38. Freefall
Freefall
M y dragon surfaced fully for the first time.
From the scars on my back, I felt four of something come out and lift my shirt up. The new things on my back stretched wide behind me. I was panting as I turned around to look at them. They were delicate with gossamer membranes and jeweled veins sparkling in the lowlight from the full moon outside. Tentatively, I flexed them. A rush of pure exhilaration surged through me. It was like moving my toes. Happily, I fluttered them with each beat of my heart. They casted prisms of light around the room. They were dragonfly wings.
My dragonfly wings.
“Well, well, well. This certainly changes things.” Simone, Maisie, and I looked to see Zaria. She was battered and bloody, her smirk ever present. Quinn was nowhere to be found. My heart sank. Where was she? What had Zaria done with her? Was she okay? “You are worth even more now than you were before.”
Zaria unsheathed another cursed blade. The sight of the blade mixed with my fear for what had happened to my girlfriend made my dragon take over. I roared, my wings fluttering behind me as Zaria approached, ready for takeoff at any time. My claws and fangs grew longer, and I crouched ready to defend myself this time.
When I was just about to attack, Quinn reappeared and tackled Zaria from behind. They went past us and through a wall near the door. They banged against the hallway wall, their grunts and groans could be heard going down the hallway.
Another surge of energy racked through me with more tingling warmth. A tail formed behind me. It was so long, it had to be at least seven feet long with crystal spikes growing down my spine and tail. It was covered in the same holographic patches of scales that were now spreading across my body like the pictures in the grimoire. As the energy continued to course through me, my tail whipped behind me, smacking against the remains of the bed frame and breaking it further. My wings pulsed, too. My dragon—that something that I had been feeling since I met Quinn—stretched and swelled, anxious and demanding control at last after all this time.
She wanted to be free.
We need to get out of here. Now! My dragon roared in my head.
“Simone, Maisie! I have to leave—uh—right now. But I know I have so much explaining to do after all of this is over. I promise I will—ugh!—explain everything later,” I groaned as I tried to stall my dragon’s manifestation and she fought against me.
“Byrdie, we are best friends. You do not have to explain a single thing to us. You know that.” Simone squeezed my shoulder.
“Yeah, get out of here. We got you always.” Maisie smiled.
I fought back tears. These were truly my best friends. I loved them so much for their unconditional patience, support, and understanding. I wanted to hug them close and tight, but I didn’t have time. That would be for later.
Faster and more nimble than I had ever been before, I was on my feet. I blurred to the balcony, and I leaped onto the balcony railing, my talon-toes gripped the railing and clicked against the glass. The beach stretched below at least three stories down with jagged rocks below to remind me of what I was risking with my failure. My wings fluttered, and my tail flicked. But then, I looked up. The ocean stretched to the horizon. She whispered for me. I wanted to feel the ocean spray, the wind beneath me. I wanted to feel it against my scales. I wanted to see how fast I could go. I wanted to be what I was always meant to be.
You’re ready then, my baby Byrd.
I took a breath.
I closed my eyes.
And I fell.
My whole body warmed as magic enveloped me. I opened my eyes as I was encompassed by a crystal chrysalis. I felt my body elongate and expand, shredding yet another one of Quinn’s shirts to pieces. Only my mom’s necklace was left around my extending neck with my pink locs growing long like a mane. A crown of crystal pillar-like horns grew from the top of my head toward my back. My jaw stretched, filling with rows of razor-sharp teeth, my nails lengthened to black talons as long as my human forearm, and an even longer serpentine tail formed behind me. My wings grew to match my growing form. The patches of scales multiplied to cover my entire body in holographic scales that showed a chrome of pastel blues, pinks, purples, and whites in the moonlight. Time both stopped and felt like no time at all before I burst from my chrysalis exploded in a shower of glitter dust.
And then, I flew.
Before I hit the rocks and sand, I released my tucked wings and vibrated them, and I flew . I raced back up the cliff side of the mansion, and I flew . I went back up past the mansion with its sleeping guests, up into the sky toward the full moon itself and all the diamonds there.
