The dragon set her chin on her paws and flicked her tail in disappointment. Want the shiny.
Of that, Tate had no doubt. The shiny, as Ilith called it, had been all Ilith could talk about since the moment she saw it.
Tate chose to ignore the sulky dragon, concentrating on those below. She needed to wait for the exact right moment to make her move.
Dragons weren’t the patient sort. They were creatures of the moment, fueled by passion and their own convoluted thinking.
Tate wasn’t much of a planner herself, but even she was able to foresee what a bad idea some of Ilith’s impulses were.
It was her fate to act as the balance to Ilith’s impulsive nature. Sometimes she was more successful than others.
As it was, Ilith’s impatience beat at her, sparking a concern that if Tate waited much longer, Ilith would take matters into her own paws.
Any plans Tate had wouldn’t make a difference then.
Movement below distracted Tate from Ilith’s brewing frustration as the scruffier of the two dragons found a spot in the garden to lay down. Fair haired and sporting a beard, the man was the easier going of the two. He threaded his hands behind his head and tilted his face toward the sun with a small smile.
This was it. The opening Tate had been waiting for.
She stopped resisting Ilith, dropping the barriers she constantly kept in place between the two of them.
The barriers were a necessary precaution to preserve both their minds. Without them, Ilith and Tate would blend together, making it impossible to know where one ended and the other began. That way lay madness.
Ilith surged to the forefront as energy built within Tate. Her skin prickled as a sensation that was both pain and pleasure took over.
Before she could do more than initiate the change, a small fuzzy creature shot out from one of the hedges. It dashed across the gravel, snagging the bag of gems off the table and sprinting down another hedge-lined path.
The shock of the unexpected theft jarred Tate out of the change. She stared open mouthed after the creature.
That little jerk.
As if the theft was a signal, children darted out from their hiding places in the hedges, fleeing in the wake of the thief.
My shinies!Ilith wailed.
Tate cursed, standing from her hiding spot and racing along the roof edge. One of the thief’s cohorts spotted Tate and gave her a chipper wave.
Dewdrop. She should have known he was the instigator as soon as Willa made off with the bag.
“Traitor!” Tate yelled.
Dewdrop ran backwards for several steps. “You shouldn’t have waited.”
Ilith grumbled in agreement.
Tate sputtered. How was she supposed to know Dewdrop and his band of troublemakers would pick that exact moment to strike?
Though she supposed it wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility. Most of those in Dewdrop’s crew were dragon-ridden like Ilith. Although they were children, they had the same instincts—the same attraction to shiny objects. It stood to reason they’d be as invested in liberating the gems as Ilith and Tate.
It was the use of the Veles that threw Tate off her game. Until recently, she’d referred to them as bearcats because they looked like a cross between a barbed tail cat and a sunbear.
Willa was the daughter of one of Tate’s best friends. She’d babysat Willa and her twin Pax on more than one occasion, fought for food with them. You’d think a bond like that meant Willa would think twice about stabbing Tate in the back.
Maybe it would have if Dewdrop wasn’t also the best friend of Willa’s father.
“I need better friends.” Tate approached the edge of the roof at a sprint. One thing was clear—
she was going to get back those gems. Best friends or not.
