“It will keep you from chafing,” she promised. “Here, let me help.”
I submitted to being dressed like a child, and as she helped me, she frowned and cursed in roughly equal measure. I wasn’t sure if she was cursing at me or at herself, the forger.
Then she grabbed my shoulders and spun me around bodily to face the mirror. I started to object, but then I caught a glimpse of myself.
Shimmering scales covered more of my skin than the armor the shifters wore; they even edged up my throat. My shoulders seemed broader, my waist defined, and an awful lot of that padding on the shirt had ended up over my chest. I shrugged, rolled my shoulders, turned my head from side to side. It was amazing how easy it was to move. The armor was incredibly light.
“It seems anyone would want to wear armor like this,” I admitted.
“Everyone does. If I fail and you do die, I’m taking it back and selling it for a fortune.”
She leaned her elbow on my shoulder, studying both our reflections in the mirror. She wore her usual corset and bracers, showing far more skin than I did, but my scaled armor was sexy in its own way.
An awful realization struck me. “How often do dragons give up scales for armor for their shifters?”
“It’s rare.” She delivered the words curtly, no invitation to continue the line of conversation. She was already turning away.“Where are your knives? I know you’re rather hopeless with them, but you really should carry your knives. Perhaps you can slow down an enemy until someone with skill can intervene.”
“Did it hurt Starfire?”
She turned to me, flicking an exasperated look over her shoulder. “Yes. But so did the fact I wanted to die after being cast out of Bismyth.”
She tossed my belt, with its pair of scabbards, at me with more force than necessary, and I caught it against my chest. This time, I accepted that she didn’t want to talk.
I studied myself in the mirror one more time. “We should go find Fear.”
Might as well get this over with. Knowing Fear, he was going to pick up the thread of my little deception effortlessly and charmingly. Walking in with Maura and her dragon’s armor on my body was a statement, and when I made it clear she was my bodyguard in front of the clans, he would either have to show the cracks between us or play along. I knew what he would choose.
It was the conversation afterward that I dreaded. I felt a slight stir of worry because so much was already complicated between Fear and me.
“He misses you,” I said because that was true, at least.
I wanted to remind myself of it. His hardheartedness toward Maura had been for my sake. It was a sacrifice neither of them had needed to make. Given some of the decisions I had made, I was eager to leave the past in the past.
“He doesn’t need anyone,” she said dismissively.
“I’m sure he wishes that were true,” I answered. “Don’t we all?”
Maura was too stoic for anything to show on her face, but her gaze flickered toward me, betraying the faintest hint of surprise.
As I was walking, Lightbringer murmured,“Quite the choice for someone who has her own dragon.”
“You won’t even give me wings,”I reminded her sternly.“It’s the choice of someone whose dragon is being horrible and stubborn.”
“We do choose mortals like ourselves,”Lightbringer said airily.
I wasn’t sure if that was an insult or a compliment.
“When you’re older, you’ll understand that something can be both.”
We entered the command center, where Bismyth, Amber and Obsidian planned how to protect the eastern wall. A map showed the rips they had already mapped and sealed.
Fear had his back to us. He was deep in conversation with Seine.
Dairen was standing with them, and he saw Maura first. Unguarded delight came over his face, and he grinned. “Maura!”
As he came to us both, I caught Fear starting to turn. I couldn’t even be bothered to look at Fear’s reaction; Dairen’s joy told me I had made the right choice.
Dairen grabbed Maura’s shoulder, clasping it the way Bismyth did so often with each other, and then he gave in to his first impulse and hugged her. The next thing I knew, his hug had encompassed me as well, and I found myself colliding with Maura, both of us trapped by his thick arms. I laughed, as weird as it was.
