Shade of Exposure (Three)

Three

Three:

“That’s a big flipping nope! I am never going down that damn elevator again!”

I refused, and Sky looked at me with a tolerant expression. She had been there for the previous elevator explosion. My fear of elevators, which I personally believe to be justified, stems from an elevator crash I lived through as a child.

Then, while we were mid-case dealing with the fallout surrounding Sarrok’s possession and Hidden City’s siege from within, my fear was the only thing that saved us from this very same elevator lift being sabotaged.

“You’re a damn shade, for goodness sake, how are you so terrified of something even mortals use daily?!”

Kerry inquired, and I spared her a baleful look, and said, “Says the chick who’s never lived through an elevator crash! That is nasty, and you are trapped in close quarters confines, bleeding, and isolated.”

They seemed to consider me for a long moment, and I noted Mister Belvedere was growing increasingly impatient with me.

“What would you prefer, me to throw you down an open sky entrance? That could be arranged, shade.”

He promised darkly, and Sky prowled closer and she looked to Kerry.

“Open the ceiling up, we’re going down the direct way.”

Kerry snapped into action, and she fiddled with several well-concealed panels that no mortal would have been capable of finding, let alone operating. The warehouse we were in rumbled and the fake floor of the fake factory opened with a loud hiss, as four segments swished back, exposing the bright fake sky above Hidden City. We were easily a mile above the city, and vertigo was almost a thing looking down on the immortal city below.

“What are we doing?”

I asked Sky, who was taking off her shoes and quickly following with her jeans.

“Hey, geeze as much as I like naked chicks, what the actual hell?!”

I exclaimed, and she rolled her eyes at me, and then kept stripping down to her birthday suit. She was completely unabashed about her nudity, mainly because Nix are all about openness and they do communal hot tub type baths, sort of like the Japanese in some ways.

“hold on to these for me. I’d hate to ruin a perfectly good pair of jeans, again.”

Sky told me, and I felt her expression roar to life, and quickly the small slip of a pretty teen redhead was a massive leathery and multicolored scaled dragon with what could have been somewhere between a fifteen and twenty-foot wingspan. I had not measured, but that was about the size of her, and she was still growing!

I clutched her clothes tight to my chest as she bowed her head and allowed me to pull myself up onto her back. She was a queen, so allowing me to sit on her back was an honor no person should be given. However, I had an inkling that she was also reminding not just Isaac, but everyone in Hidden City, who she was, and what she was.

The sun could scarcely hold a candle to her radiance and the seeming radioactive energy of her living expression of pure flames. She burned with the blue of the azure dragon fire, and her life-force seemed to crackle, and the air around her was made to a ferocious gale that turbulently sundered the sky, as she parted the currents, and descended into the city from above with a mighty roar. If this were a measuring contest of some male type, she would be the unrivaled winner!

One thing was certain, no one was protesting or back-talking to Skylar. Mister Belvedere was left to descend the elevator on his own alone with Kerry, who seemed almost to wish she could shift and glide down with her one massive leathery wing and fly alongside her apex.

My fear of elevators did not affect the sensation of soaring through the sky on a dragon’s back. I whooped in a cheer and I could hear the ashy tone of Skylar’s laughter as we descended together. Some might assume Skylar was incapable of humor or silliness, they simply never caught a glimpse of the girl beneath the dragon. Me, I lived with that girl, so her stripping and flying us into Hidden, stirring the entire city upon our landing of the upper spires where Siegfried ruled, was par for the course with us. Then again, the course we played on seemed to be more like a daredevil’s playground, than anything else. Sky and I accepted that we were both a bit crazy with a capital K.

“Monkey balls! I see your mom down there, and she looks pretty flippin’ judgmental to me.”

I could feel Sky stiffen as Senna came closer into view as we approached the spires. Her arms were crossed, and her silver-blonde hair seemed to flow with the winds whipping around us as Sky landed. Senna was not Sky, but she could handle the oppression of her daughter’s expression.

“Skylark, I see you and this shade are up to your usual mischief.”

She said in a deeply disapproving tone. Sky huffed, a very human sound coming from a massive dragon. I slid down along the nearly slick scales on her back. I knew that Sky could also make them harder and razor-sharp, like many blades armoring her from assault. Nix were ideal candidates for physically wrangling the necromancer creations for a very damn good reason, and Sky was the most glorious and powerful of them all. Their dragonkin phase-shift allowed them near immunity to the infection of the zombie claws. Their nails have a venom beneath them, venom so potent that it kills most immortals and raises them, making them subject to the whims of the Litch and former architect’s designs, even now imprisoned as he is.

“Mother, we were simply taking the direct route to our destination.”

