“Davin and Twist smell dragon. There’s definitely a dragon over there.”
Sexton shivered as he looked over his shoulder in the direction he’d motioned before, but then...well, he did something similar to what the pilot had done, if considerably more awkwardly. He straightened up, lifting his head high, and nodded. “Well then, let’s go.”
“You don’t?—”
“You’ve rushed into danger to protect me over and over, Flynn,” he said, almost hissed. “What the fuck kind of pathetic spineless snake am I if I can’t be bothered to return the favor just once?”
“You’re exhausted, Sexton,” I shot back. “You were attacked literally last night. It’s a miracle you’re standing, let alone going off to tilt at windmills. It might not evenbea giant.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, and for a minute I was afraid he was going to make another shitty comment about how dragonsdidn’t need books, but I supposed if he didn’t read books, he hadn’t even understood the reference.
Instead, though, he shook it off. “Well then, come along, Quixote.” He turned and looked at Davin, lifting an eyebrow. “Panza.”
And frankly, I knew when I’d been bested. I shut up and headed toward the other side of the island.
It reminded me of the first time we’d been there, when we had crash landed on the other side, marching across it, hoping for the best, not even initially realizing we were in the right place.
At least, I hadn’t realized it right away.
But this time, we were headed toward the . . . crash? Dragon?
Who knew.
The island was beautiful, even in the dark, and Davin held my hand, so as far as I was concerned, there was nothing wrong in the world.
Well, not until Twist spoke up from his shoulder. “The dragon smells of pain and blood. Like predator turned prey.”
That was a dunk in cold water.
“It must have been injured, then,” Sexton said, responding directly to her words. Sometimes I forgot that as a dragon, he also understood the animals. I was so used to being the only one. “Do you think it crash landed?”
“Given how little we know about dragons actually turning into dragons, it could be anything,” Davin said.
It was only then that I noticed a bobbing light right in front of us. Turning, I searched out the source and found mother’s pilot. Paul, I was pretty sure his name was, walking just behind us, holding a huge flashlight. When I lifted a brow at him, he shrugged. “Seemed like maybe you could use somebody to hold the light, even if you can handle a fight as well as your mother.”
“Oh, no one can handle a fight like Mother,” I denied with a chuckle. “But Icanhandle one, if I have to.”
“More like your kitten can handle it,” Sexton said, a tiny smirk on his face, and oddly enough, I enjoyed that.
Apparently we were like that now. Like...real cousins, exchanging playful insults that weren’t aimed at sore spots or intended to hurt. “I mean, she could take any of us in a fight.”
He paused and considered, glancing at Davin, then nodded. “I suppose she could.”
Poor Paul looked confused as hell, but he didn’t question anything.
We came around the end of the island and there...there, in an area of flattened sand the size of a dragon, lay the body of a man.
“A crash landing, then,” Davin said, and while it was almost a whisper, we all heard him, because everything around us had gone silent except for the continuing footfalls of the four of us walking toward the fallen man.
And then there was the rushing in my ears that wasn’t the ocean. No, it was my own blood, as it surged. My breath caught, and I started walking faster as something...something pinged, deep inside me.
Familiarity.
Connection.
“His face, Paul.” I said, and I was shaking so hard I was surprised the words came out comprehensible. “Put the light on his face.”
Paul complied easily, and the bright beam of light fell across pale, bloodied features that weren’t new at all. Weren’t a stranger.
