“Oh.” The mirrored scales caught the light and sparkled. “I’m not anything. I don’t get into anything.”
He glanced around the room, which was very empty. There was a trash can with cans of food, a single plate, and a spoon. Running water was the only other thing present. Everything was gray, monochromatic, and stark.
It was vaguely horrifying. Who made anyone live like this? It was like prison, but with less character.
“If you stay here, you’ll die.” Surely this guy understood that. It wasn’t like it was rocket science.
Or brain surgery.
The little dragon nodded. “That is what they told me. It seems to be taking a very long time, but I assume when the food is out and there’s no more coming. It’s almost gone, so it should all go faster now. I’ve been scared. I suppose a braver dragon would have eaten it all up very fast and then starved, but… I decided to make it last as long as I could. I sort of liked being alive.”
Okay, this was all kinds of fucked up.
“What’s your name, little one?” he asked, because Talon felt like calling this itty-bitty dragon by name might help.
“Mercury.”
“Right. So, look, Mercury. You’re not dead. And I am not, emphatically not, gonna let you starve to death. So. Let’s get your rescue on. We can fly to the mainland, but then we have to travel like humans, so we’ll go to a hotel and I’ll introduce you to pizza or hamburgers.”
“What’s your name?” Those bruised-looking violet eyes watched him with a deep curiosity mixed with wariness.
“Talon.”
“Of course it is. You have a very warrior name.”
“I do. My twin is named Triton. We’re both very manly.” He looked for blankets or towels. Something to wrap around Mercury to keep him warm once they went out the window.
“Can we take it off?”
Talon glanced over, confused. “Yes.”
He wasn’t sure what Mercury was talking about, but it didn’t really matter. Whatever it was, they could take it off.
Mercury lifted his chin, exposing a magic dampener that had obviously been there for…he couldn’t even imagine how long. It was loose now, but he could see where, at some point, it had dug into Mercury’s neck like a dog’s collar that had been too tight.
“Yes, we can absolutely take it off.”
They’d come across those fucking things so many damn times in their rescues, and every time it infuriated him. If you weren’t strong enough to keep an omega happy as you were, then stealing their magic so that you can control them seemed like the worst cowardly thing ever.
“This is going to hurt,” he warned, and Mercury shrugged.
“Lots of things do.”
Not if he could help it. Not anymore. He thought it might be an incredible goal, in fact, to make it where everything didn’t hurt.
“Okay, trust me, I’m gonna be as fast as I can.” He didn’t monologue anymore; he just grabbed the collar, started pulling, and overloaded it with a rush of magic.
Sparks flew, and the light that was in the lighthouse popped, the glass shattering.
Okay, then.
That was fun except he wasn’t sure Mercury was still with him, and he had blisters all over his hand.
He glanced around, trying to adjust his eyes to the darkness, and then he saw Mercury—this tiny human-sized dragon who was so mirrored and so smooth that he could see himself totally in Mercury’s wings and on his chest. Everything was simply a reflection.
He blinked, kind of stunned to see himself so clearly, especially in the gloom. It was very unnerving.
“Are you okay?” he asked, trying to gauge whether or not he needed to convince the little guy to shift back to human. Honestly, Mercury was small enough that Talon could carry him fairly easily in dragon form.
