Page 21

May

It’s like standing in the middle of an eclipse, the full light of day gone dark and gray.

But nope.

My head tips backward. It’s not the moon blocking the sun. It’s a dragon!

Fuck me sideways.

She’s massive .

A couple of weeks ago, one of my cousins dared me to go with him to where an airport runway ended only a few feet away from the edge of a park. I guess he thought the “soft American” would never do something so dangerous. Ha! Just shows how little he knows me. I went along, and we lay on a tarp in the cool night air, the top of our heads brushing against the chain link fence. Finally, a 747 came in for a landing, looking like it was going to set down right on top of us. The noise, the wind, the feeling of several tons of metal moving over me only a few feet away—it was scary and thrilling and one of the most exhilarating things I’ve ever seen.

This is more so. Because the dragon doesn’t whoosh away, gone in a matter of seconds, like the airplane did. She hangs directly overhead, green wings as big as sails slapping wind over us with each downbeat.

Her arms end in clawed hands as big as me, her mouth full of foot-long fangs. A tendril of smoke rises from her mouth, and I know without being told that this dragon can breathe fire. Yeah, she sure as shit isn’t one of the calm water dragons from my father’s stories.

“You can speak to the goddess?” Sheevora’s voice booms across the glen, rattling my bones like thunder given form. “No one can speak to the goddess!”

“No one until me,” I yell up at her.

“Impossible.” The word flashes through my mind, but the feeling that comes with it isn’t disdain—it’s wonder and awe, the thrill of discovery.

“Do not doubt my bride.” Aldronn bristles beside me, his hand falling to the hilt of his sword.

“It’s okay.” I lay my hand over his and give a little squeeze. “She’s not mad. She’s excited.”

“Indeed I am,” the dragon says. “The mystery of the Moon Goddess has plagued all of dragonkind for centuries.”

“Dragons are the scholars and historians of Faerie,” Aldronn murmurs to me. “They pride themselves on knowing everything.”

Sheevora shifts again, flying above us in her smaller, more humanoid form, which is now completely nude, her clothing shredded by her first shift.

“How come she gets to be naked?” Shadow asks.

“Calm down, cat.” Sheevora lands on the ground and reaches into the air in front of her stomach. Her hand freaking disappears for a second, then reappears holding more of the unbleached linen. “It won’t be for long.”

“How did she do that?” I whisper to Naomi.

“Dragons have the ultimate magical pocketbooks! They can carry anything in there.” My friend tugs me away from the others and whispers. “She looks pretty normal. I was expecting…” Naomi flutters a hand.

“What?” I ask. The dragon has breasts and is hairless down below, but otherwise, her mons looks normal.

“Dragon guys have two.” Naomi makes an inverted V over her crotch with her index and middle finger.

“That’s what your two-dick text was talking about? It’s not something Wranth’s stud does?”

“No.” My friend turns to me, her eyes going wide as an amazed smile curls her lips. “May! You tell me right now what you did! Did you make Aldronn make two ?”

I slap a hand over my mouth to hold back my laugh.

“Oh, my god, you did! You dick slut, you!”

The laugh bursts from me, unable to be contained, and I double over, arms wrapped around my stomach, my friend laughing with me.

Aldronn and Wranth look over from where they’re arranging several logs in a circle around the campfire. Their questioning expressions only make us laugh harder. No way in hell am I telling them what we’re talking about.

When I finally recover enough to talk, I pull Naomi to me and whisper in her ear. “Fairsies squarsies. Your turn to tell what kind of stud you wished up.”

“A tentacle topped with a rose toy.”

“Ooo, good one.”

“Yep,” she says, looking thoroughly smug.

Sheevora finishes wrapping the two pieces of cloth around her, navigating around her tail and wings. The moment she’s done, she turns her golden gaze on me. “Tell me everything you know about the Moon Goddess.”

“This could take a while.” Aldronn gestures to the logs. “We might as well be seated.”

“I don’t know that there’s much to tell,” I say, not wanting anyone to be disappointed. I walk over and take a seat, anyway.

Sheevora lifts both her tail and her wings to settle onto the log opposite me. She leans forward, eyes sharp. “Whatever knowledge you can share is valuable. We know almost nothing.”

Everyone in our immediate group sits down except for Starfall and Zephyr, who stand in an open part of the circle Aldronn and Wranth left for the unicorns.

