AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Alright,” I say. “Let’s get you all settled. Axel and I have to leave soon, but I want to make sure you’re alright first.”
“Leave?” Gideon freezes, turning around carefully. “Where are you going?”
“You know there’s a volcano here,” I say. “We have some recon to do there.” I’m not about to tell him I’ve already been, and that I want to see whether more little demons will spew out if I poke it harder.
He would definitely not approve.
“I’ll come.” He turns and crosses his arms over his chest.
Axel snorts. “And if one of the demons attacks, you’ll do what? Distract it with your soft human body?”
“Demons?” Gideon’s entire face turns red, and he stiffens.
Whoops.
Now we’ll have to pry him off Azar’s leg when we try to fly away. I realize in that moment how much more annoying it will be here than it was in Houston for us to manage the Axel/Azar thing. Instead of being almost a hundred floors up, with only a handful of strike blessed even able to reach that level, we’re now on the third floor of a building that’s in the center of activity on the main river in Selfoss.
I’m glad we got the dragons out of Houston, and I’m delighted that the humans here evacuated. But making our own meals and him having to wander around as Axel until we can find a place where no one else can see us is going to be really irritating.
I wish we could, at least, tell Gordon and Rufus.
But Axel’s reasoning is sound. They’re loyal, and they’d be unlikely to see Azar as weak for his connection to them, but they’d also be a weak link. Any of the other dragons could simply filet them until they divulge his secret.
Not that anyone would know to do that.
But the more who know, the more ways the information can slip out. The only way to keep a secret is to really keep it. It takes me forever to convince Gideon that Axel was kidding about the demon, and then another twenty minutes to get them all settled on their side of the building.
Axel insists that I sleep for at least an hour, which annoys me, knowing that Hyperion may still be guarding the exit from the volcano, but I do need it. My eyes are burning. When he finally wakes me, which he does do after right around an hour, it’s the early morning, and we’re still stopped six times on our way out of Selfoss.
“I can’t believe none of you ever sleep,” I say. “It’s wild to me.”
By the time we’re finally far enough from Selfoss for Axel to shift into Azar, it must be close to dawn. It’s been long enough since we had our moment that I don’t even know how to broach talking about what happened or what he said. It makes it easy to cling to his neck the whole way there without talking. And when we reach Eyjafjallajökull, Hyperion’s still there, as I feared.
We left him there without so much as an explanation for hours.
What’s the plan? It doesn’t look like he’s moved since we left, and shockingly, he doesn’t even sound annoyed.
“Have you been here this whole time?” I ask.
I didn’t want more of those little beasties escaping. He straightens. I thought you’d be back sooner. What took so long?
It’s not like we can explain that we had to run halfway here before Azar could shift on either end. “It was my brother and sisters,” I say. “We had to find a place for them to stay that was safe and large enough for Axel and the others.” I’m kind of proud of myself every time I use Axel as though he’s back there while we’re here. “And we had to get the power turned on before the storm hits. Not everyone can make their own heat.”
If he’s annoyed, he hides it well. Maybe dragons are used to waiting around. How are we going in?
It’s too bad Azar can’t switch into his human form and just walk in beside me. It would be the easiest solution. But, que sera. “I’ll go in first, and?—”
Both Hyperion and Azar react immediately, trumpeting loudly. I’ll take that as their refusal to allow that.
“But neither of you will fit through the tunnel,” I explain reasonably. “And even if we brought one of the smaller earth blessed, they won’t fit near the end. It gets narrower and narrower as you walk toward the center.”
I can go back and send Axel, Azar starts.
I shake my head. There’s no way Hyperion won’t think it’s strange if only Axel comes back. It would definitely raise questions.
As if that weakling could even help her, Hyperion says. I know you like him, but. . . He shakes his head and snorts, plumes of smoke puffing up from both nostrils. We can just widen the opening.
“It’s long,” I say. “You could take down half the mountain in the process.”