Then I soared.
I flew like I had always wanted to. It was like ice skating but so much fucking better. I had never felt so alive. My wings pounded the air, my tail wiggled behind to maintain my balance and to steer, the wind flowed through my mane. I just loved the feeling. I had never felt so connected to my body, so one with myself and at peace with who I was. With what I was. With the night sky as my backdrop, I spun, spiraled, looped, and did all sorts of tricks. Finally, I was feeling everything that I always wanted, everything that I remembered that I had wanted.
I was a fucking dragon. I remembered everything now. The spell was officially broken.
I flew back toward the mansion, toward my bedroom. Simone and Maisie stood on the balcony. Hovering before them, the wind from my wings blew their hair back. I towered over my friends in this form, making it the first time I had ever been taller than them.
Yeah, I kind loved this a lot. Hard to make short jokes to a dragon the size of a helicopter.
“Whoa,” My girls said at the same time. They were awestruck, their eyes wide with wonder.
“B-Byrd? Is that really you?” Simone asked.
I nodded.
“Guess we weren’t too far off with the gay gator speculation.”
I growled at Maisie with as vicious of side-eye that I could muster.
“My gods in sea and earth, Byrdie. You’re a fucking dragon ? Like a literal dragon-shifter? This is insanely cool! And you are a natural in the air!” Simone marveled.
“Well, she was kinda born this way, Sea.”
“Oh, shut it.” Simone stuck her tongue out at Maisie, and I rolled my eyes.
“But she is right. This is incredible.”
I preened from their compliments. Then I felt a tug on my thoughts that made me whine.
Quinn.
“Byrd? What’s wrong?” Maisie asked before she shook her head. “Wait, why did I ask that? Dragons can’t talk… right?”
“Well, not in her current form. Can you shift back, Bee? Do you know how?”
I nodded.
“Wait, shifters might not know how to shift back?”
“Not the first time they shift, usually. They don’t have control of the magic yet. Mermaids really struggle with the whole leg thing the first time around. Don’t even get me started. Wait a minute. Didn’t you take Shifter Autonomy as your Supernatural Differential Course?”
“We both know that I took that class for the Easy A and to get in that polycule with those vampires. The only autonomy I cared about then was what they could do with their?—”
“You need a time out.”
I snorted, listening to them. Actually, shifting was the easy part for me. The feeling of that magic was one that I could never forget or lose where it lingered just within reach when I wasn’t using it. It was a comforting presence, like my dragon in my mind. So, it took nothing to summon it and wrap it around me.
My dragon growled in my head as I started shifting back, but I reassured her. We are reunited. It won’t be forever this time. She settled hearing my words, making herself comfortable underneath my skin, always close by.
I closed my eyes and focused. The chrysalis returned to encircle me in its shimmering light. I felt myself shrink returning to my five feet frame. My scales receded to their patches across my body, bringing back my tawny human skin. I was more human in appearance, but I knew I was nowhere near it. I hadn’t felt my horns, fangs, talons, wings, or tail leave. I now had elven ears I could feel peek out from between my locs. My vision and other senses remained sharpened, too. When the chrysalis vanished after I had finished my transformation, I felt the chill from the altitude and beachy air immediately, making me shiver.
That was when I remembered a less-than-ideal side effect of shifting without any preparation?—
“Fuck!” I landed on the balcony, trying to cover my nakedness.
“Yeaaaah, shifting for the first time isn’t kind to non-magicked clothes,” Simone said.
I went to step into my room when I had to stop dead in my tracks. The whole space was a total mess . There were holes and dents in every wall. No furniture had been left unscathed, with everything being reduced to shards of wood and rubble. It was like a tornado had gone through the space.
Well, of sorts.
I sorted through the pile of wood that once was the dresser and was able to find my duffel bag. From it, I pulled out an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts. I folded my wings down and close to my back to put the shirt on. It felt weird keeping them like this, and I could definitely feel the beginnings of a cramp no matter how many times I readjusted them. How did Everett do this all day with his giant wings?
