Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The bright wood-and-eggshell lobby of the administration building always made Aila feel restless. She perched on the edge of a polished oak bench, studying her fingernails, then the stitches of her work polo, then every single spiky leaf of the mounted succulents that spelled San Tamculo Zoo on the opposite wall.
Theodore sat beside her, idly scrolling on his phone. How in all the skies and seas could he look so calm ? Aila traced the line of a floor tile with her boot, then flinched as the rubber sole squealed against the linoleum.
She looked up. So did the receptionist. They locked eyes in a blistering glare.
“Oh, wow,” Teddy whispered. “What’s that about?”
“It’s nothing,” Aila murmured, eyes back on the floor. “I shouted at a patron in here once. Or twice. We’re mortal nemeses now.”
“You’ve got a few of those, huh?”
Aila didn’t realize she was bouncing in her chair until Teddy’s hand clamped her shoulder. “Relax,” he said in that calm, kind, speaking-to-a-high-strung-kitten sort of way. “You’re not even the one in the meeting.”
No. Aila wasn’t. She’d never imagined such a scenario could feel more stress-inducing than sitting in the spotlight herself. Last night, Tanya pitched her volunteer keeper program to the donor board. This morning, Director Hawthorn called her in to share the results of their vote.
Between this, and the success of the phoenix cam, and the five whole phoenix eggs sitting in Aila’s exhibit, she ought to carry a dustpan around, a courtesy to whoever had to clean up her remains when she inevitably exploded out of excitement.
Because Tanya deserved this. She deserved it so damned much, Aila might scream, glaring receptionists notwithstanding. No matter how Aila balked at the idea of more volunteers skittering around the zoo, she knew Tanya would build the program into something phenomenal, something they could all be proud of.
“She’ll be fine,” Teddy said.
“How do you know?” a mildly vibrating Aila returned.
“Hm?”
“It’s hard work. And nothing’s guaranteed.”
“Sure. But we know Tanya. We know how much she’s put into this. That it’s a great idea. And even if things don’t come together this time?” He shrugged. “She’ll keep trying until it happens.”
Aila… liked that. She liked the idea of Tanya succeeding, obviously. But more, the idea that maybe some things didn’t work out as intended right away. That this wouldn’t be, contrary to her usual expectations, the end of the world. She sat a little easier.
Until the instant she heard the director’s office door open, at which point she bolted to her feet like a snapped rubber band.
Tanya and Director Hawthorn walked down the hall and into the lobby. Shook hands. The director nodded to Aila, then returned to his office.
Tanya was smiling.
Aila made a high-pitched squeal that somehow syllable-ized into “ Well? ”
“It’s been approved!” Tanya sounded out of breath. “Just a pilot program, to start with. We’ll need to show good results to earn long-term approval, but we can get going in a couple of months with—”
Aila launched forward, trusting Tanya to catch her. Tanya did. They spun together in a tight, laughing embrace.
“ Tanya! Congratulations! You’re brilliant, and beautiful, and you deserve this more than anyone in the entire world, and you’re going to get this program going and it’s going to be amazing , and of course they’ll approve it for forever, they have to !”
Tanya chuckled, a bubbly sound like fresh summer soda pop. “Thanks, Ailes. It’s… Skies and seas, I can’t believe it’s really happening.”
It took a moment, but Aila finally allowed herself to be dislodged from Tanya like a beloved burr. Teddy came forward. He tipped onto his toes and pressed a kiss to Tanya’s lips, the slow and lingering kind that made even the eavesdropping receptionist lighten her glower.
“Proud of you, Tani. Nothing new there.”
Tanya beamed like Movasi sunshine.
They headed outside—Tanya’s hand woven with Teddy’s, Aila bouncing ahead of them like an unleashed puppy.
“This deserves a celebration,” Teddy said. “Have they still got those seasonal churros? The ones with the strawberry filling?”
“Teddy, that sounds blissful,” Tanya said. “But I’ve got food prep to—”
“Oh, shut up ,” Aila said. “I can take care of food prep. Go get a treat!”
Normally, Tanya would argue. She must be beside herself, to only smile in reply. And was that a little bounce in Tanya’s boots Aila detected?
“We’ll celebrate proper tonight,” Teddy said, tugging Tanya away toward the food court. “Meet at the pub? Get some margaritas?”
“And party hats!” Aila proposed.
“And party hats !” Teddy agreed, alongside a Tanya who was laughing too hard to reply.
Aila watched them go, smiling wide enough to leave her cheeks aching for a week.
