Epilogue
ORLANDO
“Good lord, it’s ugly,” I said.
The facade of the WinStar Hotel rose like a mirage from the Oklahoma hills, a Frankenstein’s monster of conjoined buildings of different architectural styles and materials.
“I think it’s cute!”
“You,” I said, “have bad taste. You should have put that on your escort profile. Cassandra Kim: gorgeous body, beautiful smile, terrible taste.”
“I have great taste!” she protested, giving me a playful pout. “Don’t judge me based on this one opinion.”
“It’s a pretty bad opinion, though. You’ll have to work hard to overwrite that.”
I turned into the parking lot and looked for the New York Entrance. It ended up being wedged between the Roman Colosseum and the Castle facades, as if that made any sense.
Then I saw them: two familiar men standing outside the door, arms crossed and looking uncomfortable.
“You’re going to like them,” I told Cassie as I parked. “They’re the chillest two of the group.”
Cassie nodded but didn’t say anything as we gathered our stuff from the trunk.
“Dude!” Ethan said as we approached the front door. He strode forward with his arms out, wrapping me in a big bro-hug, two slaps on the back. “Didn’t think you’d make it.”
“It was a hell of a trip, for sure.” I slapped Sam’s outstretched hand then pulled him in a hug. “You guys look good.”
“For weird gryphon shifters, you mean?” Sam blurted out.
There was a pause, and then the three of us burst out laughing.
“Well I’m glad you think it’s funny,” Cassie chirped, “because I’m still getting used to the whole thing.”
I stepped aside and introduced her to my pals. Thankfully neither of them said anything about her being “difficult” about the entire thing. Cassie and I liked to privately joke about her being an escort, but I doubted she would enjoy others pointing out the fact.
“Let’s get out of the open,” Sam said, blue eyes scanning the sky.
“Right, right. This way,” Ethan said, directing us away from the front door. “Too many cameras in the lobby.”
Their paranoia seemed well-founded, so I shared a look with Cassie and followed them along the side of the building to a fire door. It opened as we approached, held open by a short woman with dark red hair pulled back in a ponytail. She looked me up and down as we slipped inside the stairwell.
“And then there were four,” she muttered. “Well. Three-and-a-half, I guess.”
She climbed the stairs, forcing us to follow.
“That’s Ezra,” Ethan said. “But you can call her Ezzy.”
She whirled and pointed her finger like a knife. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
“You don’t mind when Jessica calls you that.”
“She’s different.” Her eyes swung to me while she walked backwards up the stairs. “It’s Ezra. Got it, Miami?”
It took me a second to get what she meant. “Alright, point taken, Ezra,” I said.
She nodded as if that were the only response I could have given.
We exited onto the second floor and moved down a hallway with overly colorful blue-and-red carpets that had been pressed flat by thousands of feet over the years. “We booked you guys the room next door,” Ethan said as he swiped his keycard at a door, “but let’s meet everyone first.”
A woman sat cross-legged on the bed in front of a TV, her blond hair swirling around her as she turned toward our entrance. She stretched and rose from the bed to make introductions: Jessica, Ethan’s mate from Dallas.
But our introductions were short, and my voice trailed off as I turned toward the television.
“…fires still raging long into the night,” the newscaster was explaining. The camera view was from a helicopter high over the city, where at least four fires were visible in the pre-dawn twilight. “63 engines from 14 surrounding stations have aided in the efforts, which have been frustrating and futile at times due to the howling winds spreading the fires further through the city.”
“Holy shit…” Cassie said, dropping her bag on the floor.
Jessica grimaced. “Yeah. It’s bad.”
“In your defense,” Ethan said cheerfully, “we never warned you not to let the dragon burn down the third largest city in the country. If we ever get in touch with Andy we’ll be sure to make that the first thing we say.”
