(Content warning: mentions of conversion camp!)

  The next morning, nice and early, the pale fingers of dawnlight breaking over the edges of the Arena and Council Hall isnds, I fp my way to the grand hall I’d arrived in with Aurexiar when I’d first come here. The gold dragon is waiting for me, her tail curled around her cws as she stretches nguorously.

  “Ah, good. You’re earlier than I’d expected. I know you hatchlings like to ze abed of a morning! Come, let me send you on your way. You’ll pop out right about where we travelled from, so it won’t be hard for you to make it back to your parents’ house. Take care, little one. And don’t forget, you have three days before I come to find you!”

  She waves a cw, and a shimmering, swirling blue portal rips open, a hole in space that hangs there, big enough for me to fly through, wings fully-spread. I bow, unfurling one of my wings in a draconic salute, then throw myself through the gateway…

  … Cold, thick fog surrounds me as I burst into the pollutant-den air of Earth, my wings beating as I right myself, hanging there in the pre-dawn light. The human world stretches on beneath me for miles, but somehow, it feels… smaller. Or maybe I’ve grown as a person.

  It doesn’t take long to track down my neighbourhood, and I power downwards, heading for the huge national park I used to py with my powers in, back before I was cimed by Aurexiar as one of the Winterwings. Landing in the clearing, I shift back to human, and tug my hoodie on, utterly unfazed by the early chill in the air.

  Sneaking out through the gates towards the suburbs, I make my way through familiar streets, pausing for a few moments, right at the spot I’d fought the Twin-Head. There’s no trace of the damage we’d inflicted on the tarmac, or the burst water-main that Niko had used to cover the evidence.

  I smile. “I bet I could take you on properly this time, you dumb monster…”

  Jogging on through the side-streets, I take a left, then two more rights, heading up my home street, and reach into my pocket for the keys. Then, reconsidering, I let them stay in my pocket and reach for the doorbell.

  “It’s a little early, but… eh. I’m sure they’ll forgive me!”

  Ding-ding-dong!

  The sound of feet coming down the hallway reaches my ears more easily than they used to, my hearing having improved thanks to my dragon heritage, and the door creaks open slowly.

  “Steve, you do know you can put the paper THROUGH the letterbox, right-?”

  My dad stands there, blinking, as I smile up at him.

  “Hi, dad. I got given some time off from my training, so I decided to stop by!”

  Frowning and blinking, as if trying to tell if I’m really here, or just a phantom produced by a combination of ‘too-early-for-this-shit’ and a ck of coffee, my dad finally mumbles, “Rika? Sweetpea, am I dreaming, or did you forget your keys before you left?”

  I smile and step in to hug him.

  “Nope, I’m really here, you’re not dreaming, and no, I didn’t forget my keys. I just wanted to be polite.”

  The sound of more feet coming down the stairs interrupts the hug my dad returns, and Philippa’s familiar mop of purple hair hoves into view.

  “Is the mailman here? I wanna see if he’s got my… RIKA?!”

  Suddenly attacked from both sides, I ugh with joy as my second-oldest sister throws herself at me, hugging with all the ferocity she’s got. Then, Niko’s bck-cd figure barrels down and joins in, almost crushing dad between three young women. Then, a THIRD set of arms engage Hug_babysis.exe as Tricia, the third-oldest of us four sisters, glomps as much of me as she can reach.

  While I’m trying and failing to fend off the sudden tidal-wave of affection from my sisters, a dog starts barking nearby. Then another, until what seems like half the neighbourhood is baying at full volume.

  Then, it becomes all too clear what’s causing the canine chaos. I can hear it, too, a strange, high-pitched noise that sounds a lot like…

  “Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

  I poke Niko’s side. “Guys, I think she’s broken. Can we switch her off and then on again?”

  Philippa giggles, “You should have seen her the first few days after you left! She was like a puppy missing her owner!”

  Niko shoots a huffy look at her younger sister, and buries my face in her chest in a renewed hug.

