Alone again, Natalie closed her eyes and allowed her thoughts to run free. They sped like wildfire from heartbreaking sorrow to mind-numbing rage and back again. She felt as if her blood was on fire, so hot it might burn her to ash where she stood. When her eyes flew open the irises were filled with white fire, spilling onto her tear-soaked cheeks. In a silent explosion her blond ponytail burst into flame, flaring as bright as the sun.

There was too much heat inside her, too much fire; she had to put it somewhere. There was a different feel to her power, an outlet, something unknown to her, a place she could put that energy safely, so she concentrated as hard as she could until–

–with a sound like shredding paper, massive scaly wings tore from either side of her spine, stretching out ten feet to a wing, jet black, a contrast to the pure white of the flame.

Natalie doubled over, panting in excruciating pain, mentally and physically exhausted from the strain of growing she didn’t know she had. Long moments passed while she waited nervously for one of her friends to come outside and ask what all the noise was about. Thankfully no one came, and gradually the pain subsided.

As soon as she had her breath back, she turned her mind to the new muscles that were calling out to her, the ones that controlled her wings, and started pumping them up and down as hard as she could. While slow going at first, she quickly got it down. It was like flapping your arms, just a little further back.

Pushing with a feverish intensity Natalie was soon gaining altitude, rising straight as an arrow into the sky above Nathan and Tyler’s porch. Alerting them of these new developments never even crossed her mind.

No destination in mind, Natalie turned west and leveled out, pushing herself forward instead of up. It was much easier and involved less flapping, and she was able to let her mind drift a little.

It’s really no surprise that she ended up flying straight to Nostalgia. When she arrived, a hundred feet in the air, she paused and hovered, a little unsure about actually seeing the spot where her best friend died. Her head told her it was too soon; it would be too upsetting. Her heart said “forget that, you want to see this, need to see this.” Her heart won.

Natalie tucked her wings in and dropped like a stone, only flaring them out at the last second to check her speed. Even so she landed a little hard, dropping to one knee before falling back on her butt. Climbing back to her feet, she was shocked and gladdened to see Aaron standing right there, looking more than a little shocked himself.

Due to the late hour the coffee shop was closed, and there were no nosy pedestrians around to check out the chick with dragon wings.

“Hey,” Aaron finally said. “Um, are those new?”

“Yeah. How come you haven’t been answering my calls?”

“Had my phone off. Didn’t want to talk to anyone.”

“I can understand that.”

They were silent for a few minutes, their thoughts running along the same dark path.

“So this is where he died?” Natalie finally asked emotionlessly.

“Yeah.”

“Will you tell me the details?” Aaron started shaking his head. Natalie pushed on. “Please, I need to know. Please.”

Aaron was quiet so long that Natalie thought he wasn’t going to tell her, but eventually he did. He told her everything. Gave her a description of the girl who did it, the details he had given the cops and their pet crime scene artist. Told her what he could about the girl’s power, which was mainly conjecture. Here Natalie interrupted, saying she would tell the rest of their friends because that was a pretty important thing for them to know. Aaron just nodded absentmindedly at that.

He told her in a choked voice how helpless he had felt about not being able to save Jak, and once the deed had been done, his inability to make her pay for her actions. Natalie agreed with that desire fervently.

Aaron told her with rage in his eyes that he wanted to kill the girl who had done it. Natalie thought for a moment, and then told him that she thought she knew how to do it.