering and my fingers knotted in the sheets. There was sweat running down my back.

There was no snow.

There was no tree and there was no dark well.

There was no sign of Granny, or her nasty sister.

But that black envelope from Trevor was perched on the carpet beside my stack of books. I was sure I hadn’t left it there. I had the irrational thought that it was spying on me – although with Mages, that might not be very irrational at all.

I wasn’t entirely sure of everything they could do. And the one guy who did know more had declined to fill me in.

Never mind that recent events meant it was unlikely I’d be able to hit Jared up for advice, live and in person, at his concert. Looked like I’d be solving my Mage-related issues myself, thanks.

I leapt from the bed, snatched up the envelope, and ripped it to shreds. Then I flung it out the window, watching the pieces flutter toward the pavement far below. That stupid dragonsmoke singed my fingers when my hand passed through it just for a second. There was an unwelcome reminder that my dad meant business.

Only when the pieces had all disappeared from sight and nothing else had happened did I shut the window and lock it securely. I rummaged in the drawer with the secret corner in a panic. To my relief, the ring was right where I’d hidden it.

My ring.

I locked my hand around it, still freaked, then opened my hand to look at it. Had it changed?

It had. It seemed to glitter a little in the light, as if the white part was full of snow crystals and the black part was full of stars.

What kind of magic did this ring possess, anyhow?

How could I find out?

I shuddered at the prospect and got into bed, sitting with my back against the wall and my knees pulled up to my chest. I had the ring trapped in my right fist, my left hand locked around the right. There was no way I was going to sleep again soon, not with Urd lurking in dreamland, on the lookout for me.

I checked with both eyes, but my room looked normal even with the eye game. I sat vigil, armed only with a ring, unconvinced of my safety. I had a feeling that Granny and her weird sister could change things on me without notice.

I could have called my dad. He might even have believed me. But I wasn’t exactly feeling confident about his inclination to defend me or even see my point of view.

Call it a learned response.

The thing about being scared crapless by strange old women in the night is that it helps put things in perspective. There had to be something I could do to improve the odds of my not having a completely miserable birthday.

There had to be a plan I could make.

I like riddles and I had a great big clue, right in my hand.

Who would know about the ring? I wasn’t going to ask my dad because I knew what he’d say. ‘Figure it out.’ Thanks very much. Rafferty had already proved to be unhelpful.

Then the answer hit me.

Of course. I could ask Isabelle.

Rafferty’s adopted daughter.

Who was attending college right in Chicago.

Perfect.

The next morning my dad was standing in the kitchen, waiting for me. This was unusual enough to make me wary.

Especially after what I’d said to him the night before.

I had a definite sense that I would be called on the carpet for challenging him.

Was he going to escort me through his dragonsmoke? Or did he intend to leave me holed up here for the duration? Or would my exile be elsewhere? I both wanted to know and dreaded hearing his decision.

That there was a small black satchel at his feet just added to my uncertainty. It was bigger than his briefcase or laptop bag. He had his leather jacket on and his boots, and looked ready to walk out the door.

Was he leaving, too?

As much as I wanted to be an adult right this minute, this change was happening a bit fast – and in entirely the wrong way.

Maybe I should be careful what I wished for.

‘You’ll need to pack a bag,’ he said curtly. His British accent was stronger than usual, which was never good. ‘You’ll be staying at Meagan’s. Her mother knows that you’re grounded, although there will, of course, be no dragonsmoke barrier there.’

I opened the fridge, as if there were no urgency. I wasn’t in a real hurry to make anything easy for him. I was sure he was going to tell me that he had to make a business trip to secure a pyrotechnics contract in another city. That’s what he does – big pyrotechnics displays timed to music. It is cool, but I resented his ability to carry on as if nothing had happened, as if my mom’s departure meant nothing at all. I was prepared to argue that I was nearly sixteen and could take care of myself. It seemed that someone should have asked me before making plans for my immediate future.

Wasn’t this the same thing he’d done with my mom? Just decided and let her deal with the consequences?

Bottom line – if getting rid of me would be convenient to his career, I wasn’t inclined to be convenient.

I considered a tub of yogurt, as if it held all the world’s secrets. ‘For how long?’

‘I don’t know.’ He exuded impatience.

I put the plain yogurt back and picked up a flavored yogurt instead. Hmm. Peach. ‘I didn’t hear you call anybody.’

‘Meagan’s mother and I e-mailed last night.’

‘Why do I have to go anywhere? I thought this loft would be my prison.’

My dad fixed a look on me, one that was so intent I shivered. I braced myself for a reckoning.

But he surprised me.

‘Because I am going to follow your mother, and try my utmost to change her mind about remaining in this partnership.’ I had a moment to be shocked and delighted before he continued. ‘You cannot stay here alone because you are a minor. That is the law.’

‘Human law.’ I had to say it.

‘Human law.’ His lips tightened at the concession. ‘Which in this case and in the very short term trumps
Pyr
law. Don’t imagine I’ll forget your transgression.’

Right. Mr Responsibility was back. Maybe he’d never left. Did he really care about my mom? Or did he just feel responsible for pursuing her? ‘How long will you be gone?’

He winced. ‘However long it takes.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘You have five minutes. I have a flight to catch.’

A commercial carrier? What about Dragon Air? ‘You’re not flying yourself?’

His eyes, if anything, glittered more coldly. ‘Your mother wishes to live like a normal human. Therefore, I will arrive to plead my case like a normal human. I have made arrangements for your care like a normal human. I suspect these are but the first of many concessions I will make in the near future.’