Page 72 of Dragon’s Rogue

“He should be all right,” Zane said. “It depends what kind of spells are on that gun.”

He looked expectantly at Rebel.

“Oh, so now I’m supposed to tell you so you can neutralize my only weapon? Do I look like an idiot?” she snapped.

“Are you sure he’s not badly hurt?” Tempest sounded anxious now.

Rebel slammed her feet to the porch floor, making it shake. “They sent a dragon to fucking attack us! And you’re worried you hurt it?”

Tyr said to Tempest, “Honestly, Thorne wouldn’t hurt your sister.”

“He’d only kidnap me,” Rebel snarled. “That’s fine, though. Everybody thinks kidnapping’s okay.”

“We did come to stop him,” Zane pointed out.

“Oh, is that what that was?” Rebel said. “Nice job. Maybe you should have tried smacking him on the nose with a magic Colt.”

A rueful smile tilted the corner of Tyr’s mouth. “I’ll keep it in mind for the future.”

Tempest shifted her attention to him. “You’re Tyr,” she said. “You come in my store sometimes and talk about legends and fairy tales. And now you’re a dragon. Dragons are real and you didn’t tell me. You just let me…”

She trailed off, and Blaze wondered what she had been about to say.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Tyr said. “We can’t just go around revealing ourselves to humans.”

“And yet—” Rebel gestured toward Thorne.

“Well, obviously,” Zane said, “he’s not supposed to be doing that.” He still sounded angry, and Blaze wasn’t sure why he couldn’t calm down.

Tempest fixed her eyes on Thorne. “He’s so beautiful.”

He was. His midnight-blue scales caught the light, making him shimmer like he was covered in sapphires. They shaded to deep purple on his underbody, almost black.

Rebel said flatly, “Stop admiring him. He wants to eat you.”

Before she could stop herself, Blaze murmured, “He wants to eat you.”

Zane glared at her, his expression saying, ‘not helping.’ “No, he doesn’t,” he said. “He thinks you have an important artifact—one that should belong to us.”

Rebel turned to him, surprised. “That idol? I thought you had that.” She shifted her attention to Blaze. “You took it last night. I saw you grab it before the doors blew.”

“Not the idol,” Tyr said. He described the Seals to Rebel. “Have you ever seen anything like that? Or anything with one of those symbols?”

She rolled her eyes. “Dragonflies, dolphins and phoenixes? Can you be a little more vague? There’s only about a zillion art pieces in the world with one of those animals on it somewhere.” She tilted her chair back, toying with her Colt. “More to the point, even if I had seen your Seals, why should I help you?”

“Maybe to save a couple million lives?” In quick, sharp sentences, Zane told her about Vyrkos and the Guardians. It wasn’t helping that he still seemed angry. It was like Thorne’s ‘treasure fever’ was rubbing off on him.

Blaze could tell Rebel was still skeptical, but Tempest was listening intently.

When he was finished, Tempest said softly, “But what makes you think Rebel has these Seals? She didn’t steal them.”

She was speaking directly to Tyr. Blaze saw him meet her eyes, and it was like a spark flashed between them. Tyr’s face softened, and Tempest’s hand went reflexively to her chest.

Blaze felt that same place in her own chest get warm—the part that seemed to glow every time Zane touched her. The gold necklace he’d given her vibrated in response.

Tyr leaned forward in his seat. Without taking his eyes off Tempest, he told the story of Maia, Corwyn and Arkyld.

When he was finished, there was silence. Then Rebel said slowly, “So… you’re trying to tell me that you think I’m one of these Three Mates of Destiny with a magical Seal in my back pocket?”