That evening, she danced through her closing routine.
She whistled down the stairs of the back kelpie exhibit, gleeful notes echoing off concrete. At the bottom control panel, she hit the button to open the gate. Maisie swirled into her tank like a drift of flotsam, algae-wreathed hooves prancing through water as she flipped by the observation window.
“I’ve got amazing news, Maisie!” Aila hit the button again, closing the gate and sealing the kelpie in her back holding for the night. “Tanya’s volunteer program got approved!”
Aila had told every one of her animals the exciting development. Most responded with the expected (if disappointing) nonchalance. Maisie was polite enough to press her snout to the glass and puff bubbles in acknowledgement.
“ Right? ” Aila agreed. “It’s almost as if…” She hesitated, hand pressed to the cool window of Maisie’s tank. “As if everything’s finally coming together.”
Maybe it was. San Tamculo had its first nest of phoenix eggs in over a decade. Tanya’s hard work had paid off. Aila was still buzzing with the sight of her friend victorious, of Tanya’s radiant smile and her hand woven with Teddy’s as the two of them frolicked away for an impromptu churro date.
At how ceaselessly Teddy supported Tanya. At how easy they acted with each other.
And there, to Aila’s dismay, a little pang in her heart soured her otherwise perfect day. There was one thing still not going right in her life, a weight like iron around her ankles.
Aila trotted up the stairs and made sure the upper door to Maisie’s tank was locked. In the kitchen, she laid out a goat to defrost, then shut off the lights. Checklist complete, she swung through the outside door.
And barreled straight into her biggest problem in the entire zoo.
“Holy. Crap!” Aila staggered, clutching her racing heart.
“Sorry!” Connor raised his hands. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“What did you expect, hiding around corners?”
“I was just standing here.”
“Well, how was I supposed to know that?” Aila threw up her hands. Her fault, not watching where she was going, but a heart attack was the last thing she needed. Who’d take care of the phoenixes? “What are you doing here?”
“Hoping to talk to you. If you have a minute?”
There came that pang in Aila’s heart again, like a shard of ice trying to burrow through her ventricles.
Tell him no. Tell him you’re busy. It’s not a lie.
“Yeah, sure,” she said. “What is it?”
Coward. Aila cringed at her indecisiveness.
“I want to show you something. We’ll be back in a flash.” Connor took her hand.
Aila and her spineless back followed without protest.
Even before the Tanya/Teddy showcase of love that morning, Aila had dragged herself to a painful realization: she had to break things off with Connor. It wasn’t right, the way he made her stomach squirm. The way their interests passed each other at angles askew. Aila knew it, and Tanya had given her enough raised eyebrows to say she knew it, too. The question of how to enact this decision debilitated her. Aila couldn’t stand the thought of disappointing people.
Now, hang on there, Aila , a sane person might say, wouldn’t leading him on cause even more disappointment in the end?
Why, yes. What an accurate and paralyzing observation.
Connor led them across the zoo, patrons gone for the day, paths empty except for a handful of workers closing up food stalls or sweeping up stale fries. This couldn’t be another meal date. He’d planned something else.
When they arrived at the dragon aviaries, Connor grabbed a bucket of thawed fish from the keeper kitchen.
“Ever fed a maned dragon before?” he asked.
Aila squinted at him, trying to find the joke. “No…”
“First time for everything, then.”
The back holding area for the maned dragon was the size of Rubra’s entire public exhibit, outfitted with a swimming pool and several hard plastic toys riddled with chew marks, enclosed in metal bars the width of Aila’s arm. Connor slid open a latch, then slipped inside. Beyond, the door to the main exhibit stood open. Aila froze on the threshold.
“Connor! What are you doing? You can’t just walk into an exhibit with a predator!”
He laughed. “She eats fish, Aila. Perfectly harmless.”
His confidence threw her for a loop. Aila was, by every stretch of the imagination, a strict rule-follower, and she could guess with reasonable certainty that this was breaking zoo protocol (fish-eater or not, dragon teeth and claws were no joke). Then again, Connor was the dragon’s keeper. He ought to know her temperament better than anyone.
When else would Aila get such an opportunity?
Wary, she followed Connor out the door to the exhibit. He glanced back, all bravado. Pink blossoms swirled at their feet, falling from cherry trees along a rocky hillside. A pond lay at the center, black water dotted with flower petals and floating green duckweed.
Daiyu, the maned dragon, raised her head at the sight of visitors. Her serpentine body relaxed in a loose coil, scales like polished jade. Flower petals sprinkled her gold and onyx mane like confetti. A few pieces stuck to her antlers.
