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I nod.
“We should get moving. We have a lot to do for Thanksgiving. I can’t believe you let me sleep that long.” She yawns and stretches, and for some reason, that makes me want to yawn. So I do.
I’ve never yawned before, and it’s a strange feeling, like stretching my face.
“You know, when I was a kid, my friend told me that if you wanted to figure out whether a guy likes you, you can yawn. If he yawns too, it means he was watching you, and he does like you.”
“Of course I like you,” I say.
That makes her cheeks flush. Humans still confuse me sometimes.
“Don’t you like me?” I tilt my head. “I mean, isn’t that why you said you’d kill a human for me?”
She hops out of bed, all shaky and agitated. “I didn’t say I’d kill a human for you. Don’t say it like that, like you could just say, ‘hey Liz, I need a human on the menu today,’ and I’d just go fetch you a fresh one.”
I can’t help my frown. “That’s not what I said at all.”
“And you know what? While we’re talking, I want my swords back.” She crosses her arms and glares at me.
“Get them yourself.” I stand up. Baiting Liz has become almost an art form, but I don’t have a lot of time for it today. “And then get dressed. We need to head over to the banquet hall and?—”
“The what?” Liz looks almost green.
“It’s in the Convention Center. The strike blessed peeled the ceiling off one of the large rooms, and they’ve had the humans prepare?—”
“Axel.”
Usually hearing her say my name sends a little shiver up my spine, but not today. Today, she’s annoyed. Today, she’s about to yell at me for something. Actually, that’s probably the more common way for her to say it. Last night was the real anomaly. Her breathy little sigh before saying my name made me shiver with pleasure. Last night, she said it like it was a prayer.
If she’s praying today, it’s not to me. I inhale slowly and brace myself for impact.
“It’s sunrise,” she says. “So if you have dragons peeling ceilings off buildings and destroying all the hard work of the humans who built it at dawn, where were you all night?”
That is not what I thought she’d say. I clear my throat. “I thought you’d be happy that I was out making plans. We have a lot to do before we can leave, and your brother wanted this Thanksgiving thing to be just right.”
Her smile this time is twice as bright as the good morning smile, and it makes me want to grab her with both hands and squeeze her until she squeals. “I should have said this yesterday, but thank you for listening to him. Thanks for letting us celebrate.”
She doesn’t say that they haven’t had anything to celebrate in a long time. She doesn’t have to say that. I know. And it’s our fault, so I just nod.
“But what kind of grotesque menu are your dragons putting together?”
“I think the humans are preparing the food,” I say. “And just as the blessed don’t need to sleep in the way that humans do, we do not have to eat as you do, either. We draw energy from the elements around us. The water blessed thrive in the ocean. The strike blessed thrive diving in the wind and sliding past the energy of the storms.”
“Are you saying they’re literally powered by lightning?”
“And the heat of the sun calls to me,” I say. “The earth blessed derive nutrition from the earth itself and from burrowing into it. As much as we gain from those places, we are not often called upon to consume flesh.”
“Thank goodness for small blessings,” she says. “But then, what should we prepare for the feast?” She frowns. “It’s not like I can put a lightning bolt on a platter or mound up piles of dirt.”
“Focus on feeding the earth blessed,” I say. “They’ll heartily eat anything you provide. The others will simply throng around the edges, happy to witness your tradition.”
“Yeah, and they’ll try to convince you to hand them my brother or sisters on a silver platter.” She drops her hands on her hips. “If you think I’m going to let any of your dragons bond-rape them, you’ve lost your mind.”
“Explain.” The word literally has something to do with human mating, I believe, but it’s not a word I really understand.
“Raping is forcing something on someone without their consent,” she says. “And actually, every single human who is bonded to a dragon was raped, including me.”
That accusation hurts me. “You still hate the bond?”
