BEEP BEEP BEEP! Ugh that sound was boring into my brain. Red lights flashed, illuminating the hallway in a bleak hue as emergency lights led the way down the hall like an airplane runway. Caedmon peeped and covered his ears with his paws, shutting his eyes tightly. Quickly Rihanna and I raced for the closet and she pulled it open, grabbing two gas masks and one for Caedmon. I slipped on my own gas mask hurriedly, inhaling shakily as the alarms thrummed through my entire body. Then I quickly slipped Caedmon’s gas mask onto his little muzzle. He peeped and shook his head, obviously hating it. I stuck him in my jacket, zipping it up as I raced after Rihanna to join the others who were shuffling down the packed hall on their way out.

I got out just behind a big electric dragon who was taking up the whole hallway. I groaned. We would be in big trouble for evacuating so slowly and it was all this.. wait.. that was Avery’s dragon. I would have thought she would be smart enough not to go this way. What was she doing in here anyway? I went on my tiptoes as we shuffled forwards, trying to see if Avery was around and sure enough I saw a flash of her bleached hair as it swished from a savage turn of her head. From the looks of it, she was telling off a guy next to her, telling him to shut up, though her voice sounded funny through the mask.

After what seemed like centuries, we finally made it out the door into the frigid Alaskan air. My throat burned from the first inhale and Caedmon pulled his head back inside from peeking out my jacket. He made me look like I had serious man boobs by the way he was hanging out just below my collar bone.

“Attention!” The General barked, his word puffing smoke into the air and for a second I thought he was Mardu. But then I realized he wasn’t glowing like a fairy and I knew it was the human. “You call that an evacuation? In that time, the enemy could have eaten a happy meal, filled the place with gas, and blown the dang place up!” he yelled. “All of you should be dead right now!”

We all looked at the lightning dragoness who shifted her weight and glared back at us.

“And by the end of the day, you’ll be wishing you were dead!” The General continued, spraying saliva on the third rank as he walked through the crowd standing at attention. “Everyone’s going to be shoveling the snow off the driveway down to the treeline.”

That was almost a mile long! My eyes got huge.

“Well what are you staring for! Go go go!” He yelled and everyone shuffled to the driveway with muffled groans.

I didn’t have gloves, and before ten minutes passed my knuckles were white and fingertips blue. This wasn’t training. This was child abuse! I remember all the times when I was little and didn’t like my foster home. I would call the hotline for child abuse and cry that they were mean to me and locked me in my room for days, when I only was given a time-out. I guess it was my own fault for never being adopted. But boy, did I wish I could do that right now, I thought bitterly as I plowed through the snow with grit teeth. Caedmon didn’t like all the jostling and I could tell by the way he wiggled in my jacket, but at least he was a heater.

After twenty minutes of mindless work suddenly I felt a burn on my ears, a sunburn sort of burn and knew who it was. Mardu. I turned to see the beautiful light dragon padding over the snow and not leaving a single footprint. His wings shuffled at his sides as he curved his neck to look down at me. “You are needed, now, in the office.” He said bluntly.

I looked at the two guys next to me wildly. “Me?” I echoed, gulping.

“You, Justin. Now.” Mardu said in his angelic tone, finned tail swishing over the snow and bonking some kids but they didn’t even notice. Perks of being an invisible Patronus I guess.

“Yes sir,” I mumbled, putting my shovel away. A mix of emotions swirled inside me. I wanted to get out of this freezing weather but at the same time I did not want to see General Landin. As soon as I opened the door I exhaled as the warm air surrounded my body and made my cheeks flush further. After unzipping my coat I ventured further, to General Landin’s office, wondering why on earth he would want me.

I walked in and saw him sitting there with his sunglasses and heavy brows, looking like he wanted to jump across the desk, grab me by the collar, and fling me to the ceiling like an angry Captain America. Instead he pointed to the chair.

