Shattered Read online

  Oh please let us be able to laugh about it in the morning.

  As he trudged over the rolling fields on his way back to the farmhouse, he found himself glancing up into the moonlit sky with uneasy eyes. It still felt strange to cross an unprotected stretch of land aboveground like this. In his world, it would have been a death sentence, with deadly creatures ready to swoop down and flambé you alive at a moment’s notice.

  But his world—two hundred years from now—no longer existed, he reminded himself. They’d come back in time. They’d altered the future. There was no longer any reason to fear.

  At least that’s what he liked to tell himself. But in his heart, he knew there was still plenty to be scared about. The new time line they’d created was nothing more than an elastic band that could snap back into place at a moment’s notice. One mistake. One misstep.

  One missing dragon, falling into the wrong hands…

  He shook his head. She was in the barn. She had to be.

  “Caleb!”

  He looked up, guilt stabbing him in the gut as his eyes fell upon a dark shadow tearing across the field, black curls streaming out behind her in waves. His heart lodged in his throat. Oh no. She was awake. And from her frantic pace, he could make a pretty good guess that Emmy was not in the barn after all.

  Half of him wanted to run, to turn around and flee the scene. To not have to explain to her what had happened. To not have to take responsibility for what he’d done. He imagined the horror draining the blood from her face, followed by furious disappointment welling up in her eyes. She would kill him. She would flecking kill him.

  But there was no place to go.

  He planted his feet on the ground, forcing back his fear. She reached him a moment later, her ebony eyes piercing him with concern.

  “Have you seen Emmy?” she asked, her voice breathless and scared. “She’s not in the barn and we’ve been looking everywhere. Is she with you?” She glanced behind him, scanning the darkened landscape, wringing her hands together anxiously.

  “Um…” He squirmed, shuffling from foot to foot, a thousand lies fighting to escape his lips. She didn’t know he took Emmy out. He could tell her he had no idea, that he was just out on a midnight stroll. He hadn’t seen the dragon at all. She might believe that. Then again, she might not.

  “Look, Trin, I—”

  A loud screeching interrupted his words. He looked up, his eyes locking on a dark shadow dive-bombing them at top speed.

  “Look out!”

  On instinct, he threw himself against Trinity, a vain attempt to protect her from the terror descending from the skies. But he lost his balance and they tumbled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. His heart was beating so loud in his ears that it took him a moment to realize she was laughing.

  Oh, right.

  He rolled off her, his face burning with embarrassment, just in time for none other than Emmy herself to come in for an exuberant landing, charging toward her mistress and covering her face with rough kisses. Caleb groaned, slapping his hand over his face. And…here be dragons. Right on schedule.

  Trinity squealed in protest, trying to give Emmy a disapproving look, which was proving difficult since she’d clearly caught a bad case of the giggles. Emmy took advantage, continuing to slurp her guardian’s face with unabashed glee, as if she hadn’t seen her for a week.

  “Okay, okay! I get it!” Trin protested, still laughing. “You’re happy to see me! Geez. You don’t have to knock me over about it.”

  Caleb rose to his feet, watching awkwardly, suddenly feeling like an interloper at their joyous reunion. Working with the Dracken, he’d witnessed a lot of dragon/guardian bonds but never one as strong as Trinity and Emmy’s. He had to admit sometimes it made him envious. To have someone who cared about you that much—to have someone look at you with such adoration in their eyes…

  Disentangling herself from her dragon, Trinity scrambled to her feet, finally managing that disapproving glare she’d been fighting for. But Emmy was ready for it, giving her guardian a sweet, overly innocent look back, as if to say, who me?

  But Trinity wasn’t playing that game. “Don’t even think about it,” she admonished, wagging her finger at the dragon. “You had me worried sick. Why would you just take off like that? You know you’re not supposed to leave the barn.” Then a thought seemed to come to her. “How did you get out, anyway?”

