Blazing the Trail (30 page)

“But the fight?”

“Yes, we fought. Muriel saw it.”

“And what was the reason for that fight?”

“She took a picture of me in the bathroom. It was embarrassing and she was going to show it to everyone.”

“So you took her messenger?”

All of this was public knowledge. I saw no point in denying it. “I asked her to delete the picture. She refused. I took the messenger and deleted it myself, then gave the messenger back to her.”

“In fact, you removed the memory card and destroyed it.”

“That deleted the image forever.”

His nostrils flared. “Yet despite this, you gave her a ride.”

I shrugged. “We had settled it. What was done was done.”

“You weren’t afraid she might try to get even with you?”

I looked at him. I had had enough. “No,” I said, and there was a bit of dragon in my quiet tone. “I’m not afraid of Suzanne.”

Our gazes locked and held. The spell light in his eyes danced with greater intensity, becoming brighter as he tried to stare me down.

I wasn’t daunted.

Maybe there was more dragon in my expression than I’d realized, because Muriel became flustered.

She even forced a smile.

“And why were you in the parking lot alone last night in the first place?”

“Because I’d just gotten out of detention.” It was half of the truth, anyway.

The detective glanced up at Muriel.

She nodded, ever helpful.

“Why were you late today?” the detective asked. “Didn’t you have class this morning?”

“I did, but I had car trouble,” I lied. I held the detective’s gaze, and funnily enough, he ran out of questions then.

Muriel effectively ended the interview. She made encouraging noises about my being willing to start fresh with Suzanne.

The detective got fed up and excused himself.

But Muriel had a full head of steam. She spouted a lot of stuff about ensuring that I did what would make my parents proud, that I kept a positive attitude and kept my grades up. It was imperative that I not develop any habits that could imperil my academic record, and surely I knew that Muriel would be there for me whenever I wanted to talk more.

I nodded and even managed to conjure up a tear of heartfelt gratitude. Muriel gave me a hug, which astounded me, and promised to talk individually to my teachers about my attendance. Then she smiled at me and told me not to be late for my class right after lunch.

Lunch.

Right.

I was starving.

Meagan, the best friend in the whole world, was waiting by our lockers for me, protective blue spell light at the ready.

“S
O
?” M
EAGAN DEMANDED AS SOON
as Muriel was gone. “What did the police officer want?”

“Did you hear about Suzanne?” Jessica asked. “She’s missing.”

“No,” I said. “She’s dead.” I heaved a sigh. “So are Kohana and Jared.”

They were both shocked. “Trevor isn’t here today, either,” Meagan said.

“Because he’s become a ShadowEater,” I said grimly.

They both started to ask questions, their voices hushed, but I held up a hand. “I need food.”

We headed for the cafeteria, wading through the dizzying golden cloud of spell light. I could practically feel Jessica sweat, and reached out to take her hand.

Sadly, the daily special was some mystery meat loaf that would have looked disgusting even if I wasn’t vegetarian. I went straight for dessert and got myself a chocolate sundae with fudge sauce.

It might, after all, be my last meal.

We took a table in the corner and huddled over our lunches.

“Where are the guys?” I asked. “I sent them here.”

“I sent them to Isabelle’s place with Nick,” Meagan said. “They wanted to stay, but I could see how the spell light was getting to them.”

“Safer for them to not be enchanted if we have to fight for our lives,” Jessica said.

I tugged out my messenger and pinged Liam and Garrett and Nick. They were all freaked, but they were together and with Isabelle.

Who was still comatose.

Like King and Mozart.

At least the guys were together.

“You can see the spell light, right?” Meagan said. “Is it really bad?”

“It feels really bad,” Jessica said. “And watchful.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the light swirling in the cafeteria. I could see shapes within the cloud of light and knew that there were ShadowEaters among us, choosing their prey. Meagan’s light was protecting us, but I wondered how many other kids would lose their shadows before nightfall.

Never mind after that.

“They’re everywhere,” Derek said quietly. He’d slid into the seat on my other side when I’d been looking the other way. I jumped, like I always did, then I hugged him in my relief.

