A Shade of Dragon (11 page)

“
A
re
you using Facebook on the family computer?” Zada entered the den, her face coated in a dark green mud mask and her hair twisted up into a red, dreadlocked knot on top of her head. “Augh, honey, you know that when you log into Facebook, it downloads a keylogging program that will forward everything you do straight to the FBI, right?”

“Naturally,” I placated her. “On the other hand, I haven’t had any social media interaction in about a week, and if I don’t clear out my notifications, it’s going to crash my new phone when I get back to DC.”

Zada rolled her eyes. “Kids these days,” she muttered, trudging toward the kitchen.

I glowered silently.
You were one of us not long ago, Zada. It’s up for debate whether or not you still are.

As much as I loathed checking my social media accounts, I needed to do it. There were messages from a few people who knew I’d be in town for Christmas, wondering what I was doing, if I wanted to hang out, and that was nice. There were pictures from the lake house party a few days ago, but I’d ducked out too quickly to be tagged in any of them. Ah, and Andrew and Michelle had changed their relationship statuses from “Single” to “In a Relationship.” A bold move. I was pleased that no sting came with the information.

I’d been invited to an event. Michelle Ballinger, of course. She was her own social hub. “You’ve been invited to Michelle Ballinger’s ‘Nell’s Going-Away/New Year’s Eve Party’ for December thirty-first, from ten pm to two am, on the beach!” I could click to accept or decline, leave a maybe, and investigate who else was going. Almost fifty people were going. Another twenty were maybe. Very few had declined… and I was screwed.

You couldn’t stand up your own going-away party, even if you didn’t ask for one—and even if it wasn’t really a going-away party. It might have seemed petty, but Michelle could be petty when she wanted to be. This was because I had shown up with Theon at the ice pond. She’d wanted to snake him from me, which had always been as effortless as tossing her dark curls over her shoulder. But he had resisted, and she had not forgotten it. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

She’d been filled with glee when Theon hadn’t been able to attend her Christmas Eve party. That’d been obvious, and she certainly assumed he’d stood me up. After all, who would choose to spend an entire evening with boring old Penelope? She was probably hoping he’d stand me up again, so she could feel smug that, at the least, she hadn’t lost a man to me; Theon had been unattainable for other reasons. If he did arrive with me, she would use the opportunity to take another swipe at him. It might sound paranoid, but I’d been friends with Michelle for a long time now. She was always conniving, and nothing excited her killer instinct like rejection—the few times she had tasted its bitterness.

In spite of all this, I couldn’t just ignore the invitation. My messages had become clustered over the past week with other former Broward students who had hoped to see me before I left town, and I would be leaving in the morning for Dulles International Airport in DC. And they’d wonder why I hadn’t gone to the party thrown by my own old best friend. They’d go to the party and ask her where I was; why hadn’t I attended? Her answer would doubtlessly be humiliating, and I wouldn’t be there to defend myself.

I had to go for the sake of what people would say about me. Augh, the passive-aggressive Facebook comments. “Wish I’d seen you for longer than two minutes; remember that men come and go, but friendship is forever!” Wink face. And then, when I returned in the summer, I’d run into these kids again. My dad would drag the entire “family” out to the country club, and the Ballinger and Hardy cronies would be flocking in force. They’d all have their comments to make. Their simpering smiles. It would be easier to just go to the party and save myself some stress in six months’ time.

I sighed and clicked, “Going.”

What the hell. What was New Year’s Eve without regret?

I
examined
myself in the full-length mirror across from the bed in my new room. I wanted to look good, even though I didn’t care what all the people there thought of me. I was wearing a soft pink t-shirt dress with a hem falling slightly above mid-thigh and white crocheted leggings—or were they hosiery? I couldn’t be sure. I’d gotten them on sale, though, and they were cute. A thick pink-and-white houndstooth coat made the look complete, in a retro and almost painfully feminine way. But, to be totally honest, that was me: old-fashioned and practically insulting to the modern feminist manifesto. The thought of letting my leg hair grow filled me with horror.

I turned to the side and grimaced, thinking of Michelle’s voluminous cleavage. I wished I had some.

“Hey, pumpkin.” Dad interrupted my scrutiny of my body. “Where you off to? Want a… scarf? Or a sweater? Or a pair of pants, maybe?”

I glanced over my shoulder and grinned. “I think it’ll be okay,” I said. “Michelle is throwing me a joint going-away and New Year’s Eve party.”