  Caleb bit his lower lip. Don’t tell her it was me. Don’t tell her it was me, he begged the creature silently. But, of course, unlike his brother and Trin herself, who had the very convenient superpower of bending people’s wills using only their minds, Caleb could only pray the dragon would take pity on him.

  Instead, Emmy turned to give him a very distinct look, selling him down the river with a single toss of her head. He couldn’t hear what she was saying, but from the look on Trinity’s face, he was pretty sure the dragon wasn’t disavowing all knowledge of his participation in her little midnight field trip.

  He sighed. No good deed and all that.

  Sure enough, a moment later Trinity’s eyes leveled on him. “What the hell, Caleb?” she demanded.

  He gave her his best guileless look. “What?” he asked, holding up his hands in feigned innocence, though he was pretty sure it would do no good.

  “Gee, I don’t know. Big green dragon? Flying around the Texas Hill Country without a care in the world? Instead of, oh, being locked up in the barn where she belongs?” She shot him a pointed glare, as if daring him to argue. “Any of this ringing any bells?”

  Caleb shuffled his feet, wondering which explanation would piss her off the least. “Maybe she was sleep flying?” he tried, grasping at straws. “You know, I’ve heard of dragons who do that. Kind of like sleepwalking except…” He trailed off, catching her expression. Yeah, he probably wouldn’t have bought that one either.

  “Oh come on, princess,” he cajoled, switching tactics. “Don’t be mad. You know how she hates being cooped up in that stinky barn all the time. She’s a dragon. She needs to get her fly on every once in a while.”

  Trinity crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes flashing fire. “Yeah, well, what if someone saw her? What if they captured her? Or reported her to the government?”

  He stiffened, offended by her implication. Even though he’d been petrified of the very same thing only a few minutes before. “It’s pitch black. Like one a.m. In the middle of nowhere, Texas. Trust me, we’ve never even seen another—”

  He clamped his mouth shut. Crap. He hadn’t meant to insinuate—

  “You’ve done this before!” she exclaimed, a growing realization dawning on her face. “This isn’t the first time you two have snuck out while I’ve been asleep.”

  It wasn’t. In fact, he’d been taking Emmy out to fly almost the entire time they’d been on the run. Something, he told himself, she should be thanking him for. There was no way Emmy would be half as docile as she was if she’d been cooped up in a dark barn all this time. And no one wanted a restless dragon on their hands. It usually ended in something—or more likely someone—getting burned.

  And not in the figurative sense either.

  “Trust me, Trin, it’s no big deal,” he tried again. “We’re always careful. We stay below the tree line. She never leaves my sight.”

  The lies rolled off his tongue, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. Where had she gone tonight? Why had she taken off like that? He glanced over at the dragon, narrowing his eyes, trying to demand answers. But Emmy refused to meet his gaze.

  Thanks a lot, Sulfur Breath. See if I do you any favors again.

  Trinity turned to the dragon. “And you! You’ve been going behind my back this whole time?” Caleb could hear her anger was now laced with hurt. “You didn’t even think to tell me?” So much for the happy family reunion. At least he wasn’t to take the entire blame.

 
“There you are!” interrupted an all-too-familiar voice, cutting through the night air. Caleb’s shoulders slumped. Oh great. This was getting better and better.

  He turned to see his brother, Connor, the great and glorious Dragon Hunter, fast on approach. His twin had obviously been roused from sleep to help find the missing dragon. He was still wearing plaid flannel pajama pants and evidently hadn’t even had the time to throw on a shirt. Caleb rolled his eyes. His twin never missed an opportunity to “accidentally” show off his perfect washboard abs—especially if Trinity happened to be nearby.

  Connor looked from Trinity to Caleb and back again, his eyes filled with trademark suspicion. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

  “Nothing,” Trin blurted out before Caleb could speak. “We found Emmy. Everything’s okay.”

  Caleb raised an eyebrow, surprised to hear her cover for him. But maybe he shouldn’t have been. After all, she was always trying to serve as peacemaker between him and his twin.

