“I’m really trusting you,” I say.“Because if you told the military this...”
“You came to me because you thought I’dhelp youkeep the creatures who are attacking Earth alive?”
I drop my head back against the car’s head rest.“Listen, I told you it’s more complicated than the media and the government?—”
“Because if you’re thinking I might betray my own country, my own people, just to bond a dragon...”He shakes his head.“I can see why you might think that, since my whole life has been about living in a fantasy world as much as I possibly can...”
My heart sinks.“I understand that you can’t help me,” I say.“But Norm, even if you can’t risk helping us, I have to beg you not to tell?—”
“You’re misunderstanding me, Liz.Let me be clearer:hellyes, I’ll do it,” he says.
“What?”
“You were totally right, if that was what you were thinking, that I’d betray my own country and walk away from my entire life for this chance.”
I’m still just staring at him.I do close my mouth.
“If there’s any chance of me helping those majestic creatures the American military has been bent on destroying, even if I can’t bond them, I willabsolutelydo it.”
That’s why I love Norm.
“And while we’re on the topic of what I’m willing to do, can I just say that the wings are like, level one hundred out of ten amazing, but the rags you’re wearing?”He grimaces.“We havegotto do something about that.”
“I just want a coat,” I say.“Maybe we can cut a blanket so it will go over my wings or something.”
He frowns and blinks at the same time.“Oh, no.Liz—I have a friend who owes me a favor, and she’s awhizwith period clothing.You’re about to get a complete makeover.Anangelicone.”
He’s beaming.
His excitement might be just a little contagious.
7
Axel
Idon’t even know Liz, not really.
Soobviously,I don’t care what happens to her.
The only reason I’m pacing a hole in the ground in the stupid wilderness in the middle of tiny-town USA is that she’s connected to the heart.The blessed need her—without her, we might never find out whether the heart’s buried in the volcano.We may never understand the origin of the demon-creatures swimming around in the angry, boiling hole of a mountain with the ridiculous name.
She’s valuable to our search.
That’s the only reason I’m worried.
Axel, it’s going to take her some time.Agrippa sounds like she really isn’t concerned.She has to convince the humans to help us and then get back to where we are without causing a panic.And she has wings—that’s not normal for humans.
I whip around, my talons churning up piles of dirt and rock as I turn to face her.This is your fault.If you’d told her no, I could have taken her and?—
A truck stopped near her.I hid and watched long enough to see a man hand her his hand-held talking device.You could not have gone without being spotted with your bright golden scales.
Phones,I say.The handheld devices are called phones.You clearly know nothing about the humans.I should have gone.Then I could have determined whether the human in the truck was trustworthy or meant her harm.
You don’t even recall shifting into a human form, Agrippa snaps.
It’s the first time one of my earth blessed has ever snapped at me, that I can remember.Liz is a bad influence on all of you.
She’s teaching us to think for ourselves.Agrippa’s eyes flash, and I realizeshe’sworried about Liz.