“Are you not able to shift back into a full human?” Simone asked as I struggled to put on shorts because of my tail. Gods, had everything always been this shifter unfriendly?
“The first time a dragon shifts, they instinctively know how to fully manifest their dragon and revert back,” I explained. “But, they don’t know how to fully revert to human. It usually takes a lot of training or some magical intervention. So, this is the best I can do for right now. I think Talli helped my parents with their shifts before.”
“Wait, Talli helped your parents shift? You remember that now?” Simone asked.
“The spell on your back is nonexistent now, so it must have been broken earlier tonight. I think that Forget-Me Spell was tied to your back and your dragon. I didn’t even see your scars or anything when you shifted,” Maisie noticed.
Only Byrd will be able to break this spell, and that’s only when she’s ready and wants to do so. Talli’s voice echoed in my head from that night that everything changed.
“Yeah, the spell broke as soon as I was ready.”
“Ready? Ready for what? That still sounds like such a vague spell term,” Simone said with Maisie shrugging but not disagreeing.
“When I was ready to fully grieve everything that had happened. Like, everything that had really happened. It’s a really long story,” I sighed, suddenly exhausted.
So much had happened and that was just including the memories surfacing in my head. They were so fresh as if they had happened yesterday instead of well over a decade ago. Mom was killed by hunters. Pops and Max were killed by hunters. They threatened mine and Everett’s lives twice before. And now, tonight? With Zaria? I clawed at my sides, apprehension beginning to take hold of me and gnawing at my insides. My tail swished behind me while my wings buzzed.
“Did it have anything to do with that weird knife? It seemed to be cursed or something. Where is it, anyway?” Simone asked.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched a neon purple orb rise from the ground. Inside was the dagger in question. It still had those blood red shadows floating around it like wisps of smoke. I couldn’t feel its aura and power through Maisie’s bubble, but it also still gave me the creeps and put me on high alert. I growled softly at the sight of it as it flew over toward Maisie.
“Whatever is attached to it causes an adverse reaction in Byrd.” Maisie glanced at my bristling before looking back at the knife in her orb. “It definitely has a pretty powerful something on there. It’s not quite an Archaic, but the magic is just as old. I haven’t seen anything like it before in my studies, but you can usually feel the intent of magic. This felt like it might be a ward of sorts? Something to protect, maybe?“
“Or to defeat,” I said before my pointed ears perked up at the sound of pulsed rumbling near what once was the bed. I used my wings to fly over all the debris to reach it. After some shifting through the remains of the nightstand, I found my phone. My heart skipped a beat at the Caller ID.
“Quinn, are you okay?” I answered, immediately breathless.
“I was going to ask you the same thing, sweetness.” Just hearing her voice on the other line was enough to make me sink to the floor in relief.
“I’m fine. Better than fine actually,” I answered. The tip of my tail started to thump against the floor. Maisie raised an eyebrow while Simone snickered. I ignored them. “Where are you? Are you hurt or anything?”
“I’m outside, and I’m fine. She got some good hits in, but it’s nothing I couldn’t handle. What I couldn’t handle was if anything happened to you, which it did. She hurt you today. I heard it. I practically felt it. It’s all my fault, Byrd. You got hurt because of me. I’m so, so sorry.”
“No, honey, don’t do that. This isn’t your fault. None of it is. You didn’t ask Zaria to attack me, and you did everything in your power to stop it. Don’t take this burden on yourself. It’s not yours to take.”
“If I had lost you today?—”
“But you didn’t,” I interrupted. “I’m right here, Quinn. I’m not going anywhere. I’m okay. I mean it.”
I could practically hear Quinn shaking her head on the other line. “I promise you that she will pay for this. I’m going to make sure of it.”
I honestly didn’t know if I should be scared for Zaria’s sake at the fire in Quinn’s voice or turned on. I shook my head to start thinking more with it, rather than with my pussy again. “What do you mean by that? What happened to her after y’all went in the hallway?”