“It started on Earth at a waterfall a lot like this one.” I gesture toward the falls. I tell them how I felt magic tingle through the air, then heard music right before the Moon Goddess appeared. “It was a song I’d only ever heard my mother sing. That was the first thing that made me think it was her. Then the voice called me by name and said it needed me.”

“She used words?” The dragon pulls paper and quill from her invisible pocket and begins to take notes.

“Maybe? But I think it’s more that she communicated her thoughts directly into my mind.” I explain how the ball of light swallowed me, continuing to sing as it traveled to Alarria. “The goddess sang of loneliness and being trapped. She said I was the only one who could help her.”

When Sheevora gives me a quizzical look, I shake my head. “Still no real words yet.”

She jots that down, frowning at the paper.

“After a while, the voice grew angry, but my mother was so not like that. That’s when I knew something was wrong. When I demanded to know who she was, she said she was my goddess.” I jab a finger at the ground. “Those were the first actual words she spoke out loud, and they weren’t any more true than her pretending to be my mom. I never even heard of your Moon Goddess on Earth, and I sure as hell didn’t worship her.”

Rune makes a pained grunt, shifting uneasily on the log he shares with the werepanther.

Shadow elbows Rune in the ribs, but it’s not a hard blow—it’s more like Shadow’s using teasing to show the werewolf he’s not alone in that way guys do.

“I’m sorry she pretended to be your mom.” Naomi leans against my left side, offering me comfort. If anyone here knows how much I miss my mom, it’s my friend.

On my other side, Aldronn presses his thigh against mine with firm warmth. When I glance at him, his eyes shine with support.

I turn back to Sheevora. “After that, no matter what I said, she just kept repeating, ‘Find me. Free me.’ In the end, she bellowed it at me and left me stranded on top of the standing stone.”

“And then the stone gave you your magic, right?” Naomi taps my crystal pendant, then holds up her own. “That’s what happened to me.”

“Witches together.” I grin. “We’re witches, bitches!”

“You know it! Hannah’s also supposed to be a witch.”

“Really?” Excitement zips through me. “What kind?”

“We don’t know yet. Maybe—”

A loud throat clearing cuts across our conversation.

Sheevora lifts an eyebrow as we both turn back to her—and boy, what an eyebrow quirk it is, like every disapproving teacher I ever had distilled into this one tiny muscle movement. Even my usual rebellious response quells before the power of such disdain.

“Is that all of your interactions with the Moon Goddess?”

“No, unfortunately.” I snort. “We tried to ride to the place where we were supposed to meet Naomi, and the goddess appeared and screamed at me.”

“It occurred about a half mile due south.” Aldronn points. “Rune can probably find the exact location. May dropped a pewter mug when the goddess appeared. It will smell like orc porridge.”

“Yeah, well, it’s pretty instinctive to clap your hands over your ears when someone’s bellowing at you.”

“The goddess was indeed horribly loud,” Starfall says. “But there weren’t any words, only music.”

“It was the same for me,” Aldronn says. “Loud discordant music that sounded nothing like the tune the goddess sang when she summoned me to find my bride.”

“I asked why I should help her after she lied to me about being my mom, but she just yelled, ‘You dare to defy me! You go the wrong way!’” My temple twinges with remembered pain, and I reach up to rub it. “I tried to explain that we needed to meet Naomi and get help, but the goddess only shouted louder and louder inside my head.”

“May’s being modest. She was in a great deal of pain.” Aldronn’s hand smoothes over my hair. “The Moon Goddess used so much of May’s telepathy that it burned out her powers, leaving her ill for days.”

Naomi picks up my hand and gives a sympathetic squeeze. “I’ve got something that might help with that.”

“Thanks.” I squeeze back.

“Did the goddess say anything else?” Sheevora asks, quill poised above paper.

“She just kept yelling, ‘Find me! Free me!’” I say. “It didn’t stop until Starfall turned around and trotted north.”

“The goddess chased us north, you mean,” Starfall grumps, and who can blame her?

“That’s it, then,” Zephyr says, her hoof striking the ground. “You know where we need to go.”

“Uh, no.” I raise my hand and give a little wave. “Literally no idea over here.”

“There’s only one thing north of here,” Wranth says.

Aldronn gives him a solemn nod, then meets my eyes. “The Northern Wastes.”

“Wow, a place with ‘wastes’ in the name sure sound like fun,” I say, my voice heavy with sarcasm. “Thanks again, goddess.”