Chapter 9 #2
An earth dragon I don’t know answers him. He’s black, large, and has feathers around his face. It looks less strange than I would have expected. Hyperion, Gordon, and Asteria returned to Australia at the start of the attack.
I can’t help blinking. “Hyperion went back right away?”
Thunar had launched to the skies, drawing away as many vanir as he could. Hyperion made a portal afterward and returned with all the humans interested in being bonded who could hear his call.
That makes sense, actually. It was smart not to lose them in a fight with the vanir. It’s still strange he went back, though. Hyperion’s not much for missing a fight. But also. . .
“Do you think he went back to keep Coral safe?” I ask. “Because if that’s why. . .”
You might be finding a new appreciation for my otherwise difficult brother? Azar’s head swivels around so he can look at me, and he has one eyebrow raised.
I shrug. “Maybe.”
As long as you like me better.
“You know, people will tell you size doesn’t matter.” I chuckle. “But I really like my men to be big, and he is bigger than you.” I can’t help it—making fun of him when he has no idea what the joke refers to fills me with glee. It’s probably a character flaw.
Of course he’s bigger. Azar would definitely be muttering if he were speaking aloud, based on his sulky tone. He’s older. But you said you liked that Axel was closer to your size.
I pat his neck, deciding I’ve tortured him enough. Now that I know my siblings are almost certainly safe, kept that way by their bonded, I’m in a better mood.
Right up until Thunar drops below the cloud level. Now that was fun. I didn’t realize massive dragons the size of apartment buildings could smile, but apparently he can. I’ve missed war.
He’s missed. . .war?
I suppose I can almost relate. I did enjoy roasting those vanir, or you know, getting them all roasted.
It would probably have been more fun if I was doing the roasting instead of playing bait.
“How many vanir were there?” I ask. “Do you think they knew we’d be here?
Or were they attacking the people of Finland and our presence surprised them? ”
Thunar lands in the courtyard, taking up half the space. You let your earth child talk too much.
She asks all the same things I would ask, Azar says. Are you planning to answer?
A hundred? Maybe a hundred and fifty? He snorts. They were shocked we were here. It makes me believe they’ve been attacking the earth children in small bands for some time. Have they not told you?
We’re in Australia, Azar says. My guess is the vanir weren’t up to portaling, and they’ve stuck close to Iceland which is where they were released.
“Besides,” I say. “It’s not like we told the humans we released the vanir from the volcano in Iceland. The humans would think the vanir were just more blessed. Why would they tell us what we’re doing?”
So they’ve been secretly turning more humans against us? Azar sighs. That’s not great. We should tell someone about it.
“But for now, we should get back.” I’m not going to say it in front of Thunar, but I won’t rest easy about the kids until I’ve seen them.
We did send another few hundred brights back, Thunar says. So it wasn’t a wasted trip, and I believe we only lost a dozen or so blessed in this attack. The vanir are weakened and easy prey. His smile is disturbing, but if we have a lot of vanir to fight, I’m not as sad to have him here.
Thunar has his flaws, but he looks like a killing machine.
I’m a killing machine, Azar says.
I forgot how annoying it is that your entwined can hear every single thing you think.
Hey. Azar tosses his head. Are you portaling us back or am I?
Thunar probably believes the head toss was at him, but I know he was irritated by my thought that he’s annoying. Serves him right for being a snoop. I’m not hearing his every thought.
You should learn to shield better, Azar sends me on a private channel. Then I won’t be forced to hear every petty thought of yours either. But the bond is bright green, so I know he’s not really annoyed.
I’ve missed that.
My color barometer for how he’s feeling.
Thunar opens a portal and crashes his way through it.
You know, I send to Azar. I’m happy he’s attacking and portaling and whatnot. As the other blessed limp, fly, and hop their way through the portal Thunar opened, I realize that while only a dozen or so may have died, many of Azar’s people are injured.
The bonded ones can eat and recover.
Thunar’s going to wear himself out, and he’s still not bonded. I can’t help my glee. Maybe he’ll puke soon and die.
Nothing ever works out that easily for me, Azar says. With my luck, he’ll bond someone we know, like your mom, and then you’ll be begging me to keep him alive.
Or my dad. I can’t help my laugh. That would suck.