At this, the corners of his mouth sagged. “Oh. It’s your last night in town, you know.”

“Don’t worry, Dad. I’m only going because I have to. Michelle didn’t even ask me if it was okay. Let me just make an appearance, to minimize the blowback, you know—and then I’ll come right home, okay?”

At this, Dad smiled with genuine relief. “Okay,” he said. “That sounds good to me, doll. Thank you. I know it’s no fun to spend an evening with your old man.”

“You’re plenty of fun, Dad,” I reassured him, snatching a white cashmere scarf from out of my suitcase and swooping toward him with a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you in just a couple of hours.”

“Sounds good, sugar.”

As I wound the scarf around my neck and traipsed down the stairs, I sucked my lower lip into my mouth and shook my head to myself. Dad had no idea how much I wished I could stay.

T
he bonfire
at the beach was relegated to a private strip which skirted the Ballinger residence. It was their main house in the area, and it was bigger than the lake house. In fact, they owned this entire strip of beach. It was the same size as the beach my father shared with three other residents. But their beach didn’t have any caves that might kill altruistic wanderers—
probably a plus,
I thought as I observed the magnitude of alcohol being consumed. There was a display table of kegs, as if this was a wedding. Idiot teenagers stumbled around in the sand, some weaving dangerously close to the two massive bonfires. I rolled my eyes even as I approached the throng. It wasn’t that I thought I was better than them—the world was filled with people, and we all had our strengths and our moments. I just didn’t belong here.

I stood on the outside of the gathering, watching my own party thrive without me. I placed my palm against the cold shard of the pendant beneath the cotton of my dress. I plucked the chain and extracted the crystal, gazing at it yet again, as if this time it might work, as if it might conjure Theon and save me from tonight. But, of course, it wouldn’t. I gazed into it bleakly, my misty breath buffeting its surface, and then grimaced, dropping it back beneath my shirt. I glanced back up at the party. At some point I would need to join in, or else I might as well have never come.

Oh, fantastic. There was the man I wanted to see.

Andrew.

He vaulted onto the beverage display and demonstrated a perfect plank on top of a keg. The maneuver was flawless, yet there was still something unsavory about the moment. Perhaps it was his entourage videoing the victory, or how proud of himself he seemed when he dismounted. He immediately went to fill a stupid red Solo cup with some more beer. Maybe my snarl was just because he’d promised me that he and Michelle were just good friends, and then they’d hooked up, and I’d had to find out on my Twitter feed while I was flying in for the holidays.

Andrew glanced in my direction and grinned wolfishly. “Hey, babe,” he greeted, breaking away from the rest of the team to lope across the beach toward me. I ambled closer to him as well.

“Hey,” I said. “How was your Christmas?”

“Fan-freaking-tastic.”

“Good. Good.” Andrew had a lot of gifts: athleticism, charm, and cunning sprang to mind immediately. Consideration of others had never been one of his strong suits. As such, he did not return the question.

“So, you look cute,” he said, looking me over. “You seeing anyone?”

Oh, God. My cheeks began to burn, and the embarrassment of blushing only made them redden faster.

“Not—” How to say it, exactly? Not really, but kind of? I faltered. “No,” I said, clearing my throat.
Screw it. Let’s go with cold, steely truth.
“Nope, not seeing anybody.”

“Oh.” Andrew frowned, seeming confused. Perhaps he was trying to remember who he’d thought I was somewhat dating, forgetting that it was him. “Well, that sucks. Did you hear about me and Michelle?”

I forced a smile to my face. It wasn’t that I minded; they were a much better couple than we had ever been. Simply meeting Theon had shown me that I deserved more man than Andrew’s boyishness could provide. But it was still annoying, because he had crapped on his own word to me, and now he was bringing it up in conversation. We might not have been serious, but we were still friends. I would have thought that it meant something.

“I did hear about that,” I said, my voice becoming as warm, smooth, and fake as my mother’s and Michelle’s could be. “Congratulations. You two make a gorgeous couple.”

“Yup, yup, yup.”

What kind of cad accosts his ex at a party just to brag about his hot new girlfriend, one of her own friends? Who does that?

“Oh, my God, Nell! You actually came!”

Shoot me now.
It was Michelle yodeling from one of the bonfires, and then she broke away and slogged toward us through the sand. As soon as she reached us, her eyes raked over me and she smiled, throwing an arm around Andrew’s waist. “Keep me warm, baby,” she purred.

