The glow worms twitched overhead as Nik stared at Puff.
Well, no, that didn’t seem quite right anymore. What had the boss said his real name was? Joesen-hopping-on-a-fiat or something like that.
To the Maori, he would always be Great One. The name still managed to fit. This pale, sickly-looking guy continued to appear ethereal, like the magical being Nik knew he was.
Anna had been asking over and over for Joe, so the guy’s name was obviously Joe—it was to her at least.
But how could Nik call him Joe? It seemed wrong, like calling the governor-general by his first name. It seemed demeaning.
It was still Puff’s tormented thoughts swirling through Nik’s mind, no matter what they called him. A man lay as his feet, but Nik still saw a small, helpless dragon—someone he was bound to so deeply, that he’d known the second Puff made the choice to shift.
The pain had knocked Nik back and sent him whirling into a foggy abyss that continued long after Tyler had found Puff and Anna trapped part way down the mountain.
Nik woke hours later, dragged himself to Puff’s side, and took vigil, doing not much more than watching him breathe.
Every few minutes, Puff’s—No. Joe’s face, would contort.
Nik had learned by now that their bond had a two second delay, because right after Joe winced, Nik’s mind would explode in a cascade of sharp, slashing pain that seemed to cut into the very center of his being. Now, every time Joe moved, Nik grabbed the side of the nearest stalagmite, waiting for pain and nausea to overcome him. Sometimes it didn’t. Most times, it did.
He didn’t know what Tyler was doing with all the herbs and salve he spread on the kid’s pale skin, but all this ancient Maori healing stuff seemed to work wonders on Connor. For now, Nik could only hope the odd treatment would do the same for his boss.
Boss. That seemed an unnecessary title, things being what they were.
The one and only job Nik had ever done well was acting as a translator. But with Puff human again, the dragon hardly needed Nik anymore.
He pursed his lips. Say hello to another layoff. Even though he wasn’t getting paid, it still stung.
Joe groaned and Nik placed a cool cloth on his head. A wave of relief coated him, and he knew he’d done the right thing.
At least if he wasn’t needed to translate anymore, he could give the doc a decent barometer on the Great One’s health, since Nik could still pretty much feel every emotional switch, and he could definitely feel the little dragon’s pain.
Tyler sat beside him. “Any change?”
“You can’t tell looking at him, but I think he’s better.”
Tyler felt Joe’s cheek. “I think you’re right.” But a deep sadness grew in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”
“The gold dragons warned him not to exert himself for a reason. He’s hurt even worse now than he was when he fell from the sky.”
And with both Joe and Connor out of the picture, there was no one left to challenge Gale. Even worse for the mourning vet, there was no one left to save his daughter.
“But he’s going to get better, right?”
Connor limped through the door. The worm-light basked his face in a sickly glow. “He won’t heal in time for the close of the Seventeen Year.” He slumped to the hard ground. “Neither of us will.”
Damning the Draconi to another seventeen years of gray rule.
This was bad. Nik understood that, but somehow he was relieved to know everyone had lived to fight another day.
He glanced at Tyler. Well, almost everyone. It didn’t seem right to think that one girl was an acceptable loss with her father sitting right next to him. Nik needed to count something as a victory, though, or all of this would have been for nothing.
Tyler turned to Connor. “Have you tried to shift?”
Connor sneered at him. “Didn’t you hear me scream like a dying pig? Everyone else did.” He looked away. “No, I can’t shift.”
“What are you going to do?” Tyler asked.
“There really isn’t much to do.” Connor glanced at Joe. “I can probably go home once I heal, but he’ll have to live in exile.”
“Exile?” Nik asked.
Connor leaned back and rested his head on the stone floor. “Gale isn’t an idiot. Even if Anna is no longer on the islands, Gale will smell her on Joesephutus. That will be enough to prove he was hiding her.” He grimaced. “Gale will kill him for it.”
