One previously unknown limitation of being stuck on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean?
There was nowhere to hide when you’d just embarrassed yourself more than you thought humanly possible.
It wasn’t enough that she’d literally thrown herself at Moss and munched on his face instead of kissing him normally. Oh no. Then she had to go and throw a pity party so that Moss—the guy she’dbitten on the mouth—went and felt sorry forher.
Worst of all, she’d gotten perilously close to revealing the truth about herself.
Revealing one terrible betrayal would have been enough, surely. She didn’t need to go on and almost tell him about Eloise.
Cold gripped her. For one brief moment, she thought her shark was rising to the surface inside her—but one mental glance behind her put paid to that idea. It was nowhere in sight.
As usual.
But it gave her an idea. There was one way she could get some time to let all her embarrassment boil off. Somewhere she would have privacy even inside her own head.
She found Moss down by the spring, refilling one of the more waterproof kelp bags. Her stomach lurched slightly at the sight. How long did he expect them to be stuck here?
Better to be a prepared pessimist than an optimist proved wrong,she thought. Maggie jumped down off her shoulder and scampered over to the spring, eyeing the kelp bag with the calculating expression of a tiny dragon who wanted to test how good her claws were at puncturing things.
“Ready for breakfast?” Moss asked. “Hope you’re not sick of mussels. If you are, though, I was thinking of trying something with the seaweed. I’ve got a reputation to uphold, you know. Wouldn’t look good if we got rescued and it got out I hadn’t invented some cutting-edge new survivalist dish.”
“Sounds good,” she said, and he laughed.
“I wouldn’t go that far. But we’ll see.” He watched her with careful eyes. “How are you this morning?”
It took all her effort to smile. This was exactly what she didn’t want. The wariness. The softly-softly, don’t-talk-too-loud-around-her-or-she’ll break approach.
Okay, so shemightbreak, but that didn’t make it any better.
“Fine,” she said breezily. “No sign of anyone this morning?”
“Blue skies and empty horizons,” Moss confirmed solemnly. His thoughts nudged hers. *I’m starting to get worried. I know, I know, best to wait for rescue, but… No ships at all? No planes overhead? It’s…*
*Worrying?*She bent and tickled Maggie. *I was thinking. I want to try swimming in my shark form again. If I can figure out where we are, or if we’re close enough to Lance and the others to reach them—I know it’s a long shot, but…*
*But it’s better than doing nothing? I think that’s a great idea. One problem.*
They both looked down at Maggie.
*While she’s napping,*Carol suggested.
*She naps? Where was that yesterday?*
“Yesterday was too exciting. She got attacked by the ocean, had to savemefrom the ocean, and breathed fire for the first time,” Carol said out loud. Maggie looked up at her inquisitively, stretching out a casual claw to prod at her mouth. “Today is going to beveryboring.”
Only a few hours later, Moss stared down at a sleeping dragon.
“I can’t believe that worked.”
“She’s only a baby. It’s easy to forget that. Her dragon side can do so much. But somewhere in there is a little human infant who just wants to eat and sleep and burp, and not worry about any of that other stuff.”
Moss’s eyebrows shot up. “Maggie’s human side? I can’t imagineanyside to her that isn’t constantly energetic and full of… her-ness. So. Huh. What do I do if she does shift?”
“She won’t,” she reassured him. “She doesn’t like being in human form. We don’t know how dragon ages work, because they’re in the egg for so long, but Keeley says she looks three or four months old in human form. So given a choice between being a human who can maybe roll over and a dragon who can leap and fly and bite things…”
“She’ll choose the one that can shoot flame?”
“Exactly.”
