“I thought I might be finding ye here.” I knew the voice, but that didn’t stop me from planting my fists, one after the other, into the punching bag. After my afternoon classes, I hit the gym, determined to take out my frustration and anger before going to find Professor McTavish for instructions on my duties that night. I must not have been fast enough for him, because he found me instead.
“With the way ye be beatin’ that thing, ye’d think it accosted ye in a dark alley, lad,” he joked. When I didn’t say anything, his voice became sober. “Are ye all right?”
“Yes.”
“Mind tellin’ me what’s going on?”
I stopped beating the bag and leaned my forehead on the warm leather to take a deep breath.
“Wouldn’t perchance involve the headmistress’s order of ye helpin’ guard the perimeter, would it?”
“Yes.”
“Ah. Then it also involves the new lass who ye had up at the o’erlook last night. Ye needn’t explain anything then. I know enough.” I turned to see him nod, an amused glint in his eyes.
He had more of an idea of what was bothering me than I did, it seemed. I let it drop and changed the subject. “You were looking for me, and now you’ve found me. Is it time to show me the ropes on what I’m supposed to be watching for on the perimeter?”
He became serious. “Aye, lad. There be something ye need to see. Follow me, and I’ll show ye the reason the Watch made it inside.”
I trailed behind him out of the gym, expecting to go outside, so when he turned and started upstairs toward the west wing of the main house, I was surprised.
“It’s the crystals,” he said, gesturing to the same spelled stone I had brought to the school only a few days earlier. “Something has caused this one and one o’er on the north side o’ the forest to break.”
“Break is putting it mildly,” I replied, staring at the heap of sharp-looking shards. “Breaking makes me think someone just dropped it. That one looks like it exploded from the inside out. What would make it do that?”
“Not what. Who. The best the headmistress can tell is that there be something new in Imperium. Something with a magic strong enough to overload the crystals and break them,” McTavish said, picking up a handful of the broken shards. He let them fall between his fingers and into a wastebasket.
“But the Watch is made up of humans. They don’t have magic,” I said, thinking aloud. “If it wasn’t them, it had to be someone else. It had to be a shifter who is working with the Watch.”
“Aye, lad. Your task be not only to protect the borders from those outside,” McTavish said gravely, “but to also protect the innocent of the attacks from those who are within. Come wi’ me and we’ll check the perimeter now. Then I’ll show ye the crystal ye’ll be guarding tonight.”
As we left the main house and started for the forest, one thing he said continued to run through my head. There was something new in Imperium. Something strong enough to break the shields.
There was only one new person I could think of, but I didn’t believe she was strong enough to do that.
Claire.
By the time we finished, it was evening. I had a few hours to myself before I would have to guard my section of forest. Knowing I liked the part of the mountain up by the star, the professor had given me that spot to watch over.
There was enough time to see how Claire’s first day went, so I headed toward the house. I had just passed the statue of the phoenix when I heard a sniffle that stopped me cold in my tracks. Backing up a few steps, I peeked behind the bird’s granite wing and was surprised to see Claire hidden there, face red and streaked with tears.
I ducked inside and crouched down beside her. “Hey. What’s wrong?”
Apparently, I didn’t ask my question right, because she only cried harder, hiding her face in her hands. Not knowing what else to do, I patted her hair awkwardly. “Whatever it is, I promise it will be okay.”
I kept patting for the next few minutes until the sobbing ceased, only to be followed by hiccups. “There, there,” I said, still patting. My calves were on fire from staying crouched down in such a tight spot. “Can you tell me what happened?” Better to get to the bottom of it as soon as possible if I was going to be able to move and get back up the mountain later; otherwise, I might end up being a permanent part of the statue.
Claire dropped her hands from her face, still sniffling, but making an obvious effort to stop. “I was in history class, and I learned about the Yokai,” she managed to say, though her voice cracked on the last word.
“You don’t have anything to worry about,” I said, attempting to console her, but it had the complete opposite effect. Immediately, she teared up again.
“You don’t understand, I do! I have everything to worry about,” she cried.
Her first words clicked in my head. “Wait a minute, you said you were in history class. That was this morning. Have you been here the whole time?”
She nodded, a fat tear rolling down her cheek. “I couldn’t be around anyone else.”
I couldn’t handle watching more tears. Wincing at the pain in my knees, I squished down beside her and wrapped my arms around her middle to bring her close. She felt tiny and fragile as I held her, and that protective urge came over me again. “You can always be around me,” I promised. “Whatever it is, I’ll listen.”
“You won’t want to be near me when you figure out what I am,” she said in a barely audible whisper. “No one will.”
“Try me.”
“I’m a…I’m a…” Her shoulders shook, and her tears soaked through my shirt.
“You’re a Yokai,” I finished.
