“That’s what I heard,” he said gravely.“They said that you were talking to yourself.”
“I was telling them that you were coming,” she admitted, trying to pull her hand off his arm anyway.
But he shook his head, the weight of his hand holding hers feeling heavier than a brick.“Oh, no,” he said.“You see, these dragons are almost as bad as my uncles.”
“Almost?”she squeaked.
“Maybe a little worse,” he admitted.“My uncles are a little less vocal about it.”
Celia used her free hand to cover her face.It wasn’t worth trying to pull her hand away from his arm again, not when she didn’t really want to.
“I don’t want to know, do I?”she asked.
“Probably not,” he admitted.“But I’ll have you know, it’s great fun.”
Celia groaned.“I wish you couldn’t talk to dragons,” she said.
“I don’t,” he said solemnly.“If I couldn’t talk to dragons, I might not have the same senses that I do, and I might not have realized just how much I need you.”
The words were quiet, and she turned to him, her eyes wide.“What?”
What was he saying?
A dragon started chirping, and Darian whirled around, looking down at Sod, who was looking toward the mountains and chattering rapidly.“You’re leaving?”he asked.
Sod looked back at them, chirped a few times, then began walking away.
Darian watched as Sod walked away, his jaw clenching.Celia looked up at him and rubbed his arm.“I’m sorry,” she said.“Sometimes it’s hard when they leave.”
She’d grown used to watching them go, but Darian hadn’t.
The spot in her chest that ached when he left was aching now, feeling his sadness in her own way, and she resisted the urge to rub it.
“I knew he would.”Darian’s voice was rough.“I knew he would leave, but I didn’t expect it to hurt this much.”
“I’m afraid of how much it will hurt when they leave,” Celia admitted.Her fire dragons were looking after Sod but showed no sign of leaving.
Yet.
“I know they need to leave,” she said, her voice cracking.“But I’m not ready for it.”
“Do you think they can sense that?”he asked gently.
“Maybe,” she admitted.“I wouldn’t put it past them.”
“Maybe they know that they need to keep pushing the two of us together before they can leave,” Darian teased.
If that was the reason they were staying, they needed to find some other excuse.
She’d grown closer to Darian than anyone else in her life right now, far too quickly.
And it was silly, but she hoped they were staying because they loved her, too.
Celia sighed.“I hope they have more reason than that to stay, even though I know they need to go.”
“This is why you do it, right?”Darian asked.“So they can leave?”
“I know,” Celia said, the words sticking in her throat.“It’s just going to be harder this time than usual.”
