She nods as she blinks back more tears.
I lightly tap her hand to get her attention. I’m the one who needs to get through to her about this. ‘Our parents and the dragon flight cutting me out of their lives is their choice, not yours. My actions that day were my choice, not yours.’
‘But if I hadn’t?—’
‘Stop. None of this situation was your fault. I did it to protect you, and I’d do it again a thousand times over.’
Both my siblings look upset, so I start dishing up. The lasagne’s sloppier than it’s supposed to be, but I’m sure it’ll tastefine. Food always helps, so getting them to eat is more of a priority than worrying about my deficient cooking skills.
Everyone calms down as we dig in, but after a while I realise Zara is toying with her meal more than eating it.
I lightly touch her hand. ‘What else is wrong?’
I’ve missed too much of my sister’s life, but I still know when something is bothering her, and I don’t think it’s just about me. She’s been fine on the phone every time we’ve FaceTimed these past two weeks.
She sets her fork carefully on her plate. ‘Mum and Dad are making me train day and night for my exam.’
Milo and I exchange a glance.
‘That’s… normal,’ he signs.
She juts her chin out. ‘From books.’
We wince. The majority of the exam is practical. She needs to be out training as often as possible, especially given what we saw of her flying skills today.
‘Why would they sabotage you like that?’ I ask.
Milo frowns, looking like he wants to disagree with my assessment, but ultimately keeps his hands still.
Her hands move jerkily. ‘They think I’ll get into a situation I can’t handle if I’m unsupervised. It doesn’t matter to them that I’m not fourteen anymore. They still don’t trust me just because of one stupid mistake.’
‘We can train you instead,’ Milo offers immediately. ‘There’s still enough time, and we can make sure you practice everything you need to be able to do.’
I hide my wince. I’d happily train my sister if I was in any shape to do so, but I’d be more of a hindrance than a help at this point.
She grimaces. ‘I really can’t sneak away often enough. I only managed tonight because Dad’s away on business.’
‘Mum decided not to come?’ I ask, my shoulders tense.
Zara and Milo keep saying Mum wants to see me, but Ihaven’t had a single message or phone call, despite Milo assuring me he’s given her my new number. She’s certainly not made the effort to visit.
‘Carys’ triplets started hatching this afternoon,’ Zara signs carefully, biting her lower lip.
Mum is the midwife for our dragon flight. Of course she’d have to be there for a hatching. That doesn’t alleviate the ache in my chest, though.
‘What about getting someone from the flight to train you?’ Milo signs, distracting me from dwelling on Mum’s lack of contact.
Zara shakes her head. ‘I’ve already asked around, but no one is willing to go against Dad’s wishes.’
Maybe the fact that none of the flight will answer my texts isn’t actually a loss, if they won’t even help a young dragon achieve an important milestone. ‘We’ll figure something out.’
She nods, although I don’t think she believes me. Why would she? I’ve been absent from her life for so long.
Milo changes the subject, and eventually we have her laughing at the monotony of Milo’s accountancy work—which he enjoys, the nerd—and the funniest stories from my time in Wargate. I embellish them because let’s be real, there wasn’t a lot of fun happening in there, but it works to make her smile reach her eyes.
The three of us are just heading out to fly her back when the tiger shifter I spent half the day sneaking glances at appears from the stairwell, shopping bags in both hands. He’s got a warm coat and well-worn jeans on now, and he smiles as soon as he sees me.
‘I’ll catch up,’ I quickly sign to my siblings. I don’t want to miss this opportunity to get his number.
