Page 74 of Escaping my Dragon

Noah nudged me and pointed to the sky. “I hear jets. Likely checking out the scene before allowing any recovery planes and boats to come.”

“Better hope they arrive soon. Looks like there was some damage.” A few smaller structures had toppled, and indentations on the ground held water, but the main building appeared intact. Whether it would be usable remained to be seen.

“Dragons aren’t real,” Joslyn suddenly blurted.

“Of course, they’re not,” I laughed. “What a strange thing to say.”

Joslyn’s expression creased. “Sorry. I didn’t mean for it to slip out, only that phrase won’t stop running through my head.”

Oddly enough, me too. Dragons aren’t real.

“I’d say it’s likely safe to go check out the station. If we still have comms, I’ll put in a call to see the status on evacuation.” Noah took charge and, following his lead, we trekked down from the high ground, huffing and sliding. A climb we’d somehow made in haste and yet didn’t remember. Then again, much of this trip felt like a dream. Or, should I say, a blur. Parts of it remained clear. Like visiting the pyramid, and Blood Falls. Even my terrifying fall into that chasm. But I also felt like there were holes in my memories, a nagging discomfort that I did my best to ignore.

The building we’d been hunkering in somehow managed to stay mostly dry inside thanks to its weather-tight design. Just a bit of moisture by the main door required mopping.

Noah immediately jumped on the comms, whereas I aimed for a much-needed cup of coffee. As I sipped, I checked my phone and saw messages from Giles.

Can you resend the video you tried to send earlier today? It didn’t upload properly.

Today? I’d not sent anything. “Hey Joslyn. Giles needs you to resend whatever you were filming today.”

“Good luck with that.” She held up her camera. “It’s fried. Luckily, I have a spare.”

“What were you recording?”

“I’m not sure.” Her lips pinched. “Maybe I was trying to capture the tidal wave as it rolled in. Hopefully the memory card survived, but I wouldn’t count on it.”

“What about you?” I glanced at Vernon.

“Guess I smashed it when we fled.” His lips turned down. “Sorry.”

“Not your fault. This trip has been a clusterfuck. I cannot wait to be back home,” I grumbled. Only, that would mean leaving Noah behind.

He emerged from the office shaking his head. “You won’t believe why they cancelled the rescue flights. Apparently, the military thinks some mega monster with wings was attacking Antarctica.”

“What?” I snorted. “Who fed them that bullshit story?”

“Remember how they had some anomalies on the radar? They sent some jets for a peek, and apparently a giant monster took down two planes.”

“And we missed it?” Joslyn huffed. “Figures we’d be on the wrong side of the continent.”

“Actually, they claim it happened like a mile or two off this coast. But I don’t recall seeing anything. Do you?”

For a second, I saw a dark island rising from the cold waters.

Dragons aren’t real.

“Their equipment likely recorded some kind of blip because I’m pretty sure we would have noticed,” was my retort. “Any word on when they’re picking us up?”

“Not for a few days until they can be sure there’s no threat in the area.”

The only threat was I might die of pleasure—or never want to leave.

I put those days with Noah to good use, making love every chance we got, which turned out to be a few times a day since there wasn’t much else to do other than dive down a few conspiracy holes.

Lying in bed with Noah, I showed him a trending thread on X. “People are convinced a mega dragon awoke in Antarctica.”

“I heard. The pilot that started that rumor is going to be court martialed.”