Page 18 of Zachary

“I’m not spying on you. The devices in the cave were placed for security purposes. There are a great many valuables in that vault.”

“So the village council knows they’re there? And surely Garrett—he’s in charge of the project, after all. He knows all about it?” I challenge. I know he doesn’t. He would have mentioned it.

She gives her head a sharp shake. “It was a unilateral decision. In matters of security, the more people who know, the bigger the chance of a leak.”

I can’t argue the logic of that statement. Fortunately, I don’t have to.

“Damaris,” Garrett begins firmly. His face is set, and I know he hates having to face her down. “Given that I am, in fact, in charge of the project—which is somethingyouinsisted on—I’m going to have to demand that you give me the details of any and all security measures you’ve taken. We can discuss it after dinner.”

Grandmother looks like she wants to argue, but she’s on shaky ground and knows it. She nods once.

“Um…” Cam half raises his hand. “Can I just ask… when was the bug put in the cave?”

We all look to Grandmother. “When the satellite connection was installed,” she says stiffly. “It would have been useless before then.”

“Oh. Phew.” Cam grins at Micah, who looks like he wants to be anywhere but here, and nobody at the table has any doubt that theydid thingsin the cave while Cam was solving the puzzle. I make a mental note to ask Micah which surfaces I need to sanitize.

Dinner breaks up then—nobody has much of an appetite after all that. I slip away while Garrett’s talking to Grandmother, hoping to avoid any further confrontation tonight.

The only good thing that happened was not having to listen to Grandmother shoot down the ski resort project—again—but this time in front of everyone who loves me.

CHAPTER NINE

Ronan

When I letmyself into my borrowed house that evening, I’m humming.Humming. I can’t remember the last time I hummed. I think I was small—and then Nurse told me humming was a common kind of thing to do, and I should stop.

I don’t have to worry about that anymore, though, and humming isdelightful. I may even sing one day soon.

I’m happy, and I’m not sure if I’ve ever been happy before. Not like this, anyway. I used to think I was happy, as a child, but with hindsight and perspective, I can see that my happiness was always earned. I would be happy when I was praised for doing something correctly or if I’d done something that pleased somebody else. I can’t remember ever being happy simply because I had a good time in good company, like today.

I strip off my outer garments, which Zoe teased me about wearing, now that she knows I don’t need them, and leave them on an armchair. I’ll tidy them away later—for now, the couch is calling, and I flop onto it gratefully.

Being happy is tiring. But it’s a good tired—I’ll gladly be this tired forever.

Zoe hustled me out of the house this morning, and since then, my day has been a whirlwind. She seems to know nearlyeveryone in the village, and they like her. To be fair, it’s hard not to like Zoe—she has this contagious energy that just makes you want to smile. She took me to the snow village first, and even though I’ve been there before, it was different with her. Partly because she built it and could point out all the little details and hidey-holes I’d missed, but also because she talks toeveryone. If she’s not calling out to them, they’re coming up to her. And she stuck to her promise not to leave my side—all day, she was saying, “Have you met Ronan? He’s my new dragon bestie,” or “You wouldnotbelieve how good his croissants are,” and including me in conversations. At first I felt awkward, but it got easier and easier when people were so nice. I spent the afternoon actually talking to people and getting to know them. Surprisingly few people asked me about being a dragon—they were more interested in where I’d been living, what work I do, and how things are going in the cave. One man wanted to know about my homeworld, but his wife shushed him and said, “You don’t need to answer that. We had to leave our home when we came here, and sometimes it still hurts to remember.”

I was grateful for her intercession, because the truth is, I don’t have a lot of firsthand information about the world I was born on. My whole life was spent in a series of compounds, supposedly for my safety. I’ve heard others talk about the tréghel trees and the plains and mountain ranges, about oceans so deep the water goes from palest pink to black. But I never saw them, and now I never can.

Then Zoe decided we should have dinner at the pub, and we trooped over there to find it already half full of people who’d had the same idea. I’ve eaten at the pub so many times, but this time when Arne hailed me and gestured to an open seat at the bar, Zoe waved him off and dragged me to a table.

A table.

I ate at a table. With a friend.

People kept stopping by to say hello, and not just to Zoe! Some of them came over to say hi to me, regulars that I see here all the time. One family was celebrating a birthday and offered everyone slices from the huge cake they’d brought, and Arne decided since it was a birthday party, we should have some dancing. I don’t know where the fiddle came from or who the person playing it was, but the music was fun. I even danced a little. I’m sure I looked like a fool, but nobody laughed at me.

It’s been a great day. Before we parted ways, Zoe suggested we plan a movie night for next weekend with Cam and Garrett. She hinted about inviting Asher and Micah too, but if we do that, we can’t leave Zachary out, right? Those three are close. I’d feel bad. And despite our agreement to get along better, I’m not sure if I’m ready to socialize with him. I want to see how this week goes first.

Truthfully, I’m not sure I’d be comfortable socializing with Asher or Micah, either. Especially Asher, after he witnessed the humiliating moment when Garrett asked if I might be speciesist. I could tell Garrett was sympathetic, but Asher, with his demon face, was harder to read.

So I committed to a movie night, but we’ve left the guest list open to negotiation for now. A movie night! With a friend! And other people who might become friends.

My phone rings, and I answer it without even looking at the screen. “Hello?”

There’s a tiny pause. “You sound happy,” Fabian says. “Have you been jerking off?”

“Fabian!” someone else exclaims, and I recognize the voice as Sophie, the dragon healer. “You’re not supposed toaskstuff like that.”

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