Dragon Fire (27 page)

The air around Liv crackled with sparks of electricity. “Ea’s Kairök will be in even more danger if your existence is suspected. Paaliaq needs more time than we have.” Liv’s voice was firm. “This isn’t just about you. It’s about all of us. My life is already on the line, Red. And so is yours.” Liv gestured towards Anna. “Hers doesn’t have to be.”

Liv’s blonde hair spread like a halo, making her look like an angel of wrath. Anna wondered if she should just get up and run.

Red sat down. “Did you erase my trails?”

The crackling disappeared. “Yes,” said Liv as if they had never been arguing. “That’s the first thing I did.”

Red glanced at Anna before looking back at Liv. “Do we have to…?”

“I don’t think so,” said Liv, turning her attention to Anna. “Can you keep a secret?”

Anna stood up quickly, as if Liv had called her to attention. “Yes. But I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her voice echoed and she looked around. “You put up a shield?”

“Yes,” said Liv, her voice crystal clear. “But the echo that you hear is because of the light of Veritas, the light of truth.” She cupped her hands, as if she was holding something but nothing was there. “No one can know that Red has the energy you just felt. No one. Will you keep his secret?”

“Why don’t you hide yours?” asked Anna warily.

“I don’t need to.” Liv’s eyes shone with an inner light that Anna found unsettling.

“But Red does?”

“Yes.”

Anna shivered. “Because of the shadow thing?”

Liv looked distant – and then confused. “Is that why Pemba protected you?”

Anna felt her face burn. “Yes,” she said before she was able to stop herself.

“Then you can understand why Red’s identity needs to be hidden.”

“Yes,” Anna said quietly.

“Even from Pemba.”

“No.” She didn’t want to hide anything from him.

“If you can’t pledge to keep Red’s secret, we can’t let you walk away from here with your memory intact. It’s your choice.”

A cold, slithering feeling of freezing silt slipped around the nape of her neck and her knees wobbled.

“Will you keep Red’s energy secret, from everyone?” asked Liv.

The cold started to snake inside the base of her skull. Anna stiffened. “Yes.”

The air shimmered and the cold disappeared. “Your word is binding and can not be broken.” Liv’s eyes were so vividly blue that Anna couldn’t even see the pupils.

“Or else?” asked Anna, feeling sick at the prospect of lying to Pemba.

“Your memory will be irrevocably erased before you have spoken.”

* * *

Rakan fidgeted in the hallway outside Anna’s classroom, wishing he could make time move faster. But he couldn’t. He stretched his hands on the wall. He could feel her on the other side. And she felt him. He pressed against the wall, as if it were Anna. Soon she’d come out and he’d take her in his arms. It had been too long since he had last seen her.

The bell rang and everyone flowed out of the room. Everyone except for Anna. She lingered behind, her energy a conflicting mass of emotions. He pushed past the stragglers and into the classroom. Anna turned nervously to face him.

“Hey,” she said, her cheeks flushing bright red. “I missed you.”

Rakan walked up to her slowly, trying to read what was wrong. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. How’s Dawa?”

Rakan gently touched her cheek. “I think she’ll be okay.”

Anna closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, her hands slipping around his waist. The smell of wild chrysanthemums greeted him and he leaned forward with a moan. He rubbed his cheek against her hair and ran a hand down her back, gently fingering her spine. Her energy was growing. It felt like a sail beginning to unfurl. “Your energy has changed,” he mumbled into her neck. It felt good.

Anna stiffened in his arms. “It shouldn’t have.”

Rakan pulled back and examined her more closely. “What happened?” He brushed a strand of hair that had escaped from her ponytail out of her face.

Anna bit her lower lip and looked away. “Nothing.” But her voice rang hollow.

“Anna, you have to tell me.” He turned her around so that she was facing him again. Anger pulsed through him, making him want to stretch and thicken. Why wasn’t he ever here when she needed his protection?

