Lance

In beast, on top of the castle, I watched the habitat and sulked. Wind tickled my scales; sun warmed my skin. Sulking suited me. Brooding suited me. I was really good at both, and so for the three days after Selena left for the habitat, I took up permanent residence on top of my castle, my gaze trained on the happy town with blue car lights and a bunch of happy fuckers in their mechanical contraptions.

I had my element. I could move the waves, deliver tons of fish to my doorstep. I was powerful. The element pulsed inside me, but it meant nothing.

I wanted her to stay.

I wanted her to choose me over her life there.

But I couldn’t say it. Not after seeing myself in the mirror and being reminded of what I would ask of her. She’d wake up every morning next to a monster. The novelty of sex would wane and only love would keep us together. She didn’t love me, just like none of my foster moms had loved me, like my own mother hadn’t loved me enough to stop doing drugs—she’d chosen death over me. Unlovable bastard. I should print it on a T-shirt.

I loved my dragon brothers, all three of them, but I resented them for looking human. Had I looked like them, Selena would have stayed.

And fuck the cyborg military council. Let them come. I would drown every last one of them before they even made it to the iceberg.

A little ways away, a warm yellow light appeared out of nowhere. I lifted my head as the light turned white and floated to a stop before me. I recognized Mother Nature, a willowy old woman not transparent as a ghost, but not corporeal either. I sat up, tilted my head, and spoke to her via my mind. “Nice to see you, Mother. It’s been a while.” An understatement. She had made me a dragon a decade ago.

“So it has.” Her voice carried on the wind, eerie and smooth. I bet I was the only one who heard her, though. “You did not raise the seas, my son. The spirit made you do it.”

“Hm?”

“The seas rise for her.

The fire burns for her.

The air breathes for her.

The Earth opens for her. Again.”

She spoke in riddles. I fucking hated riddles. But that last bit caught my attention. “Again?”

“Again. The volcanoes didn’t erupt by accident. An Earth elemental caused the eruptions. One with too much power. My fault, really. I gave him power with no balance in check. I had to return and rip the gift of Earth from him along with all the other gifted humans and give those gifts to another group of people. But this time, I didn’t take chances. I also gifted women. I made them spirits, your dragons’ mates and their purpose is balance that keeps your powers in check. It is the reason why others cannot command the element until they’ve found their spirits. The day all spirits are found and matched is the day the Ice Age will end.”

Okay. Dragons had mates. Jake was on to something with his mating thing, and I had guessed correctly with my theory. Instead of calling the women mates, Mother Nature called them spirits. Semantics. We would find them, mate them, and gain control of the elements. “And why haven’t you told us this before?”

“You didn’t need to know before.”

I rolled my eyes so far in the back of my head, I almost did a back flip. “Selena is my spirit.”

“Yes, genius.”

The attitude. I showed her my teeth. Too late for me and my spirit, but my brothers had a chance. “And how do the others find spirits?”

“By looking. I gave them eyes, ears, noses, and majestic creatures with great big wings. Didn’t I?”

“I missed you when you weren’t here. But now I just want you to go away.”

“Well, I can’t give them a woman’s intuition now, can I?”

“You’re sexist. You know that?”

“Of course I know that.” She looked far away. “Ah. My poor child. Nothing pains me more than feeling a broken spirit. You broke her heart. Makes me want to bend you over my knee.”

I huffed out smoke. “Nobody wants that.”

“Sadly.”

“Hm?”

“Never mind. Goodbye, my son.”

“Wait.” I stepped closer to the edge. “Make me a man.”

“I can’t do that.”

“You can!”

“I can’t. Your dragon protects you. He has healed all the burned skin and covered it with his own. You are him, and he is you, and if you ask me, the other three should take up their beasts the way you have. I am proud of you. But in your heart, you have to know that there is a spirit who loves you.”

“If she loved me, she would’ve stayed.”

“Shoo.” Mother waved me off. “Tell Nentres to hold a ball.”

“A ball?”

“Yes, a ball. And not the crystal kind. The one with gowns and pretty maidens.”

“We haven’t held balls since…I don’t know. Did we ever hold balls in the States?”

“Humor me.”

“I’ll tell him.”

“A spirit must attend the ball. I hope he manages to impress her.”

* * *

Selena

I couldn’t see the castle from my house. I couldn’t see the dragon flying. I felt cut off, and I couldn’t deal with the fact I would never see him again. So at night, I drove out to the old spot where I’d first decided on my trip to the island, took the binoculars from Nano, and watched the dragon lounge on top of the castle.

In the past three nights, he hadn’t flown much.

I fantasized that he regretted letting me go and that he wanted me back. Those fantasies included him flying over here and demanding my hand in marriage. I had it bad for the creature.

Oh, there! He sat up. I sat up in my seat too and leaned in, inched my car closer to the plasma. The red letters didn’t pop up to warn me about the temperature as the plasma was still under repair from when Lance had burst into it.