Sky said as she phased back into the slip of a nude teen I knew and loved like a little sister. Her icy blue gaze held her mother’s eyes without blinking. She accepted the pile of clothes I offered her and began to dress without any sense of urgency or concern for the men who found her youthful beauty too much to turn their gazes from.

“Good Lord, Hannah, did you really have to come crashing in like a bat out of hell?!”

Clarke exclaimed, and Sky turned bright red as he walked out of a nearby building. Sky might not mind being seen naked, but apparently, it was still a bit of a massive thing, when it was the guy she was crushing fiercely on.

“More like a dragon and a shade out of Brooklyn, Clarke.”

I quipped, and Clarke rolled his eyes and trot forward. His eyes landed on Sky, and they both shared an awkward moment of silence. Senna was no fool, she did not miss the exchange between the two teenagers mooning over one another.

Clarke seemed to gather his sense, noticing Senna’s studious gaze lingering upon him. No one in their right mind would desire the interest or curiosity of the ancient dragon queen. Senna was no slouch, despite being beneath Skylar in raw power. She also had eons of alliances and wisdom to fall back upon. Not to mention, she had lived an incredible and full life.

“How are you doing, mother?”

Sky asked her, pulling her attention back on her, and away from Clarke. Senna looked her daughter over as she usually did when they had not spoken in weeks as if to assure herself Sky was safe and whole. Skylar had begun to push out of the nest, and now her independence was becoming clearly stressful to Senna, who still felt like Sky was a little dragon hatchling or whatever.

“I am well, despite my daughter making a spectacle of herself on the whims of the shade she associates herself with.”

Senna sniffed audibly and I sighed. To say Senna doesn’t like me is to merely suggest that Nazi’s were not great people! Senna’s entire rule had been disrupted due to Skylar and I meeting one another. Sky had introduced me to her mother, not yet sure what to think of me. She then decided to challenge her mother’s tule because she could not watch Senna kill me simply for being a shade.

I know that might sound insane, and even slasher-film-like, but having researched every other shade to exist throughout history, I could now attest that Senna was truly justified in her fears. The males of my kind seem to be born unhinged. If it is something to do with me being a woman, or if some slight DNA glitch, I was born with human conscience and a warm and loving heart.

Not only did I feel for people, but I could also actually experience other’s emotions, empathy. Of course, I could also listen to a lot of people’s thoughts, and pretty much every human was fair game for my powers, even most immortals unless they knew how to layer and shield their minds with their expressions. Shades are brokenly powerful beings, gifted with the wide array of talents of the Ethereal parent who sired us, and a physical humanoid body like our mortal parent.

“Oh please, don’t throw this all on me! Sky has a mind of her own, you know.”

I retorted to Senna, earning a scathing glare.

“Hannah, I do prefer it when you are seen but not heard, darling.”

Senna shot back, and Sky sighed and sliced her hand through the air.

“Enough, we’re here to talk to Siegfried, so mother, I will simply ask you to give us leave to finish our journey without further grief.”

Senna held Skylar’s eyes longer than was strictly wise, but it was a very thin line between mother and apex. Senna and Sky managed to not kill one another, which was more than many closely related apex alphas had managed throughout history. Enlightenment seems to elude the Nix on managing such savage primal emotions in their dragon battles of dominance. They require very clear lines of authority and submission, lest they feel physically at risk of death from someone of near-equal power.

However, Senna loved Sky too much to fight her daughter. Sky adored her mom, even if they butt heads constantly, mostly about me, and Sky living in New York for college.

“Very well, I am attending as well, as the acting apex of the Nix.”

Senna said in a matter-of-fact tone. Sky managed to muffle any thoughts she had about her mother’s attendance. They were both too dominant to occupy the same space for long, that was their only true issue, besides Sky living with a filthy shade.

“Did you girls get called to the principal’s spire again?”

Clarke asked in a softly chastising tone, and I snorted and punched him in the shoulder. He jerked back in pain.

“Hey, you, watch that unholy strength of yours!”

I grinned and said, “Sorry, habit?”

Coming out more a question, than a statement of fact, Clarke just shook his head and jerked his head in the direction of the ruler’s spire.

“It’s been tense in there all morning, so I’d tread lightly if I were you. Something’s brewin’.”

Clarke told me in a lower, more confidential level tone. And I leaned in and pulled him into a friendly hug.

“Do you need me to get you out of here? Are they treating you bad?”

I asked, Clarke was spending most of his time studying alchemy with the Hidden expression college. Yes, immortals have colleges devoted to the study and expansion of expression gifts, as well as alchemy and transmutation.

“I’ll be fine, it’s you two I am worried about. Look, we’ll talk later when we can be alone.”

Clarke instructed me, and I frowned as I pulled back, but I respected his wish.