The hand around Wynn's throat refused to budge, fingernails digging into the flesh around his trachea. His feet dangled a good six inches off the ground. He wasn't fat, but his pure muscle had to be heavy. He was amazed that Callum could hold him up.
He heard his friends gargling behind him. Ryssa Wainscott was not playing around as she tried to drown those who wanted to help him, his younger sister among them.
Wynn wasn't an idiot. He could feel Callum's magic coursing through him. Like Winter and Spenser, he controlled the power of the moon. He had stored all his magic over the last twenty-eight days in hopes that he could defeat the Moon Sorcerers at their own game. And he had. Wynn could see them unconscious just over the older man's shoulder.
Behind him he could hear Sky and Wesley try their best to combat Ryssa, but she was older and much more well-versed in battle. She easily disabled them. It left only Wynn to do battle, and he was powerless against sorcerers.
He closed his eyes as Callum's fingers tightened on his trachea. He wasn't going to give them any more information than he had to, and he had given them enough. They knew all these kids knew what they had done to Gray's parents, and by default they knew who had killed Christian. Now they were trying to kill Wynn. None of it looked good.
"Dad?" Wynn's eyes creaked open as he realized whose voice whispered from the shadows. He saw Jarrod standing by one of the wine vats. The other boy looked between him and his father, clearly confused. How long had he been there?
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Callum's scoff was easier to hear over the continuous pounding of his wife's water magic. "What does it look like? I'm dealing with those who murdered Christian."
Jarrod met Wynn's gaze as the latter gargled due to the fingers at his throat. "They didn't kill Christian. We all know that."
"What do you know?" his mother snapped. She made an elegant gesture with her hands and more water slammed down Sky and Wesley.
One of Wynn's eyes closed as he managed to get his fingers between Callum's fingers and his throat. "Who was it?" The other boy's father tightened his hand, but Wynn's fingers gave him a moment's reprieve. "What did you see?!"
"Oh, shut up!"
The brutal man's hand tightened so much that Wynn closed his eyes as the breath threatened to leave him. He reached in vain for Jarrod. He was the only person who could help him. Wynn wasn't sure what Jarrod knew, but he hoped it was enough for the other boy to help. He was watching his parents beat the hell out of fourteen kids. How could he not know?
He felt his lungs give out. They spasmed once, twice before every ounce of breath was gone. He was aware of a laugh before his body was tossed and air whistled against his ears. Though he struggled to understand due to the pain in his neck and lungs, Wynn knew he was going to hit the dirt floor hard. Hard enough that it would shatter whatever bones that smashed into it first.
His shoulder collided with something hard yet mushy, and his head bounced backwards but it wasn't into anything super solid. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was his saving grace.
"What the hell? What is going on?"
Air exploded in Wynn's lungs and he looked up. The bright light was hard to see through, but he surely could see Jarrod. His eyes were bright as he looked at Wynn. He cradled the smaller man tightly against him, but that wasn't the issue. They looked down at their right hands. Somehow Jarrod had grabbed his hand to stop his soon to be disastrous fall.
Clasped together desperately, a red light glowed from them. Pulsing, it shone brighter than the magic of Callum and Ryssa combined.
"Jarrod, what are your powers?" Wynn croaked. His throat was raw making it hard to speak.
The other boy shook his head. "I don't have any. I don't have any magic."
"That's fire." They looked up to see Gray struggling to stand. He was covered in wine and dirt. Behind him, Jacie and Kevin struggled to their feet. "You two, get to them. I think this is your cue."
The younger kids crawled towards them. Gray managed enough strength to toss his body onto Ryssa to keep her from dousing the kids. She didn't fall, but it was enough to knock her focus off.
Kevin seemed to understand. He held his hands at the six and twelve positions. Jacie managed to get to her feet and positioned her hands at the nine and three. Their hands sparked until they were united by a ring of fire. Wynn and Jarrod just stared at it, completely baffled.
"You have to stand on either side of the circle," Jacie gritted out. "You need to hurry. I can't stand much longer."
Wynn scrambled to his feet. He stood on Kevin's left, but his knees weren't going to hold him up. None of them were supposed to be alive after that brutal assault, yet here they were. There was something more going on.
He stared at Jarrod. "Do you want to make a difference?" he challenged. The other boy looked up. "Get your ass up and take my hand."
Jarrod's eyes were slightly glazed over. He looked at him but he wasn't seeing anything. He glanced between those who wanted to protect everything and those who wanted to destroy it. Between his parents and those who were just like him.
"Son, don't do this. They're just trying to push you down, to keep you from your birthright," Callum ordered. Jarrod's gaze jumped to his father's. "You were always meant to lead us. You have the ability to lead our people into the new world, to where we don't hide anymore. We'll be able to show our powers."