In addition to their weather-altering abilities, old tales claimed maned dragon hair brought good fortune. Scientific research had yet to prove the claim conclusively, though a recent study found people wearing dragon mane bracelets reported greater happiness on average. Then again, wouldn’t Aila be happier if she got to wear a kick-ass dragon bracelet?
The dragon rose on short legs, claws digging into the rocky soil, neck towering ten feet over Connor and Aila.
“Evening, sweetheart.” Connor lifted an offering of fish. “Hungry for a snack before turning in for the night?”
Hot breath puffed from the dragon’s nostrils, a smell like humid air before a storm. She bared her teeth, then pinched the fish from Connor’s fingers, swallowing it whole. Aila’s mouth hung open wide enough to catch flies. Forget all that relationship anxiety nonsense. This was one of the coolest things she’d ever seen.
“Wouldn’t want to get on her bad side.” Connor patted Daiyu’s mane. “But she’s a peach. Want to try?”
Did Aila want to try hand-feeding a dragon? What a dumb question.
She grabbed a fish from the bucket, cold and slick, scales rough against her fingers. With Connor standing by for moral support (not sure what else he could do, if the dragon decided to snap), Aila held up her offering.
She’d never realized how big dragons were up close.
Daiyu sniffed Aila’s hair, no doubt spotted with feather dust and kelpie algae. The air cooled around the dragon, like fresh rain without the hassle of getting wet. When Daiyu opened her mouth, teeth the size of Aila’s palm grazed her hand, gentle. The dragon gulped the fish, then stared her human visitor down with expectant eyes, black flecked with gold like stars.
Aila bounced on her heels, electrified by the thrill. Connor chuckled and handed her another fish.
“How are the phoenixes?” he asked.
“Couldn’t be better.” Aila offered the next fish to Daiyu. The dragon snapped it up, then nudged empty hands with her snout. “Five eggs, all viable so far.”
“That’s fantastic news. When’s the hatch date?”
“Average incubation time is twenty-eight days. Considering Rubra didn’t start full incubation until the fifth egg was laid… I’d say the timer started yesterday. We’ll be on immolation watch in a little under a month.”
Saying it out loud sounded terrifying and exhilarating in equal measure. After months of preparation, almost a year since the fated break-in at the Jewelport Zoo, Aila and her run-down breeding program had come so far. When those phoenixes hatched, there wouldn’t be enough ice cream in the world to celebrate.
Connor handed her the last fish.
Aila held it up to Daiyu. Once the dragon gulped it down, she tipped her snout into the empty bucket. Huffed. With a ground-shaking plop, she lay down and curled her tail around her, brushing the fanned tip through cherry blossoms.
Connor stroked her snout. He beckoned Aila closer.
Scarcely breathing, she traced her fingers over Daiyu’s nose, the ridge of her eye. The dragon didn’t just look like jade, her scales were smooth as polished gemstones and cool as spring water.
“I’m sure you have a busy month ahead,” Connor said. “I’ve been meaning to drag you over here for a while. Figured now was a good time to get some things off your mind.”
“This is incredible, Connor.” Aila stroked the dragon’s silky mane. “She’s incredible.”
Daiyu huffed and tilted her neck toward Aila, enjoying the scratches.
“I thought you’d like it.” Connor grinned.
“I do. I really do.” Aila bit her lip. “But…”
The word tainted the air like kelpie fog. Aila struggled to finish the thought, guilt heavy on her tongue.
“I’ve noticed,” Connor said for her, and that was worse. “Things have been a little… strained between us.”
Of course he’d noticed. Anyone with a sliver of social awareness would have. She stared at Daiyu’s polished jade scales, smooth beneath her fingers. Why didn’t Connor do this for their first date? Aila would have been hooked.
But he hadn’t. Aila might like this side of him, but what about the rest? What about the side that made her feel embarrassed? Self-conscious? Aside from Tanya, Aila had come to expect that kind of treatment from other people, that she’d never quite fit in right. Expecting anything more was asking too much.
Then she’d gotten to know Luciana better these past few weeks.
Around her, Aila didn’t feel embarrassed. She didn’t feel self-conscious. That freeing feeling, she hadn’t thought possible. And that was the core of the problem, wasn’t it? Even alone here with Connor, surrounded by cherry blossoms and enamored by a dragon, Aila didn’t have the butterflies in her stomach she’d had just sitting beside Luciana.
Be a big girl, Aila. You can do it.
