Page 5 of Dragon’s Ending

Teddy thrust his free hand into the pocket of his coat and pulled out an average-sized pine cone. A muddy, average-sized pine cone.

“It’s the biggest one ever! Like the king of pine cones.”

“That’s a lot of pine cone,” I agreed.

“You can have it if you want,” Teddy said, and he meant it.

And God, Teddy was what, five years old? Just a dragonet. Yet the generosity and trust with which he was offering me something so precious to him left me almost dizzy.

“You keep it,” I said, rising to my feet and fighting a sudden, odd urge to ruffle Teddy’s blond hair. I didn’t know where that came from, but only his mother should do that. “Start a collection,” I added, and Teddy’s face lit up.

“Well, thank you very much,” Rae said, doubtless envisaging a bedroom full of pine cones.

With a grin to myself, I turned back to Teddy. “But they’re best when they’re dry, so maybe don’t take the muddy ones home? Except for this one, of course—everyone needs a foundational pine cone.”

Teddy beamed as he clutched the pine cone to his chest, smearing mud over his coat.

“See you later,” I said, aiming it at both of them and turning away.

“Aren’t you—” Rae stopped as I swung back, raising my eyebrows. “I mean, isn’t it almost supper?”

I shrugged, not because I didn’t know but because I didn’t care, and left her staring after me.

I was in the village high street before I knew it, with dusk closing in and the streetlights flickering on. The place wasn’t large enough for the local authority to justify lights, but as they made it harder to spot dragons overhead after dark, Rhodri had pulled strings. Even the fucking streetlights answered to him.

Pulling out my phone as I reached the pub, about the one place where I was guaranteed a signal, I sent a text to the group chat.

9pm tomorrow.

Heath responded instantly. I’ll be there 9.30.

God, he just couldn’t help himself, could he? It was probably why I liked him.

Answers came in from everyone else, confirming. It was one of my few rules that all of this had to go through text. No one was allowed to mention it out loud, just in case we were overheard. One of the downsides of living in a house surrounded by family, some of whom were way too nosy for their own good.

I couldn’t wait for tomorrow. I needed it. My dragon needed it. Like that urge I’d had to ruffle Teddy’s hair, I wanted to comfort my dragon for having to wait. But only mothers of small children gave comfort—it was weak.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and thought about returning to the house. To where that strange dragon waited, calm and inscrutable. Whatever business had brought him here, he knew more about it than I did.

Which was a fucking insult in itself.

Chapter Three

BEN

The alarm sounded on my phone, warning me it was ten to seven. I’d found Glenys earlier and she’d led me to understand, without saying the actual words, that it would be an irredeemable sin for me to be even one minute late for supper. Which, in this house, appeared to be spelled with a capital S.

She’d told me to use the back door as I came and went from the car, that no one except immediate family was allowed a key to the front door. And then I’d thought to ask her for the Wi-Fi password, because even standing on the bed with my phone stretched up to the ceiling hadn’t got me so much as one bar of signal. She’d paused. “I’ll have to check with Mr Bedwyr.”

What? Did she not know it herself? Or was life here so restricted that the head of family decided who could be entrusted with the Wi-Fi password? No, that would be an impossible way to live. It must be that Glenys was being overly cautious around a strange dragon from a family they didn’t know.

“Of course,” I’d said with a smile. “This is something of an unusual situation.”

She’d made a shushing motion, as if to stop me talking about it. I’d retreated, hoping that password would be forthcoming soon.

And now I was changed into a pair of dark brown chinos and a cream shirt, because if supper was what it seemed to be, I got the impression that turning up in sweatshirt and jeans wouldn’t go down well. Thank God I’d thought to pack for almost every eventuality I could think of. One of the problems about deciding what to bring for this stay was that, until I saw how many records this family had, I had no idea how long I’d need to be here.

If Mortimer hadn’t persuaded Rhodri to let me in, I wouldn’t have had a hope of getting near these records. And the thing was, no one knew why Mortimer had pulled these strings. His family was immensely influential and rich, and if something didn’t bring them power or profit, they rarely looked at it twice. It made sense that they were in banking, I supposed, given how hard it was to get a loan.