“We fought our way downstairs. I finally was able to knock her out and subdue her. Even if she wakes up, she won’t be able to move. Are you with your friends right now?”
“Yeah, Maisie and Simone are in front of me.” Both of them perk up when they hear their names, looking over at me.
“Put me on speaker please,” Quinn requested, and I listened. Simone and Maisie approached and crouched in front of me to hear better. I let Quinn know that she was on speaker and good to continue.
“Maisie? Zaria mentioned that the house had been magicked. What do you know about that?”
“I have no idea how, but she casted a slumber spell. To cast it on only those blood-related to you requires some dark fucking magic. It’s heavy shit. Most practitioners of magic—fae, witch, or both—don’t go near that kind of sorcery because it’s too dangerous. No good comes from it.”
Simone furrowed her eyebrows. “Wait, was Zaria a witch?”
“No, she isn’t,” Quinn answered shortly.
Maisie expanded. “Blood magic is one of the few kinds of magic that you don’t have to be a magical being to practice. If you are a witch or someone with magical ancestry, though, it intensifies it, making it way more potent. The good news is that this is just a slumber spell. It should wear off in another hour. Two, at the most. When everyone wakes up, they are going to have one hell of a headache.”
“Is that enough time for you three to get off the island?” Quinn asked, her voice leveled and sure.
“I’m so sorry, what?” I asked. Simone and Maisie were just as confused as I was by their matching furrowed brows. “Why do we need to get off the island?”
“Byrd, Zaria is after you and she wants to kill you. It isn’t safe for you here.”
“Yeah, but you said that you had subdued her. Are the police on their way to pick her up? I don’t understand why the bitch can’t just be thrown in jail and we continue with our trip.”
“A jail can’t hold her. Hell, it took everything I had to take her down. You need a whole army to contain her enormous ass, honestly. But if she’s here after you, there’s bound to be more connected to her that are after you as well. Besides, that isn’t how my family does things. We have rules that we have to follow.” Quinn sighed. I knew she was ruffling her curls right now from her nerves. “The safest thing is for you to go home, where you are protected and safe. Your uncle is a griffin-shifter, right? And your condo is guarded by gargoyle-shifters twenty-four-seven?”
“Yes, and yes.” Tears pricked at my eyes, threatening to spill over. This reminded me too much of the day I lost my mom and Pops. People wanting to keep me safe from some Big Bad, but then never coming back or coming back hurt. I didn’t know if this situation was anything like that, but I could only assume it was.
I had lost so many already. I don’t know how much more I could give and have taken from me. I was scared. I didn’t want to lose Quinn. I didn’t know how she would react to me in this current state, either. She had said that she would love me in all forms, but that was when I could only grow fangs and claws. Now, I had fucking wings and a tail and could turn into a whole ass dragon. Would she still love me? I was afraid of the chance that the answer wasn’t in my favor. “Quinn, I love you. I can’t lose you.”
“I love you, too, Byrd. I wish I could explain all of this to you. I want to tell you everything so bad. You deserve to know, and it isn’t fair that I have to keep you in the dark like this. But I meant every word of what I said today. I’m all in on this. I love you more than life itself. That’s why I call you mi vida . You are my everything. I want to be with you always. Through the good and the bad. You aren’t losing me. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Aw! That is so sweet!” Simone declared before covering her mouth. “Oops, so sorry! That was supposed to be an inside thought.”
“Honestly, thank the gods. The sappiness was making me want to vomit.” Maisie faked a gag.
I rolled my eyes while Quinn laughed on the other line. “Get out of here, you three. Text me when you get home, okay? I will give the boys and Stass a rundown, too.”
“I wish I could kiss you before I left.”
“I know, mi tesoro . Once this is over, I plan on kissing you until you can only think of me. And I don’t care if your friends heard that.”
My face grew hot at her words while Simone and Maisie groaned. “We definitely did!”
After I finished laughing, I said, “In all seriousness, promise me you will come back to me?”
“I promise, baby girl.”
“I love you too much.”
“And I love you back.” The call ended, but the gnawing within me was just getting started.