Now that we’ve joked about it, I can’t help being relieved that we’re halfway across the world from both my parents.
In fact, other than my siblings who are already bonded, I don’t know a single person in Australia, other than the ones I either brought over, like Norm, or have met since flying here.
Even so, it’s nice to get back home when we land in the Northern Territory.
Instead of winging my way back to our house, I let Azar fly me.
“What about our other stops?” I ask. “Aren’t we late for them, now? ”
“We rescheduled the other meet-and-greets for tomorrow in light of the attack.” George is waiting on the open porch on the beach edge of our home. I can’t say I love having people waiting to talk to us all the time, but I suppose heavy is the head that wears the, er, recovery leader crown.
“Did they say whether there were other attacks?” I frown. “I asked Thunar, but he just flew off. Or, you know, flew through the portal he made. Not much for talking, that one.”
“He looks more like he’s made for roasting and rending.” But George sounds more wistful than horrified. I feel a little sorry for his dragon. He said he wanted a flame blessed, and now there’s one right here. Thunar would eat George and never look back, but the human heart wants what it wants.
“George,” I snap. “Have you talked to anyone else? Are the vanir attacking elsewhere?”
He nods slowly. “I’ve only called a handful of other countries—Sweden, Norway, and Russia, though Russia still hasn’t called back.”
“And?”
“Small attacks in both Sweden and Norway. Finland has apparently had several over the past few days, but they didn’t want war with the dragons, so they hadn’t said anything about it when we set up the meeting with the brights.
” He blinks. “Apparently many of the humans who volunteered to be bonded were thinking this may be the best way to stop the attacks.”
I slide off Azar’s back. “It’s time for us to get ahead of this.” I whip open my phone and open the video file. “We need to announce who the vanir are, and explain that we’re totally different from them.”
“We should talk this over,” George says.
“We spend too much time talking and not enough time doing.” I hit record. “Hello, citizens of earth. Liz Chadwick here, human bonded to Azar Flame Blessed. I’m alive, so is he, and yes, I now have wings.”
George takes the phone. “Let’s start over, and I’ll hold the phone at least.” He rolls his eyes. “Or, you know, we could wait two hours and do a proper press conference.”
I watch what I recorded, and it’s fuzzy and not at all stable. It’ll probably give everyone in the world a headache. “Fine. We can do that.”
“Liz?” Coral pokes her head around the corner. “You’re okay?”
I forget about my phone and all the rest and jog down the hall. I wrap my arms around Coral so tightly that she grunts. Even so, I don’t release her, not until Jade clears her throat, and Sammy laughs.
“I’m glad she saw you first,” Sammy says.
I’ll never get tired of hearing him say gwad instead of glad.
“She might have killed me.” Kewwed me. Ha.
I love this kid. I squeeze him to death next. And then I crush Jade, too. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” I breathe into Jade’s hair.
“Please,” Coral says. “I think Hyperion’s more scared of you than that ugly, bully brother of his. He almost shot home when those nasty critters attacked.”
It makes me smile to hear it. “Good.” I pat the hilts of my swords. “He knows who to fear.”
Coral laughs. “Anyway, we missed everything exciting. Did you guys get rid of them?”
I tell them how I flew upward, slowly, loudly, and then Azar roasted them all.
“See?” Coral kicks the wall. “We should’ve stayed. I could’ve done that, and Hyperion’s at least as good at flaming things as Azar.”
I roll my eyes. “You have wings, do you?”
She frowns. “How am I ever supposed to get them if Hyperion races home every time there’s a single villain to attack?”
“I didn’t get these in a fight,” I say.
“Yeah, you got them when you jumped into a volcano,” Sammy says. “But we aren’t close to any of those anymore.”
“You guys are so small.” I hug the three of them at the same time. “I love you so much, and I know it’s hard to wait, but you need to grow and learn a little before you go charging into battles. Okay?”
They’re all glaring at me just a little, but I think it’s kind of like when you hug a cat. They act like they hate it, but really, they can’t entirely hate it. They must like it a little bit at least.
“Liz?” It’s George again.
“I thought you left.”
“I did, and I set up the press conference—ninety minutes from now. But there’s a very persistent person on the phone. He insists you’ll want to talk to him.” He taps the phone. “I’ve muted the line, because it’s a little strange. He insists he was your boyfriend.”
