Before he could open his mouth, Daisy’s whisper reached his ears. “It’s just me! I have something to talk to you about. Can you come with me for like ten minutes?”
He relaxed and shook off her hand. “You could just send a text message, like a normal person.”
She raised her chin. “This is too important. No one can know, or we might lose our chance.”
“Our chance at what?”
“To find the buried treasure.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about, Daisy?”
“Come on, and I can show you. Let’s go.”
She maneuvered out of the hedgerow, and with a sigh, he followed.
Oh, he could tell her no, that he was too tired for her latest obsession, and go home. But the truth was that he hadn’t seen much of Daisy, apart from when they were at school. And even then, they were often separated since she was human and didn’t have any dragon lessons.
They reached the little shed near the great hall that most of the kids used for secret meetings. It was made of stone with a slate roof. The door was slightly rotted, but still opened and shut. Daisy lit the candle on the small shelf against the wall and then laid out a piece of paper on the small table. Leaning down, he noticed it was some kind of map. “What’s this?”
“This map shows all the farms and their buildings just outside of Stonefire.” She tapped some hand-drawn circles. “And these are locations where Stonefire might’ve buried their treasure during World War II.”
He frowned. “That’s just a story, like our teacher said. If there was actually treasure, someone would’ve found it by now.”
“I don’t think so. I mean, they built all kinds of secret bunkers and water cisterns—like giant water-holding tanks underground—to prepare for battle. Thankfully, the German dragons never made it this far, but what if? What if there’s something still out there, Freddie? Something within walking distance of Stonefire? It’s not like we’re traveling to London or Ireland or something. If we plan it right, we can check one or two places at a time and slowly work our way through my list. And I bet we can do it without getting caught, too.”
He looked up from the table and mentally groaned. Daisy was giving her pretty-please look, one he had a hard time saying no to.
His dragon snorted.Just say yes and help her. Otherwise, you know she’ll go out alone. And that’s not safe for a human girl.
Weren’t you just going on about how we need to focus for our upcoming survival skills test?
This is related to it. If we can sneak out and back several times, that’ll be a handy skill to have in the future.
When his inner beast sided with Daisy, Freddie knew he didn’t stand a chance.
However, he wasn’t about to go along blindly. “If I agree to this—” Daisy opened her mouth, but he beat her to it. “No, let me finish. If I agree to it, then you need to trust me. I have better hearing and vision, and if I say there’s a threat and we need to come back to Stonefire, will you do it?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I’ll try my best, I promise.”
“Daisy.”
“Fine. But don’t expect me to just follow any order. You know I need to understand why. If it’s truly life or death, then let’s decide on a code word, and then I won’t question you until we’re safe again.”
He studied the human female for a few seconds, but Daisy seemed sincere.
He only hoped she kept to her promise later. Because while she usually tried to follow her promises, she sometimes forgot. Not because she was contrary, but her mind buzzed five times faster than anyone else’s. Or so she’d tried to explain.
His dragon spoke up.Maybe it’s like she has two or three dragons inside her mind.
Maybe. Her stepdad mentioned some human thing called ADHD, or something. But it doesn’t matter. We understand Daisy well enough by now.
Which means we need to be extra prepared, in case her impulses get the best of her.
He put out his hand, and Daisy took it to shake. He replied, “Deal. And my emergency code word will be ‘Alviva.’”
“Oooh, like the dragon-shifter queen. Good choice. It definitely won’t come up in a regular conversation. Well, as long as we don’t talk about early dragon-shifter history. So let’s stick to World War II or later.”
He grunted. “I can do that. Just remember that ‘Alviva’ is our code word, and you need to listen when I use it.”
