The wind caught beneath my wings, pushing me higher into the air. I readjusted slightly, feeling the slight tinge of magic as it raced along my scales. The shields were still intact. For that, I was more than grateful.
Otherwise, the non-magical humans who lived in the city below would be getting an eyeful.
I snorted, and a small puff of smoke blew out my nostrils. An eyeful, indeed. It would be pure chaos if the people of Roanoke realized a scaly green dragon flew above them on a regular basis each weekend, searching for other shapeshifters.
No doubt about it, they’d be bringing out the pitchforks. Nope. Scratch that. They’d be bringing out the guns, missiles, and who knew what else in an effort to shoot me down.
If they only knew how much magic surrounded them—in the air and on the ground. Lucky for them, all they would see at this exact moment was the illusion of a clear, starlit sky, void of any magical creatures.
Another gust of wind came and I spread my wings further, changing direction until I soared over Roanoke’s sister city, Salem, a few miles over.
Yep, Salem, just like the witchy town of Salem, Massachusetts, only this one was in Virginia—and it was every bit as witchy.
Another minute passed, and I was at my destination. I glanced down at the vacant lot beside a small white house, dipping one wing experimentally as I descended to test the shields. They were still strong, so I dropped to the ground, taking care not to let my wings wander outside of the magic that kept me invisible.
I shifted to human, my scales disappearing in a rush of blue flame that licked along my body, and walked toward the house.
The porch light was on.
I was expected.
I didn’t even have to knock. The door swung open to reveal a petite blonde girl who looked a good deal younger than I was, though I knew for a fact she was older. A year older to be exact. She was nineteen.
The light from the kitchen illuminated her, making her look ethereal.
“Hadley,” I acknowledged with a nod of my head. My hair swung into my eyes with the movement, and I shoved it back, impatient. “You wanted to see me?”
“Yes, hurry up and get in here,” she replied, waving her hand at me impatiently. “You haven’t got all night, you know.”
You, I noticed. Not we. You haven’t got all night. I walked through the open door into the kitchen, and stood, arms crossed over my chest.
Whatever Hadley Rose had in mind for me this evening, it would likely involve a lot of work. Rarely did the youngest of Salem’s witch coven request my presence, but when she did, it was serious business.
“Is it the shields?” I asked when she didn’t say anything right away, my brain automatically searching for the worst possible outcome. A breach in the shields would most certainly be that. The coven kept Imperium University’s magic hidden from human eyes with a collection of spelled crystals placed strategically throughout the city and within the school’s grounds.
“No, no, the shields are fine,” she replied, handing me a multi-faceted crystal the color of an evening sky. “Bronwyn, Aunt Sally, and I strengthened them earlier today to be sure. This stone is for the east wing in the school’s main house. Everyone in and around Imperium will be safe enough, as well as the forest behind it and the skies above the city. But that isn’t why I sent for you…”
“Then what is it?”
Hadley bit her lip.
“Just spit it out. What do you need me to do, Hadley? You’ve already told me I haven’t got all night.” And I’d rather not spend it all here with you, trying to figure out what you want.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. I have a friend I need you to help. She left here a little while ago, so she should be home in a few minutes.” Hadley thrust a piece of paper into my hands. “Here’s her address.”
I looked at the scrap of paper, quickly mapping out Roanoke’s streets in my head. “She doesn’t live in a great neighborhood. Mind telling me what I’m supposed to be helping her with?”
Hadley didn’t waste any time with her next words. “I need you to get her out of there.”
“What? Like move out? Do I look like a rent-a-dragon service?”
Hadley’s green eyes narrowed to slits, making me wonder if she was contemplating zapping me with a spell that would turn me into an entirely different reptile…a small one that preferred to eat flies. “Smart-ass. She’s a shifter, and her foster father has been beating her. She needs to get into Imperium and away from him.”
That was enough to make me want to at least try to help, but I didn’t want Hadley to catch on. Knowing her, she’d go on a quest to make me a list a mile long of other people she wanted me to help.
“What kind of shifter?” I asked, suddenly curious. As Roanoke and Salem were in the mountain regions of Virginia, the majority of the shapeshifters I encountered were woodland creatures. There was a pack of wolves, several bear, and even a few smaller shifters—the smallest, thus far, having the ability to shift into a small blue butterfly. Imperium School was full of woodland shifters to the point the headmistress wouldn’t let just anyone in. It would be nice to have another dragon, though.
“She’s a fox…I think,” Hadley said, scrunching up her nose as if she wasn’t entirely sure.