"If you mean subjugate the entire human race, then you will never give up that power," Wynn argued. "What's to say that if he does this you won't kill him to take what he has?"
Ryssa laughed bitterly. "Why would we kill him? He has no power. He can't do anything like the rest of you. He will be easy to control."
Wynn pulled his bottom lip into his mouth. He looked at his friends as many of them started to awaken and pull themselves up. They were still no match for the Wainscotts, but they didn't have to be. Wynn had knowledge on his side.
"What was Christian doing to make you kill him?"
His question was soft as his voice but it still held immense power. Jacie and Kevin stared at him. The only inkling he had they were still struggling to stand was the bend in Jacie's knees. Kevin was a little more stable, but his hands shook even as they were locked in the flame circle.
"I never knew him well, but from what I gathered, Christian Lowell was a good kid. He didn't do anything against the law and he was the smartest kid in school. All he had against him is something I'm sure you don't like in your own child. He could date either boys or girls and it didn't bother him."
He let it hang between them. The moment the truth hit Jarrod was like a light bulb went off over his head. He slowly met Wynn's sympathetic eyes before he rounded on his parents. His hands shook as he stood. Ripping apart his world was not what he wanted to do, but missing information had been niggling at the back of his head for days. It just took seeing everyone getting the snot beat of them for him to realize it.
"You're not powerless, Jarrod," he said. He didn't look at him, but Wynn figured he had Jarrod's attention. "You dreamed your mother killed Christian, didn't you? As well as Gray's wreck that killed his parents. You saw them cut those brake lines."
"I thought it was just a dream. Then the Wyvern Council called you in. I didn't know what else to do, so I helped them implicate you. It would give me time to figure out what was wrong with me." The other boy's voice was tortured. There was so much emotion in it that Wynn could bottle it up and still wouldn't have space.
"Why did you kill him?" he begged. He was a child begging for the approval of his abusive parents. "Why did you take a boy from his parents, and parents from their boy? What did they do to you?!"
"He knew too much. As for the Rivers, how else would we get what we wanted? They held all the power in this town, and no one would listen to us as long as they were alive."
Ryssa's voice was anything but compassionate. It was downright brutal. She didn't care that she had ended the life of an eighteen-year-old boy whose life would have been so fruitious if it hadn't been snuffed out. She didn't care that she had cut the brake lines to someone who was supposed to be her best friend. She had done it because she wanted to be in the position her friend had been in.
"All along you have poisoned my mind against Gray and his friends. You have said they wouldn't amount to anything without me, but they've bested you time and again. No one likes you on the Council but they listened to you until they displaced you." Jarrod turned and shook his head. I'm not doing this anymore."
Callum's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Jarrod, what are you doing?"
Jarrod looked at his father one last time before he lifted his hand straight out. His fingers laced with Wynn's and their eyes met. Both of their eyes started to glow.
Jacie screamed as power pulsed between the four of them. The circle of fire sparked to life once more. Like a ferris wheel on its first trip round, the circle started to spin, slowly until it started picking up speed. By the time it was at its fastest velocity, the heat and wind being emitted were too hot to bear.
Wynn had felt this once before. He had been dreaming of a dragon in battle. The scaled beast had raised up on its hind legs and flapped its massive wings as fire had roared from its mouth. He had been out of the danger but he had experienced first hand the heat from those flames. This was exactly the same.
The heat scorched his skin but did no damage. The wind tugged his hair in every direction but it wasn't jerked from his head. He looked down at his arm, watching the band slowly creap its way over his wrist. He was certain that spot would be hot to the touch but wouldn't burn him.
Faster and faster, the circle of fire changed colors as it spun. It started off dark red, brightened to orange, and turned to a blazing white. If anyone else touched it, they would most definitely die. But Wynn and Jarrod were completely safe with their arms in the middle of the spinning inferno.
Wynn stared into the center. He should have been able to see through it, to see Jarrod's leather jacket on the other side. Instead he saw darkness, cool darkness. Then there was a golden eye. He blinked one time, double eyelids peeling back from the darkened slit.
"It's a portal," he said.
Kevin squinted over at him. "What!"
"It's…"
He never finished his sentence as the energy sucked everything inwards then exploded around them in a burst of red, orange, gold and white. Somewhere in the back of his head, Wynn heard Jacie scream and the other two boys cry out. But he couldn't worry about that. Once again, he was flying backwards with no one to stop him.
He slammed into something firm yet soft. It was once again another body, but he wasn't sure who. He squeezed his eyes closed as he spun around. He was really getting tired of being tossed around like a rag doll.
"You have dared to lay a hand on our chosen ones?"