It has to be Gideon. “Hang up on him.”
“The thing is,” George says, “the United States President called me. This Gideon person is his new Secretary of Defense. He says this is urgent. He told me not to hang up, even if you told me to.” George bites his lip.
I think I’m giving him an ulcer. “Fine.” I hold out my hand for the phone.
I forbid it, Azar says. That’s the man who killed you and me. Right?
I laugh. “You don’t even remember him and you hate him.”
“Gideon’s not usually bad,” Sammy says. “He’s just having a few bad months.”
You’ll hear every word, I tell Azar. I have to see what he wants.
Why would he tell anyone he was your boyfriend?
I think he still believes you’ve mind-controlled me into liking you. I sigh. I’ll just see what the United States wants and get off the line.
I hold out my hand, and George puts the receiver into it. “Hello?” I can’t help sounding a little droll.
“Liz?” Yep, definitely Gideon.
“That’s me,” I say. “Brainwashed valkyrie whore of the red-demon dragon Azar, at your service.”
“I’m sorry for trying to ambush you.”
“And for killing me and Azar? Are you going to apologize for that next?”
“Look, we have a lot to talk about, but—”
“Actually,” I say. “We have nothing to talk about. You and I? Our days of talking things through are over.”
He sighs. “I’m calling as the Secretary—”
“Of defense,” I say. “I heard. Or should I say, I heard, your royal majesty?” I snort. “I hope you’re happy with it. Looks like you’ve come a long way in just a few months.”
“No,” Gideon says. “Liz, just listen.”
“Only if you promise to call me a valkyrie whore. Titles are important, you know?”
“Twenty million people have already evacuated from Canada to the United States. We aren’t sure how many more are alive.”
“What?”
“We thought you were attacking Canada, but the Australian Prime Minister insists it’s not the dragons who call themselves the blessed. He says these are different dragons, dragons that escaped from a volcano in Iceland.”
“Dragons I released,” I say. “It was the only way to recover their heart—the heart that keeps the dragons alive was keeping the vanir trapped in that volcano, so yeah. That’s true.”
“He said he watched you and Azar destroy fifty or sixty of them as if it was nothing earlier today.”
“That’s also true,” I say. “And Azar’s older, nastier brother—”
“Hyperion?” Gideon asks.
“I wish. No, we have a new group of ‘blessed’ who have come to earth, and it looks like another even larger force is currently en route. Thunar’s the older, nastier brother. Hyperion’s actually kind of a baby doll, it turns out.”
A baby doll. If I tried to call him that three weeks ago, I’d have choked. I’m sure Gideon’s at least as confused as I would have been.
“Hyperion’s also now bonded to Coral, so I won’t be sending them into any insane battles anytime soon.”
“He’s—how could you have let that happen?”
“Yes,” I say. “You know, in this epic battle of titans and thieves, I’m the power player who dictates all the terms. I just sat down and thought, maybe now, I should bond my tiny little sister to the biggest, baddest dragon on earth.
” I want to throw the phone across the room, or better yet, at his smug face.
“I didn’t want her to bond him, but here we are, okay? ”
He grunts. “I guess the Chadwick girls don’t always do as they’re told.”
“An understatement,” I say. “But in this case, why did you call?”
“I called as soon as I heard the dragons we were fighting might not have been yours.”
“And what exactly are you telling me to do this time?”
“I’m not telling you anything.” Gideon sounds. . .almost broken. “I’m. . .” He clears his throat. “I’m begging here, Liz. If you and your dragon posse don’t fly out here and help us, I think these vanir you released are going to destroy us all.”
I’m afraid he might be right. But when I turn toward Azar, he does not look inclined to help the very country and people who tried to—wait, who actually did kill us. “I’ll talk to Azar,” I say. “But I can’t promise anything. I’m not the boss of much over here.”
“I don’t believe that for a moment,” Gideon says. “But I do understand. We haven’t exactly earned a right to your help.”
“I’ll have George reach out.”
“Whatever you decide, let me know as soon as possible,” Gideon says. “They’ve already wiped out the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, most of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and they’re moving south into Alberta and British Columbia now.”
It’s the invasion we thought was happening the first time, and technically, it is the blessed’s fault. If we hadn’t taken the heart, they’d never be free.
So, in a weird way, Gideon was right all along.