One tentacle curled out to wrap around the shoulders of one of the women he’d set down on the ground, and she reached up to stroke it. Francine didn’t recognize her, and it was hard to make out her features behind her cold weather gear, but her eyes were … strange. A glossy gray-black all the way across, with no whites. A shark’s eyes.
And when she smiled, her teeth were a shark’s teeth.
She must be the kraken’s mate,Francine thought, and then wished she hadn’t thought it, because her chest hurt so much.
“Moss, you planning on staying like that?” Lance called to the kraken.
*Too bloody cold to shift back, mate. I’m not convinced I brought my clothes with me this time.*
The kraken Julian had been too wary to call for help was here. And he was joking around as though they were all old friends. Francine couldn’t breathe.
Then a flurry of gold launched itself from behind Lance’s back and landed on her chest. A tiny dragon, the size of a small house cat, with shining golden scales and a tail that whipped back and forth.
Bright eyes stared quizzically into hers. “Preep?”
Francine swallowed. “This is—you’re—Julian’s niece. The hatchling.”
“Preep!”
“That’s right,” said Lance warily.
She raised her head. “The fortress is under attack—”
“We know. We’ve been tracking Eloise Fairchild and her associates.”
Behind him, the kraken’s tentacles twisted protectively around the shifter woman.
Francine kept talking. “She got here first, but she’s not the only one. There are other ships—”
“We’ve already dealt with them.”
She stared. “Dealt with them?”
Sunlight glinted on metallic wings, and with a thunder like a thousand knives screaming against one another, a flock of the strangest shifters Francine had ever seen landed in a circle around them.
“What on earth…” she breathed.
“The world’s got a lot weirder since the last time I saw you,” Mathis joked. He reached her at last and grabbed her in a hug before she could get away.
Her lioness rose up to bump foreheads with his lion.
“A lot has changed since then,” she forced out.
“I know.” He let her go, but not far. Keeping her at arm’s length, she thought uncharitably, then with a lump in her throat, changed her mind. Keeping her close enough to hold on to.
Was that too much to hope for?
“So the shadow dragon’s in there. That’s his story. What are you doing out here, Frankie?”
A warm golden snout nuzzled under her hood. “Trying to save the world,” she admitted.
“Any luck so far?”
She looked down at the dragon clinging to her jacket.
Another shadow dragon. One who could shield her as she ventured back into the fortress. Even if Julian was already gone.
Was she monstrous enough to bring a child in there with her?
