Wings of Honor: Bad Moon Rising

Chapter 15: Overt

Winter's words had an instant effect on the other dragonets.
He's right. Kinkajou realized. How — what —
Turtle was as unreadable as ever, but even he shifted on his talons and gave Moon a curious frown.
Worst of all was Qibli, his mind was definitely not helping.
How did she know? She couldn't have done this, none of them— could they? Moon's a dragon with secrets, and Thorn said not to trust the NightWings — but why would she? I know I haven't figured her out yet, but I don't see violence in her. And yet, how did she know? How did that other Nightwing know? But if she set the fire, why would she try to stop us from going in? But surely she wouldn't — she couldn't have — I can't even believe I'm thinking this — "You didn't — sorry, but — you didn't have anything to do with —" He started.
"No!" Moon cried. "Of course not!" She brushed away tears, trying to keep her voice steady. Trying not to think about Carnelian. Or how everything was now falling apart. "I would never hurt anyone."
I only pursed my lips.
"I know." Qibli said, but not convincingly. She was better at hunting than anyone expected. There is strength beneath those scales. In the right circumstances, wouldn't any dragon be capable of hurting another? Even her? But why?
"If you didn't do it, then do you know who did?" Turtle asked. I realized he hadn't spoken since the blast. He didn't move from his spot at the wall until he came chasing after us. He looked shaken, but not broken. Moon wished she knew what he was thinking, I did too. Did he suspect her, too?
"Or maybe you saw something?" Kinkajou suggested hopefully. Turning to me, then Moon. "Something that warned you?"
That might work. I heard Darkstalker's voice. At least two of them want to believe that; start with that lie and build from there.
I don't want to tell them any lies, Moon pointed out. Even ones they want to believe.
I gave her a respectful nod, but she didn't notice. She pressed her front claws together, feeling a wrenching fear all through her chest. Her mother was echoing through her head: Never never tell anyone about your curse. Never let anyone find out. It will be the end of everything.
"There's only one explanation." Winter hissed through his teeth, looking down his snout at her. "You did this. You set that fire. I don't know why yet, but I will find out."
"No! She diddnt." I found myself saying.
"And what about you NightWing?" He suddenly whirled around to face me. I heard the click of Marvin's pistol. "You were there. Maybe it was you!"
I tried to keep looking him in the eye, but... all his hostility. The other explanation was there, hovering at the edge of his mind, but he couldn't bring himself to believe it yet. He'd been so sure — so sure — that the NightWings were lying about their powers all along.
"I swear I didn't." Moon pleaded. She spread her wings helplessly. "Please believe me."
"Moon diddnt set that fire. Neither did I-" I buckled down when Winter's intense gaze returned onto me.
"Can't you tell us how you knew?" Kinkajou pleaded.
I looked to Moon. This was her responsibility, this was her choice. She couldn't speak. It felt as if there were claws clamped around her throat, as though her worst fear was trying to choke her so she wouldn't reveal her secrets.
Winter stared at her for a long minute, and then he lashed his tail, spikes clattering against the stubby pillars dotting the floor. "I will give you one chance, NightWings. You have until midnight tomorrow to tell me the truth — or I'm going to tell everyone what you did." He took a step toward her and she flinched back. "I knew NightWings couldn't be trusted, but I was starting to think maybe you were different. Clearly I was wrong." He stalked out of the cave.
Moon buried her face in her talons, shaking. Kinkajou reached for her hesitantly. The doubt in Kinkajou's mind — of all dragons — made Moon want to disappear completely. I felt a familiar sorrow emanating from her.
I don't understand. Qibli was thinking, and that was evidently an unfamiliar and uncomfortable experience for him. His brain kept circling all the possibilities ... including the truth, but he kept shying away from it. But I knew it wouldn't be long before he came to it, though.
Someone else beat him to the punch.
"Three moons." Turtle said. Glowing lines lit up along his wings and neck, making him shimmer eerily in the dark cave. He took a deep breath, staring at her with wide eyes. "It was a vision, wasn't it? You can see the future."
Kinkajou gasped. "No way." she whispered.
Admit nothing, Darkstalker advised.
Stay secret, stay hidden, stay safe! Her mother's mantra echoed in her head.
But there didn't seem to be any chance of that anymore. I closed my eyes, taking a breath.
"It was me. I saw it." I stepped forward, instantly wishing I could take it all back. I heard Marvin suck air. Moon looked up at me with teary eyes.
"What?" Kinkajou cried. "You! What else have you seen? Anything about me?"
"When did you know?" Qibli asked, taking a step back, away from me and towards Moon. But all those powers are supposed to be gone! So who's lying to us — the prophecy dragonets, the NightWings, or her? Or all of them? "About the explosion — how long did you know without telling anyone?"
"I just saw it... right before, like minutes before." I said. "It was right before class — sometimes they come months before anything happens, sometimes only a few minutes. I don't know.... It's not like it's very reliable or helpful."
"But it is!" Kinkajou said, bewildered. Monkeys and mangoes, I'd love to be able to see the future! "You saved us."
Maybe she could have saved the others, too. Qibli thought, if she'd told us it was a vision. If we'd known what was going to happen, we could have stopped them. If she'd told us imediently — if we'd known about her power beforehand —
She's the dragon I saw in the Prey Center. She's hiding. Not just her powers. Could I have done the same?
Moon saw Carnelian in his head, tangled up in his guilt that she should have tried harder to stop her from going in. But she didn't have to worry anymore. I took a deep breath
"Would you have believed me?" I asked him. "If a random NightWing walked up to you and told you they had a vision of the future?"
"I would have." Kinkajou said, wounded. Both me and Moon realized with a wrench of guilt that that was true.