“I was afraid.…”

He hugged me back after a moment’s hesitation, as awkward as I’d expect. “We had to convene,” he said gruffly. “Vote.”

I pulled back to look at him, fearing what he would say.

He held my gaze, his own expression wary. “They’re with you,” he said, then dug into his meat loaf special.

I couldn’t help but notice that he said
they
instead of
we
. I supposed I had that coming.

As we ate, I recounted the whole sorry story of my morning, including what had happened when I took out the ShadowEater in the parking lot. Meagan hummed quietly, buttressing the protective spell that surrounded us.

“What else happened here?” I asked, eating my sundae before it completely melted.

“Suzanne’s friends are missing,” Jessica said, nodding at Meagan to keep humming.

Meagan beckoned to me, indicating that she wanted the notebook I always carry. I use it to sketch dragons, but Meagan turned to an empty page. She wrote quickly, without stopping her spellsinging, and Jessica read what she wrote to us.

“Meagan used that note you heard this morning as the beginning of a harmonic sequence. She says it could be the tenor part in a harmony.” Jessica looked up, her eyes bright. “It’s in a minor key.”

“Which we know that Mages like.” I nodded, feeling as if Meagan was supplying the clue we needed. Jessica frowned as Meagan drew a musical staff and sketched in the notes, her gaze dancing over Meagan’s rapidly drawn notes.

“So this would be the first note,” Jessica said, singing the note I’d heard from Kohana this morning in a single clear
Ah!
“The soprano part to go with it is this.” She sang another, higher note, then did the same with the bass and the alto parts.

“Theoretically, if we sing them all together, that would make the harmony that might vibrate apart the NightBlade,” I said, and Meagan nodded with enthusiasm. “But only two of you can sing.” I had an idea then, and recorded Jessica’s singing into four different music files on my messenger. It wouldn’t play all four concurrently, so we shared the files and queued up our messengers to play them all at the same time.

I turned to watch the spell light as the harmony began, thinking I’d see something in the motion of the spell if this resonance was powerful to the ShadowEaters lurking in the spell light.

It made no difference at all.

I was disappointed, and so was Meagan. “That can’t be it.”

She frowned and scribbled that she’d look for alternatives.

Was she wrong? Or were we just missing a critical piece of the puzzle?

“What’s next?” Derek asked, and I understood that he was saying that he was still following the dragon. I smiled at him with relief and saw a wary gratitude dawn in his eyes.

“I need to reinforce the dragonsmoke at our loft. I promised my dad.” I shrugged. “Maybe I can find something in my dad’s hoard or in that book to solve the riddle.”

“I’ll come with you,” Derek said immediately, and got to his feet.

He looked purposeful, which didn’t bode well for any discussion we might have on the way.

It said something about my day so far that I was glad to have his company, even so.

I
t was forty-seven kinds of bizarre to enter the loft where I lived with my parents, knowing they weren’t home yet bringing a guy with me.

On the one hand, Derek was adamant that he had to defend me.

On the other hand, this was breaking every household rule I knew.

Plus it gave me a funny feeling.

Not only was he in my home, not only was he crossing the dragonsmoke barrier with me, but he was going to see me breathe smoke. I felt incredibly self-conscious about that.

My dad’s dragonsmoke barrier had begun to erode, just as anticipated. It touched my skin like quicksilver, the chill of it making all the little hairs on my body stand up in unison. I shut the door behind us and locked it. The loft was still and
echoed with its emptiness. There were no fetid smells coming from the kitchen, which was a good thing.

I gestured to the room. “You might as well come in and sit down. I don’t think there’s anything much to eat.”

“It’s okay,” Derek said, and perched on the end of one of the black leather couches in the living room. “Kind of stark.” The room was austere, almost monastic in its strict simplicity, which was precisely how my dad liked it. The ceilings were high in the space and the rooms uncluttered—which left lots of room for dragons to gather.

“My dad does black and white in a big way.”

Derek smiled. “I like him already.”

