“I see you developed the same attitude as the others,” he murmured.
Others? That one word stunned me into silence.
“You look surprised. Did you think you were the only one? You’re not. There are three others, which I had a hand in hatching,” he stated with proud arrogance.
“You blew up volcanoes on purpose,” I stated in slight disbelief.
“I did. But not just any old dormant cones. Did you know your mother left a riddle with the location of her eggs?”
“That was dumb.” True, but I didn’t mean to blurt it out.
“I think you mean fortuitous for me. Bringing dragons back has long been one of my goals.”
“You have them prisoner, too?”
At my question, Malone scowled. “No. The first to hatch in South America escaped a bunch of incompetents, and by the time I located her, she’d surrounded herself with people, making it impossible for me to grab her.”
Good to know there was a female. It meant my kind could reproduce.
“The second one, Abaddon”—his lip curled as he said the name—“was in my grasp. A sleek black fire-breathing male that would have been worth so much… Only my business partner betrayed me.”
“Betrayed you how?” I couldn’t help but be curious.
“He aligned himself with the creature. Even signed over all his wealth. Instead of caging the dragon, he and the beast made me a prisoner.”
This was getting juicy. “Why did they keep you instead of killing you?” Could it be this other dragon lacked our usual killing instinct? That would help when I needed to take him out to become the ultimate ruler of the world.
“Abaddon kept me because he wanted the locations of the other eggs. He also proved very interested in the research I was doing on your kind. Did you know that, according to all the tests I’ve run, you shouldn’t be able to fly?”
“As if science can explain our majesty,” I scoffed.
“Science also can’t explain how Abaddon can spit fire hot enough to melt steel and yet not burn himself. Or how Pollita can bring down lightning or the fact Persephone exhales ice vapor that acts like liquid nitrogen, freezing things instantly.”
Jealousy reared its head. Fire, lightning, ice. All wonderful gifts. It made me impatient for mine. “This Abaddon, you said he is already rich?”
“Very. Much as it pains me to admit, he’s an astute investor. Very smart. Too smart,” a dark growl. “And big too. He could squash you with a paw.”
He probably would, seeing as how he wouldn’t want another male vying for domination of the world and the attention of the females.
“You said he had you prisoner, yet here you are.”
“Because I escaped. You can thank Apollo for giving me the incentive. While unhappy about my situation, I’d been biding my time with Abaddon. After all, I was still advancing my research. However, when I discovered there was another dragon available for the taking?—”
“Discovered how? Apollo never mentioned me.”
“He didn’t, but what a coincidence that someone from the same area began posting about dragons, correcting people about their misassumptions. A trace of the IP gave me your address.”
The reminder of my gaffe stung. In my defense, Keanu had sworn we’d been posting anonymously. “You hired those thieves.”
“Indeed, I did. As I prepared my exit strategy from Abaddon’s prison, I remotely hired some locals to fetch anything in the home that might have come in contact with a reptile.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted confirmation of your existence before I travelled all this way. And before you ask, the test didn’t take long. You see, all it takes is fire. Once the thieves confirmed they’d found evidence of a lizard, I told them to light the bedding and the contents of the aquarium on fire and let me know what remained. In this case, skin. Such a strange quirk that, even once shed, it won’t burn and, more oddly, will biodegrade within days. That short window makes testing challenging.”
“How do you know so much about my kind?” And I didn’t mean just the location of the eggs. Malone knew things he shouldn’t.
“Because of the Ušum-gal Abarakkum.”