“Police are still gathering information regarding the strange creatures that emerged from the Texas Eagle train and flew through the city, but so far it appears clear that these are not simply over-sized drones, as was initially reported.” The view changed to a huge bird as dark as a raven gliding through the city, then panned out to show bursts of flame shooting behind it from the enormous charcoal dragon. It was several times larger than my gryphon form, something that hadn’t been obvious while I was flying away from it.
Cassie nudged me in the ribs. “Hey look! You’re famous!” That drew a smile from me and a chuckle from the others.
“There’s something new,” Jessica added, holding Ethan’s gaze. “They’ll probably show it again in a minute.”
Ezra let out a long sigh. “Might as well give you folks the tour. Sam’s my man, you already know. We’ve got the adjoining room.” She turned and gestured to a chest up against the wall. “This pirate-loot-looking thing is where we keep our magical gem sword, obviously.” She opened the lid to reveal exactly that: a longsword nestled in a bed of straw, with a line of glowing gems adorning the grip. The onyx was identical to the gem in my totem and I would have bet $100 that the other gems matched their totems as well.
“Ethan’s the emerald,” Ezra continued. “Sam’s the sapphire, Roland’s the ruby. You’re obviously the onyx. Kinda racist, but whatever. And we’re fairly certain Andy is the amethyst.”
“Yeah, what’s his deal?” I asked. “He’s not responding?”
“Dude’s not handling it well at all,” Ethan said. Sam bobbed his head in agreement. “I got maybe ten words out on the phone before he hung up on me, and hasn’t picked up since. We’ve been calling him every few hours like clockwork. And before you ask: we know he’s alive because he’s still posting on Twitter and Instagram.”
“It’s not like him to be stubborn,” I said. “He’s always enthusiastic, super Type-A, but never willfully ignorant.”
In a small voice, Cassie said, “Hey, let’s give him some slack. This is a lot to absorb. All of this.”
The mood turned somber as the others nodded. They’d had more time to get used to this. Cassie and I were noobs.
“Sorry about that,” I said, gesturing at the TV. “I was sort of fleeing for my life.”
“We didn’t have a lot of options,” Cassie added. “We were trapped on the train, and it was the only plan…”
Ethan shook his head and held up his palms. “Hey, stop it you two. Apologies are useless. You guys had a tougher situation than the rest of us.”
“Speak for yourself: I almost got buried in an avalanche,” Ezra mumbled.
“There’s something I wanted to ask you about,” I said to Ethan. “You told me Roland’s dragon didn’t want to kill him?”
“That’s what he said. Something about the totem choosing a new vessel. Or something?”
Sam nodded. “That’s what he said.”
“Mine tried to kill me for sure.” I looked down at the hotel room floor, remembering the feeling of his fingers around my neck. “Almost drowned me. I still don’t know how I got away.” Cassie put a hand on my arm, and I took it in mine and gaze it a squeeze.
“Mine too,” Sam said.
“The Emerald Dragon said he was going to kill me,” Ethan said slowly, his eyes getting a far-off look. “The difference between us and Roland was that his totem was nowhere near him. Maybe they have to kill us and destroy the totems at the same time? Or in quick succession?”
“I don’t like how easily you can talk about them killing you,” Jessica said in a bitter voice.
“We can’t just ignore it, Jess.” It sounded like the re-ignition of an argument they’d had already.
“So Roland’s staying in Africa,” I cut in. “Has he learned anything else?”
“Actually, he has.” Sam crossed his tattooed arms and took on the tone of a professor lecturing an auditorium. “The crack in the gem doesn’t stop his ability to shift, but he believes it affects the duration. He’s certain it is harder to maintain: his focus drifts easily while in gryphon form, and it happens within minutes of shifting.” He cleared his throat. “He bragged that he and Harriet have been very thorough with their testing.”
Ezra snorted. “I love that you blush so easily.”
“I guess that’s good?” I said. “I mean, it’s better than the alternative: him being unable to shift at all. Right?”
“I suppose, relatively speaking,” Sam admitted.
“But that’s gunna hurt us if we have to fight all the dragons at once.” Ethan closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to do it in the first place, let alone with one of us weakened.”
