She knew that too well.
But she’d never been left holding a weight like Moss was carrying. Her own burdens were nothing compared to what he was going through. She’d twisted herself into pieces over something as small as her looks, while his fate closed around him like a cage.
She was ashamed of herself.
*Carol?*
She looked up. Moss was frowning at her. *Everything okay?*
*You’re asking if I’m okay?!*She made an agitated gesture. On the other side of the cabin, Lance’s attention flicked towardsthem. Which meant he was already watching them; he’d just decided to make it obvious. *I’m—I’m…*
Their headsets crackled. “Coming in to land,” the pilot said.
The nearest land to the island where they’d washed up was New Zealand. As they approached the mainland, Lance explained that he’d secured a base on the South Island, on a peninsula that jutted out along one side of a medium-sized city.
Moss snorted gently. *Used to think Dunedin was the big smoke,*he said when Carol glanced at him. *Medium-sized city might be pushing it, coming from anywhere else in the world.*
The “base” Lance had mentioned looked more like a luxury lodge, with multiple outbuildings and a pool complex. It was perched on craggy cliffs on the ocean side of the peninsula, surrounded by windswept trees and low shrubs.
Moss squeezed her fingers as they descended. His eyes were shadowed with exhaustion, but there was a light in them that had been missing before.
*Stopping off at home before the end of the world,*he said, his voice a half-wry, half-fond murmur in her head. *Even my octopus couldn’t have managed a trick like this.*
The doors to the main building swung open as they landed, and Keeley ran out.
Good,she thought absently as she dismounted from the helicopter.She’ll hug Lance and fuss over Maggie, and while they’re busy, I’ll talk to Moss.
When Keeley wrapped her arms around her, all the breath left her lungs.
“You’re safe!” Keeley blurted out. “All of you! Maggie—”
The little dragonling shrieked and bounded from Lance’s shoulder onto Carol’s, her front half winding around Keeley’s neck in a dragon-hug. That was fine. She could unhook Maggie’s back claws and let Keeley hold on to her and make sure for herself that the baby dragon was okay, and—and—
Keeley wasn’t letting her go.
“Um?” she mumbled.
“I thought you were dead.Again.I thought—when you fell out of the plane—” She covered her mouth with both hands as though if she didn’t say it, it wouldn’t frighten her as much.
She was shaking. Keeley was shaking. Because she’d thought Carol was dead.
I didn’t think…
At the very back of her mind, her shark stirred, a slash of white in the murk, and cold sweat broke out on her skin.
“Everything’s fine. Maggie wasn’t hurt. She’s going to be scared of the ocean forever, I think, but she wasn’t injured. The eggs aren’t damaged, and I can sense that they’re still—still the same as they were. They didn’t hatch. But they’re still okay. Everyone’s okay.”
Except Moss, who looked like a man facing his own death. The cold on her skin dug inward, towards her bones.
The need to talk to him was a physical hurt, a hook in her chest that would kill her if she didn’t get it out.
“Keeley…” she began, awkwardly.
Lance gave her a searching look and touched his mate’s arm. “I think she’d appreciate some space,” he said gently.
Keeley let her go. Maggie slithered off with her, coiling around Keeley’s neck like a shimmering scarf. The same way she’d clung to Carol during the storm.
Maggie considered Keeley to be part of her hoard, and the closest thing she had to a parent. And the hug had been awkward and unexpected. So why did Carol feel a pang as Keeley stepped away, and Maggie with her?
