The Unbearable Lightness of Dragons by Katie MacAlister Page B

out, Mayling!”
    The expression on May’s face was completely missed by her oblivious twin. “Er . . . yes. Aisling, what do you see?”
    “Two guards along the south side, just as Drake said there would be.” Aisling lowered the night vision goggles and lifted her wrist to press a button on her watch. “The new shift should be coming in another fifteen minutes.”
    “Are you sure this is the time to be doing this?” I frowned into the darkness. The house loomed up as an inky shape against an only slightly lighter sky. Fantastically shaped blobs of darkness lay scattered between us and the house, giving the eerie sensation that the house was guarded by more than just a handful of dragons. I eyed one of the shapes, convinced I had seen it move, but I knew it must just be a trick of the dim moonlight. They are only yew hedges , I told myself. They just happen to look like mangled, unspeakably frightening beings . “The new guards will be wide-awake, won’t they? They’ll have a better chance of seeing us than tired guards.”
    “True, but the shift change gives us a couple of minutes when the guards’ attention is on each other, rather than the house,” Aisling pointed out. “That’s the best time to make our move.”
    “Don’t worry, babe, we’ve done this before,” Jim said, snuffling my leg. “When Ash and May broke into the vault at Suffrage House, they did it right at a shift change, too. Worked like a charm.”
    “I don’t mean to make trouble, but I’m a bit worried about my magic. It was never very reliable, and I haven’t had a chance to try it out since Dr. Kostich gave me the Grace of the Magi. I used to suppose things went wrong because I lacked the skills to control the magic, but now I gather that’s because I’m not supposed to be able to use magic at all due to the dragon inside me. Did that shrub just move?”
    The three women turned to look where I pointed.
    “I don’t think so. Do shrubs move on their own?” Cyrene asked doubtfully.
    “No, of course they don’t,” May said calmly.
    “Not normally, but what if those aren’t ordinary shrubs?” I asked, watching one of the dark blobs with suspicion. “What if Drake did something to them?”
    “Man, someone’s going to give me the heebie-jeebies if she doesn’t stop with all the inanimate-objects-moving-on-their-own bit,” Jim muttered.
    Aisling snorted. “I assure you he hasn’t done anything other than make sure there’s round-the-clock security on the house, and let me just add that it wasn’t easy getting details on exactly who is here on guard duty, and when the shift change happens. I had to pretend I wanted to stay at this house in order to get the details, and even that wasn’t easy. We’re just lucky he had to go to Budapest for a couple of days to take care of some business concerns, because there is no way in Abaddon I could have slipped out without him knowing I was gone. Jim, stop leaning so hard on me. The bushes aren’t evil. Ysolde is just seeing things.”
    “I’m sure it’s just the moon going behind the clouds,” May said after giving the shrub in question a considering look.
    “Hmm.” I looked at my own watch. Twelve minutes to go. “Is Gabriel away from home, as well, May?”
    She smiled. “Home as in his house in Australia? No, we’re still here in London until a few things are taken care of.” She gave her twin an odd look, but Cyrene, sitting on the ground with her back to a tree, was too busy sending a text message to notice.
    “Actually, I meant is he gone from your London house, so that you could help me out with this project.”
    “Oh, no. He’s in England.”
    I raised my eyebrows. “Did you have to go into the shadow world to sneak out?”
    “I didn’t sneak out.” Her smile widened. “Gabriel’s here. Well, in Reevesbury, not out here with us, obviously.”
    Both Aisling and I gawked at her.
    “He’s right here?” Aisling asked.
    “That Gabe’s a deep one,” Jim