Being one of seven dragons in the entire world meant I'd met a lot of supes who'd never seen a dragon before, and their reactions ranged from awe to fascination to indifference to downright terror.
"Okay, I'm going to go now. For real," he declared, and I nodded, and drew my hands away from his waist so I wouldn't be tempted to kiss him again.
He smiled, then nodded to himself and climbed down the stairs.
He turned back to wave at me, and I was tempted to walk him home, but I bit back the offer. He didn't need my protection, not for this, and I didn't want him to think I doubted his ability to defend himself, especially now that he was at full strength.
Still, I stood watch until he rounded the corner and disappeared from view before going back inside.
I cleaned up the mess from our dinner, then went into the pet bedroom to check in. I locked the bunnies' hutch—they spent most of their time in there when Zamir was around, but I hoped they'd get familiar with him soon—made sure all the chickens were in their coop, smiled at Pebble curled up between Clip and Muffin, and left the room, leaving the door slightly ajar.
After turning off all the lights, I retreated to my room and slid under the covers. A soft exhale escaped my lips as I closed my eyes.
While Zamir had napped, I'd spent the hours watching him, admiring the way the sunlight cascaded over his face through the open window, the way his eyelashes gleamed gold. I'd watched pieces of my life force settle inside him like they were home, watched his own life force strengthen and recover from the near-starved condition it'd been in for thirteen years.
I hadn't slept a wink with him, so sleep came easy to me now, and for once, my dreams were full of visions of the future, instead of the past.
Zamir
I padded into the Forest, my shoes clutched in one hand as I slowly shut the door with my other. Sneaking into a place filled with supes with hypersensitive hearing wasn't easy, and I doubted I'd be able to get home without waking at least one of them. I hoped it wouldn't be...
"There you are."
I jumped, the shoes dropped from my grip, and I pressed myself against the door I'd just shut, catching my breath as I turned to glare at Keoni.
"I hate you," I growled, and he chuckled.
"Hey, I'm not the one sneaking in like a teenager trying to avoid being caught by his parents."
I rolled my eyes at the comparison, then gave him a look. "Why areyouup this late?"
He shrugged, giving me a look that was Keoni-speak for 'I don't want to talk about itright this minute, but will you please stick around until I'm ready?'
My nap earlier meant I probably wouldn't sleep for a while, so I nodded, and we walked arm in arm to our favorite spot, a small clearing off the path that was surrounded by trees.
"You wanna?" I nodded up at the sky, and Keoni grinned.
I unstrapped his cart from his back half, and he slowly lowered himself onto the ground. He turned on his back, and I leaned his back legs—which were still wrapped together with a soft cloth to keep them in place—against the side of his cart so the weight of his horse-half wouldn't topple him. We'd done this a lot, so it didn't take me long to get him situated and spread myself out beside him.
The canopy of the trees circled our view of the sky, leaving us a three-square-feet window. The headmaster's magic made it so the sky in here mirrored the sky of whatever city or town we were anchored in.
"What do you see?" I asked as I turned my head to look at Keoni. Centaurs were known for their ability to predict the future with the study of stars, and while Keoni had never officially learned the skill, he'd read every book on the topic available in the Sanctuary library, and every book the headmaster could find for him.
He pursed his lips, brows furrowed, his eyes flicked around, his lips moving silently as he worked his magic.
His brows shot up, and he turned to look at me, his blue eyes bright with curiosity. "Something big happened to you today. Care to share?"
I chuckled, then reached over to ruffle his hair. "As if you couldn't already tell that with one look at me."
He smirked. "You got me. You're practically glowing, and not just the happy kind. You feel... stronger. That's the best way I can think of to explain it."
I told him everything, the kiss, the feeding, the warm glow of Nolan's lifeforce inside me, the mixed feelings I still hadn't quite figured out. The only thing I didn't tell him was my mom's connection to Nolan. I was still struggling to digest that one, and I couldn't bring myself to say the words.
"I can't believe you've been starving yourself," Keoni exclaimed, and I winced.
"Shh, you'll wake the others," I hissed, and he rolled his eyes. He knew as well as I did that most of the houses had silencing wards around them to keep inside sounds in, and outside sounds out.
"Zamir."
