The Last Silvermaw Hunter

Chapter 2

The sound of my brother's car pulling into the driveway dragged me back to the present. I took one last look at my new identity before I hurried back to my room and closed the door, locking it behind me, hoping my brother wouldn't bust it down again.

The house alarm went off, since I turned it back on when I got back. "Adorite?" my brother's voice echoed through the house. Making me jump, because of the silence I was used to.

My brother's steps could be heard from a mile away by the way he was stomping on the stairs. He stopped outside my door and hesitated before he knocked. "Adorite? Are you okay?" he asked.

"I don't know any more, Sander, I just don't know." I said, placing my back on the door and sliding down to the floor.

"It's okay," he said, the sound of him sliding down to the floor following the statement, "everything's going to be okay."

I pulled my legs up to my chest and laid my head between my knees. I thought for a while about whether I should bring up the letter and decided it would be better if I did. "I got a letter today." I sighed, "It was from a school, Klapeth, Academy Of Spells, I think." I paused and waited for my brother to respond.

"Did you happen to gain any new...," he paused, trying to find the right word for what had happened to me, "changes?"

I swallowed, "Yeah," I replied, my voice just barely above a whisper, "I did."

"Is that why we're talking through the door?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Are you scared about my reaction?"

"Yeah. I am."

He sighed. "You do know I would never hurt you, in any way, right?"

"Of course I know that, but it's just..."

"Open the door, Adorite." His voice left no room for arguing. Sighing, I stood up and opened the door. My brother apparently didn't get up in time, so when the door opened he fell backwards and hit his head on the floor, hard enough that you could hear the thunk!

I took a few steps back, keeping my wings tightly folded. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head. Grunting, he got up on his feet and turned to me. I heard him suck in a breath. I couldn't tell what his face looked like because my gaze was to the floor.

He took a step towards me, and I took one back. I didn't want to hurt him, and I didn't want anyone near me. We did this a couple of times until he got the message. He backed up a step, and I heard the rustling of feathers.

I looked up in surprise, I almost couldn't process what . . . no, who, was standing in front of me. His hair was brighter than before, and his eyes...his eyes were just like mine, but on his back were wings the polar opposite of mine, they were so white that they nearly blinded me.

"I know everything that you think," my brother said, taking a step closer. I stumbled back, my wings flaring out, helping me keep my balance, "I always know when you're almost home. I know when you're thinking of leaving for good. I know everything."

"You're telepathic." I said with wide eyes. "How is that possible? That's physically impossible."

"It's really not, Adorite." He said, taking a step towards me. "Do you remember when our mother used to tell us stories about the Dragon Queen, or the King of the Night?"

"Yes, the Dragon Queen was about a demi-god finding out about her heritage, and how she found out that she had the power to shift into any animal she wanted. The only reason she got her throne was because her great-great-great-great-great grandfather fell in love with a dragon shifter, which was against her clan's rules, so they ran away together and made a new clan. They changed the rules so that if a dragon fell in love with a human, and they had nowhere else to go, they would always find a way to that clan, which was protected so that if a person wished harm or wished to disband the clan, they would never find it, no matter how hard they tried." I said. The first one was the most memorable for me. Our mother told it to us every night, and after she left Sander used to tell it to me so that I could fall back asleep, whenever I had a nightmare.

"Do you ever wonder why you were given the power of shadow and light? Do you ever wonder why we would always go to the roof every night, just to look at the sky? Why we were always drawn to the night?" he said, walking past me and sitting down on the window seat, motioning with his hand for me to sit next to him. "It was because of our father. He didn't leave us for some other woman. It wasn't because he couldn't stay here with us, it was because he was a god...He was the God of Night."

I just sat there trying to get it all sorted out. It was hard, but I got through it, my brother just waited for me, patiently waiting, like always. "Is that why when I lose control, I don't regain all of it until the sun is gone and the moon is up in the sky? It's because of our father?"

"Yes, Aroie." He said, using the nickname he gave me after mother left, "That's why we have a connection with the night. That's why you were given your powers, it was a gift, a gift from our father. That's why Mother rarely talked about our dad, it was because of the anger and shame she felt, from falling in love with him."

He paused, giving me more time to let this soak in. "That's why we are the last of our kind..." he paused, thinking, then confessed, "well you are the last of our kind."

I wasn't looking at him anymore. I stared at the floor beneath my feet, my breath coming at a fast pace, my heart going even faster.

My brother, noticing something wasn't right, slid closer and started to hum a song. I don't remember what it was, but it always brought me back from that dark place.

We sat there for so long, I lost track of time. At some point, I fell asleep on Sanders' shoulder. And for once in my life, I didn't get pulled into nightmares.