Blazing the Trail by Deborah Cooke Page A

on her sheet so I could sign it, then ushered me off to math class.
    Standing in the hallway to make sure I went right there.
    I was feeling, if you must know, a little bit pissed.
    I BANGED OPEN MY LOCKER
at lunch and flung my books into the bottom.
    “Bad morning?” Nick asked from right beside me, and I could have jumped for joy.
    Then I practically fell on him, giving him a hug so tight that I nearly squished the stuffing out of him.
    If dragons had stuffing. They don’t, in case you aren’t sure. All the usual blood and bones and guts inside. No sage-and-onion stuffing. Not even chestnut.
    He hugged me back just as hard. “Okay, Z?” he asked, pulling back to look at me. He’d taken to calling me Z since my birthday. I’m not sure why, but I kind of liked it. The nickname had a buddy feel to it, which perfectly suited our friendship now that I’d abandoned my lifetime crush on him.
    “Bad morning.” I tried to compose myself, with—it must be said—mixed success. “What are you doing here?”
    Nick smiled sheepishly. “You called.”
    I propped my hands on my hips to survey him. “I called you only an hour ago. Even you couldn’t get here from Minneapolis that fast.”
    “So maybe I was here already.”
    What?
    Nick flicked a glance up and down the hall. “I wanted to talk to you.”
    He had my undivided attention with that. “About?”
    Nick’s neck reddened but he didn’t avert his gaze. “Isabelle.” He said her name in a long whisper. Then he shovedhis hand through his hair, leaving it all standing up, and looked unsettled.
    Isabelle.
    Well, the plot had thickened.
    Just to fill you in on the gaps, Isabelle and I are convinced that she’s the reincarnation of the previous Wyvern, Sophie. Sophie died with her
Pyr
lover, Nikolas, and once she died, I was conceived. Only one Wyvern at a time. The story is that they chose to sacrifice themselves because they couldn’t be together, anyway—their love was forbidden stuff. Nick’s dad was convinced that Nick was Nikolas reincarnated, and I thought it was incredibly cool that he’d been so determined to find his Sophie again that he’d started a new life just months after his last one had ended. Isabelle says she’s been dreaming about Nick all her life, and that her dreams always come true.
    Destined love? Sounds like it, in all its romantic glory—hopefully with a better ending this time around.
    The trick is that Nick has been a little uncertain about all of this. Maybe more than a little. I know he likes Isabelle, I know he’s not daunted by the fact that she’s older than us, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous and kind and pretty much everything anyone would ever want in a girlfriend.
    He just didn’t want to promise what he couldn’t deliver.
    I respect that, even if it isn’t the happy ending I—or Isabelle—might hope for.
    “What about Isabelle?” I asked, pretending that I hadn’t guessed.
    “Well, you’re a girl.”
    I had to tease him. He looked so earnest. “True.”
    He grinned and gave me a nudge. “Seriously.” He pulled a jewelry box from his pocket. “Do you think this is a sucky birthday gift?”
    “Her birthday’s not for another couple of weeks,” I said,taking the box. I didn’t need to say that. Nick is one person who always remembers other people’s birthdays. He’s like a birthday calendar. He knows them all and makes sure he remembers everyone on their day.
    It’s quite sweet, and it’s not just because he loves a party or loves to be remembered on his own birthday.
    “Two weeks from Saturday.” Nick grimaced. “I want to make sure I picked out something good while there’s still time to fix it if I didn’t.”
    He
was
worried about it. I opened the box and caught my breath. Inside was a pendant, set in silver, with two stones in the center. One was yellow and faceted, while the other was opalescent and rounded. They weren’t huge stones, but they were pretty together.