She jerked back from me, her eyes wide. “What? How did you know?”
I hadn’t known. It had been a guess, but I wasn’t about to tell her that. A few more pieces of the puzzle fit into place. “The shields absorbed some new magic that overloaded a couple of the crystals,” I said with a shrug and a smile. “It makes sense if you are a Yokai. And by the way, even though I know? I still want to be around you. See? This is me. On the inside of a statue, as close as I can get to you, still wanting to be around you.”
She gave me something that sounded stuck between a laugh and a sob.
“So, can we get out of the statue now? I promise I won’t let anything happen to you out there. Cross my heart.” I made an X over my chest. “And hope to die.”
Claire bit her lip as she cast a nervous glance at the opening of the wing. “What if someone else figures out what I am?”
“We’ll deal with that if it comes. I promise your secret is safe with me, Claire. I won’t tell a soul, I swear.”
For the first time since I ducked into her little hiding place, she gave me a smile that warmed her eyes. “I know you wouldn’t. I’m not worried about that. I’m worried I won’t be able to control myself around anyone else. What if I pick up on everyone else’s magic at the same time and become the monster they’re all afraid of?”
“That will never happen,” I said firmly, getting up to take her hand. “Come on. I have an idea. I’ll show you something that helped me when I had problems blending in here.”
I led her out and then took her to the main house to the library.
The fairy sitting behind the librarian’s desk watched us as we walked past. I nodded, knowing exactly where I wanted to go, and she replied with by inclining her head when she realized where I was headed. We wouldn’t be needing her help. I knew this particular section of the library as well as she did.
At the back wall, in a section called “Self Help,” I went straight to the book I knew we needed and plucked it off the shelf.
“Okay, let’s go,” I said, giving Claire a smile as I led her out one of the back doors that led to small rooms used as private reading places. I shut the door behind us and pulled out a chair for her to sit.
“This,” I said as I sat down beside her, “is what helped me the most when I first came here.” I pushed the leather volume in front of her, so she would be able to see. Magia was the only word that could be made out. The leather was so old the rest of the title had been worn off from decades of handling. “De Magia Imaginibus…Pictures of Magic.” I flipped through to the first page until she could see the picture, then explained. “I came to Imperium with my twin brother, William. My mom and dad are dragons, too. As it is with most shapeshifters, we get our magic at some point in our teens. And, as turning into a dragon can be an…intense…experience, my brother and I were both enrolled here at sixteen.”
Claire had been tracing the picture of the fierce dragon with her finger. Now her attention left the page, and her eyes met mine as she waited for the rest of the story. “William has always been more laid back than me. He takes directions and submits to authority better, too,” I admitted. “He was only here for one year before he managed to graduate out. I didn’t take it well. Then my dad ended up getting a job a few hours south of here. They had to move, and I…I had to stay.”
Understanding filled Claire’s eyes, but she stayed quiet, listening to what I needed to say.
“I was angry…so angry. About being here, about being what I was. About being alone. About everything,” I explained. “I let my dragon take full charge of me, and he made all of my decisions—for about ten minutes. I torched the south side of the main house, then turned my attention to my own house…to Flame House.”
Her eyes widened as she realized one of my punishments was to be assigned to a different house.
“I didn’t hurt anyone,” I hurried to say, not wanting to see her disappointment. “But I could have. The marble on that side of the main house still has scorch marks to this day. Flame House was spelled to repel fire, so I didn’t harm it in the least. After that, the headmistress warned me I would be on a short leash. One wrong move and she would banish me. She nearly did to make an example of me, but my best friend spoke on my behalf and she gave me another chance. That’s why she’s always reminding me now to watch my step.”
I smiled, remembering the way Paul had stepped in front of me, stubbornly refusing to budge until the headmistress heard him out.
“Paul, my best friend, he brought me here right after that and told me if I was to learn how to control my animal spirit, then I would first need to learn from those who had had it before me. This book showed me more about what I am—more than any history lesson Imperium could ever teach.”
“It’s pictures,” Claire said softly as she turned her attention to the book and began thumbing the pages, one to the next.
“It’s a series of paintings, depicting actual shapeshifters throughout history,” I explained. “This isn’t the fairy-tale stuff that gets thrown around so much. These guys were the real deal.”
Curiosity piqued, she went back to the first page that held a dragon perched on the mainsail of a ship. The sails were tattered and torn, and the dragon was using his wings in place of the ruined canvas to catch the wind.
“His name was Arden Barr. He was from Scotland and was sailing to the Americas in 1718 when the ship was caught in a squall. He shifted to his dragon form and used his wings in place of the sails to catch the wind. Because of what he was, he was able to save the lives of the people on that ship,” I said, telling her the story, even though she was reading it in the paragraphs below the painting.
