Hatchling Read online

  “Yeah, he totally fulfilled his destiny for greatness,” Jimmy said. He waved a hand dismissively around the room. “And we don’t talk much. It’s just me and…” Jimmy stopped himself before giving up his secrets.

  “I won’t be here next month.” Isaac said the words almost to himself, in response to something else, something Jimmy forgot saying.

  “I’m not sure if I will.” Jimmy let the words hang in the air. He hadn’t said them out loud before. Or even to himself. He didn’t know if his mom would come back for him.

  Early the next morning, Jimmy was dressed and sitting in the truck, waiting for Grandpa James to finish his hog’s head cheese sandwich… a delicacy that he would never touch no matter how many times the old man shoved the disgusting thing at him promising he’d like it.

  “Ready and rarin’ to go, are ye?” Grandpa James smiled as he climbed into the driver’s seat. “Good ta see ya get out of the house. Yer mother said ye… bah, didna know ye were so keen on the Corn Festival. Wouldna hae nothin’ ta do with the cute little lass, would it?” There was a glob of cheese stuck in the gap between his teeth but Jimmy didn’t tell him.

  He couldn’t admit that he was, in fact, excited to see Rowan. He also couldn’t say that he had to get up early to sneak a broken slingshot, a baby dragon, a glowing sword, and a magic medallion into the truck. Or that he hated his mom telling this man about his phobia. So he kept quiet.

  Jimmy had spent the last few days worrying over Ash and their situation. He checked the side mirror to confirm that yes the scary mountain still waited to give chase. Then he watched Grandpa James fiddle with the rear-view mirror out of habit since the cardboard in the back window blocked its view, and confirmed that he still had no clue.

  His mind wasn’t made up yet, even after all his worrying. On one hand, he wanted to introduce Ash and Rowan since they didn’t properly meet the other day. And to test his new theory about whether she’d be able to see him.

  Rowan and Jimmy were both still young. Isaac, and all the adults it seemed, couldn’t see Ash or the mountain, or the scary void in the sky, or the shadow man that always turned up wherever Jimmy and Ash went.

  What if turning fifteen was some kind of cutoff?

  That would mean Jimmy had less than a month to conquer his fears, get up that mountain, and defeat whatever stood between Ash and his mother.

  His heart swelled with pride when he thought of conquering evil and reuniting Ash and his mom. But he kind of still wanted Ash to himself, too. Maybe Isaac or Rowan would know what to do.

  At that thought, Ash sent a grumble of disapproval down their magic link to show his opinion of that matter hadn’t changed. He didn’t care for Rowan at all. Ash liked Isaac. He relaxed when Aunt Sarah brought Isaac over to help Jimmy practice. He could be himself, no fear of being seen by the older boy who already had the veil of adulthood over his eyes. But Isaac wasn’t the only one they needed.

  Jimmy began to explain how Rowan was helping him train, all the things she knew about the world and swords. She couldn’t be bad if she knew how to sword fight! They’d had that argument too many times already, so he didn’t respond.

  The most pressing concern was the medallion. After that unnerving night, Jimmy left it in the drawer and ignored all the lights and sounds coming from that corner of the room. He couldn’t remember much about what happened, only a sense of calm and a pull toward the thing. None of it had felt wrong or bad.

  But then to see how scared and worked up Ash had gotten, and how much time had passed while he stood there staring at the thing… Jimmy couldn’t bring himself to try again.

  This morning he’d been very careful to wrap it in three shirts before putting it in the side pocket of his backpack. Ash had refused to climb in after it, but had no choice if he wanted to go to the festival.

  Jimmy needed help. That much was clear. But what if he showed Rowan the medallion and it sucked her in? Would it even glow for her? If she could see Ash, then probably, but she never mentioned seeing his sword light up.

  So many things could go wrong.

  So many things were already going wrong. Every night Jimmy laid awake listening to the ‘telly’ as Grandpa James called it, blaring away in the living room. The stories got more and more outlandish, yet the adults always had a rational scientific explanation for everything. Nobody ever mentioned the ominous mountain and swirling lights and magic bad guy. It was beginning to look more and more like Jimmy had to save this town on his own.

