Dream Walker✔️

6.6

Time stopped for a moment, and my heart skipped a beat. I couldn't inhale or make out anything but darkness. Then we were through, stepping out into the dimly-lit tundra. Shivering more from surprise than anything else, I spun around toward where I imagined our camp to be. With Aster's powers influencing my mind, I could see despite the darkness. We were well over a hundred feet away from our camp.

"Incredible." It was a relief he'd done so well, that he'd learned so much in so little time. But I couldn't bring myself to smile about it. He really was a magic prodigy, something I'd never been. If either of us was destined to lose our magic, it was for the best that it'd been me. I didn't want or need my powers, but he loved his—for good reason. His magic hadn't been accompanied with years of nightmares or the threat of a maniac killing him for it.

"You're jealous," Aster said in a whisper, almost as if he couldn't believe his ears.

Only, I hadn't said anything, and I was pretty sure I hadn't made a face, either. How-

I slipped my hand out of Aster's. "Stop that."

He crossed his arms. "I can't help it."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't. It just comes easily to me, whether I want it or not—like any magic I do. I'm not trying to upset you or upstage you. I'm trying to get you guys home."

I was just about ready to go on a tangent about how, just because I thought something, it didn't mean I wanted other people to hear it and get upset about it, but something he'd said stopped me. "What do you mean, 'you guys?' You're coming with us. It's 'us guys,' not- not 'you guys.'"

His shoulders slumped. "I can't go home like this. Maybe if I can work a few years and earn enough for a phoenix amulet-"

"A few years? Don't be ridiculous." I set my jaw. "You're coming home with us, end of discussion."

"I'd end up on TV as some genetic freak."

"You won't. We don't let reporters on the estate grounds, so the only people who'll see you are people I can keep quiet—and your parents when they visit, but I bet they won't tell anyone."

He chuckled, but it was an exasperated noise. "My parents would kidnap me off the estate and take me to a host of doctors the first chance they got. They'd tell the police you were holding me hostage if that was what it took, and I'd end up on the news anyway. Besides, I don't want to be trapped on the estate. There's nothing keeping me there now I know why my dad—or Shade, I guess—sent me there."

My mind went blank as I struggled to take a breath. I'd been right; he didn't feel the same way about me now I was human. How could he? Every instinct he had would drive him toward someone who could keep up with him, someone strong and fast and magical.

"Mars," Aster said, reaching out his hand. "Say something." He almost sound apologetic, but he wasn't denying my fears. Could he sense them from here, or did he need physical touch to do it?

"What? What am I supposed to say to that?"

He dropped his hand to his side. "The truth. You only liked me because we were both dragons. Maybe you didn't know back on Earth, but it's obvious now."

"That's not true. I liked you a long time before I knew you were a dragon, and that wasn't some instinct. I didn't even have draconic instincts on Earth."

"Really?" His eyes flashed, wisps of shadow floating across the whites. "You never felt any desire to hunt with your bare hands or rip apart anyone who so much as insulted you, demonio?"

I'd always assumed he didn't know the maids' nickname for me, that somehow he'd escaped that particular rumor. "I was just a rowdy kid. A- a tomboy."

He leaned close, baring his fangs in a way that made chills go down my spine. "Human toddlers don't try to kill alley cats with their teeth."