Certainty thudded in his chest, like the locks turning in a cell door.
He turned to her, his expression grim. “This doesn’t change anything. It’s more reason for me to go. I have to find out what happened. If the Soul-Eater is behind this.”
“This wasn’t him. It was us.”
Disbelief surged inside him. He held it back. She couldn’t mean—
He’d trusted her.
She shook her head. “I mean—it wasn’t him; it was shifters. Modern shifters. A-a man who took Maggie’s uncle captive and kept the eggs as hostages to keep him in line.” The words tumbled out half on top of one another, but she swallowed and kept going. “He had Julian’s family killed. They were the only other ones left. Her uncle, Julian, he was going back there. That’s where we were following him when the birds attacked us. But he’s the only one.”
“No.” The word was barely a whisper. “No. They’re meant to call. Why didn’t they call for help?”
“They might not have had time.”
He shook his head. None of this could be real. She had to be mistaken. “No one can find the dragons’ fortress. It’s magically shielded—”
“We know how to use dragon magic to see through their shields. The man who killed them figured that out.”
He stared at her. His throat was too tight to speak. Even if he could, what would he say?
And as he stared, the kraken rose up inside him, honing itself into something small enough to look out through his weak human eyes.
“Take Maggie and go,” he pleaded.
“What? But—”
The little dragonling appeared over her shoulder as though summoned by her name. “Pree-pree? Pree-pree?”
Carol winced as tiny claws pricked her skin. “No—Maggie, this isn’t a great time—what do you mean,go? Go where? We’re stuck—”
“Pree!” Maggie’s spines flared up excitedly. She nipped at Carol’s face, trying to get her attention. “Ee-oooo!”
“Maggie,no, I can’t right now.”
“Pree!”
“I’m sorry, Moss, I should have told you earlier—”
Her words barely registered, and when they did, he felt nauseous. Tell him earlier? He should have toldher.
And now it was too late. It was all too late.
“If the dragons are gone… If the fortress is undefended—if the prison isn’t under guard…”
The words rolled off his tongue like a curse. And the kraken heard them. Ice emanated from its coiling limbs, a judgement that would destroy the world.
“Moss—” Carol was reaching towards him.
“Pree!” Maggie demanded.
And somewhere far away, thethwup-thwup-thwupof a helicopter’s blades broke through to put a final line through their stolen time together.
He inhaled, nostrils flaring, ocean senses stretching out—and understood what Maggie had been so excited to tell them.
Carol hissed in a breath. “That’s—”
“Preeoo-aooo!” Fuzzy images of Lance MacInnis and the blonde-haired white woman who must be Keeley—his mate—danced in Moss’s mind. He groaned, pushing them aside. Maggie’s happiness was a soap bubble of fizzy delight.
