Chapter 71

JUNE.

I don't know how I got back to the girls' rented mansion after that. Everything was just a blur. Nancy was with me the whole time but she kept quiet, thankfully.

Tiffany and Amelie are already asleep. I just curl up in my bed and hold back my tears, wishing everything wasn't real.

The denial is still strong. I keep hoping that whatever I saw was just a figment of my imagination and Seven is actually normal, exactly what I thought of him from the very start.

But every time I keep my eyes closed now, all I can see is that strange humanoid form of him, with the scales and the vertical pupils. The nails. The low growls. Not the Seven with the kind eyes and sweet smile and gentle touch.

And the worst thing is, I let him touch me. I let him take me.

Now I don't know what to do.

Somehow I end up falling asleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night with the entire house completely silent. Then I allow myself to cry. I fall back asleep again, and the next morning, I find myself on autopilot.

We visit the stone formations next to the ocean the next day. I find Seven looking at me from afar but he doesn't make a move.

The day after that, we go to some kind of war museum. This time, Seven attempts to go to me and perhaps talk, but he doesn't push through with it when he sees that Nancy is with me.

And Nancy always sticks me with me after that.

I don't know if I should be grateful or annoyed. But by the time we go back to our own city, she's still sticking with me.

Days passed, and yet she's still following me like a shadow.

It's our first day back in school now. It's hard to deal with the truth now that we're in a more serious setting. I keep wondering who else knows, but miraculously, I go through my classes pretty well.

But then it's time for work, and the first thing I see is the note taped under my keyboard.

"I can tell you everything you need to know. I'll be waiting for you outside the counselor's office."

I immediately know that it's Nancy. Suddenly the fact that she's been following me around makes more sense. She still wants to divulge everything she knows.

I don't know if I want to be mad at her or not. But I just keep working until my time runs out, and predictably, I find her outside the office.

"June," she says, smiling as she jogs to keep up with me. "I'm glad you said yes. There's so much you need to know—"

"I didn't say yes to this meeting," I interject, stopping in my tracks to look at her. "I already know what's going on. I already know the truth. It's enough."

"Is it, though?" she asks. "Don't you want to know more? Because Seven is not the only Dragon in this school. If you look close enough, there are Dragon symbols everywhere. They're surrounding us. Do you want to know who else is a Dragon?"

Her voice is loud. Like way too loud. I understand that there aren't a lot of students here now, but god... I wish she would quiet down because it's not like she's just sharing gossip.

I grab her by the arm and pull her to the side of the street. There are a lot of cars passing and they're all loud. They can mask the sound of what she's saying.

And I hate to say it, but she definitely piqued my curiosity. "There are more of them?"

"Yes," Nancy says, her face turning serious but her eyes have a hint of mischief in them. "There are more. Amelie is one of them. The Headmaster too. They're a family of Dragons and I live with them. This is how I found out. They said they would go on a camping trip before and I found them changing into these huge bronze colored beasts in the forest. I thought I was just hallucinating that at first but it was real. So whenever they would leave, I would sneak around in their house and find things. Like about the Crown and the Hunt."

I frown. "The what?"

Then she explains it. The Crown of Flames that brought the power of fire to the Dragons. The Hunt that was supposed to bring it back after it's been lost for centuries, and the young Dragons train every Friday to find it when solstice comes.

By the time Nancy is done, my head is reeling. Now I know for sure that Vlad is a Dragon too, considering I saw him in that underground space that led directly to the office of the Headmaster. It's all starting to make sense.

So much so that I don’t want to deal with any of it anymore.

I just want to stay away from all of this.

But then again… why did my dad call me telling me to stay away from Seven? Does he know? Has he always known about them?

“I need to go,” I tell Nancy. “I… I know the truth now, and I just want to avoid all of this.”

Nancy looks like she wants to insist that I stay and listen, but I don’t give her the chance to voice any of these things out anymore. I just take the bus away from her, even though I do end up with a couple of detours just to get home.

Tiffany is nowhere to be found, so I just head upstairs and change into different clothes. I’m about to start calling my dad, no matter where he is or what he’s doing. I just want to put an end to this thing.

But before I can even take my phone, someone knocks at my door. I open it quickly, expecting Tiffany, but it’s just Aunt Janet.

And she looks worried.

“Can I come in?”

I open the door wider to accommodate her, and she walks inside, taking a seat on my bed and staring at me with concern still dancing in her eyes. “What’s going on?”

“Well, I want you to stop working at that counselor’s office,” she says after a pause. “From now on, you will be getting off early, and you would be coming home with Tiffany every single school day without fail. Do you understand?”

There’s an edge to her tone that wasn’t there before. I don’t think I’ve seen her quite this tense.

“After your last classes, just go straight home,” she continues. “I don’t want you going out with anyone else. I don’t want you two going anywhere else. Are we clear?”

“Yes,” I say, but I can’t help but point out, “But my job is the only way I can pay for the rest of the year—”

“Your Uncle Brian and I will take care of it,” she interjects. “I just need you and my daughter to be safe.”

“Why?” I ask. “What’s happening?”

Instead of answering immediately, Aunt Janet sighs and takes out a folded piece of newspaper in her pocket, showing it to me. “This is from this morning. And I’m honestly surprised that no one is talking about it.”

She hands it over to me, and I see the word, “Missing.”

Then, pictures of so many people get posted under the heading. There are about twelve of them, and they were all last seen the exact same day. The day before we set out to travel to the city.

Twelve people. Old and young. With the youngest being eleven years old. All missing on the same day.

And their last location was all within the vicinity of the Nightlock Woods.

Where Charles also got hurt.

There is a Dragon out there, hunting all these people. And if it’s not the doctor….

Then it could be anyone in this place.

Even someone from the school.