I sat down opposite him, not really settling back into the couch’s squishy comfort, either. “Look. About yesterday…”

“There’s nothing to say. I saw how you feel about Jared.” He looked away from me and his throat worked a bit. “And now that you’ve told us the whole story, I think maybe I was wrong about him.”

“What do you mean?”

Derek looked back at me, his pale eyes seeming unnaturally bright. “He let them take him this morning so that you could get away.”

I nodded, sadness welling inside me again because I hadn’t been able to save him.

Derek cleared his throat softly. “As much as I’d like to hate his guts, I respect what he did for you.”

I looked up, astonished by this.

Derek didn’t blink as he watched me. “Wyvern, lead us.”

I had to walk through this with him to make sure I understood. “But you were the one who wanted to ensure the alliance, who wanted commitment from me in order to follow me.”

Derek grimaced. “Didn’t I tell you that I understood about having to do your duty instead of doing what you wanted?”

“But I thought you liked me.”

“I do like you.” Derek swallowed. “I’m not sure it’s enough, though.”

I stared at him.

“I know I don’t like you as much as you like Jared. I understood that yesterday.”

“But you left like you were mad.…”

“I
was
mad. I was trying to do what I was told to do, and you were messing it up.” He swallowed visibly. “And when I saw the way you looked at him, I knew that you could only ever give me a fraction of that.” He heaved a sigh and looked away. “If you can’t look at me the way you look at him, I don’t want half measures.”

“Black or white,” I murmured.

“All or nothing,” he agreed. He almost smiled. “I said I’d follow the Wyvern, and that means that the Wyvern’s agenda is my agenda.”

I was glad I was sitting down. Relief would have buckled my knees. All of the wolves were in, despite my choices.

I still needed a plan. I settled onto the floor, kicked off my boots, and cracked my knuckles.

“Anything I can do?” Derek asked.

“Just be quiet. It’s kind of a meditative thing.”

He watched, his eyes glittering as I summoned the shimmer and let my body shift shape. The surge of power ripped through me with explosive force, compelling my body to take its alternate form. I loved the sensation of it.

In a heartbeat, I was a massive white dragon, my tail unfurled across the floor and my wings resting against my back. I opened my eyes to find that Derek had braced his elbows on his knees and was leaning forward to watch.

That did just about nothing for my self-consciousness. But I knew what I had to do. I let quiet slide through me, although the exercise was a little more difficult than usual. I breathed slowly and deeply, letting my eyes drift closed, persuading my heartbeat to slow to a fraction of its usual pace.

And I breathed smoke, a long glittering tendril of gossamer dragonsmoke. It wound from my lungs through my nostrils and into the air of the loft like a vein of silver. I directed it toward the exterior, letting it slide beneath the front door, weaving it back and forth across the doorway, entwining it with the thinning remnants of my dad’s dragonsmoke barrier.

Once the interweaving began, I slipped into a familiar rhythm, focusing on the dragonsmoke and the protective barrier it made. I forgot about everything except breathing smoke in a long steady tendril.

Breathing smoke can’t be fascinating to watch, especially to someone who can’t see the smoke. I noticed that Derek got up and looked out the window of the loft after a while. I kept breathing, intent on my task, but a bit curious as to what he’d do.

A few moments later, he bent down and unzipped my backpack, then removed a book. His book. Herodotus. He waved it at me to show me what he’d taken, turned on the reading lamp at the end of the couch where he’d been sitting, and settled in to read a few travel tips about the ancient world.

To each his own.

I breathed smoke.

S
OME TIME LATER
, I
HEARD
a guy walking around my dragon form.

Derek and I had been alone; then suddenly there was someone else in the loft. No doors or windows had opened.

My eyes were watchful slits. Dragons never truly sleep, you know. We doze. We slumber. We might look comatose. But on some level we are always vigilant. Maybe our interior alarm systems are preset to a more sensitive level.

I heard the guy in the loft, even though his footfalls were silent.

Derek was still reading on the couch opposite me. He looked pretty engrossed and utterly unaware of the intruder.

That was odd.

The loft had fallen into the shadows of early evening.