Chapter 43
T he soft, insistent tapping sounded again. Beth yanked open the window of the girls’ dorm, glaring down.
“Finley, it’s after lights out!” she hissed. “Go away!”
“For once in your life, forget the rules,” Finley whispered back. “Come on, all of you!”
Beth opened her mouth to protest, but Estelle was already elbowing her aside. The smaller girl slithered out of the window without hesitation, Flora hard on her heels. Claire shifted to her chameleopard form, flowing outside like water.
Beth bit her lip, glancing back at the sleeping dorm. Grimacing, she followed the other kids, leaving the window open behind her.
“We’re going to be in so much trouble if we get caught,” she muttered.
“Don’t worry,” Finley said. “We aren’t going far. And you have to see this.”
He led them away from the cabin, into the meadow beyond. Archie, Rufus, and Ignatius were already gathered there, faces upturned.
“What are you all looking at?” Flora asked, craning her neck as well. “Is it a meteor shower or something?”
“ Way cooler.” Archie thrust a finger at the sky. “Look!”
Thunder rumbled in the distance. A shape wheeled above the mountain, silhouetted against the moon. Lightning sparked around vast, outstretched wings.
And next to it, another shape—smaller, but brighter. In the dark, she glowed like sunlight, and in her wings was all the warmth of summer.
“Wow,” Beth said softly.
Estelle heaved a longing sigh, watching the two winged wolves chase each other through the sky. “I really wish I could shift.”
“You will, one day.” Finley took her hand, squeezing in reassurance. “And you too, of course, Ig.”
Ignatius didn’t say anything for a moment. His gaze lingered on the bright gold wolf as she spiraled around her mate.
Rufus cocked his head. Beth, Finley, and Estelle looked at him, then at Ignatius.
“Ig?” Beth said. “Is something wrong?”
Ignatius’s throat worked. “I… need to tell you all something.”
* * *
They all sat cross-legged on the grass, listening. Even Archie didn’t interrupt, or ask questions, or turn into a bear.
“So… that’s it,” Ignatius finished at last. He was pale in the moonlight, shoulders around his ears. “Now you know.”
“Oh, Ig,” Estelle said. “That’s awful.”
“Well, it’s not like, the worst thing in the world,” Flora said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself of this fact. “I mean, most people can’t shift. It just makes you normal, really. There’s nothing wrong with not being a shifter.”
“There is if you’re meant to be the heir to the most powerful dragon clan in America.” Ignatius scrubbed a hand across his face, then glared at them all fiercely. “You can’t tell anyone else. No one. ”
“Of course we won’t.” Finley put a hand on Ignatius’s tense shoulder. “And don’t give up hope yet.”
“Lots of people don’t shift until they’re teenagers,” Beth agreed. “Or even later. Just look at Buck and Honey.”
Archie nodded vigorously. “Yeah, even if you aren’t a shifter now, you could still get bitten by a hellhound or something.”
“Now there’s an idea.” Flora frowned, her forehead wrinkling in thought. “How could we convince Buck to bite Iggy?”
Ignatius hugged his knees. “I don’t want to be a hellhound, though. It wouldn’t do any good. I have to be a dragon to lead my clan.”
Finley and Rufus exchanged glances.
“Ig,” Finley said slowly. “I think you are a dragon. Or some kind of mythic shifter, at least.”
“Haven’t you heard anything I said?” Ignatius snapped at the other boy. “I’ve tried! If there was anything there, I should have felt it by now. What makes you think there is?”
Rufus smiled. He touched Ignatius’s wrist, bare skin to bare skin.
*Because,* he said in Ignatius’s head, *you can hear me.*