  Not that it really ever worked. Even though the two of them were supposed to be fighting on the same side for the first time in their lives, they still could never manage to agree on anything. Not to mention Connor was always on Caleb’s case about one thing or another. Whatever Caleb tried to do, it was always wrong or not good enough for his hero brother. Half the time he didn’t know why he bothered trying.

  He watched as his twin turned to observe Emmy, who looked back at him with cagy eyes. He stifled a laugh. He secretly enjoyed the fact that Hot Wings still didn’t completely trust Connor, and for good reason too. Once upon a time—not long ago in fact—it had been Connor’s mission to slaughter the poor dragon before she could even hatch from her shell, in an attempt to send her race hurtling back into extinction. And while time and Trinity had managed to soften the hunter’s opinion on the reptile species as a whole and grudgingly allow it to continue its existence on the planet, Connor would never become an Emmy super fan. And vice versa.

  “How did she get out of the barn in the first place?” Connor asked, giving him a suspicious look. “I locked it from the outside before I went to bed.” His eyes roved over the dragon. “And what’s wrong with her arm?” he added.

  “What?” Trinity cried, following his gaze. Her eyes widened and Caleb caught her looking down at her own arm before returning to Emmy. She dropped to her knees before the dragon. It was then that Caleb saw it—a black crust dried over her one soft scale. Dragon blood.

  Uh-oh.

  “Emmy, what happened?” Trinity demanded, reaching for the dragon’s paw. Emmy snorted, batting Trinity’s hand away with her snout before backing out of reach, giving her mistress an accusatory look. Still annoyed at being yelled at, he supposed. Trinity gave the dragon an unhappy look then turned back to the boys.

  “What did she say?” Caleb asked worriedly.

  “She says she doesn’t know what happened,” Trinity replied, not sounding like she believed it for a second. And for good reason. Dragon scales were tough—they could withstand bullets even—so it wasn’t like she could have just caught one on a branch or something and had it tear away. She locked her gaze on him. “Do you?”

  He squirmed, not sure what to say. He’d just told her Emmy never left his sight. To admit he didn’t know what had happened to her would mean admitting the dragon had taken off on him. Which would mean admitting he’d made a foolish decision to take her out in the first place. He wasn’t about to go there—not in front of his brother anyway. The last thing he needed was to give Connor more ammunition to use against him.

  He already had plenty.

  “So it was you who let her out, wasn’t it?” Connor concluded, storming toward him with marked aggression. “Caleb, we’ve talked about this. A hundred times in fact. Emmy cannot leave the barn! Ever!”

  “No, you talked about it,” Caleb blurted back, allowing his anger at his brother’s self-righteousness to drown out his rising guilt. After all, Connor didn’t give a crap about Emmy. The only reason he wanted her alive was because killing her meant Trinity dying too. And the oh so noble knight in shining dragon scale couldn’t stomach the idea of murdering his very own damsel in distress. “I told you it was a stupid idea from the beginning!”

  He glanced over at Emmy, praying she’d back him up on this. “I mean just look at her!” he added. “She’s a dragon—an intelligent, magical creature—not some pet you can just coop up inside and expect to piss in a litter box.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Trinity wince and he regretted being so crass. But he was on a roll now, and the words kept tumbling from his lips.

  “What was the point of rescuing her anyway, if you’re going to just let her rot away in a barn for the rest of her life? Seriously, she would have been better off with the Dracken. At least they knew how to treat her with the respect she deserves.”

  Trinity gave him a horrified look. “That’s not fair,” she protested.

  “No, none of this is fair,” he volleyed back, unable to stop himself now. “Not to poor Emmy anyway. You say you care about her? Well, maybe you should start showing it.”

