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A purple Air dragon was on a British dock.
“It’s got to be some kind of weird prop or sculpture,” my mother said.
“Is it dead?” one of my uncles asked.
Even Dad had gone quiet.
“Has to be,” someone else said. “It’s missing pieces. Something snacked on it.”
“What do we do now?” I whispered to Keon. “There’s a protocol for this, isn’t there?”
Keon held me tight. “Depends if she’s dead or not.”
Auryn moved closer to the screen for a better look. He put Keon’s phone to his ear and spoke to Hekon in Lemurian. I picked upbetter, but that was about it.
A scuffle broke out as British mounted police shoved their way through the crowd. The feeds and cameras all went crazy as people pushed, shoved, staggered, stumbled.
“Well, this is going to turn into a clusterfuck,” Dad said.
It took about ten minutes for the literal dust and smoke to clear, but in the end, the mounted police had set up a perimeter around the flatbed. The ship’s crew were still live-streaming, and a few press crews had gotten through the perimeter, it was just the main mob being held back. Apparently the ship’s crew was arguing with some UK Fish & Game equivalent about salvage rights and illegal fishing or whatever, while a few veterinarians now crouched next to Maren.
One of the ship’s crew forced his way onto the flatbed, talking about how he wasn’t going to let the government disappear the dragon into some lab.
I pulled away from Keon and walked out of the living room. I stumbled up to the first floor landing on the stairs and sat down on the step.
Akoni dropped next to me on the step while Keon stood on the landing, one eye on the drama unfolding not far away.
“I needed some air,” I said, the irony not lost on me. I took deep breaths, but my heart kept pounding. “Keon, what’s going to happen?”
“They’re deciding now.”
“Has anything like this happened before?” Akoni asked.
“Not in recent history, no. And I don’t know what Hekon’s protocol for this situation is. No topside has ever gone rogue. If you’re lost with no hope of rescue, you’re supposed to go human and let what come may. Maren didn’t do that, so this choice is deliberate. But Maren is also dead or close to death.”
“There’s a shelter in the basement,” I told Keon, “we—I don’t know how we’ll get everyone in there, but—”
“Rein in your thoughts.” Keon nodded towards my forearms.
My skin had flushed pink like I’d lost a fight with a waffle iron, but the flush ebbed and flowed with my heartbeat. “I’m not trying to do anything.”
“It’s all the adrenaline and cortisol.”
Auryn paced into the foyer where we sat. He handed Keon’s phone back. “She’s dying.”
“But she’s currently alive.”
“Barely. Hekon was able to clean up and parse the various feeds to get A’ka and I enough information. A’ka and I agree that she’s extremely close to death and beyond saving.”
“Even if you’re right, they’ll still have her body.” I laced my fingers behind my neck and bowed my head. After thousands of years, the dragons had finally been caught. At the exactworsttime to be caught.
“Helena?” one of the kids asked, peeking around the curve of the stairwell.
I raised my head.
“Where’d you go?” he asked.
“I needed some fresh air,” I told my cousin. He was what… eight? Nine? AndMarenmight get him killed. And would definitely get his civilization fucked.
