Page 75 of To Match A Dragon's Fire

“Mom, I don’t want poison.”

“It’s not poison.” Willow sighed. “It’s just sourdough bread. Now eat, please.”

My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard.

“It’s not funny.” Laughter danced in Ember’s eyes as she passed me a sandwich too.

“I didn’t say it was.” I tried to keep a serious face as I took a bite, chewing the homemade bread andsliced cheese. Once I swallowed, I asked my burning question, “Why did you decide to leave this place?”

Ember shrugged with one shoulder as she took her time chewing, and then played with the edge of her napkin as silence descended around the table.

“It’s what you do,” she slowly started, not looking at me. “You leave the small town to see the big world. Go to college. Do something different with your life. My dad didn’t ask me to stay, but he always said I’d come back. If I’d known how close he was to the end, maybe I wouldn’t have left.”

“None of us know when the end of anything is.” Willow rested her hand affectionately on Ember’s arm as Riley nodded from across the table.

I swallowed past the lump of dry bread stuck in my throat, reaching for the water.

They wore their sadness so openly and gave comfort just as easily. I felt like a stranger to their world—though I’d been alive much longer than they had.

“Anyway,” Ember sighed, and just like that, the dark cloud lifted. “I moved to college, carrying my high-school-sweetheart-turned-newlywed-husband as baggage, and lived the American dream for about a semester until he busted his knee in his first college football game. He lost his scholarship and ended up on the couch for over a year while racking up debt in my name. And I’m really glad that dream didn’t work out.”

“Here, here.” Willow raised her plastic cup. The women responded in kind, with Harper standing on her chair to clink their cups in salute.

It was over in a brief moment. The laughter faded to a joyous calm. I felt like an outsider—aprivileged spectator—allowed a glimpse of something special.

It warmed my normally cold blood.

“I have a question.” Harper shot her hand in the air. The women all looked to each other, but the girl was staring at me.

“Yes,” her mother said.

“This is for Kieran.”

I smiled encouragingly. “Ask me anything.”

Harper cleared her throat and sat up straighter. “Where is your whore?”

The silence was instant, and a coldness swept through the room. Ember tensed beside me, focusing on her plate.

“Harper, that’s not…” Willow took a breath, thinking. “What exactly are you trying to say?”

“You know.” Harper rolled her eyes. “All dragons have a whore of treasure or gemstones.”

“Hoard,” Willow stressed the word as Ember and Riley burst into laughter. “And that’s a stereotype. You’re not supposed to expect everyone to do the same thing you see on TV.”

“What’s the stereotype?” Riley was still laughing. “That dragons are hoarders or that they’re all promiscuous?”

“Stop,” Ember cried, still trying to get ahold of her giggles. Her hand found mine under the table again and I had to chuckle. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this warm.

“It’s okay. Really,” I reassured her mother before turning to the girl. “Dragons do have hoards. It’s not common knowledge, but most of them don’t hoard gold. And as for Riley’s question, it’s also true that dragons have varied tastes.”

“So what do you hor-de?” Harper asked, causing a few errant giggles around the table.

I glanced at my lap, seeing Ember’s hand intertwined with mine in the most perfect way. It was hard to explain my life to those looking in, but for her, I’d try.

“’Knowledge,” I said, raising my eyes. “It’s my special interest, to put it in human terms, to protect and preserve the knowledge that would otherwise be lost to our species through record keeping, language, and stories passed down by oral word.”

“You’re a lit nerd like Ember.” Willow nodded like she approved. “Now it makes more sense.”

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