I sat down in it slowly as Caedmon crawled down into my lap, curling up in it and licking my thumb with a blue tongue, hiding from the General. I didn’t look him in the eyes.. or sunglasses or whatever. I was still too angry at him.

“I thought you were a smarter kid than this,” he said in a deadly voice. “Now we’re going to do this either the hard way or the easy way. You tell us the truth or you are in serious trouble.”

“The truth? About what?” The first thing I thought of was when the nurses took off Caedmon’s wristband.

“Don’t play stupid.” He said, indents appearing on his jaw as he clenched his teeth. I could feel the burn pricking the hairs on the back of my neck as Mardu walked up behind me and I saw his hands settle on either side of my chair.

A cold sweat started to form on my forehead and I pulled Caedmon close to my chest. My imagination started to run wild. I imagined Mardu growing Wolverine claws and plunging them into my chest then saying. “Stab first, ask questions later, bub.”

“Justin!” General Landin’s harsh voice snapped me out of my head.

Caedmon peeped and dug his head into my shirt, his talons digging into my shirt to cling to me. “The nurse did it.” I blurted. “I didn’t tell her to do.”

General Landin started to laugh. The sort of laugh a ganster gives before he shoots you in the head. “Let me get this straight.. you are blaming it on the nurses?”

“Yes?” I peeped, shrinking in my chair. “I swear I didn’t take it off myself.”

“Take what?” Mardu frowned, before he looked at his human double. General Landin tapped his lower lip before he sighed and took off his glasses. “You’re the only one who could have done it. The door was locked, the safe was locked. But in a span of thirty minutes while you students were ponderously leaving the building like a bunch of elderly turtles, it was gone.” He ran his hand through his hair.

“Do what?” I asked hoarsely.

“Take it! Did you take my files from my personal safe?” General Landin’s lower lip started to quiver slightly as if he were a baby I took a lollipop from. He stood up so fast his chair teetered backwards and a bead of sweat could be seen from the light emanating from Mardu. On either side of me, Mardu’s hands clenched the chair. I could basically smell the tension rising.

Caedmon started to cry, his body shivering and tail curling tight around himself.

“I-I swear I didn’t take it,” I said. “You could s-see me in the security cameras. I was in line the whole time..b-behind Avery’s dragon.” I said before showing the glowsticks on my arm. “And this wouldn’t have allowed me to do anything..” Then my eyes widened when I saw the glowsticks were completely dull. I could have shadow-walked all day…

He also glared at the glowsticks. “Liar.” He said. “You give the files back to me and for the four years you live here you are going to have one of these on.” He said, opening his desk and pulling out one with a murderous frown on his face.

“Please. I didn’t do it and those burn. They burn my skin,” I said hiding my wrist. Suddenly he snatched at me and I gasped as he started to press the glowstick onto my wrist.

Suddenly everything went black. The light on the ceiling sputtered off, leaving Mardu as the only light source as darkness pulled me away, as if it were trying to hide me under it’s wings. I screamed as I felt Mardu clamp his hand on my shoulder, the light emanating from him keeping me from turning to shadow, but still… I was slipping.

And then it stopped. I was in the corner of the room, my back to the wall and my legs splayed in front of me. Caedmon was on top of my head, hissing angrily, his back arched like an angry cat. He puffed up his tiny crest and his wings as he watched them closely.

“It was the dragon,” Mardu said firmly. “Just as I thought.”

“Caedmon? Caedmon wouldn’t-“ I managed. Caedmon wasn’t that powerful was he? I looked up to see the light was broken on the ceiling, as well as the lamp. How on earth had my little buddy managed that?

“Under your orders of course,” General Landin agreed, staring at me like I was a circus tiger that had bitten his hand.

“You have no evidence that it was me or Caedmon,” I said in a measured voice. “You’re making Caedmon upset.”

“Who else would it be. You have a record for stealing and breaking into things for fun, especially when it’s none of your business.” He said. “And you’ve shown yourself capable of creeping into places with shut doors. You probably felt bitter after your punishment and wanted to get back at me. Wrong idea.”