The voice under his ear rumbled like thunder. He looked up, but the face he saw wasn't a face at all. It was pure light. Pure, unadulterated white light. And it was in the shape of a humanoid.
"Your son is powerful, more powerful than anyone can know. But unlike the rest, his powers have remained hidden for a simple reason," it continued.
"Who the hell are you?" Callum demanded. He wrapped the stored moonlight around him, but Wynn had a feeling it wasn't going to matter.
"You know me as the lord of light, creator of volcanoes and the maker of fire. But I am also the guardian of the lost. I was once known as Pyre, grand protector of all my brethren."
"It's a dragon," Kevin muttered.
Wynn's feet hit the ground but his knees gave way. He sank down and scrambled across the floor to Jarrod. The other boy looked to be unconscious, but upon further investigation his eyes were merely closed. He opened them and looked right up at Wynn. One eye was now a burnt orange while the other remained its natural sea green.
"You look really strange looking at you with one eye," he laughed.
Wynn smiled at his bland humor. He must have been temporarily blinded. "I told you, you were meant to do something special. That's why you didn't have any magic."
Jarrod sat up, holding his head briefly. "I don't understand."
The humanoid pillar of light looked at him. "You weren't meant to. When we started locking ourselves away many millennia ago, we made two things. First we made people who would know who we really are and gave them powers to protect us. Second, we made a lock and key. When combined with the magic of the elements, they have the ability to summon us from our slumber."
"Is there a danger you must face?" Autumn asked. She was sitting against a wine barrel with Gray's head in her lap. The Keeper had been knocked down again when the portal had opened. This time he didn't have the energy to get up.
"I'm afraid you all have to face it together. Not all Keepers and Councils are as understanding as yours. Once word gets out, everyone will do their best to capture all of you to use you to bring us back. Keep each other safe."
Callum bellowed and charged at the pillar. Jarrod yelled at his dad to stop, but it fell on deaf ears. The older man blasted every ounce of moon light at the six foot bundle of light.
But Pyre was ready for him. He batted away the power of the moon with ease and launched a wall of fire at his attacker. Callum didn't have a chance. The moonlight was no match for the first flame, and neither was his body. One moment he was standing there and the next there were only footprints of where he'd been.
"Don't," Wynn warned. Jarrod fought to get up, but Wynn crossed his arms around him as if he were in a straight jacket and held on. "Don't do it. There are always repercussions for actions. This is what your parents are getting."
A small cry escaped the big man and he buried his face in Wynn's neck as his mother followed in his father's footsteps. She stood a better chance since she controlled water, but not by much. Pyre was the original fire, the one who introduced it to humanity. He would know how to combat water.
And he did. He bypassed Ryssa's direct flow and attacked her from behind. Twin flaming arms shot up from the ground and pulled the woman's arms wide. Pyre said something to her, and she naturally snarled back. She gave it one last ditch effort and smashed water in the dragon's face, but Pyre was unaffected. He roared, fire leaping from his mouth and straight to her. She too disintegrated right in front of their eyes, steam the only thing left of her.
Wynn stroked Jarrod's head as he clung to him. In the span of five moments, he lost both parents and probably his will to live. There was nothing he could say to ease the pain he was going through. All he could do was hold him.
"You understand now, young Wainscott?" Jarrod lifted his head but he didn't look at the being of light speaking to him. "There are more like your parents who want to take you and Esposito and force you to bring us all back. They want to enslave us. If they find the resting place of Tenor, all is lost."
"Who is Tenor?" Wynn asked.
"He's the creator of everything and the leader of the remaining dragons," Jarrod explained. He acted like a child, resting his cheek on Wynn's shoulder and pressing his face into his neck.
"He's correct. If they have the two of you, they can find his resting place. Even the rest of us do not know where he slumbers. He made sure we were nestled away before he descended."
"What would you like us to do?" Gray asked. He and the rest walked or crawled to them. Wynn looked up at him, but the blond refused to meet his gaze. "Is there anything we need to do?"
Pyre shook his head. In that moment, Wynn thought he looked like Mufasa from The Lion King when he returned to speak to Simba. His face was clear and humanlike, but he had a mane of fire crackling around his neck. The rest of his body was solid light. He was only spirit. There was nothing corporeal about him. But he guessed once the effects of walking through the portal wore off, he would be able to take on a more solid form.
"You need to keep them safe. I'm certain those he has surrounded himself with have known about the Wainscotts' plan. He is going to need something strong to keep himself grounded. He's going to need the sanctuary of a Scale. Of someone who can keep him sane." He looked directly at Wynn.
