Page 41 of Avelina

Ward didn’t have a belt, and the tunic only reached to mid-thigh. He looked like Ebenezer Scrooge in his sleeping gown.

Aaron had to look up at him too. “You grew,” he said, his face impassive.

“You didn’t,” Ward replied, his voice teasing.

Aaron pulled up one side of his mouth and rolled his eyes, then walked toward the dead dragon, presumably to collect our next meal. Over his shoulder, he said, “I hope the brambles in the oardoo fields don’t hurt your feet. Too bad I don’t have any boots to give you.”

Ward met my eyes, sighed, then bent down and picked up Aaron’s pack, strapping it to his own back so Aaron could carry the massive dragon.

“Here we go,” I mumbled to myself. Both men looked at me at that. I rolled my eyes. Stupid super hearing. I put my pack on and turned to wait for Aaron and his bloody dragon.

Chapter Thirteen

Linorra watched Syndeth fly away with a heavy heart. She could not understand why he didn’t want to be her friend anymore. The sun reflected off his scales in bright blue, crimson, and gold, like handfuls stolen from a treasure chest and flung wide. “Go, my treasure,” she said to the sky. “Be free.”

We walked for about two hours. Or, rather, the big and tall men did. I had to jog to match their pace. Aaron hurried now, impatiently looking back to see if I kept up. I did, sort of, but I carried the oil lamp, and it was hard to do that and jog at the same time.

“How old are you really, Ward?” I asked, wanting to distract myself from the growing concern I had over Aaron’s new attitude.

Ward had to think about it. “We don’t celebrate birthdays on Monash, but I think I had just turned fifteen when I came to you.”

“Twenty-six, then, same as me,” I said. “We celebrated your birthday, sort of. We used the date we found you.”

He smiled back at me. “That’s true.”

“But we only gave you bones and chew toys,” I said.

“And a cake that one time,” he said.

“Oh, yeah! I forgot about the cheesecake. I had one piece and then you scarfed down the rest so fast that you got it inside your nose, and you couldn’t stop sneezing.”

“Yeah, and then you laughed so hard that you dropped your piece on the ground, and I ate that too.”

“Ha, that’s right! You gained a lot of weight that first year before I learned to stop giving you so much people food.”

“You never stopped doing that,” he said.

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. You loved—”

“French fries!” we said together.

“Earth has amazing food,” Ward said. “I’m going to miss that.”

“Why? Aren’t you coming back?”

There was a pregnant pause. Aaron grumbled under his breath again, but I only have normal hearing and couldn’t tell what he said. I heard a loud crack and guessed that it was one of the dragon’s leg bones breaking in his grip.

Me and my big freaking mouth. “Do you have family here, Ward?” I asked.

Ward sighed. “I’m not sure,” he said. His voice was low, almost desolate, making me think that something might have happened to them.

Seleca.

Aaron didn’t contribute to the conversation, but he stopped grumbling. I decided to change the subject.

“Ward, what is the ghost fragment called?”

“Conjuration,” he said.

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