“It’s very thoughtful,” she said, meek. “But I’m not sure things have been working out between us.”
Connor studied her a moment. Scrunched his mouth. “I see.”
“That’s it?” Aila clutched her hands to her chest, awaiting something worse.
He shrugged. “If that’s how you feel.”
Aila hadn’t known what to expect. An angry outburst, maybe not, but she’d anticipated something more than this. Connor’s level tone left her reeling.
“Connor, look, I’m sorry,” she blurted out too fast. “You have so many amazing qualities, and I appreciate the time we’ve spent together. I feel awful that it’s taken me so long to say this, I really do. I just think that sometimes—”
“Aila.” Connor cut her off without ire, a tight smile on his lips. “It’s fine. Really. I’m glad you told me.”
“It’s… fine ?” Aila chewed the word. Where was the argument? The pushback?
“No hard feelings.” He picked up the empty bucket and nodded toward the door. “Come on. I ought to finish locking up.”
Somehow, Aila dragged herself out of the dragon aviary without keeling over from awkwardness. Connor locked up the exhibit. He bid her goodnight with a smile.
They went their separate ways.
Horns and fangs, what just happened?
Aila walked back to the phoenix complex at a slug’s pace, the afternoon slipping into twilight, her world a haze. She’d never broken up with someone before. She’d always been the one rejected, the one dumped to the curb, and she’d never handled it with such poise. A guy thing, maybe? Or was Connor putting on a brave face, trying not to make awkward waves when they still had to work together? No worries there. Aila planned on avoiding the dragon exhibits for a year, at least.
Tanya had left for the day, a text on Aila’s phone promising to meet at the Macbhairan Pub in an hour. Aila plopped into a chair behind the camera monitors, head in her hands, zombie eyes half-focused on the screens. Should she tell Tanya about Connor—a guaranteed downer no matter how many margaritas and party hats she dressed it up in? No. Tanya deserved tonight to celebrate. Aila could muster a smile until morning.
She reached for her backpack, but ended up squinting at the video feed instead.
The camera focused not on the nest platform, but the opposite corner of the aviary. Not unheard of. With Rubra on her eggs, Aila had started leaving both phoenixes out on exhibit overnight. Sometimes, the motion-sensing camera tracked Carmesi as he hopped around the olive trees.
Except now, the camera focused on an empty frame. Aila stared at the screen for several seconds before the video shifted back to the nest platform, where Carmesi perched at Rubra’s side, head cocked.
Weird. Aila stood from her chair and pushed on tiptoes over the counter, peering out the observation window into the exhibit. Nothing but quiet olive trees. She returned to the monitor.
A flicker of movement caught her eye on one of the outside security cameras.
Aila straightened in her chair. She stared at the feed from the back loading dock, unblinking, breaths shallow. Could Tanya still be here? She checked her phone, but Tanya’s text had come through a half hour ago, and no bag sat at her desk.
Nothing else moved on the camera. Aila unclipped the radio from her belt.
“Aviaries to security.”
After a pause, her radio clicked back.
“Zoo security,” a man’s voice replied. One of the night security guards.
“Hey, Antonio. Could you take a peek at the loading dock behind phoenixes?”
“Roger that. Everything all right, Aila?”
“I thought I saw something on the security camera.”
“Be right there.”
Aila set down her radio and tapped her fingers against the desk. After the Jewelport break-in, all of San Tamculo’s security measures had been updated, from higher resolution cameras to the latest locking mechanisms on the phoenix aviaries. Even with all those precautions, Aila would be lying if she claimed the poachers had stopped haunting her mind. She tried to reason the worry away. The true danger wouldn’t come until closer to immolation, the eggs useless until a female hatched them. When that time came, IMWS had arranged an extra security patrol from the San Tamculo Police Department to be on standby.
As the seconds ticked by, Aila stared at the security feeds, the exhibit camera. Nothing looked amiss.
At last, a figure stepped into the loading dock camera. Antonio circled the back of the building before looking up and waving. Aila’s radio clicked.
“Everything looks clear,” he announced. “You want me to stick around for a bit?”
“No, that’s fine.” Aila propped her tired head on one arm. “I must have been imagining things. Thanks for checking.”
“No worries. I’ll walk around the perimeter, just to make sure.”
“Thanks, Antonio.”
Aila set down her radio and rubbed her temples. Just a long day. Hopefully, some time with Tanya and Teddy would take her mind off things for the night, and she could get these jumbled thoughts sorted out in the morning.
Hopefully, she could put this whole mess with Connor behind her.