It did sound pretty obvious… but it wasn’t me. “It wasn’t me. How can I prove this to you?” I asked desperately as I slowly got to my feet.

“Find out who did.” Mardu said solemnly.

I shivered as I walked out of the office. Find out who did. Right. “It’s time for Detective Justin and Cade the Shade,” I said, laughing nervously.

Caedmon slapped my cheek with a stubby paw.

“Okay yeah.. I guess I deserved that,” I sighed and stuck my hands in my pockets as I started walking down the hall. For the first few hours I lamely asked people if they snuck into General Landin’s office. Which of course they said no. Then I started snooping, peeking around in people’s lockers. I found some weird magazines, magna comics, jewelry, girl stuff, scale shine, and lots of letters from home. Just as I was pulling out a pink headband to look under it, Rihanna grabbed me by the back of my collar. “What are you doing snooping around my stuff,” She growled. Her fat forest dragon growled too, narrowing his eyes. Caedmon stuck out his blue tongue at the other dragon.

“I’m looking for.. some files..” I laughed nervously and suddenly slipped into the shadows once more to escape her.

“JUSTIN!” Rihanna yelled, grabbing her headband from mid-air. “You are IN SO MUCH trouble!”

Yeah. Like I wasn’t already. I crept along the floor, before reforming in the hallway, heading for dinner. I felt like my heard was restrained by duct tape and it took a lotta energy to pump because it was making a dull thud in my chest. My hands were gross and sweaty and I shivered involuntarily. If I didn’t find out who did this, I would be forced to wear that glow band for four years. I was pretty sure that if I wore it that long my hand would fall off at the very least. And I wouldn’t be able to protect myself by shadow walking either.

Caedmon felt my emotions and he sniffled as he nuzzled my jaw, licking my chin with his tickly, warm tongue.

I sighed as I stood in line and got my spaghetti and sauce as well as breadsticks from the grumpy lunch ladies before walking over to sit by my friends. “Emmit I’m in so much trouble,” I said as I saw him open his mouth to greet me.

“Why, what’s wrong?” Song asked as she took a bite of her breadstick.

I groaned and ran a hand through my thick black hair. Caedmon whined and wrapped his paws around me.

“Rihanna’s ticked off at him,” Merman said, shaking his head. “Caught him rummaging through her stuff. What were you thinking, Justin. You may have made up with Avery but I don’t think Rihanna’s going to forgive you, ever.”

At any other time I would have slapped him for saying I made it up with Avery but this time I just shook my head weakly. “No. The General thinks that while everyone was evacuating, I told Caedmon to go and steal the files from his stupid safe.” At this point pretty much everyon’s jaw dropped. “And he threatened to make me wear these things for four years!” I said, showing them the dull glow stick on my wrist.

“Did you?” Song asked me.

“Oh man, did anyone see you while you were evacuating? Maybe they could tell him, testify that you were right there.” Merman suggested.

“You are in huge trouble,” Dustin said helpfully.

Brandon just ate his pizza.

I addressed Song’s question first. “No!” I said a bit more harshly then I meant then I groaned. “I was there the whole time and… Rihanna was right beside me.”

“But Rihanna ain’t gonna help you now,” Dustin said wisely as he twirled his fork in the spaghetti.

“Thanks for the optimism, Dustin,” I sighed as Merman patted my back in condolence. “But they did give me a chance,” I sighed. “I just got to find who really did it.”

“Oh,” Merman said, realizing. Song put her head in her hand. Either I was over-reacting, paranoid, or just freaked out but I felt like Song didn’t believe me. And for some reason that really hurt.

“Well the first people I would suspect are the metal-heads,” Dustin said after I explained the whole predicament. “But if you get caught rummaging through their stuff you’ll be dead.”

“Anyone in particular?” I asked, rubbing the back of my neck and not noticing that Caedmon was licking my spaghetti sauce instead of his dragon kibble.

