Jasmine made a motion as if she were zipping her mouth shut. The other two girls did the same.
“Traitor,” I told Juanita as I placed her back on the floor.
She grinned.
I gripped my chest. “Your betrayal wounds me.”
Teddy lifted a finger and looked up at the ceiling. I assumed she was calling someone in her mind when an all-too-familiar roar made the light fixture hanging from the living room tremble.
I gaped back at Teddy. “That’s not?—”
“It most definitely is.” When I didn’t move, she motioned for Javier and Kieren to watch the cooking food.
I followed her with far too much hope in my heart when she led me out our new front door. It was a harder and thicker door than the one my builders had put on our cottage. I stumbled over the tiny step of the threshold and grinned at one of the lirio sitting on our front porch steps when he laughed at me.
Before I made it down the steps, Nalari landed on the small clearing where Hee-haw usually slept. She was here. My Guardian was back. I wasn’t sure how I hadn’t sensed her before when all I felt now was her presence, not only in my mind but also in my soul. Maybe, just as she was able to block our mental connection, there was a way for her to block me entirely. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
She stretched her thick neck, turning her massive head to pierce me with her golden eyes. The yellow and black scales that made up her body gleamed beneath the sun, her tail swishing through the grass and dirt.
She stared at me, waiting for me to do something. For years, she’d been my Guardian while I had tried to be her friend.
With Teddy’s hand in mine, I walked to her slowly, half expecting her to disappear again. Her reptilian eyes took on a wary look I’d never seen on her before. When I reached for her green face, she pushed her head against my chest. A rumble sounded from her throat, and I spread my arms around her huge head to hug her as best as I could.
“I’ve missed you,”I told her.
“I know,”she answered, to my surprise.“I’ve missed you too.”
I patted her between her flaring nostrils.
“Would you like to fly with me?”There was caution in her voice as if she expected me to reject her.“I have much to catch you up on.”
I looked at Teddy, not wanting to leave her or the younglings behind.
“Go.” She gave me an encouraging, almost hopeful smile. “We have more security than we could ever need.”
From behind me, Victoria crashed into my legs. She stoodbefore the fierce dragon she’d never feared and held her tiny hand out toward Nalari’s face.
“I made you an empanada,” Victoria said, offering the food in her hand. “Actually, Mama Teddy made it last night after you went to your cave, but I helped make the dough. Javier said you only eat live animals and raw meat.” She scrunched up her nose. “You can try it if you want to.”
Mama Teddy.I wasn’t certain when Victoria had started calling Teddy that or if the others used it too, but it was who she was to all our younglings.
“Thank you, pequeñita,”Nalari said, using Javier’s term for the girls.
She slowly plucked the food from Victoria’s hand, careful not to graze her with her sharp teeth.
I laughed in disbelief.“You’ve gone soft, Nalari. Wait, did you just speak to Tori?”
“Are you questioning me, Elias?”
White smoke flared from her nostrils, and I let out another disbelieving laugh. Teddy kissed my cheek before taking Victoria’s hand and guiding her back home.
“Have fun,mo elma,”she said from over her shoulder.
Heart racing, I climbed Nalari’s scales and onto her back. My body swayed when she shifted her weight. I looked back at Alastor, who stood on my patio with two of his lirio. Quickly, I searched for the other lirio hidden in the forest around our cottage.
Before I had time to grasp Nalari’s neck, she pitched herself into the air. A straight shot upward that made my stomach drop and heart race with excitement. I leaned into her neck, my thighs hugging her sides tighter. Without warning, she rolled several times in sharp circles. I laughed.
She flared her wings out, makingus coast, before she looped down toward the ground. She glided us over the cottage with a few beats of her wings. From the distance, I saw Teddy carrying Victoria as she and the other younglings waved at us.