“Be careful what you wish for, tiger.” He reached down and squeezed her buttock and grinned at me, as if I was in on some kind of private joke. But all I was thinking about were his words.
Be careful what you wish for.
They brought a fresh pang to my chest. Those were the words Theon had murmured before our first kiss.

“Oh, my God, it’s freezing over here anyway,” Michelle cried, grabbing his hand and mine at the same time, dragging both of us toward the bonfire. And the rest of the party. Augh. “Let’s get to the fire.” We were pulled into the midst of every smiling, semi-familiar face I had known from elementary to high school. A flurry of greetings and hugs were exchanged between myself and several different girls, many of them cheerleaders from our old squad—I’d been a cheerleader in middle and high school, yes—and many of their well-wishes were as fake as ever.

“So, Nell,” Michelle said, bringing every eye back onto herself. “Did you bring your mystery hunk this time? I’ve been telling everyone about him. I mean, wow.”

I broke eye contact. “Actually, I think—”

“Oh, no. Not business again? It’s New Year’s!”

“I… I think he had to travel back to—to DC,” I lied.

“Tsk, tsk,” Michelle murmured, shaking her head. Her eyes were positively glowing. “That’s a shame. You’re too good for him, anyway, Nell. He obviously works all the time, and besides, someone as good-looking as that could have anyone he wanted. He’d just end up cheating on you.”

“I take great offense to that,” a rich baritone addressed Michelle from directly behind me.

I already knew what I’d see when I turned.

A
s I whirled
to face him, his strong hands braced my shoulders, and he consumed my entire field of vision on that dark, cold beach. His curls—ebony beneath the moonlight—fretted in the breeze, and his golden eyes glowed with warmth. The light from the bonfire played across his rich complexion as his lips curved into a smile. I found myself moving into his arms, reveling in the familiar blast of warmth which moved through me, over my body and into my core.

“Theon,” I breathed. “I thought I’d never see you again.” I completely forgot about the hedge of old “friends” surrounding us, listening to our every word. I squeezed my eyes shut and let the sound of his heartbeat overwhelm my senses. I inhaled his scent in an almost dizzy relief—the copper, the salt, the leather and soil.

It was Theon who peeled me from his chest to peer into my eyes. “When you left, I will be honest, I considered leaving.” His voice became lower. “I thought that there must be nothing here for me. Perhaps it would do well to simply return to my homeland; perhaps to explore another world altogether. And yet… something made me stay. I didn’t believe in your rejection. I believed in you.”

I stared up at him breathlessly, and his fingers raked gently through my hair, trailing down to cup my chin and pull my face upward, as if on the verge of a kiss.

“I’m sorry,” a throaty voice interrupted from behind us. “Did you just say, ‘explore another world’?”

This broke the spell. For a moment the bonfire had fallen quiet and he and I had been alone on this beach. Being together felt like being encapsulated by some kind of glass, but the glass crumbled soundlessly around us, and up cropped a handful of my least close friends.

“That is what I said,” Theon confessed, peering over my head at Michelle. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand it, my lady.”

“Oh, so I’m, like, stupid, or something?”

I glanced over my shoulder, only vaguely concerned. Michelle was pouting and seemed to be pinching Andrew’s side. Her glare was turned on him rather than Theon.

“Hey, weird dude bro,” Andrew said, though he sounded like he did not want to enter this fray whatsoever. “Michelle is super-smart, so, like, don’t think that she’s not. For your own sake. ’Cause you’d be wrong.”

“Thanks, Andrew,” Michelle snapped, eyes flashing. “That was beautiful.” She leaned a little closer and whispered, “Can you not step up your vocabulary game?”

“Theon is the kindest man I’ve ever known,” I explained smoothly over the whispers. “I’m sure he meant no harm when he said that you wouldn’t understand.”

Theon squeezed my arm. “Must we stay?” he wondered in a low voice meant only for me.

Again, Michelle’s eyes flamed. There was nothing she hated more than being upstaged, unless it was being dismissed. “Please, stay. Let me get you a drink, Theon. Perhaps you can explain to me this exploration of worlds. I might not understand, but I’m sure you didn’t mean to suggest that I was incapable of learning.”