Dustin glared at this one girl with steely grey eyes and curly brown hair. “Margaret.”

Merman sighed. “Dustin, just because she dumped you last year doesn’t mean she’s evil, dude.” Merman said, casting a sarcastic sideglance at me.

This was getting me absolutely nowhere. I suddenly felt not so hungry and set down my breadstick with a heavy sigh.

“Hey, I’ll check around my swim team,” Merman told me, patting my back. “We’ll figure this out. You have a deadline?” he asked.

“Yeah. By Saturday.” I said, looking down.

“Well at least you have tomorrow. Get a good night sleep.” Merman advised. “Then tomorrow we’ll face this head on.”

“Thanks,” I smiled weakly at him. I knew he probably couldn’t help much, but it was nice to have someone on my side. I looked back at my plate to find Caedmon grinning goofily up at me, spaghetti sauce all over his muzzle. That’s  when I realized how much he had grown in the last few weeks. He used to fit in my hand, now he was the size of a cat. I couldn’t help but laugh at him. “Look at you, the ferocious little Caed.”

Caedmon puffed out his chest and gave a happy chirping sort of sound. I could imagine him saying ‘we can do this!’

“Yes we can!” I whisper and run a hand down his little crest.

“You really love him don’t you,” Song said softly as she watched us. I looked up at her and I swore I could see sadness in her beautiful blue eyes, an almost wistful sadness.

“Yeah, I really do,” I said in a whisper, somehow feeling if I said it too loud it would make Song crack.

She suddenly tore her eyes away from us and looked down working her lower lip between her Colgate white teeth. I studied her expression for a moment more before pulling back. “You guys freeze out there?” I asked, desperate to change the topic.

“It was freezing!” Merman exclaimed loudly. “My poor Larissa.. I had to go back inside because she’s a tropical dragon. She couldn’t hang out there.”

“You two were lucky,” Dustin said as he crept closer to Song, trying to be slick about it but he just looked like an inchworm inching his butt closer to her. “Song and I had to stick it out the whole time,” he said before laughing a little. “But we played a major prank on the General.”

I perked up. I never heard of anyone having the guts to prank him.

“After thirty minutes we realized there was no way we were going to get this done,” Dustin whispered as he leaned over the table. I could tell he was trying not to burst out laughing. “So all the fire Riders, even the blue fire ones got their dragons to flame on the snow.” He snorted. “The inspector came out and took one look at it and said we were good.” He shook his head, little snorts of laughter escaping him. “It’s frozen over now and the ice is an inch thick! Anyone going for a drive through there is in for a nasty surprise.”

Song scowled. “I had no part in that decision,” she said firmly.

“But you promised not to tell!” Dustin reminded her firmly.

Brandon continued to eat his pizza, offering his sand dragon a bite.

Song just shrugged. “Yeah whatever.” She mumbled as she got up to go and throw away the rest of her spaghetti.

“She better not tell,” Dustin mumbled as he got up.

I would have laughed but somehow I just didn’t have it in me. I stood up slowly, letting Caedmon crawl onto my shoulder, before picking up the rest of my uneaten food.

After a few hours of looking around aimlessly in the game room and the gym, I walked numbly to the barracks and undressed to my long johns before sliding under the sheets with a heavy sigh. Caedmon peeped and I could feel his little paws press onto me as he crawled onto me before he curled up on my back.

“I’m sorry buddy. Today was a scary day,” I sighed as I blinked my glowing purple eyes, exhausted. Slowly I reached my hand under the pillow to support my head.

That’s when I felt something a bit hard. I frown and grabbed it. It was long and thin. Then I pulled it out from under my bed, sitting up so fast that Caedmon tumbled off me with a squeak. Paper spilled everywhere from my sudden grab and I gasped as I saw a yellow folder filled with papers with coded lettering. Landin, Robert at the top in bold lettering.