Page 49 of Entwined

I buckle them quickly, feeling much more secure. “This will make a quick dismount hard.”

There’s a latch.

I realize that he’s right. If I want to hop off quickly, there’s a simple lever I can flip and the straps will slide open. “Smart.”

For a beast, anyway.

I run one hand gently over the bright red scales on one side of his body, and the bond slides into bright green. “You like that, huh?”

I like you.

A shiver runs through me. It’s a strange feeling, affection for a horrible beast, but it’s there nonetheless. Maybe my mother was right. Maybe I’ve been broken all along. What normal human could like a dragon like him right back?

I crouch forward, pressing my body flat against the saddle, and then I slide my hands into the grips. Without even checking in, Azar’s muscles bunch, and he shoots straight up into the sky.

Once, at Universal Studios, I rode the Doctor Doom ride. It shot straight up before dropping like a rock. This ascent makes that one look like a kiddie bungee. But we finally reach a height Azar deems to be high enough—probably still visible, but impressively high. And then he circles in lazy swooping motions, slowly descending to the main hall.

I told each group to send twenty blessed.

“Even the earth blessed?” I ask. “How will you explain the lack of their prince?”

He’s preparing last-minute departure details for me.

No one ever wonders about that?

It’s an impossibility for us to take two shapes or possess two affinities, so no one questions it.

He’s lucky about that, but it makes me wonder. We’re getting close enough to the enormous meeting hall that I ask on a private telepathic channel. It’s harder for me, but I need to learn. Are you sure it would be bad for people to find out? Maybe they’d all be in awe.

The bond darkens to a near-blood red color. The blessed do not welcome new things. And even worse than new things are weaknesses. As it is, my friendship with Axel is seen as a bizarre quirk. If people knew I was Axel, they would see it as a weakness that needed to be expunged from the royal line.

Expunged.

That’s not good.

I suppose he knows the dragons better than I do.

As we land, the bond color doesn’t lighten, so I release one of the grips and stroke one hand down his side again. It works. Blood-red becomes grey. It’s not green, but at least it’s better.

Welcome, blessed and bonded. In a few hours, we’ll leave Houston, but this celebration, a human gathering in which they express gratitude for what they have, will also serve as a celebration of our successful return to Earth. We will soon be moving forward into the next step of our recovery attempt, but we will do it confident that nothing the humans can send our way will endanger our mission.

As if they all got some memo that I missed, every single dragon in the gathering looks straight up at the sky and screams, a bizarre bugling sound that differs for each creature. Some are clear and quite lovely. Some sound more like the grinding of gears. But all of them are expressing their support of their leader, and I suppose that’s good enough.

Even Hyperion adds his roar to the cacophony.

Only Azar remains silent.

I sit up straight and pat Azar’s neck. I’m not sure how he’ll feel about this, but I feel like, as his entwined, I ought to say something as well. “Today, humans often express the things they’re most grateful for, so I’ll take this chance to express how grateful I am for the safety and health of my mother, my sisters, and my brother. I appreciate all of your support in keeping them safe.”

“I’m grateful for Gordon,” Sammy says without missing a beat. “At school, the other kids used to make fun of me because I talk different. But Gordon never does, and he always plays any games I want to play.”

When I glance sideways, I notice that Gordon’s in his snake-brown shape, coiled up next to Sammy. Even surrounded by all these other dragons, my little brother doesn’t seem the least bit nervous. I’m sure that’s because his guard is here. I wish I felt more confident that Gordon could keep him safe if it came down to a fight.

“I heard that when we leave, the humans who aren’t bonded will be allowed to remain,” my mother says. “Is that true?”

Yes, we’ve decided— Azar turns to look back at me. —that it would be for the best if the Houston humans were left here. We’ll find new humans in Iceland to serve you as needed.

“We put a lot of effort into training these,” an electro dragon bonded I’ve met but can’t name grumbles at the end of the long table.