  “Shut… up. She’s… cute. I love her… just as much… as you!”

  A final set of feet meet the top of the stairs, descending towards us as my mom’s voice calls, “Derek, who is it? What’s all the commotion-?”

  She halts, three steps from the bottom, staring right at me.

  “You…”

  I smile, a little awkward. “Hi, mom. I’ve got a three-day break from training; I thought I’d check in on you guys.”

  My mom takes those st three steps to the ground floor, staring at me.

  “You look… well. Stronger. Have you… learned how to control…” she struggles to say the word ‘your’.

  “The powers?”

  I nod. “Oh yeah. Still not finished, but I’m making serious progress!”

  I shuffle the group of sisters-and-dad through the door and use my butt to shut it, as Philippa teasingly tugs a strand of my naturally-dyed hair.

  “Who did your highlights? Do dragons even HAVE salons?”

  I shake my head, whisking my hair out of her fingers.

  “Nooo, dummy! It’s natural. My hair started taking the blue-white tips on as I used my powers. It’s just a part of it.”

  As they all back up a few feet, I shift, my glittering white scales forming round my cheeks, hips, over my back and along my arms and legs. My tail extends, curling and flicking, as my legs alter into their reverse-jointed stance.

  My wings sprout, furled close to my spine, as I hold up my hands.

  “Index fingers!”

  I focus, letting the indicated nails elongate into cws.

  “Middle, ring, pinkie, and… thumbs!”

  One by one, the talons snick into pce, and my hair becomes the frosted blue-white shards of ice, as my horns erupt from the sides of my forehead.

  My mom’s expression is unreadable, but my dad and sisters are admiring, with Tricia gently running her fingers along the scales on my left forearm. “Whoa… they’re so smooth…”

  I grin. “Wanna try stabbing me? If I focus, not even my teacher’s cws can punch through very easily!”

  Mom begins to open her mouth to protest, as Philippa runs into the kitchen, coming back with a sharp carving knife. “Here!”

  Dad looks uncomfortable with the idea of one of his daughters assaulting another, but my confident expression helps him to stay calm.

  Holding my arm out, I wait, as Tricia raises the sharp, gleaming steel, before she brings it down with a sharp smming motion.

  Ping!

  The tip of the bde snaps off and goes chiming across the floor, skittering over the linoleum. Tricia gawps, as Philippa cackles, Niko’s eyes examining my scales for any sign of damage. I show them that I haven’t even a single mark on me.

  “See? Not a scratch!”

  Mom’s eyes are weirdly shiny, and she even gives me an awkward hug, patting my back between my wings as if she’s not really sure what to do with her hands, before wandering off to get her phone, busily making herself scarce, as my sisters barrage me with questions about my training, questions about what the Drakeblooded Cities are like, and especially if I’ve made any friends.

  I tell them as much as I’m willing to risk, and then… I start to talk about Skadi. My three sisters all listen, two of them starting to smirk, as I try not to blush at their insinuations. My dad is looking a little bit rueful, as if comprehending that he should’ve realised that I’m most definitely a lesbian.

  Mom wanders back into the kitchen about an hour ter. “Come on, girls, Derek. Have you finished packing? I’ve managed to amend the reservations.”

  I blink as dad clears his throat.

  “Ah, yes… we’d booked a trip for this week, Rika. We weren’t expecting you to come back, but, since it’s only a couple of days, you should be able to make your return trip in time. So, come on, go get yourself a bag and grab some essentials!”

  I smile as Niko pushes me towards the stairs. “Go. Go. Go. Go.” She chants, her bck hair swishing as she vertically-encourages me. I’d almost forgotten how strong she is, even compared to Skadi or Jekk!

  About twenty minutes ter, I scamper down the stairs to the family van, a big six-seater 2018 Vauxhall, as mom pulls me into the middle front-passenger seat, next to dad’s driving seat.

  My sisters pile into the back seats, and then mom buckles herself in, the automatic locks sealing us in as she starts giving directions.

