Chapter 9
It was ridiculous how short a time it took from making the call to touching down on the island, but at the same time, it took far, far too long if Sexton was in real danger.
Two hours.
It was long enough for someone to land there in dragon form, eat Sexton in two bites, and take off, leaving not so much as a trace by the time we could arrive.
But also, who had access to a plane at the drop of a hat?
“I should have flown myself,” I mumbled to Davin.
He rolled his eyes and squeezed me tight with the arm he had wrapped around me. “That wouldn’t have worked any better, love. We would have had to teleport here to arrive as fast as you wanted, and I think that’s still just science fiction.”
The pilot, who had come out of the back upon landing and was in the process of opening the side door for us to get out, smiled as he said, “As far as I know, too. ’Fraid I’ll be out of a job the day that changes.”
Davin snorted. “Please. Fiona would employ you until the day you die, even if planes were outlawed tomorrow. The woman would never let anyone she considers hers struggle when she had the power to stop it.”
That made the pilot’s smile grow, and he nodded. “Fair enough. She’s a hell of a lady.”
Sometimes it hit me just how lucky I was, and this was one of those moments.
Yes, I was lucky I’d grown up with money. I wasn’t ignorant or entitled enough to think that hadn’t made an enormous difference.
But Mother? Well, Davin was right that Mother would take care of anyone she considered hers, for as long as they allowed it. She collected people when she liked them, and after that, their lives were easier in any way Mother could help with. And me? I was the most hers of all.
She’d given me everything and rarely asked anything in return.
I wished everyone in the world was lucky enough to have a mother like mine. Sometimes I forgot that and took her for granted.
Case in point: her last minute arranging of a plane flight at six o’clock on a random weekday.
“You should definitely wait here,” I told the pilot. “It might not be safe.”
He blinked at that, frowning, and looked around the island, which was admittedly paradisal. “Safe? Do you need . . . I’ve got a flare gun up front. We could call the coast guard? I wouldn’t want something to happen to you.”
From his sudden change in bearing, it was apparent that his initial career had been something military-ish.
He stood straight up, shoulders taut, head lifted like maybe he would sniff the air for intruders.
It made sense, I supposed. The military was a good way to get pilot training if you weren’t born rich.
Twist’s head also popped up out of her pocket, but in her case, she was definitely sniffing the air.
As was Davin.
He looked at her, then up at me, and almost at the same time, they both said, “Dragon.”
“A strange dragon, Father,” she added. “One I have never smelled before. Nothing like the evil car man or your weak cousin.”
At that, the pilot paused, looking around. “Did you say . . . I don’t know if even the coast guard can help with that. Maybe we should have brought Ms. Knight.”
I grinned at him. “You think Mother could handle a disaster the coast guard couldn’t?”
“Without a doubt,” he agreed instantly. “I’ve seen the woman slap a man unconscious with one blow that was faster than I could follow. I think she could take down anything.”
“Well in that case, keep in mind that I’m her son.
Don’t worry about us. Whatever it is, I can handle it.
” I had never been a fighter and that wasn’t likely to change, but at worst, I was also a dragon.
I did, however, reach down and pull Twist out of her pocket, just in case.
“But you should go with Other Father, just in case I need to do something fast.”
Davin didn’t question, only took Twist and set her up on his shoulders.
That was when Sexton, wearing a set of red and white striped silk pajamas, came stumbling from the direction of the house. At least that was one thing out of the way. My cousin was alive, and I didn’t have to go searching for him.
Oddly enough, he seemed almost apologetic. “I . . . I swear, I don’t think I was imagining it.”
Davin frowned at that. “Imagining it? Is there nothing there?”
“Well, no, I . . . I didn’t go over there. But they haven’t come here, either. I just saw them go down, and then . . . nothing?” Sexton looked almost abashed, like he thought perhaps he had made it all up in his head.
I doubted that.
Sexton wasn’t a guy burdened by too much imagination.
I doubted he’d have even dreamed of a dragon landing on the island, let alone made it up. Besides, he’d been drained of energy, not given hallucinogens. Ignoring all of that, Davin and Twist’s sense of smell had never let me down, and they said they smelled dragon.
“Why don’t you stay here, and Davin and I will go check it out?
” I motioned him toward the pilot, and thought about maybe taking him back to Mother’s place after all.
She would take care of him for me, even if she thought he was kind of a jerk, and if he was with her, he wouldn’t be quite so inaccessible if something else went wrong.