“Being weakened makes no difference if he’s not here,” Ezra hissed. “We should go to him. In Mozambique. Then we’d all be together.”
“Except that doesn’t solve our problem with Andy.”
“Then we make a pit-stop over in Los Angeles first! Something!”
“I don’t know if you’ve seen a map recently, but Los Angeles isn’t quite on the way to Africa,” Ethan muttered.
She rolled her eyes. “I can’t sit in this fucking hotel doing nothing another day. I’m gunna lose my mind.”
“Hey!” Jessica yelled, pointed at the TV. “Here it is! The part I was telling you about!”
She turned up the volume on the remote control. We all crowded around the TV.
“…bystander captured this cell phone video,” the broadcaster said. “Viewers please be aware: this footage may be disturbing.”
The camera view bounced up and down like someone was running carrying their camera, then steadied as they slowed to a stop. The wooden boards of a pier came into view, and the camera tilted to aim at a nude man curled in the fetal position. The TV network had his groin blurred.
“That’s him,” I whispered. Nobody had to ask who I meant.
“Home boy,” the cameraman said. “Yo. You okay?”
Sebastian, the Onyx Dragon, trembled on the dock. But it wasn’t from the cold; slowly a rumbling laugh escaped his lips, his entire body shaking with laughter.
“Fools,” he whispered.
“Yo, can we get some help!” the cameraman shouted, but then the dragon snapped out his hand and grabbed him by the ankle.
“We need no help,” he rasped in a voice like sandpaper and gravel. His Italian accent was still there, but it was as if another voice were speaking through him now. “We have never needed help, and we will not take it this time. Not when victory is so close!”
“Bro, what the [BLEEP] you talkin’ about?”
The dragon’s eyes flashed up to meet the camera. My skin crawled; it felt like he was speaking directly to me.
“I have died a thousand deaths,” he intoned. “But I will not die a single death more. Not in this world. Not ever.”
He narrowed his eyes and a sickening smile spread across his wormy lips.
“We have it,” he whispered. “What we need to punish you for taking Dionna from us. We have what we need to kill you. Each of you, one by one, before you can gather.”
“Is he talking about the sword?” Sam said. “Maybe he thinks the Emerald Dragon still has it.”
The cameraman muttered, “This dude’s crazy,” but the dragon paid him no mind.
“It took us 18 centuries, scouring this doomed land, but at last it is ours,” the Onyx Dragon said. “At last we’ve found our totem. And with it you will all die: now, and for all time. Never again will we have to fight this fight, battle this battle. We will watch you gryphons die, and rot, until your bones return to the sand.” His smile deepened. “Starting with Amethyst.”
A laughter of madness took him, violently shaking his entire body like a fish out of water. The cameraman stepped back as police descended on the dragon, first gently but soon fighting to control the crazed man.
“You cannot stop me!” he said triumphantly. “I will kill him! I must end this!”
“Yo, let’s get the [BLEEP] out of here,” the cameraman said.
The video cut off.
The broadcaster’s voice returned: “Police have yet to confirm whether these were the rantings of a madman, or if they are somehow related to the disturbing images of the flying monsters that have set Chicago ablaze…”
His voice trailed off as Jessica turned the volume back down. We all stood around, and an uncomfortable silence stretched. Sam broke the silence first.
“I kind of assumed they had totems too.”
“Right?” I said. “Especially if the Emerald Dragon had a girlfriend with him.”
“But why,” Sam said curiously, “would their totem help them kill us in a way they cannot already do?”
“Maybe all the dragons link up to form a super Megazord dragon.” Ezra looked around. “What, none of you ever watched Power Rangers?”
“I don’t see how that would give them any more power combined than they have individually—”
“Dude,” Ezra said, exasperated, “I was making a joke.”
“Regardless, that settles it,” Ethan said loudly, deciding for the group. He looked at each of us individually, holding our gaze for several heartbeats each, steadying us with his eyes.
“We can’t wait for Andy to come to us. We need to go to him.”