Anna dropped her eyes. “There’s nothing to tell.”

His hands convulsed around her upper arms. “That’s not true,” he growled. He had shielded her against any forced touch from a dragon, but he hadn’t considered the void-trails. He felt her wince in pain and he released her, mortified by his lack of control. He walked to the window and looked out at the schoolyard. Students were playing in the snow that had been falling all morning, covering the town in a soft white shroud. She should be out there, too. But he was ruining her life and exposing her to dangers she couldn’t even begin to imagine. A wave of nausea rolled up inside as it did every time he shifted now.

“Did you see the twins while I was gone?”

“What? No,” Anna said, sounding honestly confused.

Rakan turned around slowly. “Liv,” he said quietly, sure in his gut.

“Stop it, okay? I’m fine.” She threw her books into her backpack.

Rakan reached out to touch her with his mind, but she recoiled from him. “You don’t want me touch you,” he said, his voice harsher than he intended.

“No. Yes. Oh, Pemba.” Anna held her backpack stiffly.

Rakan’s fists closed. He wanted to kill every single void-trail he had ever met. Starting with Liv. He hurled a chair across the room and then gripped the sides of a table, begging it to keep him grounded. To keep him from morphing in a wild rage and killing everyone in his path, destroying everything until there was nothing left. And no way of getting it back. He forced his rök to stop spinning and slowly let go of the table. He straightened. Anna stood, petrified. “I’m going home,” he said without looking at her. He walked slowly to the empty hallway, hoping he’d make it back to Ngari before he morphed.

* * *

Anna closed her eyes and rolled over to face the wall in her bedroom. Her mother had insisted on taking her to three different doctors and having all kinds of blood tests. And Anna didn’t feel like going to any more.

“Anna,” said her mom, sitting on the bed. “You really have to eat.”

“I don’t want to.”

Ingrid sighed. “Ulf said Dawa has been out sick too – do you know if the symptoms are the same?”

“No.”

“What does Pemba think?”

Anna bit her lip and squeezed her eyes shut. She still couldn’t talk about Pemba.

“Honey?” Her mother paused. “Is that what this is about? Did you guys break up?”

Anna didn’t say anything and prayed that she wouldn’t start sobbing until her mother left. The last thing she wanted was a pep talk from her mom.

Ingrid sighed. “Life can be difficult sometimes—” She tried to put a hand on Anna’s shoulder, but Anna pulled away.

“Mom, it’s okay. He’s just out of town. He’ll be back.”
Maybe.

“Okay.” Ingrid hesitated but stood up. “You know I’m always here for you, honey. If ever you do want to talk about something.”

“Yeah. I know. Thanks.” As if she’d ever talk to her mom about anything like that. Anna rolled her eyes to the wall, hoping her mom would just leave.

“Hey, champion. How’re you feeling?” asked Ulf, knocking at the door. “All the girls were asking about you. The team hasn’t been the same with everyone out sick for so long.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet,” Ingrid said. “Don’t you think, Anna?”

As if he cared. Jerk.

The doorbell rang and Ingrid went to answer it.

“Uh, Anna?” said Ulf, lurking in the doorway. “Do you know how Dawa is? She’s been out for a long time now.”

“What? No. Why would I know?”

“Pemba didn’t say anything?”

“No.”

“Can you do me a favor? Can you just ask her to call me?”

“No.” She turned out her lamp. “Get out.”
Creep.

In the silence that followed Anna heard her mom and Red coming up the stairs.
At this rate, I’d be better off at school.
She turned to glare at them all.

“She’s tired,” said Ulf. “We should let her rest.”

“I’ll just say goodnight and come down,” said Red.

“Oh, okay.” Ingrid poked her head into the room. “I love you, honey. I’ll come back later.”

“I’ll get you a beer,” said Ulf to Red on the way out. “And don’t forget,” he said to Anna with a wink, “I’m counting on you to pull through. For the team.”

