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“Oh, did you want my help with some sort of quantum physics that could be done while I remain seated?” I ask. “My bad. Last I checked, my brain wasn’t very impressive, but I’m pretty handy with physical things. I just assumed.” I sit. “Alright, hit me with the details of the math problem that has you stumped.”
He arches an eyebrow. “You could tone down some of the snark.”
“And that would make me seem more like myself, would it?”
“I guess not.” He points at me. “But I need your word that you were just upset and freaking out earlier when you tried to kill me, and that you’re back to yourself.”
“If I had tried to kill you, you’d be dead,” I say.
“You made a decent show of it.” He looks pretty hurt.
“What if I can never go back to who I was?” Trying to only lie a little bit is hard.
“We need to know whether we can trust you.”
They must not have many other choices, or my word would not be something that they found very reassuring. “You need something, or you wouldn’t be here at all.”
“I’ve been authorized to lead you out of here, on a short leash, mind you, and if you come along politely, you can get a proper meal and a shower.” He touches his ear with one finger, and I realize he’s wearing an earpiece, getting commands even as we speak. “But then we’ll need your help with something in return.”
“With what?” I ask. “Because if you think that I’m going to scrub toilets or, like, do something degrading or embarrassing then. . .you’re right. I would do most anything for a shower at this point.” I force what’s probably a pained smile.
Gideon clearly suspects it’s an act, but he isn’t sure. “Nothing like that.” He gestures for me to follow him. “Come on out. You can shower, eat, and change into nicer clothes. And then I’ll show you what we need.”
“Whoa,” I say. “You’re going to pay me before I do the work? That’s not how life works.”
“This time it is,” he says. “Your willingness to help us is enough to get you paid.”
I don’t look the gift-shower in the mouth. I just follow him out. By the time I’m clean, fed, and finally warm, I’m just as upset as I was before, but I feel like I’m hiding it better. It’s hard to act like you’re fine when you’ve been pooping in a bucket.
“Alright, what do you want?”
“When we brought you here, you had two swords strapped to your back.”
Oh.
“Swords that, rumor has it, are able to pierce dragon scales.”
I shrug.
“Is it true?”
I nod.
“We’re able to move them.”
That makes me a little sad. I was hoping they’d be like Thor’s hammer or something.
“But when anyone tries to grip the hilt, it’s like the end of the sword becomes insanely heavy, and they fall to lodge, point first, in the ground. They’re very difficult to pry loose each time.”
They’re jacking up my swords with their experiments—ugh. “So, none of your soldiers are worthy?” I can’t help teasing him a little, and he’ll never buy that I’m fine if I don’t.
“Our scientists think it has to do with magnetic resonance—something they’ve also been able to detect in connection with some of the earth dragons, so they’d like to see what happens when you try to pick them up.”
Now that I’m no longer bonded to Axel, he means. “They think I could use them because I was bonded to an earth dragon?”
Gideon’s frustrated. “None of the scientists can agree, and to make matters worse, most of them weren’t even willing to travel here, this close to the dragons. A lot of their studies require soldiers to do things and then report back or show them what’s happening via a video feed.”
I can hardly believe what I’m hearing. “You’ve rejoined the humans, and now you’re running experiments for some eggheads in Washington over webcams?”
