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“I wish I had been able to see him one last time. There are so many things I want to say to him. I guess I’ll never get a chance now.” I exhaled deeply and got to my feet. “I was a crappy friend and a crappy son, but I have the opportunity to make up for it now. We can’t let this world die. It’s not what Dad would have wanted. Kadie is telling the truth, Brett.”
I looked down at him, and he looked up at me. I was moved by the hopeless look in his eyes. “And what does it matter, Buck? It’s not as if we can do anything to stop it. This has all been inevitable. In fact, it might be the way it’s always been meant to end, etched in stone from the very beginning.”
“I don’t believe that, and I don’t think you do either, not deep down. Kadie doesn’t. She risked her life to leave her thunder. It’s not like she can ever go back home. She betrayed her own kind to tell us this news so that we can stop it. Are we really just going to stand around and let the end of the world happen?” I asked.
Brett sighed. There was only one answer to that question. I stretched out a hand and left it there for an interminably long time before he took it. When he did, I pulled him up and we left our hands clasped. We looked into each other’s eyes, and I believed that we had reached a better understanding of things.
“Are you going to be able to put the past behind us? I can’t change what happened Brett, I can only promise that I’ll try and be better moving forward. I’ll try and be more like the man Dad wanted me to be,” I said.
“And I guess I can try and accept that you weren’t the only one to blame,” he said in a heavy voice.
“Take that anger and use it elsewhere. I think we’re going to need it,” I said. We nodded to each other and then took to the skies again, returning home.
Chapter Thirteen
Kadie
“Well, the world hasn’t fallen around us, so I don’t think they’re at war with each other,” Mason said after a time. I smiled and set my empty mug aside. It had been pleasant speaking with Mason, and it had made the time fly.
“It sounds like they’ve had a complicated relationship,” I said.
Mason arched his eyebrows. “That’s one way of putting it. I just hope they manage to set aside their differences. But we can only live in hope,” he smiled broadly and clasped his hands together. “Hopefully, they will be back soon and we can start to plan our way forward. Are you sure you don’t have any idea where Ilvar is going to strike?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I should have thought about this more. Maybe if I had stayed there a little bit longer, I might have been able to learn more details of his plan.”
“I think it was best that you got out when you did. Your survival instinct kicked in, and that’s something we need as dragons. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure it out. He’s going to need some way to get to the heart of the Earth, and there can’t be that many avenues to the core. It’ll just take some time to puzzle out the likeliest locations.”
“It almost sounds like you’re excited,” I said.
Mason smiled a genuine smile. His entire face lit up. “The truth is that I’ve always found it easier to deal with puzzles like these than actual people. I’ve never quite been able to figure those ones out.”
“Why do you think that is?”
Mason leaned back and contemplated the question for a few moments, as though he had never actually thought about this before. “I suppose it’s because puzzles follow a certain kind of logic. People are erratic and unpredictable. Just when you think you’ve noticed a pattern, they do something utterly unexpected that takes you by surprise, and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ve always preferred when things make sense. People don’t tend to do that.”
“No, I guess I’m a good case in point of that. I never thought I’d leave my home, or my father.”
“It must have been hard,” he said.
I nodded. “We’ve always been close, Dad and I. I always thought he had my back and that we understood each other. I thought he would always be there for me, but when I stood there, and he told me that he agreed that I should wed Ilvar he just seemed… different. It’s like I had been living a lie all these years and I just couldn’t understand how he could make a decision like that without talking to me about it first. I think he thought it was such an honor that there was no way I would ever turn it down. It makes me wonder whether I know him as well as I think I do, and maybe he’s asking himself the same question.”
“He might well be. I hope that you find a way to make amends with him though. You shouldn’t have to go through life knowing that you’ve turned your back on your father.”
“Buck has had to deal with that,” I said.
“How much did he tell you about what happened?”
I shrugged. “Not much.”
Mason looked towards the entrance, as though he was checking to make sure that nobody could overhear us. “It’s not really my story to tell, but I suppose since they’ve gone, I might as well fill you in. You have to know if you want to understand Brett and Buck. When we were younger there was a girl whom Brett loved. Her name was Tammy. He was utterly smittenwith her, and she felt the same way about him. But then, we started to get older and most of us started to change, including Tammy. Brett didn’t though. I guess he thought that things were just going to be the same forever, but they were never going to be. Tammy became wild, started hanging around with Buck more. Buck was always, well, you’ve been around him. He has this energy about him. It excites people, makes you think that anything is possible.”
I felt a shiver pass through me as Buck had indeed made me feel this way.
Mason continued, “We could all see what was happening, but Brett was blind. I don’t know if Tammy realized she was breaking his heart or not, or maybe she just wanted to make sure that what she had with Brett was genuine. Either way, she and Buck wanted to keep getting closer to the human world. One day they got too close. Tammy got hit by a truck. They used to play this stupid game where they would swoop down and try to alarm the humans. I guess they thought it was funny to imagine these drivers going home and talking about seeing dragons. It was immature, but it’s what they wanted to do. Tammy misjudged one and she got hit. She died. Buck came back with her body. He was shaken. I think, up until that point, life had always been a game to him, but then, he was suddenly hit with the harsh reality. Anyway, Brett was devastated. Zeke, Buck’s Dad, was irate that Buck had flaunted the rules and gotten another dragon killed. He sought to punish Buck and Buck lashed out, said that he couldn’t live like this anymore and that he was leaving. We never expected him to be gone forever. We all thought he would be back once his temper had subsided, but the days rolled by, and he never came back. It was clear that he was gone and, well, life had to go on. But Brett never forgave Buck for being the reason that Tammy died.”
“What about you?” I asked.
Mason let his gaze drop. “I think that she was her own person, and she made her own decision. I’ve tried telling Brett the same thing over the years, but he doesn’t listen. People have to be held to their own actions, right?” he shrugged. “It was a tragedy, but there was only one person who made Tammy swoop down that night, and it wasn’t Buck.” He paused for a moment and then placed his hands on his thighs. “So, you see, Kadie, you’ve come at quite an inopportune time. We’ve just lost our leader and we’re in quite some disarray, but we’ll try our best to help you.”