Sexton started to step toward the stairs of the airplane, but then paused. “You’re . . . you’re going to go over there?”
“Davin and Twist smell dragon. There’s definitely a dragon over there.”
Sexton shivered as he looked over his shoulder in the direction he’d motioned before, but then . . . well, he did something similar to what the pilot had done, if considerably more awkwardly. He straightened up, lifting his head high, and nodded. “Well then, let’s go.”
“You don’t—”
“You’ve rushed into danger to protect me over and over, Flynn,” he said, almost hissed. “What the fuck kind of pathetic spineless snake am I if I can’t be bothered to return the favor just once?”
“You’re exhausted, Sexton,” I shot back. “You were attacked literally last night. It’s a miracle you’re standing, let alone going off to tilt at windmills. It might not even be a giant.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, and for a minute I was afraid he was going to make another shitty comment about how dragons didn’t need books, but I supposed if he didn’t read books, he hadn’t even understood the reference.
Instead, though, he shook it off. “Well then, come along, Quixote.” He turned and looked at Davin, lifting an eyebrow. “Panza.”
And frankly, I knew when I’d been bested. I shut up and headed toward the other side of the island.
It reminded me of the first time we’d been there, when we had crash landed on the other side, marching across it, hoping for the best, not even initially realizing we were in the right place.
At least, I hadn’t realized it right away.
But this time, we were headed toward the . . . crash? Dragon?
Who knew.
The island was beautiful, even in the dark, and Davin held my hand, so as far as I was concerned, there was nothing wrong in the world.
Well, not until Twist spoke up from his shoulder. “The dragon smells of pain and blood. Like predator turned prey.”
That was a dunk in cold water.
“It must have been injured, then,” Sexton said, responding directly to her words. Sometimes I forgot that as a dragon, he also understood the animals. I was so used to being the only one. “Do you think it crash landed?”
“Given how little we know about dragons actually turning into dragons, it could be anything,” Davin said.
It was only then that I noticed a bobbing light right in front of us.
Turning, I searched out the source and found mother’s pilot.
Paul, I was pretty sure his name was, walking just behind us, holding a huge flashlight.
When I lifted a brow at him, he shrugged.
“Seemed like maybe you could use somebody to hold the light, even if you can handle a fight as well as your mother.”
“Oh, no one can handle a fight like Mother,” I denied with a chuckle. “But I can handle one, if I have to.”
“More like your kitten can handle it,” Sexton said, a tiny smirk on his face, and oddly enough, I enjoyed that.
Apparently we were like that now. Like . . . real cousins, exchanging playful insults that weren’t aimed at sore spots or intended to hurt. “I mean, she could take any of us in a fight.”
He paused and considered, glancing at Davin, then nodded. “I suppose she could.”
Poor Paul looked confused as hell, but he didn’t question anything.
We came around the end of the island and there . . . there, in an area of flattened sand the size of a dragon, lay the body of a man.
“A crash landing, then,” Davin said, and while it was almost a whisper, we all heard him, because everything around us had gone silent except for the continuing footfalls of the four of us walking toward the fallen man.
And then there was the rushing in my ears that wasn’t the ocean. No, it was my own blood, as it surged. My breath caught, and I started walking faster as something . . . something pinged, deep inside me.
Familiarity.
Connection.
“His face, Paul.” I said, and I was shaking so hard I was surprised the words came out comprehensible. “Put the light on his face.”
Paul complied easily, and the bright beam of light fell across pale, bloodied features that weren’t new at all. Weren’t a stranger.
I broke into a run.
Behind me, Sexton gasped.
I slid to a stop on my knees in the sand right next to him, and immediately jammed my fingers to his neck, my digits clumsy and too fucking slow and useless.
There was a pulse.
Thready and weak, but there. He was pale and limp, but his heart was beating. He was wearing fucking rags that might have been clothes once, but looked more threadbare than any actual rags I’d seen in my life.
But he was there.
My hands fluttered uselessly over him for a moment as I tried to think of what to do next. Finally, I held my fingers just above his mouth and nose. One soft warm breath. Two. Steady.
He was breathing and his heart was beating.
Light brown hair. Tall and slender. Slightly elfin, delicate features. Hollow cheeks notwithstanding, he was a handsome man who looked no older than twenty or thirty.
He was alive.
And he was my father.