After a moment, she flipped to the next page, which depicted a wolf, who, at first glance, appeared to be attacking a girl in the forest. It looked like a classic red riding hood tale, until the way the wolf’s head turned toward a shadow in the trees was noticed by the reader. Once that registered, so did the shaft of the arrow coming toward the girl and the position of the wolf’s body attempting to shield her.
“Her name was Mary Goddard. The town people thought her a witch and hired a huntsman to kill her. What they didn’t know was that the town’s butcher, Lorne Cain, was in love with her. He was the one with magic. When he heard of their plan, he rushed to save her, leaping in front of her to deflect the arrow that would have killed her. He gave his life to save hers.” Claire’s eyes widened, then she flipped to the next story.
From one painting to the next, I told each tale from memory. There was a reason the pages were worn and dogeared. Paul may have been the one to save me at first, but this book and its truths had been what kept me on the straight and narrow since then.
Finally, she turned to the picture I’d wanted her to see—the one that would prove not everyone believed Yokai to be evil.
“Nikolai Preit,” she read the title softly, fingers tracing over the ghostlike apparition that was floating in front of a burning building, a child tucked under each arm. “Yokai. 1910.”
At first glance, the unsuspecting eye would discern that this demon-like monster with clawed hands and tattered wings had stolen the children and set fire to cover its escape, but once studied closer, it was obvious how the children in its arms clung to it, and how relieved the faces of those in the crowd below were.
“Nikolai Preit was an orphan in a children’s home when the boiler exploded, catching the building on fire. He was able to whisk the other children to safety by shifting and flying them out the windows in pairs. He went back, again and again, hoping to save them all. In the end, there was only one fatality. On his last flight in, to make sure they were all out, the roof collapsed, trapping him inside. His body was never found. When a new orphanage was built, they named it in his honor.” A tear rolled down Claire’s cheek and fell to the painting. Another began its trek down, and I chased it away with my thumb.
“What I learned the day Paul showed me this book was that shifters have been given a choice. All of us have a choice. Dragon, Wolf, Yokai…they are all just words meaning the same thing—that you have been given the gift of magic and power. How you choose to use it is what makes you who you truly are.”
When we left the library, it was clear by the thoughtful expression on her face she was still thinking of the book. “There is one more thing I want to show you,” I said, leading her back to the courtyard. “Okay, I’m going to shift to dragon and I want you to hop up on my back like before, all right? When I get above the clouds, I want you to open your eyes.”
She winced, obviously getting ready to object, so I added, “I want to show you what makes me calm. Just trust me, Claire…please?”
She closed her mouth on whatever words she’d been getting ready to speak before giving an uncertain nod. I shifted, then leaned close to the ground to help her get up. Once her arms were firmly around my neck, I flew into the sky.
The grip she had on my neck told me how nervous she was, so I took care not to make any sudden moves and concentrated on getting us to our destination. On my first flight as a dragon, I had envisioned clouds as feeling like soft tufts of cotton. And they did have a feel to them, but more of a damp one with a slight change in the air temperature.
The evening sun colored the billowing white blanket below us in shades of pink and orange. Other than the wind catching my wings, all was silent. Claire had forgotten her fears, it seemed, since I felt her weight shift as she leaned out. I glanced back enough to see one hand reaching out to touch the wisps as we passed through them, while her other arm stayed firmly looped around my neck.
This is my place, I wanted to tell her. This is where I go when life down there gets to be too much.
While we soared above the clouds, I wondered if Claire truly was a Yokai. If so, she should be able to tap into my magic and shift into a dragon at will.
That wouldn’t be a bad thing, I decided. Not at all. It would be nice to have another dragon to fly with. With my parents and brother living a few hours south of Roanoke, I had felt alone more than once.
Claire leaned her cheek against my neck, and I felt her warmth through my scales.
Then again, this isn’t a bad thing, either. I could definitely get used to this.
We flew until the last traces of the sun disappeared, and the clouds below us turned to a shroud of darkness. It would be time for me to stand guard soon. As much as I hated leaving, I dropped down and landed in the same place from where we’d taken off.
I waited until Claire hopped off and then shifted back.
“That was beautiful,” she said. “Thank you.” A soft breeze caught her hair and blew a few strands across her cheek. I reached out and smoothed them away.
“Any time you need to escape, let me know. The sky is always the best place when down here feels like too much.” I offered her my hand, my stomach clenching when she wrapped her fingers around mine, and then I walked her to her dorm.
“Thank you, Logan…for everything,” she said as she opened the door. She turned to me, her lips parted just the slightest bit. I wanted to kiss her. I leaned toward her, wanting to bridge the gap between us, but for some reason I couldn’t explain, I stopped short and took a step back.
“Anytime,” I said as the door shut. “Good night, Claire.”