  “Ye takin’ that thing in wi’ ye?” Grandpa James asked, snapping Jimmy out of his worries.

  “What?”

  “That. Best not ta. Ye might lose it.” Grandpa pointed to Jimmy’s lap where he was rubbing the medallion.

  Jimmy’s hand clamped around the jewel. He didn’t remember getting it out of his bag. “I…” He couldn’t think or speak.

  “’Tis right pretty. You givin’ it ta the lass?”

  “Um, no…”

  “Well, put it awa then.” Grandpa James motioned to something in front of them.

  Jimmy dropped it in the open front pocket of the backpack. The shirts he’d used to wrap it were scattered in the floor. He heard Ash screaming through their tether. And he didn’t hear the truck running anymore.

  When Jimmy looked up, a giant mechanical corn cob waved at him. He wasn’t going near that thing. Hundreds of people milled about, funneling into a single file line beside the waving corn. The thought of being surrounded by all those people made Jimmy’s throat go dry. His fingers trembled. A large sign said “Adults $1.00. Children 50c. Babies 2 & under Free.”

  To the side of the sign, a dark shadow smeared across the row of buildings. “He’s here,” Jimmy thought to Ash. The shadow stayed just far enough out of sight, but still made Jimmy’s skin crawl.

  Jimmy gasped. You have to pay to get in? He didn’t have any money. Grandpa James surely didn’t have two pennies to rub together, much less $1.50 just to walk through the gate.

  “Come on,” Grandpa James said, opening his door. “Gettin’ hot in here.”

  Jimmy opened his door and grabbed the backpack straps. It didn’t escape him that his hand had been going for the zipper before Grandpa James said something. Ash had stopped screaming, but he’d shifted all his weight to the back of the bag, making it awkward for Jimmy to wrap around his shoulders. For a moment, Jimmy wondered if Ash didn’t like the medallion, but that couldn’t be it. He had no issues with Ridire-solas. Magic is magic, right? “I promise I’ll find somewhere quiet to let you walk around. Just give me a few minutes,” he said down their bond.

  The line moved quickly enough and soon they waited at the gate for the couple in front of them to gather all their children and pass through the turnstile. Grandpa James gave the ticket man their entrance fee and handed Jimmy two crisp one dollar bills. “Win somethin’ nice for the pretty lass.” Grandpa James nudged Jimmy and grinned.

  Then Jimmy saw what he was looking at. Off to the side, hair blazing in the early morning sun, stood Rowan and her grandfather. She had on a pair of boy’s running shorts and a stained white shirt. Jimmy’s eyes wandered down her long legs to a pair of calf high white tube socks and old running sneakers. She tucked her curls under a ball cap and stretched.

  “Looks like ya got yer work cut out for ye,” Grandpa James snickered.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “You can’t run in those,” Rowan sneered at Jimmy’s jeans. He’d been hoping she’d forget about the race. “Or that!” She pointed at the backpack.

  Ash wriggled and whined.

  “Oh,” Rowan said and stopped fixing her socks. “Is it in there?”

  Ash huffed black smoke out the zipper opening.

  “He’s not an it,” Jimmy said with laughter in his voice, relaying Ash’s message.

  “I want to see him.” She emphasized him for Ash’s pride. “Over here.” She motioned toward a small tent off to the side where a tall thin scraggly man was setting out trinke
ts and handmade items to sell. It looked secluded enough.

  Grandpa James and Mr. MacLauren were talking animatedly in Gaelic, paying no attention to them. Jimmy had to call his name a couple times before he looked up. “Can we go walk around and look at things?”

  “Acourse,” Grandpa James said with a wink that made Jimmy groan.

  Rowan bit back a smile as they turned to go. She still hadn’t mentioned his birthmark, or been caught staring at it. Jimmy should have felt at ease, accepted. But it didn’t sit right somehow. Usually his birthmark was the topic of most conversations with new people. Even Isaac, in his own way, had focused on the splotch of dark skin. Jimmy shrugged it off, figuring a dragon trumped a stupid birthmark.

  As if on cue, cackles of deep-voiced laughter rose up behind them. The dark haired boy from the other day and his pack of followers came toward them. Jimmy could see pure delight on his face as they locked eyes.

