Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
BEX AND PETER were scared.
They heard the crowd before they even left the car. The subway wasn't safe anymore (as if it ever was) so Happy had insisted on driving them to the school. They couldn't stomach more than a bite of cereal or scrambled eggs at breakfast. Their minds and appetites were plagued by the possibilities of what could greet them when they returned to Midtown High for their senior year.
The voices of reporters, protestors, and fanatics made the teens' stomachs screw up. It was like there wasn't enough air to breathe in and calm down as they exited the car. On either side of them, were the expected masses, only divided by a metal fence. A simple metal fence. It only took one impassioned individual to leap over it and invade the walkway provided for them.
MJ and Ned waited for them in a tiny huddle at the base of the walkway. Their facial expressions were reluctant and fatigued. For someone so snarky and unapologetically abrupt, it hurt Bex's heart to see her girlfriend keep her head ducked low. Both the girls' fears began to dissipate as soon as their hands found each other.
"There's a blockade up the road," MJ informed, lifting her phone for Peter and Bex to see. Sure enough, a picture of cop cars and officers created an obstacle in traffic to redirect the flow of every vehicle except for school buses. Even Betty Brant had whipped out her microphone and camera to broadcast the momentous morning.
"Jeez, they're really taking this seriously," Ned muttered nervously.
"It's almost as if all these precautions are just drawing more people here," MJ added wryly, tucking her phone away. "They might as well put safety lights on you guys."
"With a siren," added Bex glumly.
Ned frowned, counting only two of his WANTED friends. "Is Thea not coming?" His question was nearly drowned out by the fervor of the crowds.
"She said she was but—"
At that second, a great, rippling shadow fell atop them, accompanied by a familiar cry. A gust of wind blew off a few ball caps and made poster boards flutter. The sound of beating wings had every camera and pair of eyes drawn to the sky where Rhaegon the Black Shadow soared through the endless blue. Several meters above was Vissera the Winged Fury, a mere circling glint of gold and green.
People began to trample each other for pictures, screaming in frustration or awe. Rhaegon descended with Theadora Valaryen on his back, his last few wingbeats making the trees edging the football field rustle madly. He could've crushed the turf his claws landed on as he released a powerful, ground-trembling roar. Everybody stared at the magnificent creature and his baby-faced rider, utterly cowed. A few stumbled back as the dragon prowled closer and clambered across the field.
"So much for keeping our heads down," Bex remarked to an entranced Peter.
The plan was to get through the day without raising her eyes because it was the way Theadora lived her entire life. Her silver hair was proudly loose in waves and perhaps the gold rings around her pupils glowed. She was decked out in House Valaryen colors with no intention of subtly, wearing a black turtleneck and dark plaid trousers. Her deep red coat matched her Converse, fluttering slightly in the wind as she climbed off Rhaegon's wing. Even as she walked down, she was like some alien from a different universe, something so otherworldly and shockingly different than a human girl.
