“Focus on the ground, Austin,” I said as I hurried over to the floating cowboy.
“Oh, I'm focusin' ah'ite, but it ain't doin' anythang!” Austin said, his wide-eyed stare indeed on the floor of the veranda.
“This is faerie magic,” Azrael said calmly. “You have to focus on the magic first, then the result you want. Think about Air. Feel the wind inside you.”
“Air?” Austin waved his arms about like a chicken. “Are you kiddin' me? You telling me I need to break wind to get down? Am I suddenly in Willy Wonka's factory?”
“Uh, that was burping,” I said.
“Dude, no!” Viper exclaimed as he hastily vacated the area. “He isnottelling you to fart. He's saying focus on Airmagic.”
A burst of giggles came from behind me.
I turned and shushed the children who had gathered to watch their uncle awkwardly float. Then I said to Austin, “It feels cool, like a breeze in your chest. Close your eyes and feel it.”
“Oh, for land's sake,” Austin muttered, not realizing how appropriate that particular southern saying was. He closed his eyes. After a few tense seconds, he popped them open. “I feel sumpin'!”
“Good, now tell it what you want,” Azrael said. “Direct the magic to bring you back down.”
“Ah'ite.” Austin closed his eyes again, but instead of coming down, he shot forward, out of the confines of the veranda and out toward open land. As he flew away, his voice drifted back to us, “Sweet fancy Moses on buttered toast!”
“Damn it!” I yanked off my dress—something I normally wouldn't do in front of a crowd, but desperate times and all that—and shifted into my weredragon form in only my underwear.
Azrael was faster than I since he only had to summon his wings, and he took off several seconds before me. I launched into the sky after him, my leathery wings creating greater booms of sound than his feathered ones. Austin maintained a lead for several minutes, leaving a trail of hilarious southern exclamations behind him.
“Heavens to Betsy!” he declared when we finally caught up to him. “Somebody stop me!”
“Youare doing this, Austin,” Azrael still sounded remarkably calm. “Somewhere inside you, you want to fly.”
“Well, right now, I want to walk!”
“You don't, not really,” I said. “You're enjoying this.”
“Do I look like I'm enjoyin' this? I'm flyin' off inta the wild blue yonder!” Austin's accent grew even thicker in his panic.
“Austin, calm down, this is your magic.Yourpower,” Az said. “Here, take my hand.”
Austin reached out and grabbed Azrael's hand.
“There, I've got you. Now you can trust that you won't fall.”
“Trust that I won't fall?” Austin squished up his face at Azrael. “I'm not worried 'bout fallin' I'm—whoa!”
Suddenly, Austin started to descend.
“There you go,” Az went down with him. “You'll learn to trust yourself eventually and then the magic will be easier to use.”
“Oh, thank heavens,” Austin muttered when his feet hit the ground. “I thought I was gonna have to live in the sky.” He kept going down, first to his knees, then to his hands so he could lay his cheek on the bent blades of tall grass. It wasn't quite a kiss, but it was close.
Giggles came from behind me again. I looked over my shoulder to see my twin Angel-Faerie boys hovering there, belly-laughing at Austin so hard that they did occasional backward tumbles.
“Oh, sure, laugh it up young 'uns,” Austin said as he stood. “I just nearly flew myself ta death, but go on and have yerself a chuckle.”
They did.
“Stop that!” I pointed at them. “Go home!” I shooed them as if they were birds.
This made Azrael and Austin join in on the laughter.