  And with that, he stormed off, leaving them behind, heading back to the house with hurried steps. He could feel Trinity reaching out to him with her mind, desperate to continue the conversation, but he quickly slammed down the walls, shutting her out of his head. He didn’t want to hear her excuses. He’d tried to do something good—something noble even—to aid the dragon that everyone was supposedly so gung ho to save. And as usual, all he got was grief for his troubles.

  He stomped into the farmhouse and up the stairs to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Gut-wrenching fury tore at him as he paced the floor, over and over until he became half-convinced he’d wear a hole right through it. A few minutes later, he heard voices outside and stole an involuntary look out the window, immediately wishing he hadn’t. Connor and Trinity stood outside the barn—evidently having locked Emmy back inside—and were whispering to one another in urgent voices he couldn’t quite make out. He scowled, standing there, powerless to turn away.

  She always took Connor’s side. Always listened to him. Always took his advice. They were supposed to be a team. They were supposed to be working together. But no matter how hard Caleb tried, somehow he always ended up the odd man out.

  He watched Trinity step toward Connor, her expression grim, her eyes drowning in sorrow. Caleb frowned, feeling sick to his stomach at the naked pain he saw radiating from her pale face. He’d meant to lash out at his brother, but she had been the one hit by his shrapnel.

  Which wasn’t fair. Despite Connor’s dubious intentions when it came to dragon saving, Caleb had never doubted for a moment Trinity’s love and dedication to little Emmy. After all, she’d sacrificed her entire life to keep the dragon safe. And for him to imply that she was worse than the Dracken was nothing more than cruel.

  Regret threatened to smother him. It was all he could do not to race down the stairs and out the door, grab her and pull her into his arms—apologize for hurting her, for putting her dragon in danger. Promise to never worry her again.

  Instead, he stood by the window, frozen in place. Instead, it was his brother who opened his arms, inviting Trinity into an embrace, giving her all the comfort she needed and then some. As he was always more than willing to do.

  Caleb squeezed his hands into fists, the anger inside threatening to boil over. If only Trinity knew how close Connor had come to killing her in his misguided attempt to save the human race from dragons. Would she still so willingly fall into his arms? Sometimes it was all Caleb could do to hold back the words—the story of how he’d saved her life from his brother’s bloody crusade.

  But that would only complicate things further and hurt Trinity more than he could bear. Besides, Connor was strong. Smart. A soldier. They needed him if they had any hope of making this all turn out okay. So Caleb forced himself to k
eep his brother’s secret, day after painful day—knowing Trinity would never feel for him what he felt for her.

  His fingers reached involuntarily to his mouth. It had been months since they’d shared a kiss, deep in the otherworld known as the Nether, and yet at times, he could still feel the ghost of her lips against his own. A feeling he both wanted to exorcise and keep forever.

  He forced himself away from the window, too sickened to watch his brother comfort her now. Glancing at his unmade bed, he wondered if he should just crawl under the covers and try to sleep. But he knew he would only toss and turn. And any sleep would include restless, unhappy dreams about her.

  There was only one thing to get him through the night. Reaching into his nightstand, he pulled a small sapphire from his dwindling stash, palming it into his trembling hands. For a moment, he stared down at it, considering the idea that he could put it away, resist the pull of the Nether, and try to get a normal night’s sleep. Wake in the morning like a normal person, rested and refreshed.

  He laughed bitterly, giving up on the pretense. Closing his fingers around the gem, he shut his eyes. “Hang on, Fred,” he whispered to his dragon. “I’m on my way.”

  Chapter Four

  “Come on, Trin. Don’t let him get to you.”

  Trinity looked up at Connor. His eyes were stern but sympathetic. She gave him a weak smile.

  “I know,” she said. “But I can’t help it. I mean he has a point, right? All I want to do is what’s best for her.”

  “Which is exactly what you’re doing,” he reminded her firmly. “Look, my brother may have a kind heart and good intentions, but he’s always been reckless. He doesn’t think things through. Taking her out is dangerous. What if she’d been seen? And we still don’t know what really happened with that broken scale.”