Page 166 of Scars Like Wings

“I don’t know,” Simone said. “This isn’t me.”

I looked down. From the wound, there was no blood flowing. Now, the wound was… crystalizing? The blood hardened, becoming shiny and jagged. The same thing was happening to the burns on my hand as the blisters burst with quartz like crystals. I was mesmerized staring at the formation of them. When I touched them, they easily came apart like clumped sugar, falling to the ground to reveal perfectly healed skinunderneath. The same happened to my thigh when I wiped the crystals there away.

As strange as it was, there was a beauty to it.

Suddenly, a strange tingling coursed through me like a shiver. It wasn’t that much different from what I felt facing off against the energy vampire. It started in my fingertips, spreading rapidly up my wrists and arms like tendrils of ivy unfurling toward the sun. The sensation was neither painful nor unpleasant. It was as if every cell in my body was waking up from a long slumber, stretching and reaching for something that I had thought was lost.

The feeling flowed across my chest toward my back. The surge of energy made me get on my hands and knees as it intensified. It felt like someone was carefully reopening the scars there. As gentle as whatever it was tried to be, it still made me throw my head back and cry out. Simone and Maisie reassuringly placed hands on my shoulders, but it did nothing to quell the sting of the old wings opening once more. It felt like thousands of cuts or like tens of hands clawing down my back.

Wait.

Irememberthis.

Mom’s murder. She had been hunted. She had used her lava and fire-breathing powers to protect herself. She had shifted. But, she had been murdered. Auntie Max and Pops would be murdered, too, later on. He was what Mom was.

What Iam.

I had run from the hunters that day, the day when Mom was murdered. I had used my powers to save myself. I had controlled crystals. I could control crystals.

It was my power.

I had heard Mom when she died. I had experienced her final moments through the bond that we had. That day, that was thecatalyst to make me shift when I wasn’t ready yet. It had almost killed me. We shared that bond because…

Because I was a dragon-shifter.

Finally!

Freefall

My dragon surfaced fully for the first time.

From the scars on my back, I felt four of something come out and lift my shirt up. The new things on my back stretched wide behind me. I was panting as I turned around to look at them. They were delicate with gossamer membranes and jeweled veins sparkling in the lowlight from the full moon outside. Tentatively, I flexed them. A rush of pure exhilaration surged through me. It was like moving my toes. Happily, I fluttered them with each beat of my heart. They casted prisms of light around the room. They were dragonfly wings.

Mydragonfly wings.

“Well, well, well. This certainly changes things.” Simone, Maisie, and I looked to see Zaria. She was battered and bloody, her smirk ever present. Quinn was nowhere to be found. My heart sank. Where was she? What had Zaria done with her? Was she okay? “You are worth even more now than you were before.”

Zaria unsheathed another cursed blade. The sight of the blade mixed with my fear for what had happened to my girlfriend made my dragon take over. I roared, my wings fluttering behind me as Zaria approached, ready for takeoff atany time. My claws and fangs grew longer, and I crouched ready to defend myself this time.

When I was just about to attack, Quinn reappeared and tackled Zaria from behind. They went past us and through a wall near the door. They banged against the hallway wall, their grunts and groans could be heard going down the hallway.

Another surge of energy racked through me with more tingling warmth. A tail formed behind me. It was so long, it had to be at least seven feet long with crystal spikes growing down my spine and tail. It was covered in the same holographic patches of scales that were now spreading across my body like the pictures in the grimoire. As the energy continued to course through me, my tail whipped behind me, smacking against the remains of the bed frame and breaking it further. My wings pulsed, too. My dragon—that something that I had been feeling since I met Quinn—stretched and swelled, anxious and demanding control at last after all this time.

She wanted to be free.

We need to get out of here. Now!My dragon roared in my head.

“Simone, Maisie! I have to leave—uh—right now. But I know I have so much explaining to do after all of this is over. I promise I will—ugh!—explain everything later,” I groaned as I tried to stall my dragon’s manifestation and she fought against me.

“Byrdie, we are best friends. You do not have to explain a single thing to us. You know that.” Simone squeezed my shoulder.

“Yeah, get out of here. We got you always.” Maisie smiled.

I fought back tears. These were truly my best friends. I loved them so much for their unconditional patience, support, and understanding. I wanted to hug them close and tight, but I didn’t have time. That would be for later.

Faster and more nimble than I had ever been before, I was on my feet. I blurred to the balcony, and I leaped onto the balcony railing, my talon-toes gripped the railing and clicked against the glass. The beach stretched below at least three stories down with jagged rocks below to remind me of what I was risking with my failure. My wings fluttered, and my tail flicked. But then, I looked up. The ocean stretched to the horizon. She whispered for me. I wanted to feel the ocean spray, the wind beneath me. I wanted to feel it against my scales. I wanted to see how fast I could go. I wanted to be what I was always meant to be.

You’re ready then, my baby Byrd.

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