“Stay quiet,” I hissed.
Without thinking, I set him on my wide and broad shoulders, then turned to duck under the woods. Hoping I wouldn’t brush him off, I worked my way further from the road and growing collection of cars and bystanders. When I could no longer see or hear them, I stopped in a wide clearing. The wail of sirens drifted over the heavy wind blowing through the trees.
I gently set Declan on the ground. “We’re what now?”
He beamed up at me happily, as though we hadn’t been in danger for our lives a few minutes ago. “We’re dragons, Jacy.”
“Dragons don’t exist.”
“Yeah, we do.” He set his small hands on his hips. “Dad is a dragon. My mom wasn’t, though.”
“How can this be?”
“I’ll show you.”
In a blink, Declan was no longer Declan. Where he’d stood, now stood a creature from legend – albeit a small legend.
“See?”
He stretched his wings wide and flapped them, rising only an inch or two off the ground. His hide, or what could only be called hide, was a light sandy brown, his eyes as blue as ever. A trickle of flame burst from his jaws and set a patch of dry grass on fire. I stamped it out, growing more frightened by the minute.
“How can this be?”
I looked around at myself again. My hide was the same color as my hair. Thus, I guessed my eyes were green. I slowly fluttered my wings up and down experimentally, swept my tail across the grass. “I’m a dragon.”
Declan pranced, his wings wide, laughing. “Isn’t it great?”
“You can fly?”
His grin faded. “No.” I swear I saw a young dragon pout on his expressive muzzle. “I can’t, I’m too young. When I get older, Dad will teach me.”
“How is it people don’t know about dragons?”
“We’re not s’pose to tell. We get into trouble if people see us.”
“And in the dark, they can’t see as well as we can.” I couldn’t stop looking at my tremendous body, my wings that when spread blocked the sky, and most of all, my tail.I have a damn tail. A tail!
“How many of us dragons are there?” I asked.
“Dunno. Lots.”
Sitting back on my hind legs, I used my talons to inspect my long muzzle, the rows and rows of sharp, backward curving teeth. “We could rule the planet,” I mused.
“We’re not s’pose to. That’s what Dad says.”
“With the power we have, it’s probably best that we don’t, eh?”
A shadow floated over our heads.
Panic struck me as I looked up, trying to find the source. I stepped over Declan to shield him with my body, ready yet again to fight and die to protect him. I saw nothing. The wind lashed at the trees, yet I felt none of the cold it brought. Could it be –
A dragon, its wings creating a hurricane, dropped from the sky.
Chapter Fourteen
Avery
“Dad!”