“What are you doing here?” snapped Anna when Ulf and Ingrid’s voices had disappeared down the stairs.

“I wanted to apologize,” said Red. “I didn’t mean to drag you into this.”

Anna glared at Red. “Well then maybe you can explain what ‘this’ is.”

Red shook his head. “No. I can’t. I—” but his sentence was chopped off by burst of energy that emanated from around Anna and flattened Red back against the wall, splintering the shelves and sending all of her things flying.

“Pemba?” Anna sat up. The energy had felt like Pemba. “Red?” She threw back the comforter and went over to her cousin who was squatting on the floor. “Are you okay?”

Ingrid came running in, breathless. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” said Red. “I just had the bright idea of leaning against the shelves. I’ll pick it all up. Sorry about the mess,” he said, looking around the room. “It doesn’t look like anything broke.”

Anna narrowed her eyes. Nothing was broken anymore, but she was sure it had been. Her collection of glass animals would never have survived the fall.

“You scared us,” Ingrid said.

Red laughed. “I scared me too. But at least it got Anna out of bed.”

Ingrid laughed. “That’s true. Here, I can help.”

“Don’t worry about it, Mom. I’ll do it with Red.” Anna glared in his direction.

Ingrid was about to protest, but Red nodded his head towards the door. “It’s okay, Ingrid. We’ll get it.”

“I get the message. I’ll leave you kids alone.” She lifted her hands up. “I’m going.”

Anna walked to the door and listened until she heard her mom chatting with Ulf. And then she turned to face Red. “What was—” but the words got caught in her throat. “Pemba?” She was hallucinating. There was no other explanation.

“What happened?” asked Pemba, looking around. “Who was in here?”

“My mom. And Ulf.”
Could she even mention her cousin?

“And someone else. But I can’t tell who.”

“How’d you get in?” she asked, desperate to avoid the subject of her cousin.

“The front door was open,” Pemba said, coming closer. “I walked in, okay?”

Anna looked around her dimly lit room.

“Who are you looking for?” asked Pemba. “Who tried to hurt you?”

Anna shook her head. “No one. I was angry, that’s all and then… my shelves fell down.” Anna looked at her wall. “Everything is back in place.”

“But who were you angry with?”

Anna began to tremble. “No one.”

“Anna, I already know Liv did something to you. But she wasn’t the one who triggered my shield. Who was it?”

“I can’t tell you that.” She threw herself into his arms. “If I tell you…” She screamed silently into his bare shoulder. Keeping secrets from him was killing her.

“What will happen?” he said, stroking her hair gently.

“My memory will be erased,” she said in a whisper. “And I don’t want that.” Panic welled up inside. Had she already said too much?

Pemba’s grip convulsed around her. “Don’t say anything. I’ll deal with it.” His voice was hard.

“No. Don’t. Please Pemba, I’m not hurt. I was just angry.”

“Did you accept this situation of your own free will?” His voice as calm and emotionless as Liv’s had been the other day.

Anna winced. “No. Yes. Sort of.”

“No one has the right to place that kind of trigger on you, Anna. No one. And even if you accepted, it was probably because you had no choice.”

“Promise me not to hurt anyone. Please,” she said, searching his eyes. They had an orange hue in the dim light of her room.

Pemba leaned his forehead against hers. “I can’t do that, Anna. I was brought up to protect my own. And I will.”

“No. You can’t hurt anyone because of me. I couldn’t live with that.” She wouldn’t let Pemba fight Red. Or Liv, even if she hated Liv for forcing her to lie to Pemba.

“None of this would have happened if we had never met.” Pemba walked to the window. “I shouldn’t have gotten close to you.” He pressed a hand to his temple. “I’m sorry.”

“No. Don’t say that,” she said, joining him at the window. “I’m glad we met. I want to be with you.” She wrapped her arms around him, but he disentangled himself and held her at arms length.

“No, Anna. You don’t. Or you wouldn’t if you knew.”