Dragon Witch ✔️

5 - Genetics

Before I could explain my suspicions, Kyton jumped in.

"Silvestre, this isn't Lilly. It bit me and sucked my blood." He squirmed. "It has to be some kind of shapeshifter."

I dug my knee into his back. "I am too Lilly. And I had a perfectly good reason for biting you. What's your reason for running and acting all cagey?"

He twisted a little to stare at me. "You bit me and sucked my blood, remember?"

"Oh." On second thought, maybe he wasn't planning anything. Maybe he'd just had a normal reaction to being bitten by a girl he hardly knew. What was wrong with me? I'd been acting like a crazy person. The magic must've gone right to my head. Maybe its toxic effects worked quicker than I thought.

Giggling nervously, I hopped off his back. "This might be a big misunderstanding. Assuming you're not a million years old and planning the destruction of the human race. Or something."

As Kyton stood, a range of emotions flitted across his face--confusion, realization, pity.

"I'm nineteen."

I retrieved my witch's kit without looking at him. "Years?"

"Yes, years. Do I really look nineteen centuries old?"

Straightening, I shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? I've never met an Otherworlder before."

He exchanged a weary look and a few words in another language with Grandma. It was strange seeing them together. His torn clothes and cracked glasses perfectly contrasted Grandma's flowered skirt and polo shirt. As different as they looked, they spoke like close siblings sharing a secret.

Grandma turned to me. A faint smile tugged at her lips, but it was tempered by the same weariness Kyton showed.

"Dear, we've discussed this. Your mother has some-" She furiously stroked Jack's back, and he gave her an annoyed look. Relaxing her hands, she continued, "-misguided ideas about magic. No Otherworlder has ever lived for a million years."

Heat rose in my cheeks. "I was exaggerating, I didn't really-"

She cut me off with a raised finger. "You know what I mean. A fairy like Kyton may live three hundred years, in the right circumstances."Sighing, she added, "if monsters or bigoted humans don't cut his life short."

If she had stabbed me in the liver with a rusty dagger, it would've hurt less. She always had a way of making me feel like an idiot--or worse, a total jerk--when it came to magic. I could've just brushed her off if she'd been wrong. But she wasn't, unfortunately.

Why hadn't I stopped to think this through earlier? I should've realized my grandparents weren't born yesterday. If they thought Kyton was dangerous in the slightest, they never would've let him work around me and my little sister. Why hadn't I seen that? Kyton's magic must've really done a number on me.

It didn't even make sense that he would try for world domination. In the last few centuries, no one had heard of an Otherworlder group trying to take over the planet. Aka, Otherworlders were much better at minding their business than most humans. Sometimes I was such an idiot.

"Sorry," I said.

Grandma raised her eyebrows and tilted her head at Kyton.

I reluctantly met his gaze. "Sorry, Kyton."

Under all the mud and grass sticking to his face, he turned several shades redder. "No problem. But really, why'd you bite me?"

"I used your magic to make my powers stronger, kind of like a familiar on steroids." I shrugged. "I just wanted to hide us, that's all."

He rubbed the oozing bite mark on his shoulder. "Then you didn't save my life because you're a vampire."

I stuck my tongue out. "Do I look like a vampire?"

"Your teeth are kind of sharp." He shrugged, a glint of mischief in his eyes. "But how am I supposed to know? I've never met one."

Grandma set Jack down and pulled out her wand. She poked Kyton's shoulder. "This will be easy enough to heal." She swooped around to his back. "What happened to your wing, dear?"

"It got speared in my own trap. It'll heal. I'm fine." He tried to move away, but she swooped in again to prod his back with her wand.

I'd assumed the trap was the dragon's, but it kind of made sense that it was Kyton's. Something so intricate would've been difficult for a dragon to set up.

"What were you trying to catch?" I asked.

"Rabbits." He nodded slightly, his eyes widening in a "please play along" type of way.

I'd seen a rabbit trap before, and it didn't involve human-sized spears. Whatever he'd been hunting was a lot bigger than a rabbit. Wait a second... Had he been trying to kill the dragon? He couldn't be that crazy. Then again, I didn't know him that well. He might be downright insane. Either way, I saved his life, and I deserved to know what was going on.

I crossed my arms. "Were these rabbits friends of yours?" Hopefully, he would get the hint without me having to spell it out. If he was lying for a good reason--though I couldn't imagine what that reason might be--I didn't want to tip Grandma off.

"I guess you could say that," Kyton admitted.

So he had been trying to kill the dragon. "Why-"

Grandma cut me off. "I'll take this from here, Lilly. If you hurry, you might have enough time to hide your witch's kit in my lab before your mother comes back with Leo. I sent them to look for you in the orchard." Guiding Kyton toward the stable, she added, "and keep your forest expedition between the three of us. We wouldn't want to bother Grandpa with all this nonsense."

We both knew I wouldn't tell my parents or Alice, either, but I wondered--not for the first time--whether she'd left Grandpa out of the loop for a specific reason. He'd never given me magic lessons. As far as I knew, he wasn't even aware Grandma was teaching me about magic. I could only assume he didn't approve of it for some reason.

Maybe he thought I would be so naive about magic that I would get myself killed or something. That irked me, but there wasn't any point in wondering about it now. I had a witch's kit to hide.

***

On the second floor landing, Dad's voice made me stop short. It was coming from the art gallery opposite the stairs. I moved forward to see Dad talking on the phone as he walked down the skinny gallery room. His back was to me. He couldn't have seen me with my witch's kit yet.

I edged to the right, toward the potion lab. Without turning to look at me, Dad beckoned me closer. When I hesitated, he started turning around. My heart jumped into my throat. I tossed my trunk onto a settee in the hall.

Had he seen the trunk? I didn't think so. If he had, I didn't know how I could explain away the trunk. The seal of the witch's council was on it. He probably hadn't seen it, though. I'd been quick.

He lowered his phone. "I'm on hold. Come here, your mom wants me to give you something. It's on the chair." He gestured at one of the pea-green armchairs lining the walls.

Marble statues of magical creatures stood on pedestals throughout the room. Dodging around them, I crossed the room, hoping I could grab whatever was on the chair and get out of there before anyone walked by the trunk I'd ditched in the hall. Under a painting of sirens, the chair Dad had pointed out held a pile of papers--brochures, packets, and what looked like class lists. I paused. The brochures were all for colleges.

After we lost our house and most of our savings, college had seemed less of a priority. I'd assumed I would have to take a gap year to work, help out my family, and maybe save up some money for tuition.

"I thought we couldn't afford-"

Dad shushed me and talked into his phone. "Yes, my name is Nicholas Hemlock." He frowned. "Yes, I was born in Sorciereville. If I may ask, what does that have to do with-" Strangling the phone, he took a sharp breath. "If you're not hiring right now, why does your website say you need a new accountant?" He paused. "Is that so? You put up the listing this morning, and you've already filled the position? Do you actually- Hello? Hello? Son of a-" He glared at the phone as if it had hung up on him all by itself.