CHAPTER 19

Elliot

Fear and adrenaline made us ignore the burning debris and the smoke swirling around us as Cade and I worked our way through the blazing madness along with Phillips and Ayers.With every piece of broken, crackling wood we heaved to one side or the other, we cried out with dread, “JENNA!”

Where was she?The danger to ourselves was nothing compared to what we feared might have happened, might at this second be happening, to her.Inhaling smoke turned my breath ragged and burned at my lungs, but I kept my wings tucked arms and legs and the debris moving, and wherever it was necessary I even batted things away with my tail.I didn’t matter.Nothing mattered but Jenna and as Cade moved along the same way I did, I knew he was thinking the same thing.Somewhere in this flaming, smoking horror was Jenna.Please let her be all right.Please, somehow, let her be all right.

From somewhere in the crackling and popping and the eddies of smoke came a coughing, feeble voice.“E-Elliot…?Elliot…?”

I swiveled my neck in the direction of that sound and called out to Cade, “Over there!Over there!”

Ayers and Phillips were already moving in that direction and we joined them, moving broken timbers and going as fast as we could.“Keep talking, Jenna!” I called.“We’ll get you; just keep talking!”

Out of the smoky dimness came the feeble voice again.“Elliot…we’re here.Adrienne and I—over here.”

Jenna’s voice faded out in the crackling and popping of the fire.In my heart was a sinking feeling as if someone had taken aim at me in flight and shot me out of the sky.I moved faster to where her voice had been; and Cade followed me.

We pushed aside fallen tree limbs that had turned into torches and stepped on broken boughs, resisting the pain of inhaling smoking air, until we reached a place where a broken piece of the treehouse roof, shot through with burning holes, lay on the ground with more debris surrounding it.Ayers and Phillips were already there, lifting other boughs out of the way, but having a hard time of it, since they were only human.We joined them and, growling and grunting with the effort, sank our claws into the wooden structure of the roof part and lifted it up and away.It tumbled off, crashing into another burning place, and started to catch fire.We ignored this new blaze and fixed our attention on the spot we had uncovered.

There, lying under the monitor table, Adrienne’s devices and equipment, and other pieces of furniture and fixtures that were all burnt and smoking, lay Jenna and Adrienne.The Intercross technician was in her dragon form, unconscious; her wings had provided a bit of cushioning for Jenna, who was curled up in broken wood pieces and debris, streaked with ashes, her clothes torn.She drifted in and out of consciousness, trying to lift her head and focus on us.Her voice came out as ragged, desperate whining.It must have taken most of the strength she had to call out to us.

I felt as if my scales had turned to hot spikes of panic as I lunged down to where she was, swatting broken things out of the way with my claws and tail.Then, as fast as I’d moved to reach her, I was just as careful in stooping down to where Jenna lay and lifting her gently into my arms.I didn’t know how badly she’d been hurt, but I wasn’t about to make it any worse for her.It was the only time I’d ever wished Jenna were a Scaler.If she were one of us, she’d morph right into her other body and repair any injuries in the process.But no, our Jenna—my Jenna—was human.Just one human girl who was more precious to me than anything or anyone I’d ever thought would be.I cradled her in my arms, flicking my tongue against her face, both to try to wake her and reassure her that I was there and nothing more would happen to her.Jenna’s eyes flickered and she made another wordless sound.“Hang on, baby.Hang on,” I whispered, my voice inaudible in the sizzling, burning noises around us.

Cade found Adrienne just stirring back to consciousness.He offered her his hand and she took it, scrambling shakily to her feet, uncurling her tail and straightening her wings.He kept an arm at Adrienne’s shoulder, and she stood up, a bit wobbly and dizzy but otherwise unhurt.She choked out the names, “Jenna…Neal and Marshall…?”

”Elliot’s got Jenna,” said Cade, swiveling his dragon neck in my direction.He looked around and gazed through places where the smoke parted.“I think your other friends went to help Jenna’s father and uncle.”We all glanced to where Cade was looking and caught a glimpse of the two human techno’s going back to where they’d left the Callaway’s.

Then I looked up into trees that had become pyres, whose blazing limbs were breaking off and crashing onto the forest floor.“We need to get out of here,” I said and, with a sudden, awful realization, I added, “Where’s Byron?What happened to him?”

”I don’t know,” said Cade gravely.“If we can get away from here, maybe we’ll find him.”

”Let’s move,” I said, holding Jenna tightly.

There was less fire and less danger out in the clearing, so we all started walking to where the two humans went.Adrienne was still shaken and unsure on her feet, but Cade helped her; and she got more steady as we went, even though we had to step around debris and avoid burning limbs and fragments.Jenna clung against the plates of my dragon chest, and I gave her a little squeeze, softly saying, “I’ve got you.I’ve got you.”

Soon we were back where Jenna’s father and uncle were.Neal was sitting up, rubbing his head, and Marshall was on his knees beside him.Phillips and Ayers ran across to where the other technician who’d been minding the receiver on Earth was now stepping through the sync field, dragging along with him the pole of the device without the globe.If I had to guess, I’d say that the explosion of the transmitter had sent a power surge down the energy stream and over to Earth, where it blew up the receiver as well.But that wasn’t as important as seeing the Callaway brothers’ faces light up with relief and Marshall dragging himself to his feet when we came near.

