“Liz?” It’s George again.
“I thought you left.”
“I did, and I set up the press conference—ninety minutes from now. But there’s a very persistent person on the phone. He insists you’ll want to talk to him.” He taps the phone. “I’ve muted the line, because it’s a little strange. He insists he was your boyfriend.”
It has to be Gideon. “Hang up on him.”
“The thing is,” George says, “the United States President called me. This Gideon person is his new Secretary of Defense. He says this is urgent. He told me not to hang up, even if you told me to.” George bites his lip.
I think I’m giving him an ulcer. “Fine.” I hold out my hand for the phone.
I forbid it, Azar says. That’s the man who killed you and me. Right?
I laugh. “You don’t even remember him and you hate him.”
“Gideon’s not usually bad,” Sammy says. “He’s just having a few bad months.”
You’ll hear every word, I tell Azar. I have to see what he wants.
Why would he tell anyone he was your boyfriend?
I think he still believes you’ve mind-controlled me into liking you. I sigh. I’ll just see what the United States wants and get off the line.
I hold out my hand, and George puts the receiver into it. “Hello?” I can’t help sounding a little droll.
“Liz?” Yep, definitely Gideon.
“That’s me,” I say. “Brainwashed valkyrie whore of the red-demon dragon Azar, at your service.”
“I’m sorry for trying to ambush you.”
“And for killing me and Azar? Are you going to apologize for that next?”
“Look, we have a lot to talk about, but?—”
“Actually,” I say. “We have nothing to talk about. You and I? Our days of talking things through are over.”
He sighs. “I’m calling as the Secretary?—”
“Of defense,” I say. “I heard. Or should I say, I heard, your royal majesty?” I snort. “I hope you’re happy with it. Looks like you’ve come a long way in just a few months.”
“No,” Gideon says. “Liz, just listen.”
“Only if you promise to call me a valkyrie whore. Titles are important, you know?”
“Twenty million people have already evacuated from Canada to the United States. We aren’t sure how many more are alive.”
“What?”
“We thought you were attacking Canada, but the Australian Prime Minister insists it’s not the dragons who call themselves the blessed. He says these are different dragons, dragons that escaped from a volcano in Iceland.”
“Dragons I released,” I say. “It was the only way to recover their heart—the heart that keeps the dragons alive was keeping the vanir trapped in that volcano, so yeah. That’s true.”
“He said he watched you and Azar destroy fifty or sixty of them as if it was nothing earlier today.”
“That’s also true,” I say. “And Azar’s older, nastier brother?—”
“Hyperion?” Gideon asks.
