Page 54 of Dragon’s Rebel

Chapter 24

They walked down to the Batcave, Rebel stretching her sore muscles. She felt way better than she expected, like she hadn’t slept on a pile of metal at all.

Zane, Blaze and Tempest were already there. When Thorne walked into the room, everyone looked up and froze for a second, stunned.

Then they converged on him, all talking at once. Blaze gave him a big hug, and Zane thumped him on the back, grinning widely. “Holy fuck,” he kept saying. Relief was all over his face. “You did it.”

Even Tempest kissed his cheek. Rebel was amused to see him go red at that.

Then Tempest ran to Rebel. “I’m glad you’re okay,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Rebel said. “I should have left you a note or something. I didn’t think.”

Tempest gave a little one-shouldered shrug. “The others were worried.”

“And you weren’t?”

Her sister shook her head. “I didn’t have a bad feeling this time. I knew you would be okay.”

Were they really okay, though? Thorne was still missing his dragon. She could feel the hole inside him from across the room.

“Not all of us,” she muttered.

They all sat down at the conference table, and Tyr asked the zefirs to bring food. While they were waiting for it, they told everyone the short version of what had happened.

As far as Rebel was concerned, nobody needed to know the details. Thorne seemed to feel the same way—his explanations were even briefer than hers.

Finally, Zane asked the question they were clearly all wondering about.

“What about your dragon?”

Thorne glanced at Rebel, and she saw him absently rubbing the dragon-scale bracelet on his wrist. She put her hand gently on his thigh, trying to show her support. The corner of his mouth lifted slightly, and he covered her hand with his.

He took a deep breath. “He’s gone.”

The words dropped into the silent room like stones in a pond. Rebel heard the hiss as Zane drew in a shocked breath.

In that moment, she realized none of them had really believed it could happen. Thorne was so strong, so solid, so… always there. It took a minute for it to sink in, and then she could see the questions and speculation on their faces, what this might mean.

Then Tempest said, “He could still come back. You all saw the research.” She looked defiantly around the room, as if to convince them all she was right. “Lots of the shifters couldn’t Change again at first, but then their animals came back. There’s still hope.”

“Of course there is,” Zane said, his voice a little too hearty.

He didn’t believe it. Looking around, Rebel could see none of them did. She opened her mouth to tell them what the dragon had said to her, but Thorne broke in before she could.

“There’s nothing we can do about that but wait,” he said. “In the meantime, we have to find the Seal. Tyr, Zane, let’s get up to date on what you’ve been working on.”

Everyone was relieved to have something else to talk about. Their late dinner/early breakfast arrived as he began to explain, and the parade of trays floating out of the elevator was astonishing.

“Holy hell, Tyr,” Rebel said. “Did you order everything in the kitchen?”

Tyr looked at the high-piled platters accumulating on the table. “Not me,” he said. Everyone else shook their heads.

Tempest looked pleased. “The zefir must be happy to have Thorne back.”

Thorne glanced over at her, brow furrowed. “I only was gone for a few hours.”

She smiled. “Your human form, I mean.”