Page 76 of Dragon’s Rogue

Zane was still staring after Thorne, his mouth open. Tyr was talking softly to Tempest, the two of them walking slowly toward the front of the house. Damn. That was going to be a problem.

“Think about what I said,” Blaze said to Rebel. “Do you still have my number, from the other day?”

Rebel nodded.

They turned to leave, and then Zane turned back. “Thorne saved your life, you know,” he said. “Last night, when you fell off the balcony. He barely got to you before you hit the ground. Broke his foot landing hard.”

Rebel didn’t let her shock show on her face. “Didn’t help his attitude,” she said.

Zane started to say something angry, and Blaze pulled him away, saying, “Call me if you decide to work with us on this.”

The two of them collected Tyr and left, leaving Rebel and Tempest to their train wreck of a backyard, which suddenly seemed too empty and quiet.

Rebel threw herself down into a porch chair, all her energy draining away with the fight adrenalin.

“I’ve had a lot of fucked-up days lately,” she said, “but this one just moved to the top of the rankings.”

Tempest sat down again, pulling her notebook into her lap. She wasn’t writing, just staring at the page, a faraway look in her eyes.

“Tempe?” Rebel said. “You don’t really believe all this, do you? About sleeping dragons and fiery death and destined mates?”

“They’re dragons, Reb,” she said. “Real live dragons. They’re so much more beautiful than I even imagined. Did you see the color of Tyr’s scales? Cobalt blue.”

Oh, fuck. She was falling in love with a dragon fantasy.

“He said he’d turn into a dragon for me. Somewhere safe, where I can touch him and draw him, maybe even do a painting. He said he’d take me flying. Do you know it’s true they can cloak themselves? They fly over the city all the time and no one sees them.”

She smiled. “Now I’ll always wonder if he’s flying overhead.”

“He wants something from you,” Rebel said. She winced at how harsh she sounded. Meeting a dragon was Tempest’s dream come true, and she hated to be Debbie Doom. But Tempest could be too trusting sometimes.

Curious, she asked, “What does he make you see? Aren’t you afraid that something bad will happen, if we get involved with them?”

Guilt immediately punched her in the gut. Tempest had spent years working to get over all the anxiety caused by the stories that played out in her head. Deliberately trying to bring that back made Rebel a horrible sister.

Not if it saves her life.

Once more, she wondered if Tempest really would be better off with the dragons, at least temporarily. Tyr seemed smitten with her, and he could protect her from the coven.

Tempest said slowly, “I think… something bad will happen if we don’t help them. For the last few months, I kept seeing the mountain exploding and the volcano erupting. Over and over, and I couldn’t write it any other way.”

Rebel felt sick. “You didn’t tell me that.” Why hadn’t Tempest told her?

Her sister shook her head. “I didn’t want to talk about it. I couldn’t find a way for it not to happen.”

Rebel asked carefully, “And now? Is it still going to explode?”

“Maybe.” Tempest paused. “But now, there’s a maybe not.”

Rebel sat slowly back in her chair. Could she and Tempest really be that important to the dragons’ mission? Or was Tempest just seeing what she wanted to see, because she wanted to spend more time with them?

“And what about that dragon? Tyr?” she asked. “What do you see about him?”

Tempest smoothed a blank page in her notebook, a strange smile on her face.

“Nothing,” she said, her mouth still curved in that secret smile. “I don’t see anything at all.”

Chapter 33