Page 91 of Connor and the Dragons

“Kess, if you saw me or Oallian in a field like that, hurt and crying, how would you feel?”

I only had to think about that for a second before his point was made. “Oh,” I whispered, eyes widening.

“Right. Oh. We love you and it hurts us to see you hurt. Got it? It hurts me to know that you were going through something that was my fault and you didn’t tell me about it. If something is bugging you, and it hurts, you need to tell me.”

“Now?” I asked.

He grinned. “Sure, now.”

“Do you have things you need in San Jose? Unfinished business?”

Connor’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s what’s bugging you? Not the shoulder.”

“That’s what’s bugging me. The thought that there’s something back home that you will not be happy without.”

“I had a life in San Jose, so yeah. There’s unfinished business. A job, friends, family. Before I came here, I was doing a dissertation. Academic research. It’s four hundred pages and I’ve been writing it for over a year.”

“Then you must go back.”

“That’s the thing.” He huffed out a laugh. “Since I’ve been here, I haven’t thought about my research once, except to notice that I wasn’t thinking about it.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t think it’s what I wanted. I’ve always liked puzzles and riddles and ciphers,” he said. “And academia gave me a place to make that passion my life.”

“Ah. You couldn’t just be a code breaker?”

“I could have, and I considered it, but encryption works differently with our technology, and I was more interested in ancient codes. So I decided to study history, even though it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I got lost in the weeds of studying the past instead of truly exploring what I love.”

He turned my hand over in his and looked at the palm of it, massaging it gently, kissing it, his eyes still a little distant. I stayed quiet, letting him talk.

“When I came here, for the first time in my life, I had a real coded message with real consequences at the end of it. It was fun. It made me remember. I don’t want to study how codes were once used, I want to use them. To solve them.”

“And now?”

“Now, I’m in a land where there are no computers and people actually use ciphers to hide secrets, and it’s fucking incredible. And that’s without mentioning how much I love the both of you. And you are rapidly becoming the most important things in my life.”

I smiled. “I understand being on the wrong path, and not being sure how to fix it.”

“I have faith it’ll sort itself out. Here in Qoksmere, my cryptology background is a legitimate skill, right?”

“Oh, it is. Once she understands the nature of your skill, Queen Delsynarea will scoop you up in an instant and make you an advisor. And I intend to tell her exactly how good you are.”

“Seriously?”

“Of course. Having someone trained in breaking codes would be a major diplomatic advantage. I’d be an idiot not to suggest it.”

He met my eyes, his warm and kind. “And you want me to stay.”

“I do.”

“Well, you can rest easy. Because I plan to. And if I do risk a passage through the mirror, our entire family will be coming with me. I can’t risk a permanent separation.”

“Our family,” I said, blushing. “That doesn’t worry you, being a family?”

Connor frowned. “Of course not. I love you both, and I love my family. I’ve always wanted what my parents have.”

“If you had known that there was a possibility of a baby, would you have stopped things?”