Giving Neal a hand to pull himself up, Marshall cried out, “Jenna!Jenna, oh, thank God they got you out.”He ran with a stumbling gait over to us, his brother staggering behind him.

When Marshall reached us, Jenna, in my arms, turned her head to him and blinked.She managed to croak out in a sobbing voice, “Daddy?Daddy…!”

Her father took her by the hand as I held her.Tears streaked both his face and Jenna’s.“Oh, Jenna,” he said, running his fingertips along her hair, “my girl, if anything had happened to you because of my work…”

”It wasn’t your fault, Mr. Callaway,” I insisted.“Somebody was pretending to be your friend, pretending to want to help you.So help me, when I get my claws on that damned…”

Cade’s voice cut me off, shouting, “Look!”He pointed up to a spot above the torn, splintered place where the monitor treehouse had been, where the forest canopy was lit with a blaze that must have been burning and spreading deeper towards the main Intercross encampment—and we saw about a dozen figures flying above the flames, holding large canisters that emitted billowing white clouds of mist.As we watched, the expanding mists fell like a fog over the treetops and sifted down through the boughs and the leaves towards the forest floor, changing the forest to an expanse of trunks and hazy grey clouds.Every burning place that the mist touched, the fire that had been like a raging, devouring monster slowly flickered out and disappeared.

“Fire suppressors,” said Neal Callaway.“The encampment had a supply of fire suppressors in case lightning started a forest fire.They were just as good for the way the fire actually happened.”

”They must have started closer to the encampment and worked their way in this direction to make sure it didn’t reach any of the dwellings,” said Adrienne, more recovered now.

“Since they caught the fire when it started,” Neal said, “they won’t have that much trouble containing it and stopping it.We’ll be okay.”

”Yes, sweetheart,” said Marshall, rubbing his knuckles tenderly on Jenna’s face.“We’re all going to be all right.”

”But Daddy,” Jenna said, choking a bit as I held her.“Your work…”

”My work isn’t as important as my daughter,” Marshall Callaway said, to which I quietly agreed.

Then another familiar voice from above caught our attention.Another figure—no, two more figures, were coming through the plumes of black smoke and the white, billowy curtains of the fire suppressors.One was a winged, horned shape with a tail.In that figure’s arms, another one dangled.The familiar dragon swooped low into the clearing, circled around, and landed in a spot near us where curls and wisps of smoke rose from the ground.Touching down in the clearing, Byron folded his wings and slung that other figure over his shoulder until he reached us and dropped his captive onto the turf before us.

Cade let out an angry hiss, spreading his wings, flexing his claws, and lashing his tail.I set Jenna down and let her father and her uncle hold on to her, while baring my fangs and roaring with fury, spreading my wings upward and raising my tail, ready to smash and tear Byron’s prisoner to pieces.

Dominic was just gathering his senses and rubbing his head where Byron must have hit him—the least he deserved.I moved like a striking snake, grabbing him and hoisting him off the ground.“YOU!” I bellowed at him, making him tremble.“Do you see what you did?Do you realize what you did?Do you know what could have happened?”

”I know what I did,” said Dominic.“Marshall Callaway was going to destroy the world—the world that Gorgonos made for Scalers!I did the righteous thing.We’ll never let him take the world away from us, take us over to that other world ruled by creatures with only one body.I’m not sorry!Glory to Gorgonos!”

Raising him higher, hissing at him with growing rage, I said, “Don’t try anything else.Hold your form; don’t change.If you try anything, this time you’ll be outnumbered, and we’ll be ready for you.Damn you, you murdering piece of filth, I could bite your throat out.”

Dominic trembled in my grip, but still defied me.“Gorgonos is with me.You can only harm my body.The Almighty Dragon will protect my soul.”

”Then let him protect you now!” I said, releasing him with one hand and bringing up the claws of that hand to do a job every bit as “righteous” as the one he’d tried.My claws cutting through his clothes and into his human flesh would tear him up so badly that no amount of morphing would save him.I started to swing my hand forward…

And from behind me, a voice cried, “Elliot, NO!”

I swiveled my dragon neck around to see Jenna, propped up by her father and uncle, shaking her head with tears rolling down her face.“No, Elliot,” she sobbed with effort.“Don’t do it, please.You’re better than that—better than him.Please don’t.”

Something in the sound of Jenna’s voice, pleading through her weakness for mercy on the one who’d almost killed her, snuffed my anger the way the dragons over us had snuffed the fire.It was only because of Jenna I couldn’t do what I most wanted to do.I swiveled my neck back around and faced the would-be murderer in my grasp.“You hear that?A human just saved your worthless life.Remember that.It was her.”

And feeling nothing but contempt where I was filled with rage a moment ago, I threw Dominic away from me like the filth he was.I didn’t care how hard he hit the ground.As I watched him roll away and Byron and Cade come around either side of him, daring him to go dragon and try to attack or get away, I just hissed at him.As much of a fool as he was, Dominic was too smart to try to take on all three of us.We’d give him to the law.

I morphed back to human and turned around to where Marshall and Neal were holding Jenna.They let her go and she came forward into my arms.I held her close against me, and things around us grew a little more settled.

Things would not stay settled for long.Marshall Callaway’s work had been destroyed—for now.But this story would get out.That meant the world was still going to change, and none of us could be sure what the future would be.