  “This way.” Rowan grabbed Jimmy’s arm and yanked him away from everyone. Instead of running toward the scraggly man’s tent as planned, they headed into the crowd. Jimmy’s heart pounded. Toward the people? Please, no.

  They weaved through the gathering herd. Most of them stood still, deciding which form of fried food to shove in their faces first, so it was easy enough. Except that the teasing roars of the boy and his friends grew louder still. Louder than Ash’s demands to be let out of the bag to do something about them.

  For a brief moment, Jimmy wanted to do just that. He reveled in the thought of letting Ash show them what they were really capable of. Then Rowan pulled him hard and they landed on a thin strip of grass between two brick buildings. They stood there, panting, as the boys walked past.

  When their breathing and heartbeats slowed, Jimmy noticed that during their escape Rowan’s hand had migrated down his arm, to his own hand. The realization sent his heart racing again. He didn’t dare look down at their intertwined fingers, lest she notice and let go.

  “I think we lost them.” Rowan dropped his hand and turned to face him, but not before giving it an almost imperceptible squeeze. The sweat on her forehead dripped into her eye and she wiped it away with a long white finger that moments before had been touching him. Bright orange strands of unruly curls peeked out from under the dingy ball cap. That hadn’t taken long.

  “Where did you get that thing?” Jimmy sniffed it and made a disgusted face.

  Rowan shrugged, but fire gleamed in her eyes, probably from the sweat.

  “You gonna let me meet Ash or not?”

  Jimmy looked around. People milled about on either side of them, but none bothered to notice a boy and girl hiding between the buildings. Or if they did, it probably looked like they were kissing, as close as they were. Again Jimmy’s heart skipped.

  “Hurry up!” Rowan snatched at the bag. “Before they come back.”

  Jimmy sat the backpack on the grass and unzipped it. Ash popped out, fuming and ready for a fight. Smoke furled from his nostrils, darker than Jimmy had ever seen. His sharp teeth glinted in the morning light.

  He’s so cute!” Rowan squealed. She pulled Ash from Jimmy’s hands and cuddled him like a baby, swirling around. “Oh, I can’t believe it.”

  Jimmy tried to stop her. A puke green river of disgust burned through his bond with Ash. “I don’t think he likes that.”

  “Oh, he’s fine.” Rowan continued to spin and the bond grew from green to near black.”

  “I don’t -” Jimmy didn’t finish.

  A terrible roar came out of Ash’s mouth. He sounded like an actual monster. His ears had turned straight back and smoke licked his fangs.

  Rowan stopped.

  As she gently handed Ash back to him, Jimmy gave her an ‘I told you so,’ look, the same glare he was currently receiving from Ash.

  “I’m sorry.” Rowan patted Ash’s head, eliciting a low growl from the angry dragon. “You’re just too adorable.”

  “Ferocious,” Jimmy said at the same time. “That was a good one!”

  Ash snorted, still not ready to forgive, so Jimmy sat him down on the ground. “Stretch out a little,” he said, looking around. The coast was clear.

  “Have you come up with a plan yet?” Rowan asked. She leaned closer and whispered, “to find his mom?” She nodded toward the mountain hovering overhead. The lightning vortex seemed wider than the day before.

  Jimmy bit his cheek the way he’d seen his mom do so many times. He finally understood why. “I can’t go up there. Not yet.”

  Ash wobbled around at Jimmy’s feet, his yellow scales looking green for the first time, but not for the right reasons. After a few unsteady steps, he dug his way angrily back into the bag.

  “When do we leave?” Ignoring that he’s just said ‘no,’ Rowan clapped her hands in excitement.

  “We?”

  “I’m not letting you go by yourself. Plus you need my help.” She gave him a stare that dared him to deny it.

  “I don’t expect to be sword fighting,” Jimmy said, trying to convince both of them.

  “Then why did you bring that?” Rowan grabbed at Ridire-solas but Jimmy twisted before she could get it. He didn’t have time to revel in his win. Her other hand snuck around his waist and slid the sword out of its holder.

  As she did so, a third strange hand plucked it from hers.

  “What do we have here?”

  The boys had found them. Their leader tossed the sword to one of his crew.

  “Give that back!” Jimmy reached for it but the boy it was gone. Another boy caught it and waved it around in the air.