None of this seemed real. Nik felt caught within the plotline of a movie, not living in real life. And this wasn’t only about the dragons anymore. How long would the Maori be able to hide Joe before Gale found them and fried them all to cinders?
Joe groaned and blinked his eyes.
Connor winced, pushing back into a sitting position.
Joe’s creepy silver eyes widened. “Anna!” He sat up, then doubled over, grabbing his stomach.”
Tyler placed his hand on Joe’s back. “Sitting up like that is probably not the best idea. You really need to rest, Great One.”
“Where is she?” Joe rasped through gritted teeth.
“She’s fine. Resting. You saved her. Do you remember?”
Joe nodded, then accepted Tyler’s help easing back to the floor. He looked at Connor. “I’m glad to see you’re still breathing.”
“It takes more than a dragon ten times my size to clip my wings. You should know that by now.” He looked at Nik and Tyler. “I would like a moment alone with the boy.”
Nik stiffened. Not his reaction, he realized, but Joe’s.
Tyler tapped Joe’s shoulder lightly, rose, and disappeared into the dark corridor. Nik made to follow.
“No,” Joe said. “He stays. He’d hear everything through the Kotahi bond anyway. Better to have him here than feign privacy.”
Connor’s eyes narrowed. “Fair enough.”
Joe closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “You called me boy. You’ve never called me boy.”
“Because today, for the first time, you acted like a child.”
“I am a child.”
“You’re not!” The roar from Connor’s throat reverberated off the walls, as loud as if he’d taken dragon form.
The worm-light flicked out as if someone threw a switch, dropping them in complete darkness, before one by one, they began to glow again. The light betrayed Connor holding his head. They sat in silence until he raised his eyes.
“You doomed the Draconi. You realize that, don’t you?”
Joe forced himself into a sitting position. He held his right arm as if it were in a sling. “I couldn’t let her die, and I was too big to help her as a dragon. I had no choice.”
“You had every choice.” He pointed his chin at Nik. “You could have sent your fire-blasted Kotahi to help. He’s human, unless you’d forgotten. He would have fit through those trees.”
“I couldn’t send him.”
“Why?”
“Because he was busy saving you.”
Joe’s words hung in the air. Connor’s gaze shot to Nik, then back to Joe.
“I was careless,” Connor said. “You should have left me to my fate.”
“I wasn’t going to let you die for me.”
“And now you’ve damned us all. You could have been king.”
Joe stared at his friend. “Why do you push so hard? And why me? I’m no better that any dragon who took flight. If anything, I’m worse.”
Connor held the younger dragon’s gaze. “When you look into the water pool and catch your reflection, what do you see?”
Joe shrugged. “A dragon. A small one.”
“True.” Connor gathered his thoughts. “But what I see when I look at you, is hope. You are not jaded like the others. You don’t want power. You just want everyone to live in peace.”
“How does that make me a good king?”
“Because even in your idiocy, your recent actions still tell me that you will choose others over yourself, no matter the cost to you. I highly doubt anyone would say the same of Gale.” His eyes softened. “What you probably see as faults, are what the rest of us hold in high regard. If you had made it back to the mountain, others would have stood behind you.” He pointed to his chest. “I would have stood behind you.”
“I’m sorry I disappointed you.”
“I’m angry, not disappointed.” He sighed. “I can’t fault you for being exactly who I’d expect you to be.”
They stared at each other for a few moments. The obvious hung in the air—that none of this mattered, because there was a huge, brutal dragon out there, and neither one of them was in any shape to face him.
Joe pushed off his blankets and stood slowly. He stretched his neck.
Nik stood, steadying him. “Take it easy, boss. You’ve had a bad day.”
“This is encouraging,” Connor said. “You looked like you were going to die a few hours ago.”
Joe eased back to the ground. “Don’t get too excited. That was absolutely exhausting.”
“So, now what?” Nik asked.
Connor considered the twinkling worms above. “Now we wait, and pray we still have a home to go back to when the Seventeen Year closes.”