“Surprise.” He grinned, but she didn’t grin back. Didn’t even fake it. Just watched him as he opened the gate and walked in. “Is the owl all right?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “Something got him. Maybe a cat. He’s dying.” Another pause. “That’s the worst part. When they’re hurt and I can’t help.”
“You can put it out of its misery.”
She almost dropped the fledgling. “What?”
“I’ll do it. Mercifully. Then you won’t need to feel bad because you can’t help.”
She stared at him like he’d suggested murdering her mother for pocket change. One of the dragons roared, a white-hot burst of flame that blazed through him.
“I’m thinking of you,” he said, glowering at her.
“And I’mnot. That isn’t how it works. Rose said you…” she trailed off.
“Rose saidwhat.” He stepped forward.
Hannah shrank, but only a little, before straightening. “That you don’t understand about the powers. You think they’re this great gift. There are good parts, sure, but bad, too. Lots of bad. I woke up in the middle of the night last week because a dog had been hit by a car. I ran out of the house and my mom helped me take it to the vet’s, but there was nothing we could do. It was horrible. Just horrible. And I felt it—all of it. But the only thing that made that dog feel better was having me there through the whole thing, no matter how hard it was. So I did it. Because that’s my responsibility.”
Then you’re a fool, he thought.The dog wouldn’t have helped you. It would have left you by the road to die.He didn’tsay that, because when he looked at her, getting worked up, all he could think was how pretty she’d gotten. Prettier than any girl in his class, and he wanted to touch her, and when the impulse came, it was like throwing open a locked door. This was how he could steal her power. Touch her, kiss her…
He bit his lip and rocked back on his heels. “I’m sorry, Hannah. I wasn’t thinking. My dad always said a quick death is better than suffering, and that’s what I meant. Help youandhelp the baby owl.” He met her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded. “It’s all right. I’m just feeling bad about it.” She set the fledgling back on the ground.
“I know.” He stepped closer. “I wish I could make you feel better.”
Another nod, and in a blink, he was there, his arms going around her, his lips to hers. It wasn’t the first time he kissed a girl. He’d done more than kiss them, too. Sometimes that was him being wicked, but most times, he didn’t need to be—he knew how to say the right things.A little charmer, that’s what his mother called him, obviously relieved that her sullen boy had turned out so well.
So he kissed Hannah. It was a good kiss. A sweet and gentle one, for a sweet and gentle girl. But she jerked back and pushed him away hard, as if he’d jumped on her.
“I-I’m sorry, Bobby,” she said. “I have a boyfriend.”
He was about to say “Who?” when he saw her expression.
Liar.
The dragon whipped its tail inside him, lighting his gut on fire. He forced it to settle. He wouldn’t be wicked with Hannah. He just wouldn’t. Not unless he had to.
“It’s Rose, isn’t it?” he said, stepping back, looking down at his sneakers. “She doesn’t like me. She has dreams about me—about a dragon. She told me that, but I don’t understand what it means.”
“She doesn’t either. What did she tell you?”
He shrugged and continued the lie. “Something about a dragon. That’s all I know.”
“It’s two dragons. She dreams they’re fighting over you and screaming awful screams. Then one wins and it…it…”
“It what?”
“Devours you,” she blurted. “We don’t know what it means.”
“What do the elders say?”
“Elders?” She frowned at him. “We didn’t tell the elders. Rose looked it up in books. She has lots of books from her Nana. Some talk about the sight and dreams, but she can’t figure this one out.”
“So she’s never told the elders? About me?”
“Of course not. What’s there to tell?”
