It was almost 3 a.m. when we arrived back at the empty lot at the back of the school. We were just getting ready to slip through the fence when Drew paused.
“Hey wait, guys. Before we go back, what if we all shift? Let’s live a little. Take a little risk.” People were nodding. My dragon purred at the idea. I bit my lip. What if we were spotted? I looked around at the empty lot and the tall warehouse buildings on either side of us. Who would be around to see us?
“Yeah, let’s do it.” I said. Drew grinned.
There were flashes of light as we all began to shift. I stretched my arms back and slipped into my dragon’s skin. When I opened my eyes, everyone else had shifted too. I purred with delight. Nowhere else on earth were there so many mythical creatures in one place. I saw Kylee’s chimera and Penelope’s pegasus. Finally, my eyes settled on Drew’s gryphon. He was an impressive specimen of a lion with an eagle’s head and wings. The dark copper feathers were streaked with blonde. He saw me looking at him and flapped his wings.
The splendor of shifting wore off fast. There wasn’t much we could do in an abandoned city lot. After a few minutes we each changed back into humans. I was the last to come back. Letting go of my dragon was always difficult. Once we were all human again, we laughed. The thrill of the forbidden surged through me. The sound of clicking caught my attention. My heart dropped.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” a whispered voice said. “First the buildings, now this? Are you getting this on camera?”
“Humans,” someone hissed. I turned around to see two women in uniforms standing at the edge of the lot. They both had their phones out, pointed toward us.
“Oh no.” We’d been caught. The women saw us looking at them and started backing up slowly.
“Oh no you don’t,” Penelope said. She threw her hand out and red tendrils of magic raced for the girls. They tried to run, but the magic wrapped around their feet and brought them down.
“What are you doing?” I yelled. I started to race toward the girls, but Drew grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Let me go!”
“Sophie, wait. We can handle this. We’ve handled it before.” I stopped. Drew kept his hand on my arm.
“What do you mean you’ve handled it before?”
“This is not the first time we’ve snuck out. A couple of humans caught us shifting over in Central Park last year.” There had been no reported human run-ins last year. That meant no one had found out. I relaxed a little. “How did you do it?”
“Oh, just a bit of memory magic,” Penelope said. A red ball of magic was already gathering at her fingertips.
“You can make them forget they saw us?” Penelope shrugged.
“More or less. Memory magic is a little finicky. I just make them forget everything. It’s easier that way.”
“What?!” I yelled. The girls were struggling. One of them tried to yell, but Penelope snapped her fingers and the tendrils of red magic wrapped around the girls’ mouths.
“Sophie, hush. Someone will hear you,” Drew snapped. His hold on my arm tightened.
“You guys can’t be serious. You can’t just make them forget everything. All their memories? They won’t know who they are or where they came from or anything.”
Drew shrugged. “So what?” I looked at all the animages around me. They each wore the same apathetic expression Drew had on his face. I shook my arm, but Drew didn’t let go.
“I’m not going to let you do this,” I said. “There’s got to be a better way.”
“What do you think Upholders do when they deal with the humans who have spotted a faerie or seen magic? They just wipe their memories. No harm, no foul,” Penelope said. I couldn’t believe this.
“Penelope, just let them go. We’ll take their phones and make them promise not to tell anyone. Besides, without proof do you think anyone will believe them? No one has to get hurt, no one has to lose their memories.”
Penelope laughed. The sound was dry and grated on my ears.
“Do you really think we’re going to let them go? And risk getting into trouble? Even you would get into trouble if someone knew we’d exposed ourselves, princess.” The wildness of my anger welled up inside my chest. The girls’ distress was singing in my head. They were scared. I wasn’t going to let this happen. I tried to jerk away from Drew again. He pulled both my arms behind my back. He was strong.
“Sophie be sensible. Why do you care, anyway? They’re just humans.” I felt like I had never met this person before. The sweet, gentle Drew that had just kissed me had been replaced by a cold and unfeeling immortal. I wasn’t going to turn into that.
“Drew, let me go now, before you get hurt.” He actually laughed. My dragon growled inside me.
“Sophie, do you really think you can beat me? I’m the strongest there is. You’ve been trying to beat me in class all year and you haven’t yet.” The ball of magic in Penelope’s hands was glowing brighter. She would be done gaining power soon. I looked down at one of the humans. She was staring right at me; her eyes wide with fear.
Heat rushed through my body. My skin glowed with barely contained flames. Drew cursed and let go of one my arms. I tried to run toward Penelope, but he was still hanging on. I twisted and threw a punch that connected with his chin. He let go of me with a yell. With a leap, I was on Penelope, pushing her to the ground. We landed on the hard concrete with
