“I hope so.” He drew my back flush with his chest. “She’ll be here any minute.”
“Good.” I let my head fall against his shoulder. “That’s good.”
As soon as my eyes closed, a wave of exhaustion swept through me, carrying me far, far away.
seven
“The wish…”
“…your mothers…”
“How else could this happen to…”
“…nothing we can do about it now.”
Conversation drifted over me, but I couldn’t speak through my chattering teeth, and my eyes were too heavy to prop open. I resigned myself to listening in, determined to do my best to remember the details.
“The mate bond isn’t active.” Rían, that was definitely Rían. “That means she didn’t fully shift.”
“Not a full shift?” Sloane barked out a laugh. “Then what the hell was that?”
“Mmmph.” I struggled to swim toward full consciousness. “What…was…?”
“I was hoping you could tell us, Bestie.” Her laughter rang out, slightly unhinged. “You burst into flames, which, okay, is a problem, but they formed a dragon. You—she?—wavered, like a mirage. And boy was she pissed at that SUV. She kind of engulfed you and spread her wings like a shield to protect you and Rían. Then she smashed what was left of the SUV with her tail until it was a smoldering pancake.”
That must have happened while I was dazed because I remembered the smoking SUV and the tail, but the rest was news to me.
“You saved me.” Rían’s face swam into view as he leaned over me. “How did you know there was a bomb?”
“Let the girl breathe.” Fayne swept into the room. “She’s only just opened her eyes.”
The scratchy linens, I was realizing, were familiar ones. I was in the emergency clinic.
“Have you learned anything yet?” Rían locked on to her. “Did Roe have any information?”
“We’ll get to that.” She shooed the small gathering. “I need a moment alone with Ana.”
About to protest, I reached for Rían, but Fayne got there first, smacking away his hand.
“This won’t take long,” she promised me, “but you might want privacy to hear what I have to say before you share it with anyone else.”
That she would cut me off from Rían meant whatever she had learned from this Roe person was big. The potential need for secrecy made me want to cling to him even more. But I understood this was a gesture of respect, from the former maguri to the future magna, and I couldn’t find it in me to devalue the offer.
With a little effort, I got a reassuring smile pinned in place for Rían’s sake. “See you soon.”
Once the door was shut, Fayne pressed a hand against it, and a ripple stirred the air.
“The insulation in these rooms is nonexistent. Now we can talk without anyone overhearing us.” She perched on the foot of my bed. “I don’t mean to frighten you with these precautions, but given our location, let’s call this a HIPAA addendum.”
“You’re not doing great on the not-frightening-me thing.” I shoved upright, collapsing against my pillows. “Does this mean you can explain what went wrong with my dragon?”
“Nothing went wrong.” She tipped her head back. “You’re just…not what we expected is all.”
Hand to my chest, fingers seeking out the scale, I frowned. “I’m not a wish dragon?”
“Do you remember what I told you about howmystisch, mystic dragons like myself, present?”
“There’s no rhyme or reason to when they pop up in a bloodline,” I quoted Rían, recalling it quickly.
