“To him, they’re worse than ants or mosquitoes,” I say. “Thunar sees his younger brothers and their prophecy as a threat, and when he got here, he didn’t like me much, either.”
“You’re just alive because you shoved the heart into your chest,” Coral says. She sneaks out from behind the edge of the wall connecting our main room to the hallway.
“So were you all listening in?” I lift both eyebrows.
Jade slinks out, biting her lip. “We weren’t listening in. We can already do that with our bonds, you know. We wanted to see you and make sure you’re alright, now that you have a big old rock stuck in your body.”
“It’s a pretty big rock, too,” Coral says. “It’s cool you did that, but also kind of weird. Does it hurt?”
About five seconds later, like she was waiting until she made sure no one was in danger of being eaten, Fluff Dog shoots around the corner, her fluffy tail flying straight back behind her, barking up a storm.
“You’re a little late to defend me.” I crouch down and she rockets upward into my arms. As I pet her little body, I’m aware that there’s nothing she can help. There’s no situation that’s better now that she’s here, but my brain disagrees for some reason. Petting her makes me feel better. I pivot on my heel. “We’re bonded to you. Are we like your dogs? Do we calm you down for no good reason?”
Hyperion snorts from where he’s sitting, just past the porch.
Asteria, who was apparently also lurking around the corner, laughs, and it’s a silvery sound that I can hear echoed in my brain as well. Dragon communication is peculiar.
But Gordon’s guffaw is about the strangest sound ever.
“Are you laughing?” I scowl at him as he finally slithers around the corner.
He has bigger legs now, but he almost never uses them, preferring to move like a serpent. Gordon can’t shrug very well, thanks to his squatty legs and serpentine body. Even so, when he tilts his head a bit and his tiny legs bunch up, I get the idea.
“I’m actually serious about this. Do you look at us like I look at this little dog?” I’m still petting her, and it has helped my anxiety level quite a lot.
“Yeah,” Coral asks, pinning Hyperion with a baleful glare. “Am I a dog to you? Is that how you think of me?”
I sense that yes is the wrong answer. Hyperion sounds nervous, which is strange. But you care for that small creature, though you could easily destroy it. It brings you joy, based on how you feel when it is near, and you do things to protect it, things that otherwise make no sense.
Yep, we’re dogs to the dragons.
The Australian Prime Minister approaches, Asteria says.
He wanted to bond a flame blessed, but with Azar and Hyperion both taken, he settled for a strike blessed. I had Asteria summon him the moment Thunar seemed to calm down for a moment.
“That was pretty fast,” I say.
Not nearly fast enough, Asteria says. Hess will get a talking to. He should be much quicker when summoned by his princess. Sometimes I forget she’s a strike blessed princess. Unlike her nasty sister Ocharta, she doesn’t wield her position like a blade.
Once good old George, the Prime Minister, lands nearby, I don’t waste any time. “You heard there’s a new player—an older brother of the flame blessed princes, and he’s not much of an ally to them or to the rest of us.”
George slides down from Hess’s back, and when he reaches the ground, his shoulders droop. “That’s not good.”
“We’ve reached a sort of ceasefire, at least for now,” I say. “But only after he nearly destroyed Hyperion and Azar. Everyone seems to think that if push comes to shove, our two boys would die.”
I didn’t say that, Azar says.
But no one else comments.
“The good news is that Thunar’s daddy is more powerful and he wouldn’t love our boys dying,” I say. “But he’s not here, so anything could happen if we aren’t careful.”
George has begun to pace. With my siblings, Gordon, and Azar all inside, Hyperion, Asteria, and now Hess just on the other side of our porch, there’s not much room for any quality pacing. When I see him looking around for Hess, needing the visual reassurance from his own bonded, I know he’s at least as nervous as I am. “Do we need to evacuate this area?” He’s doing something strange with his fingers, like tapping them all against his thumb in turn, over and over.
“It might not be a bad idea,” I say. “Though I think Thunar’s more intent on wresting control from his brothers than he is about harming humans. Even so. . .”
Now George is blinking. “I’m the one who pushed for this. What will they all say?”
“There’s another thing,” I say. “Along with Thunar, there are another, oh. . .” I cough. “Ten thousand or so dragons who have come to earth.” I scrunch my nose. “And they all need humans, too.”