Wynn didn't feel guilty that he was leaving as soon as they walked across that stage, but the look in Pyre's eyes said he knew. He met his fiery gaze evenly as he pressed his cheek against Jarrod's forehead. For now at least he could give him comfort.
"What will you do now?" Autumn asked. Pyre looked at her, fire breather looking at the sun child.
"The only reason I ask is because the Wyvern Council thinks we killed Christian Lowell. No one would believe us, or Jarrod because he accused us even though he knew that it was mother. Could we ask you to testify for us?"
"I don't think that is a good idea," Wynn protested. "If he shows his face, they will try to ensnare him as well. Then we'll have more blood on our hands."
"That is where you are wrong, little Key," Pyre denied. "You're not the only one I have been supplying dreams to. I will do this for you."
Wynn shook his head, not believing anything the fiery spirit said. It wasn't going to be that easy. The Wyvern Council had said they were going to need undeniable evidence. Three dead bodies, two of which disintegrated, wasn't going to fly.
"Wynn?" He looked up as his sister ran to him. She dropped to her knees and hugged his head tightly to her chest. "Are you okay?"
He nodded and allowed her to kiss his sweaty head. "Why are you here?"
"She saw us leaving and jumped in the car," Winter said. She held her head. "That woman hit hard. Damn."
Wynn ignored her. "What is it?"
Helena smiled and ran her hands over his face. "I've been having dreams lately about all of this. Not the murders, but the fight. I think we were both chosen for a reason. You're obviously the key to all of it, but as for me, I don't know."
"You're the oracle," Gray supplied. "You can talk to the dragons through your dreams. I can't believe I didn't notice it before. Then again I have been a bit preoccupied."
"Don't talk about me like that," Wynn griped. He gathered his knees under him and pushed up. "Come on, Jarrod. You can stay at my house for the time being."
Gray stopped him, at which Wynn glared. "I don't think that's a good idea. He should stay with me."
The curly brunet jerked away. "Don't touch me right now." His skin was tender and the touch of magic burned him like he'd put his hand to an open flame. He urged Jarrod to his feet and allowed himself to be pulled tightly against him. "Let's go home, Helena. I'm pretty sure tonight will be the only night we can get a decent amount of sleep because the Wyvern Council will keep us up most of the next few."
Helena slid under Jarrod's other shoulder and helped her brother walk him out. Wynn shook under Jarrod's left shoulder, anger pulsing through him like never before. He wasn't that angry at Gray, but he'd given him a lot of information he hadn't used. Now his sister was involved and something could have happened to her.
"Wait." Nathan came in their line of sight. He looked like all the rest, battered and bruised, but his eyes were the clearest of everyone's. "Jarrod doesn't need to drive, and the two of you can't. Let me drive you home. I live two blocks from your house anyway. It won't be out of my way."
Wynn nodded and they steered Jarrod towards his Lexus parked by a Jeep. He climbed through the backseat and pulled Jarrod with him. Helena sat up front with Nathan. He looked at her and smiled, making Wynn resist the urge to smack him in the back of the head. He had more important things to deal with currently as Jarrod resumed his position. He splayed out across the backseat and used Wynn as pillow.
"Thank you," he muttered. The other boy looked down. Jarrod wasn't looking at him, his face pressed into his side. "I don't think I would be half as calm as I am now if you hadn't been there."
"You just lost your parents. You shouldn't be calm," Wynn protested rationally. His voice was very level when his emotions were anything but.
"In a way, I lost them long ago. Seeing their bodies burn isn't half as bad as feeling the bite of leather on your bare skin."
Reality slapped the other boy hard across the face. "Your parents beat you, didn't they?" He'd been curious about it the entire time, but hearing it was something else.
Jarrod shifted, pressing his face deeper into Wynn's side. "Every day since I learned I didn't have magic. Some days they barely noticed me. Other days I was lucky to go to school. No one knew. My dad was good at hiding it."
Wynn couldn't help it when he pushed his fingers through Jarrod's shaggy bangs. He looked up then, sea green and burnt orange eyes meeting his mismatched ones. "I'm so sorry. I knew something was off, but I didn't know how bad. You can stay with us as long as you need."
Jarrod's throat worked as he pushed down the raw emotions that nearly brought tears to his eyes. One hand lifted to settle on the back of Wynn's head and applied a little bit of pressure. Wynn diverted his head just in time so instead of his mouth Jarrod kissed his cheek and chin. Jarrod sighed but let it go. There was nothing he could do anyway.
"I'll sleep in your room," he said. "With you in your bed."
Wynn slapped him out of habit, making him grunt and laugh all at the same time. "Not like you haven't before."
Jarrod laughed and settled into his hip. Soon he was snoozing as Nathan took the road that led back to town and back to the soft warm bed waiting on them.