Theon looked to me, and I stared back, uncertain of what to say. If I said, “No, let’s go,” I would go down in Beggar’s Hole history as the rudest guest to ever abandon her own going-away party with some strange hunk. If I said, “We can stay,” it wouldn’t be long before Michelle got exactly what she wanted: to humiliate me for outdoing her at her own party, in full view of her fifty closest friends. If she couldn’t have my Theon, she’d ostracize him. Either way, she always needed to win.

“I will take a drink,” Theon allowed. “The matters of exploration, however, are incredibly private. I cannot share them.”

“A big secret, is it?” Michelle winked and broke away from the bonfire, heading toward the fold-out beverage table. A scattering of intrigued onlookers tagged along, murmuring about how they needed more beer, too. “I guess I can’t fault you for that. We all have our secrets. Hey, are you on Facebook?”

“I’m afraid I’m not aware of this book of which you speak,” Theon answered.

I winced.

“Really.” Michelle’s lip quirked. “That’s interesting, considering you’re a businessman, aren’t you? Isn’t that right?”

We reached the beverage table and Michelle filled his red Solo cup herself. I’d rarely if ever seen her acting the role of hostess rather than princess.

“My ‘business’ is something that an American would describe as politics,” Theon answered easily. I released the breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. That was a good answer.

“Hmm.” Michelle arched an eyebrow and turned to him with the foaming cup of beer. “How interesting. What are you, then? A governor’s aide? Member of Parliament? Try me, I got a B-plus in Civics,” she said, passing the plastic drink to him.

“A prince,” he answered, taking the cup and immediately crushing it in his grip. The plastic split and beer spewed all over the sand between the two.

“Jeez!” Michelle hissed, springing back. “Princes don’t ever use plastic, I guess.” She dusted at her beer-speckled clothes. “So, what kind of prince doesn’t have any idea what the largest social media on the Internet is? What country is yours? Nepal? Yemen? Sudan?”

I’d never seen Theon truly angered until this point. His eyebrows settled low and he glared at my former best friend. “I will not have The Hearthlands disparaged.”

“The Hearthlands?” Andrew spoke up, just before taking another swig from his millionth Solo cup. “I mean, bro, I got a D in Civics that got bumped up to a C because it was football season, but even I know that there’s no country called Hearthland… right?” He glanced at the fringe of eavesdroppers. “Is that in Canada?”

Michelle rolled her eyes. “Canada is a country, you moron,” she snapped at him before turning back to Theon. “So, where is Hearthland, Mister Theon? Educate me. What continent does that belong to?”

“No continent,” Theon answered. He glanced at me again. He knew it, and I knew it; we should be getting out of here. This place was filled with nothing but haters, and it was going to get worse before it got better. Especially considering that they were drunk, there was fire here, they were a little irritated by this newcomer and he kept insulting the intelligence of an American queen bee. She was, after all, Michelle Ballinger, of the Boston Ballingers. No one talked to her like this.

“Uh, well, you see, Theon, on this particular planet—or ‘world,’ maybe you call it—there are seven continents, and every country is in one of them or another. So I don’t know what you’re talking about, unless these Hearthlands are on Mars.”

“I told you that you wouldn’t understand.”

“And I told you to try me.” Michelle stepped over the puddle of beer and thrust her face toward his. She was loaded. “Where are you from? Neptune?”

“That’s enough,” burst out of my throat. My body unfroze and I intercepted her, gripping her elbow and forcing her to take two steps out of his physical space. “What are you, a cop?”

“It was just a simple question. This guy is on my property, Penelope, and he’s being awfully suspicious. What if he’s a terrorist or something?”

“You know he’s not a terrorist. You’re just drunk, and embarrassed, and looking for a fight.”

“Embarrassed?”

“When he tells you that you wouldn’t understand, he means it,” I went on icily. “There are stranger things in this world than you have ever seen, Michelle. Gucci purse discounts and Jimmy Choo sales are not the extent of the mysteries of the universe.”

“Oh, so now I’m, like, stupid
and
cheap?” Michelle asked. “Just because I like nice things? Screw you, Nell. You can’t just walk in here with your psycho boyfriend who is, by the way, a total con artist, and insult me like that. I threw this party for you, you know!”

“But you didn’t, did you?” I took Theon’s hand and pulled him from this fray. “You threw it for yourself. Happy New Year, Michelle,” I said, turning my back on her and on the entire world of Beggar’s Hole. “Hope you find whatever it is you need to be happy.” And, strangely, I had the confidence and the security to mean it.