The Dragon Ember

Chapter One: Lana

I sat in my chair, legs curled in the seat under a soft woven blanket, pretending to do homework while also trying not to look like I was listening in to the conversation on the other side of the office doors behind me. Obviously, I was failing since Reed was practically boring a hole into my skull with her eyes, a wry smile on her face. She sat in a high back wing chair opposite me with a soft forest print. It was our favorite chair in the house, one where we both loved to sit and look out of the floor to ceiling windows of the living room into the beautiful Maine wilderness beyond. It was always a contest to see which of us could get to the chair first. Reed would always let me win on bad days, always seeming to have something she "forgot" to do on the way. As if.

Not today, though, today I had plans. I was finally going to ask mom for permission to get my driver's license. She was not going to escape me this time, and Reed certainly wasn't going to stop me. It didn't hurt that the couch I sat on was also close enough that I could just barely make out some of what mom was talking about.

"The market in Spain is definitely worth looking into." I heard my mother tap at some keys on her computer. "The numbers are all there."

"I just... don't think that we're ready for that yet." Said another voice. Another business partner. I never got the chance to learn the names or remember many of the faces. They were always in and out in an afternoon if they even came to the house at all. I put my laptop on the side table and huddled my legs up to my chest. I sat my chin on one of my knees, staring blankly at the cloudy woods and the stream that ran through our property. Mom always seems to be gone on one of her business trips. Vetting potential partners, or scoping out office spaces. She always seemed to have something that would take her away.

I stared down at the polished wood floor and clenched my teeth. Not today. Today mom was going to listen to me.

Mom's voice filtered through the office doors again, drawing me back out of my thoughts. "...Cordova, then. We'll start..." I didn't hear much more after that, but moments later I heard laughter and pleasantries, plans to book flights and hotels, and soon the doors were clicked open.

Reed leaped to her feet just as I jumped up from the couch, blanket spilling out on the floor. Her eyes were darting between mother and me. She shook her head slowly.

I stuck my tongue out at her and flashed a wolfish smile. "Hey, mom! Can I ask you something?"

Mom's brilliant eyes flashed towards me warningly, then gave her "business associate" a genial smile and a stiff handshake. "I'll meet you out there, and then we can talk more."

"Of course, Mis Chasseur. I will, of course, take care of the arrangements." He inclined his head graciously and then gave Reed and me a small wave before he stepped out of the living room and down the hall to the carport.

Mom's genial smile slowly slid away into her always somehow disapprovingly blank face. If I tilted my head just right, it looked placid, almost friendly, but to me, it always looked like she was sizing me up for something. Always a great quality to have in a mother.

"Reed, I thought you were going to stop giving her secret driving lessons." She raised an eyebrow.

Reed shrugged her shoulders. "She's as obstinate as you are, Terrie."

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, I'm sixteen, almost seventeen. I drive better than any of the kids in my class. You already have a car waiting for me in the..."

"Oh, and who told you that the Mazda was your car?" She shot another glance at Reed, who seemed to shrink back in the room, even as she tried to shrug off the gaze.

She managed a non-committal smile. "I'm honestly surprised she didn't find out sooner."

I shot Reed one of my own trademark mom looks. Sooner, my ass. Doesn't take a genius to know that the only car that hasn't been driven in months, but worked on for those same months, was supposed to be mine. Mom was far too paranoid to trust anything as mundane as a warranty. "Nobody told me, Mom." I sighed. "Just let me take the test, then we can all just stop pretending that there isn't a car in the garage that has a passcode lock."