  “Okay, head to the main road, and follow the A280-00, following the left ne towards Hoxton.”

  Dad follows her directions, and the three girls in the back seat are gushing over my presence, making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, as the road disappears behind us. We move on, past the next leg of the trip, our van trembling as I wistfully lean back into the pleather seat, my body fully human right now, and wondering where this trip is going to take us.

  The sun’s well past its zenith, with us not even stopping for lunch, eating in the car as mom keeps directing, as she scrolls through the online map she’s carefully reading from, keeping her phone close to her chest. The streets are becoming more and more free of buildings, long, empty stretches between service stations or hotels.

  Something’s starting to feel a little… off about this. Mom’s weirdly excited about this secret destination she’s been pnning for us, and then, when the van stops at a fork, Philippa screams.

  “STOP THE VAN, DAD!”

  Dad sms the brakes on, and we all whirl to look at my purple-haired thunder-goddess of a second-oldest sister. She lunges over the back of the front seat, reaching for mom with frantic hands as she goes for the cellphone in mom’s white-knuckled hands.

  “She’s not taking us to a hotel or anything; she’s got a map open, with directions to a fucking CONVERSION CAMP!”

  Mom’s face registers shock as she splutters. “Wh-what? No I’m not! How would you even know that???”

  Philippa spits, her hair starting to rise in a subatomic electric field that manifests around her as an almost stinging aura, “Because I’M NOT STUPID, MOM! I researched what it means to be transgender, and in my reading, I found out about conversion therapy!”

  Dad blinks, his brows starting to knit in budding anger.

  “Julia, is this true…?”

  Niko draws her little knife, holding it beside her palm ominously. “No-one… Hurts… Baby sis…. Not… Even you… mom.”

  Faced with rebellion, mom… doubles down.

  “I don’t know what he’s done to you all, but Rick needs to be fixed! He’s… gone wrong, somehow! I want my SON back, and I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get him BACK to normal and de-powered! Once we get him to stop wanting to py pretend-girl, we can remove those unnatural powers and find who’s MEANT to have them!”

  She reaches for the wheel, trying to take control and force dad to relinquish the brakes, before I swallow. “Dad, I’m sorry about this… really.”

  A fsh of understanding lights his eyes, and he nods. “Go loud, sweetheart. I love you.”

  With a flicker of scales, I shift one arm and ssh my seatbelt to shreds, before lunging, my horns sprouting in as I headbutt the windshield out, gss cascading out into the road, mom’s cry of shock ringing out.

  Vaulting out onto the bonnet, I turn, my tail zipping out from my spine, and mom’s eyes widen in horror. In the rear-view mirror, I can see that my eyes have changed for the first time. They’re pitch-bck, with bzing, ice-blue, slitted, vertical pupils.

  I snarl, my wings tearing the air as they snap out of my back.

  “You… I might be a half-dragon shifter, but YOU… are a monster. HOW DARE you call yourself my ‘mother’? You’ve lost that right. You’re just the woman whose eggs spawned me... If I never see you again in my hundreds of years of life, it’ll be too soon. You tried to take me to Hell, all because you can’t accept that I’m trans. That I’m a girl, and I always have been, it’s just visible now…and yet, what do you think Aurexiar would do when she came looking for me? You’d be lucky not to be turned inside-out, especially when the REST of the Drakeblooded Cities’ council heard about it. You have NO idea how much more powerful than me they are. I’m stronger, faster, and tougher than you, and THEY make me look like an ant. ”

  I spring upwards, beating my wings as my footcws gouge ribbons of paint and metal from the hood of my dad’s van, my sisters cheering me on as I bolt upwards, a shriek of defied fury following me. With a mighty inhale, I bst a wave of freezing air back down behind me, a sudden, mid-July snowstorm forming as I turn, letting out an unmistakably draconic cry of savage triumph, before soaring back the way my family and the woman who’d been my egg-donor came…