"Who else knows you can do this?" Qibli asked. "Can all the NightWings see the future?"
"We don't think so." I tried shaking my head, wincing in a sharp pain running through my neck and back.
You're still dripping blood Grace.
I shook myself. "But from what I've read, I'm not the only one." I looked at Moon, she shied away. I meant Darkstalker Moon, don't worry. Your secret is safe with me.
Before she could gasp, Turtle talked over her. "Is that it?" Turtle asked. "Or is there anything else we should know?" He inhaled sharply, looking suddenly more awake than he ever did. "Can you read our minds?"
Marvin also held his breath, but let me decide. Kinkajou and Qibli stared at me with their eyes wide.
This is the last moment they'll like me, if they liked me at all. This is how I lose them.
Somehow, Moon felt as though she was standing at the edge of a precipice, with howling winds below her waiting to smash her into the mountains, or dash her to pieces on jagged rocks. All of her mother's great fears, the whole parade of nightmares she'd been watching her entire life, went marching through her head: dragons shunning her, dragons screaming at her, dragons setting her on fire, dragons locking her up and forcing her to use her powers for them ... but mostly dragons hating her, everybody hating her forever. But I could also hear what her friends were thinking.
Qibli: Won't she just lie to us? How can I trust her? I don't know this NightWing. How will I ever know if she's lying?
And Kinkajou: The dragon who wanted to be her best friend: I believe in her. She'll tell us the truth.
How could I be the deceitful NightWing Winter thought Moon was, how everyone thought of NightWings, when we had the choice to be the dragon Kinkajou saw?
"Yes." I confessed. I hung my head. "I can read your minds." There was a collective gasp. "But I can control it! I don't do it to hurt you guys, I just want to learn more about you. Marvin's friends."
Marvin's friends? Is she hearing my thoughts right now? Qibli wondered. He clearly saw the answer in my expression, because he took another step back, troubled. What has she heard? The pace of his thoughts, incredibly, sped up, as he seemed to flash through all the possible things she might have seen. All my plans to get other dragons to like me? My nightmares about my family? My thoughts about Moon? How many embarrassing — she must know — I can't — has she been laughing at me this whole time?
"N-no! You're an amazing dragon Qibli. And... it's mutual."
He grabbed his head, as if he was trying to keep his thoughts inside, and then flared his wings. What if I accidentally think about one of Thorn's secrets, or one of the hidden dens of the Outclaws?
Secrets I couldn't understand started spilling through his head.
Or what if she hears some of the terrible things I think about other dragons? Who would ever like me if they knew what I thought about everyone? "Talons and tails," he mumbled. "This is not OK. I have to get out of here."
"Qibli, wait!"
He turned and bolted through the cave entrance, Marvin dogged out of the way, he disappearing beyond the torchlight.
But I don't understand. Moon thought, half to herself and half to Darkstalker. He never thought anything more terrible than any other dragon. He's more interesting and kinder and more insightful on the inside than almost anyone else I've met.
He doesn't know that. Darkstalker pointed out. He's never seen inside anyone else, the way you have. After a few years of reading minds, you'll see — it's often the most brilliant dragons who are the most insecure. And the ones who are most afraid of having their minds read — because they think they must have the worst, lowest thoughts of anyone — are nowhere near as bad as the ones who complacently don't care because they assume everyone else is as terrible as they are. Mostly everyone is terrible, by the way.
Marvin nodded slowly in the background.
"I wish you'd told me." Kinkajou said. Her head was spinning also: I thought she was going to a friend, but she was hiding this huge secret from me. And now Carnelian is hurt, and Tamarin is hurt, and someone tried to blow us up, and there are all these grumpy dragons here, and school is nothing like I expected. I wish it was yesterday. I wish none of this had happened. I wish someone who could SEE THE FUTURE had maybe STOPPED ALL OF THIS FROM HAPPENING.
"I'm sorry." I whimpered out. I should've tried harder last night. Maybe I could've saw it last night? I could've stopped it. I could've saved them. I could've... "I'm sorry." I said again. Fighting tears. "I didn't... I didn't want to be insecure all the time here, like Moon." A felt a pang of fear well up from her when I looked at her. "And... it's not really the first thing I tell anybody—"
"Well, it should be!" Kinkajou said, fierce enough to make us both flinch. "If you're going to be in our heads hearing everything, then you should at least warn your friends. And if you're seeing the future, and it's bad, then you really have to tell someone. I don't understand you."
"I... I... didn't want you to hate me." I said softly.
"Well, did you want me to trust you?" Kinkajou demanded. "Because this is the opposite of how to do that." Orange and red were starting to flicker through her scales. Why am I even bothering? She knows what I think. She can hear it all herself. "I have to go check on Tamarin. I need to think. The kind of thinking that's just between me and me." she added sternly. Then she was gone too. Leaving me with Moon, Turtle, and Marvin.
That's what happens. Darkstalker said with a sigh to Moon. But don't worry. They'll come crawling back when they need you.
I don't want them to crawl. Moon thought with a shudder. And now what do I do about Winter? If Qibli and Kinkajou reacted that badly to her — won't he hate me even more than they do? But if I don't tell him something by tomorrow, everyone will think me or her set that fire. That I blew up Carnelian and Bigtail.
That was it, I couldn't take it anymore. I folded my wings around myself, the tears came. I cried. I cried for a while. I felt a small something brush against me, then a larger someone nudged something along my back.
Grace.
When I tried to read whoever was around, I still heard Moon's scrambled mind. Marvin was filled with concern for me. But that familiar buzz was also there. I looked up, staring into Turtle's dark green eyes. He tried lifting me up. I helped, trying to push away the pain and tears.