Page 74 of Dragon Gods

“What?” she asked, frowning.

“Making you smile.”

She leaned forward until their faces were a mere inch apart and she smelled the subtle salt on his skin.

“Give the Dragonborn back their land and I’ll smile all you want.”

The blush was a violent shade of red as it crept from his neck to his cheeks.

“You know I can’t do that. You should have kidnapped the king if you wanted that kind of power.”

“I’ll take that under advisement.”

He frowned and she let her satisfaction show.

“Tía Muela is one of the best teachers we have,” Clarita said, sitting down beside Fox, a half-eaten tortilla in her hand. “She adds magic to her food, I swear.”

“How do you have corn meal out here?” Fox asked. Clarita froze and Sofia choked on the bit of tortilla she’d been chewing. He must have realized the implications of the question because he blanched and shrugged. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to question…”

Clarita was looking at him carefully. “We have connections with the city still. There are some things we can’t grow in this part of the rainforest.”

“That’s how you learned king’s tongue,” Sofia said. “Your accent is near flawless.”

The woman smiled, eyes sparkling with mischief. “I would hope so. It was my first language.”

Fox’s eyes went wide

“I was born in Suvi. I lived there until I was a teenager.”

“You ran away?” Fox asked, as if the idea baffled him.

“My mother smuggled us out after my father was sent to the farms on false charges.”

“We don’t send people to the farms over false claims.”

He understood what he’d said in the same moment Clarita did, her eyes narrowing and swinging to Sofia.

“Who is your companion, exactly?”

Sofia bit her lip, wondering how far honesty would take her.

“He’s new to the resistance,” she said, at last, happy Fox was smart enough not to double down on his slip up.

The woman gave a stiff nod at this before getting up and moving away, cutting any further conversation short. The cenote itself seemed to be emptying out as the others finished their morning meals and left to do whatever they did with their time. They were still far enough from Suvi that they had no fears of being caught.

Muela had gone, too, somewhere during their conversation, and Sofia and Fox were left alone next to the now smoldering cook fire. The tortillas were gone except for the ones they had in their own hands.

They sat in silence for a while longer, finishing the last bites and, at least for Sofia’s part, savoring the sense of being full and warm.

“When do we leave?” Fox broke the silence first.

“Is that my decision?”

“It is, oh captor of mine,” he said, smirking.

She rolled her eyes. “The day after tomorrow? I still need to take them to the cenote to show them the altars, but we can leave after I return.”

“You’re going to the cenote without me?” he said, voice doing little to hide his anxiety.

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