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The house had like fifteen doors that led to the outside, and four of them were on the back wing of the house.
The house itself, was shaped like a E, and we were on the top part of it that housed the great room, the kitchen, the breakfast nook, and a sun room.
The back stretch housed all of the bedrooms, and apparently ‘wings’ as the others liked to call them.
The entire place was fucking massive, and I found that there was always a buzz of activity.
But today—right now—there was none of that buzz. It was only the TV and the quiet chatter of talking.
“They said to go to the great room where y’all were—which is where Farrow took me, as you can see—and they’d leave once I was safe,” Macy explained quietly. “Was that bad?”
“They left without us,” I murmured, freezing in the doorway. “Skylar…” I started, turning my head to her. “Do you have security footage of the hospital?”
My eyes went to the mini clinic type structure that was housed on the ground floor with an exit to the side grounds, and I studied the area.
“Yes,” Skylar stood up. “You’ll have to come to my rooms, though. I don’t know if I can figure out Nikolai’s system off of his.”
“I can,” Brooklyn said. “But I still don’t see the problem.”
“There aren’t any dragons,” I said. “And where are the staff?”
“The dragons are on the back side of the property,” Shane—Merrick—said from the other side of the room. “They’re having a meeting.”
“What kind of meeting?” I turned to my old friend.
Mattie was at his side, and she had her fingers to her lips as she nervously bit away at her fingernails.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “You just asked where they were, and I told you.”
“You know where all the animals are?” I asked.
He nodded. “I do.”
“What else do you sense?” I pushed.
He looked at me like he wanted to say something more—like an apology—and I shook my head.
Now wasn’t the time.
I wasn’t sure when that time would come, but right now wasn’t going to be it.
Hell, next year might be too soon, too.
He chose to let me have that play, and closed his eyes, concentrating.
I remembered when he used to do this when we were younger.
I’d thought it was just him being a daydreamer. But low and behold, he’d had these abilities for almost as long as we’d been friends and had kept them a secret from Mattie and me all this time.
And I found that it really irritated me.
I would’ve never broken his confidence had he shared his news with me.
Yet, he’d chosen to keep it to himself, deftly keeping Mattie and I out of that part of his life almost as easily as he’d kept his real identity at bay.
“Forest creatures. Outside the perimeter. Nothing in here,” he murmured.
“In here, where?” I interrupted him.
“There’s a perimeter that rings the sanctuary about five miles out. It keeps all the baddies away,” Brooklyn explained, watching us with worried eyes.
I turned my attention back to Shane—Merrick.
Fuck, I’d never be able to get his name right in my head.
Not when he’d been ‘Shane’ to me for so long.
“What does it keep out?” I asked just as the room started to shake.
“Not dragons,” Skylar said as she walked to the window and looked out. “Not dragons.”
I walked with her to the window, and my breath stalled in my lungs.
“Oh, shit.”
Dragons of all shapes and colors started to file in over the sanctuary.
One. Two. Ten.
And they weren’t any I’d ever seen before.
“Merrick,” someone said from behind me. “What’s going on?”
I turned to find Merrick behind me, his eyes closed, and his body strung tight like a bow.
“They’re not…right.”
“What do you mean they’re not right?” I asked in alarm.
“He means that they’re not right…like me,” Macy whispered.
“What…,” Blythe started, but her words were quickly cut off by a startled scream that fell from her throat. “My babies.”
Then she was running, and we were all running behind her.Chapter 24Put your laundry away or I’ll punch you in the face.
-Note from Wink to Ian
Ian
“They’re not here,” Farrow said.
I looked around, staring at the empty cages.
They looked old and rickety, and not something that would’ve held any of our dragons.
What do you think? I asked Mace.
I think that you need to go home, he said easily.
Why?
Because all is not right, he replied.
What’s not right? I pushed.
Something.
Shaking my head, I looked over to Keifer. “I need to go.”
“Why?” He looked at me incredulously. “You have plenty of time to go do your thing.” He pointed to all the things I could go read. “You leave, we have nothing.”
I shook my head.
“Mace is telling me to leave. I trust his instincts,” I informed him.
Keifer looked at Mace who hadn’t gotten any closer than the copse of trees that outlined the edge of the property.
