‘Of course they are.’ My hand movements are as tight as the feeling in my chest. ‘It’s faster than going by road, my dragon magic automatically extends to camouflage anything I’m carrying, and our fae supervisors get to look down on me as merely a winged reptile good for nothing more than transporting heavy loads.’
His shoulders are tense, his hands snapping. ‘That isnottrue. The fae are not better than anyone else. We’re all equals, no matter what the supe population of Birchester seem to think.’
I snort, a little puff of smoke escaping my nostrils. ‘I honestly think most fae only learn BSL so they can convey their superiority in another language.’
His chest deflates, his eyes still blazing but a wry smile tugging at his lips. ‘You’re probably not wrong.’
It’s an insult to a dragon to ask us to carry cargo—although we can choose to offer—but I hadn’t expected Raj to know that. My dragon is pleased that our tiger is so quick to jump to our defence, so I thank Raj with a kiss which seems to calm him down further.
‘I’ll be fine. Tomorrow’s flight is only to Inverness.’ At the speed I fly, that’s less than three hours each way.
My dragon and I aren’t keen on leaving Raj for that long, but we really don’t have a choice. The rules of the mandatory work programme are clear: I do any job allocated to me—as long as it’s legal—or I go back to prison for the remainder of the six month term.
Raj frowns, his hand movements still a little jerky. ‘I don’t like the idea of you being out there without backup if something goes wrong. Not after what happened to Jay.’
The Nottingham task force haven’t been able to find the bear shifter, and although they haven’t been able to confirm if he was injured in a workplace accident prior to his disappearance, they’ve assured Raj they’ll keep looking into it. For now, Jay is officially listed as a missing person.
Even so, my dragon doesn’t understand why Raj thinks we need backup. Dragon scales are impervious to fae magic and most manmade weapons, so as long as we’re in our winged form we should be completely safe. The biped side of me took Ethan’s warning to heart, though.
‘You guys have access to tech, right? You could put a tracker on me.’
The idea occurred to me when Aire told me about my new role. At first I dismissed it, because it felt too much like when I was in Wargate and had my every move monitored, but then I decided that if it could potentially prove useful to the investigation I should get over myself. Now it occurs to me that it wouldalso alleviate Raj’s concern about being able to find me in an emergency.
He gets a speculative look in his eye, his hands movements slower now. ‘That’s a really good idea. We might be able to give you more than a tracker, actually. How do you feel about a trip to the manor?’
I assume that’s because it’s the one place we can meet his pack without risk of being seen. I agree, so he sends a secure message to Ethan then drives us there, and I text Zara to pass the time on the journey. She always replies quickly at this time of day—probably because it’s when she’s avoiding her homework—and we message back and forth. I still marvel at the novelty of being able to do this with her again. Emails in prison arrived sporadically at best and were heavily monitored.
I also catch up on the messages in the group chat with my Deaf human friends from school. I only loosely keep in touch with them, because between the secrecy of the supernatural world and my time in prison, it’s not been easy to maintain anything resembling a real friendship. One of the group is having trouble getting the attention of the guy he likes, which feels like a safe subject to weigh in on.
A message from someone else comes through while I’m typing, and I almost swipe it away to read later before suddenly freezing in place.
Mum
Milo says you are living with him. Do you need money?
I stare at the screen, my grip tightening to the point that the plastic starts to give. Raj shoots me a worried look as he turns into the manor estate.
He types in an access code at the huge gate, then turns to me while it retracts slowly. ‘What’s wrong?’
When I show him the screen, his brow furrows. ‘That’s all she said? I thought you hadn’t heard from her since your trial.’
‘I haven’t,’ I sign tightly.
‘And I thought my parents were bad.’
‘It’s how she shows her love.’
At least, that’s how I’m trying to see it. He looks sceptical and I don’t blame him. Not a single word for years, and that’s what she sends?
I try to put it out of my mind as we drive through the ward and down the long manor driveway. We passed four Connor Construction vans heading in the opposite direction on one of the country lanes about a mile away, so it’s no surprise that the only vehicles here belong to Soldati Security.
The pack exit the SUVs, wave hello to me as we join them, and surround Raj to scent him. I hang back and try not to intervene. As much as I understand pack dynamics thanks to Harley, my dragon and I struggle to tolerate how much Raj’s pack are touching him right now.
I can’t help narrowing my eyes when Skye hugs my tiger. The little eagle might seem relatively friendly and harmless, but I refuse to be fooled.
Ayo greets me with a bro hug, then types on his phone.
Ayo