Tonight, the council had voted against military action, so all was set in peace again. Us here in the habitat, them there on the island. Life went on, though if you judged by the warnings on the megatrons, we were facing another apocalypse.

The dragon paced the platform. He was up to something. My hopes rose. God, I was such a sucker. This needed to end. I had to get a life, a job, or something to keep my mind occupied.

A car pulled up next to mine.

Its magnetic field activated, and my car stuck to it. “Hey!” I said and slid down Nano’s window. “Do you mind?”

Diego. With implants on his face. Silver disks covered half the side of his face, and both of his eyes were red. A level-five cyborg, not even human anymore, completely controlled by the cyborg military council. They’d made him a machine, a cop in our society who only knew what they programmed him to know.

“Resident 14905,” he said, “you are parked in the plasma construction area.”

He didn’t recognize me. He knew nothing. Guilt made me feel bad for him, but I also knew he’d done it to himself. He’d breached the dragon’s territory. Since Diego had served in the military, he must’ve known the consequences. “Sorry, I was just leaving.” Not.

“Escort initiated.”

“I’m fine. I said I was leaving.”

His jaw jutted out first, then the muscles on the human side of his face ticked. A glitch. No big deal. But when Diego leaned in and tilted his head, I knew that somehow something triggered his memory. “Selena Salazar,” he said. “Resident 14905. My bride.”

I reversed.

The car didn’t go anywhere, Diego’s magnetic field rendering it useless. I looked down. Probably about, oh, I didn’t know, a thousand feet. Diego descended in his police car, carrying my car with him. He chanted, “Selena Salazar. Resident 14905. My bride.”

Definitely a glitch.

My car started to shake, then Diego disengaged, ripping off Nano’s door as the force field pulled away. I stayed suspended in the air, my car not working, the force that kept it flying drained. The car tilted, and Nano rolled out. I hadn’t worn my seat belt, so I rolled after it.

I screamed as I fell.

I closed my eyes.

My life flashed before me.

Thump.

I hit the ground. My body bounced back. Wind blew my hair over my face, and I snapped my eyes open. The plasma barrier above me turned bright red and pulsed. Shouts came from below. I sat up and touched the dragon’s skin.

Wings flapped on either side of me, and I held on for dear life as he made a turn over the habitat and headed for the plasma construction site. It was the only place where the plasma was as clear as it’d been before. Everywhere else, it pulsed red.

We broke through.

Cyborgs opened fire. Laser lights covered us, hitting his skin and putting holes in his body. The dragon shrieked and spun around.

“No, no, no.” My hands came away bloody. “Fly away, fly away.”

But he didn’t. He threw back his head and roared. My body vibrated. My ears rang.

Then I clearly heard “Rise” come from the dragon’s mouth.

A loud noise came from behind me, and the sea rose above us, forming a wave as big as the habitat. Down there, seashells could be seen in the dry sand. The dragon had sucked up all the water and brought it together in a giant wave that hovered, thundering like a storm from nightmares.

The dragon flapped his wings, waiting for the cyborgs to retreat. They fired, and the wave folded over us. Inside it, not a drop of wetness touched me or the dragon. I couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t see anything beside the angry blue around me. I climbed up his body and onto his head, where I sat inside my little human cupholder and leaned against the horn.

The water came away.

Waves splashed against the coast.

The red plasma short-circuited. The military washed away into the sea, the streets flooded, the cyborgs peeked out of their homes, came out of the bars, snapped pictures from the streets.

Cy aliens were everywhere in the habitat. On the streets, on the buildings, in the bars. Everywhere. Their tall, willowy silver bodies couldn’t be missed. “Oh my God, they were living among us!”

The plasma flashed red and then returned to its clear yet visible form. The Cy disappeared, but I knew what I’d seen. The plasma barrier made the Cy invisible. For years, we’d believed the Cy never touched our ground, but they had been on Earth for God knew how long. But why? Why were they hiding from us?

The dragon spun around and flew back to the castle. He landed on the top with a thud, his face slapping the concrete. I slid down his nose and hugged it. “I missed you.”

Smoke came out his nostrils, followed by a whine.

“You’re hurt.” I didn’t see any wounds on his face, so I rounded his body. Blood and laser lacerations covered his side, and they’d even gotten his wing. “Mandy!” I screamed, but she was already bursting through the door, as were Jake and Belle and perhaps the entire pack.

“Is there anything we can do for him?” I asked everyone at once.

Jake shook his head. “No. We have to hope he heals.”

“But he will heal, right?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

The dragon snorted.

Jake smiled. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Okay, then. Excuse me.” I tried to get past the crowd, but Jake grabbed my shoulders. “Where are you going?”

“I need a blanket. Or ten, if I’m going to spend the night up here.”

“I’ll get those,” Belle said.

And so she did. Once again, I climbed over the beast’s nose and crawled onto his muzzle, then lay over the length of it and covered myself with three thermal blankets. They had nothing on the heat that warmed my belly from below.