Chapter Eighteen
Sequin
“XAV!” his name tore from my throat.
“Where did he go?” Selt asked, glancing around.
I didn’t have time to explain to anyone what had happened. Had she drained him the way she attempted to drain me? Breathing still hurt, but there wasn’t any time to lose. I snatched up our egg from the nest and then rolled up the icy sheet of mist that was Xav into a ball. I wasn’t even sure how I knew it would work but it did. Liatris followed on my heels as I took the steps two at a time down into the kitchen. Like all houses designed by Moonscale Dragons, my house had a walk in freezer. I dove into it with Liatris shouting at me as I slammed the door shut behind me.
“Sequin!” Liatris called out, banging his palm against the walk-in’s door. “She can’t get out! You’re safe! What’s going on?”
All of those questions had answers that didn’t belong to me.
“You can’t have your egg in there!” he pounded on the door again, but I ignored him as I sat our egg down in a basket of frozen peas and set to work on Xav. He was still cold. So my best guess was that he was still inside the mist or was the mist. He used up too much energy fighting her. I stretched him out over the floor of the walk-in and glanced around until I found the bags of ice I bought when I was on my smoothie kick a few weeks ago. I grimaced but didn’t know what else to do. So I stacked them up on top of him.
“Come on, alpha,” I cooed to him while Liatris continued to beat down the door.
“Sequin!?!” Dad’s voiced reached me and I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“How do you make ice wake up?” I shouted through the door.
“Umm…. If we ever had a riddle code word, kiddo, I don’t remember it,” he said, his voice concerned, but gentle.
“I… It’s complicated! My egg is icy, though! It came out that way! So no worries there!”
I sank onto the floor near Xav and let out a long, deep breath. I didn’t know how to help him, and I had to tell someone. So, I told Dad. I told him all of it over our family link.
“Overuse of magic, causes people to faint. I’ve seen dragons fall over and stay that way until they felt better. He probably doesn’t have enough magic to shift back yet.”
“How do I give him magic?”
“You let him rest. I know he can withstand the walk-in temperatures and maybe your egg can too, but can you?”
“For now. I have to. There’s no one else. Liatris is a lion and ---”
“When you need a break I’ll sit with him, okay? We’ll take turns until he’s back to himself.”
I thanked him but couldn’t imagine that Xav would stay knocked out for that long. Only, I was wrong. For days, Dad and I alternated back and forth on who sat with Xav. I hated leaving him alone but Dad was right. I wasn’t made to be cold all the time. I carried my egg back and forth between the freezer and the nest. Even going up to take a nap made me feel like a big, fat traitor. My mate was hurt because he saved me and I couldn’t even put up with a little bit of cold to stay by his side.
Teddy came and stayed, along with Sunny and his mate. Selt and Liatris took up in the kitchen cooking as if we’d all starve to death if they didn’t. I let Teddy comfort me but I felt hollow inside without Xav around. Why was his mum like that? Why did she show up to cause trouble? Didn’t she care about our egg? Our hatchling was her family too. How had I gotten so lucky with my family?
“We’re his family too now, Seq,” Teddy said, picking up my thoughts over the family link. “Get some sleep. Dad has him and Dad’s scarier than any lady with squid tentacles.”