Page 101 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
That shocks me into speech. “You believe in fabulae?”
He tuts at that. “Of course. I didn’t need your coven to tellme that there’s more than justus, Georgie. Though a dragon is also very convincing. I voted to free him, of course. No one should be imprisoned out of everyoneelse’s ignorance andfear.”
I can’t think about Azrael and votes. But it does make me wonder. If the vote isclose, are there more like my father? Witches who suspected this long before we brought it to light? Did they hear Emerson at theparade and think,Finally?
My head is spinning. I don’t know how to take any of this on. “So... you and Desmond Wilde studied books on magical creatures,including crows, and determined...?”
My father sits a bit straighter, the way he does when he’s in full possession of his facts, and thus in his happy place. “Thereare two periods erased from our history. The first covers a civil war amongst the fabulae, before any of our witch trialsbegan. Witches were involved, andIthink they took sides.”
I wonder if this is where Frost’s and Azrael’s animosity stems from. They both would have been around, even if Azrael hadbeen in a previous life. And as he told me, dragons remember.
“The second lost period sits in between witch trial movements,” he continues. “Similar, but it was a crow-specific civil warthen, which most of the other fabulae stayed out of but witches... didn’t.”
“Crows are fabulae?”
“Yes, there are two kinds, you see, and even those who thought they went extinct agree on this. Magical creatures like yourdragon, which become myths and fairy tales and are largely magic on their own. Then the animals with magical powers that roamthe earth and support witches and even some humans. Your familiars, for example. Desmond’s and my theory was that crows werea third type. A bit of a mix of both. But any proof of this was lost somewhere along the way.”
In my readings the past few days, I had seen the two different types, but never something that put crows in a third type. But the fairy tale sure keeps them front and center, doesn’t it?
“The books we found outlined everything that had gone on between these groups, and Desmond and I found clues that led us tobelieve the events occurred long after the dates we had been told magical creatures went extinct, but nothing is that straightforward,unfortunately.”
I try to work through the implications of this. Civil wars amongst magical creatures. With witch involvement. This has tobe where all the animosity between immortal, fabulae, and crow stems from.
My father sighs, that gleam offactsin his gaze dimming. “I used the accessible archives to attempt to create a timeline, but...”
“But what?”
“Not long before your mother... fell pregnant, Desmond said it was all for naught. We’d just been young and stupid, andit couldn’t be true. He shut me out. Turned me into a bit of a pariah while he was at it.” He smiles a bit ruefully. “I supposeI set it aside because...”
Because it was all mixed up in betrayal and infidelity. And because it was, even though I know I need to focus on everythingthat might help my coven, I ask him the question I couldn’t before. “Why did you stay with her?”
He doesn’t answer right away. He seems to really consider this, and I feel a helpless surge of love at howhimthat is. Never an easy answer. Always the weight of thatconsideration. “Your mother takes care of things. She’s particular and certain about all sorts of details I don’t care about. Staying withher meant staying with you, but it also meant I could lose myself in books and not have to worry about much else.” He shrugs,like it was an easy enough choice.
Maybe for him it was. I’ll never understand it, but then, maybe I don’t need to. No one says you have to understandyour parents’ lives. If you’re lucky, you’ll understand them a little and the choices they madeforyou, assuming they made any of those.
I know he did.
And what I really do need to understand—here and now—is fabulae and crows and undoing curses. I need to understand how towipe out black magic and all the ways it threatens not just me, but everyone. All of St. Cyprian and the witching world beyond.
Because they were hidden from us for areason, and I will get to the bottom of that reason.
I turn back to the fairy-tale book. The princess is dressed in eight different outfits over the course of the book, and whileI am no historical fashion expert, I know enough to agree that it showcases each of the historical periods—and I realize thisis what’s new.
Instead of the cover changing, the illustrations inside have changed.
I used to have all her costumes memorized. Some are the same as I remember—particularly those representing the older historicalperiods. Beautiful dresses, flowing cloaks, intricate scepters.
But in the later pages, her dress gets more modern.
On the last page, when all is won, the princess is wearing a dress that has me just...staring.
It looksexactlylike the dress Emerson has been looking at for bridesmaid dresses. She hasn’t made any final decisions, but still.Thisis the dress she liked the best.
A little chill skitters down my back. This has to be a sign... but for what?
I’ve always been a firm believer in the idea that knowing our history will help our present, but the book is supposed to beastory. Even with all its changes, I prefer to think of it assuggestions...Or do I?
It has led me everywhere I need to go, or at least I think it has.