“You think? The headmistress won’t let her in if she’s just a woodland shifter. She’ll have to…”
Hadley cut me off. “To have problems fitting in with the human world,” she finished with a nod of her head. “Yes, I know that. I’m telling you, if you go right now, you’ll see the problems she has. If anyone has ever needed into Imperium, it’s Claire.”
I looked at the paper one last time, committing the address to memory, then handed it back. “I’ll see what I can do.”
A smile that seemed bigger than she was lit up her entire face. “I know you will, Logan. Now go,” she exclaimed, shooing me back out the door.
Shaking my head at this strange visit, I returned to the empty lot and took off into the sky, retracing my flight to Roanoke. The city’s lights glowed below me like twinkling stars, which made me glance toward the mountain—toward Imperium. Toward Shifter’s University.
The gigantic man-made star that sat far above the school was not illuminated, proof the headmistress hadn’t discovered my departure. The eighty-eight-foot star, known as the Mill Mountain Star, always came to life when Magda Herensy wished her pupils back from the city, though she seemed to only use it to call for me lately. I thought it possibly had something to do with me being the only dragon in Imperium—or it might have had something to do with me blasting fire at the east wing of the university a short time back. Either way, the star wasn’t lit. Not yet.
I still had plenty of time to see what Hadley wanted me to find.
I shifted the slightest bit, and the current sent me eastward. Within seconds, I spotted a single flickering light directly in front of the address I had committed to memory.
Well, here we go, I thought, descending into a darkened alley across the street. Magic zinged along my scales as I left the protection of the shields, shifting as I dropped the extra few feet and landed behind a large dumpster with a soft, squishing thunk.
I grimaced as I stepped off a trash bag. I hadn’t had the good luck of landing away from the garbage, and now something gooey was on my shoes. Some lazy idiot had thrown their bags on the ground instead of tossing them into the smelly metal monster. I let out a low snarl and blew a puff of smoke toward my feet, hoping it would get rid of the smell that would surely be sinking into my sneakers.
Better the smell of smoke than trash, any day.
“Where have you been?” an angry voice shouted, tearing my attention back to the task at hand. The question was followed by the sound of splintering glass and curses.
Cautiously, I crept toward the mouth of the alley, my eyes locked on the brightly lit window of the house across the street.
Inside was a big bear of a man, his face contorted with rage. He spun around, his back to the window, and another spill of curses echoed, shattering the quiet.
In the scant second he turned, I spotted a girl with dark hair cowering in the corner, the expression on her face resigned and sad. She said something, the words so quiet I couldn’t make them out. Whatever they were, they brought on a fresh wave of fury in the man.
I took another step forward, leaving the safety of the alley as I watched the man shove her against the wall, meaty hand locked around her throat as he lifted her in the air.
She struggled, mouth gaping for breath.
A flood of furious desire, no, need, to spring to her rescue—to blast a scorching wall of fire at the man that would incinerate his very bones to ash—surged through me.
That flash of feeling left with the same speed, replaced by wonder. Dragon shifters weren’t particularly protective of anyone except family and the closest of friends. They—we—were loners and were happy enough to be that way.
It had taken me a long time to learn “pack mentality” at Imperium, just enough to care about looking after those in my own house. A combination of that and my fiery, hotheaded temper were what had kept me trapped at Imperium this long. Otherwise, I’d have been long out of the school before now.
I heard a strangled cry, and that odd feeling of protectiveness washed over me again. Without thinking, I took another step forward, my attention locked on the girl.
As I watched, the expression on her face changed from fear to anger. In the next instant, she shifted, her human body morphing into that of a small red fox.
How the man was able to keep his fist locked around her neck when she shifted, I wasn’t sure, but the fox managed to sink her sharp teeth into the web of his hand. With a howl, he let her go.
Cradling his injured hand, he spun, searching for the fox. When he reached for a gun lying on a nearby table, I knew I had to do something.
There would be no escape for her unless she shifted back to open it, and then ran outside to safety. She needs a diversion to get out.
When I looked up, my gaze landed on the electric pole near the house.
Perfect. I took a deep breath and exhaled, sending out an arching flame that leapt the distance of the road and hit the transformer. A loud boom erupted as it exploded in a shower of sparks.
The house went dark.
I grinned and retreated into the darkness of the alley. Score! Shifters 1, Humans 0.
The door opened and the girl crept out, the man’s yelling becoming clearer through the opening. As if she felt my presence, she turned for the barest of seconds and stared at the alley before she shifted and scampered into the safety of the nearby bushes.
She has to come to Imperium, I decided as I melted farther into the darkness to shift to my dragon form. Hadley was right. She needs us.
As if on cue, the Mill Mountain Star lit up as I vaulted into the night sky.
Yes, I’m coming, Headmistress…I’m coming to tell you about the one we need to save.