  Jimmy felt Ash grow angry but silently begged him to stay quiet. The last thing he needed was for these boys to find out about him. Who knew what they would do?

  “Thanks for the toy, freak,” the leader said as the other boy flung the sword back to him.

  Rowan stepped forward and shove him, hard. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

  The boy was larger than Rowan and didn’t budge. “No.” Then to Jimmy he added, “If you can’t fight dirty with a weapon, have your girlfriend do it for you. That’s what I always say, right fellas?”

  They all whooped and laughed. Some answered with, “Right, Bruno.”

  At least his tormentor had a name, now. Jimmy felt his vision going black. The boy’s ugly freckled face looked like it was at the other end of a tunnel. He forced himself to breathe. Not here. Not now.

  “I’m not fighting you, and neither is she.” Jimmy pulled Rowan back. “We haven’t done anything to you. I’ve never even seen you before.”

  “Oh, but I’ve seen you.” Bruno raised Ridire-solas over his head and placed a drooling-idiot grin across his face. “Remind you of anyone?”

  “The freak!” his friends answered.

  “Naw,” Bruno said. Then he bent down and ran his fingers through some mud. He smeared it across his cheek in the same place as Jimmy’s birthmark.

  Jimmy’s own rage boiled up and he felt his grip tighten on Rowan’s shoulders. His breathing quickened. His fingers tingled.

  “Now I look like the freak,” Bruno continued. “Maybe his girlfriend will give me a kiss.” He stuck out his lips and Rowan slapped him across the mud birthmark.

  Ridire-solas dropped to the ground and Jimmy scrambled to pick it up before one of the other boys could.

  Ash growled and Jimmy kicked the bag behind him so nobody would hear.

  But nobody heard anything over Bruno’s scream. His lip quivered and Jimmy watched a flood of emotions flash across his face before settling on vengeance. He raised a fist at Rowan.

  Jimmy swung Ridire-solas and missed, causing him to stumble. Bruno’s blow landed square on Jimmy’s back, between his shoulder blades. The wind knocked out of Jimmy’s lungs and he fell over. As he gasped in the mud, two of Bruno’s friends delivered kicks to his ribs.

  Rowan pushed them away and stood over Jimmy. “Stop!” she demanded.

  Ash struggled to break free of the backpack and Jimmy used his last bit
of strength to wrap himself around the bag. He had to protect Ash at all cost. That was all Jimmy thought about as more kicks caught him in the side.

  Rowan screamed again and shoved Bruno harder. “Leave him alone!” Something in her tone stopped all the kicks at once.

  “Fine,” Bruno laughed. “If the freak won’t fight back, what’s the point? Come on, fellas.”

  When they’d gone, Jimmy released his death grip on the bag. Ash crawled out and licked Jimmy’s face.

  As Rowan helped him to his feet, Jimmy held his breath. Blood dripped into his mouth. He felt his face redden with the effort to hold back tears.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Jimmy grumbled under his breath, angry at the world, but mostly himself. How could he let this happen? And in front of Rowan. He would never be strong enough to fight off monsters for Ash if he couldn’t handle a couple boys his own age. Rowan’s hand on his back was more patronizing than comfort. The butterflies that her touch brought before were gone, replaced with shame and fire. She must have thought he was a baby. No wonder she wanted to go with him up the mountain. He can’t even take care of himself. How can he protect Ash against a whole mountain of magic?

  But no, the mountain should feel like home to Ash. Shouldn’t it?

  For his part, Ash stretched and flopped around in the backpack. He hated being in that thing and Jimmy knew they needed to get to a secluded part of the field. But, as much as he hated to admit it, there was only one place he wanted to be at that moment.

  He saw them up ahead, standing at a thrown-together wood framed shack. Not for the first time, Jimmy noticed the sheer size of Grandpa James, especially next to other adults. He was at least a head taller than his new friend. The sight of him brought Jimmy the peace he wasn’t getting from Rowan or Ash. He walked faster.

  A hand-painted sign screamed in bright red “Candy Apples.” Grandpa James and Rowan’s grandfather talked low and Jimmy couldn’t make out what they said as he neared. But then, Mr. MacLauren moved and Jimmy stopped.