Page 20 of His Greatest Treasure

If Alfie stopped blurting out all the words in the world, that meant there was something wrong.

Pulling my chair closer, I said, “You could try shifting now. I could tell you how I do it.”

“Would you?”

“Yes, of course. I just… wish myself into flame. It feels very natural. My fire form protects me.”

“Oh.”

I realised I hadn’t been all that helpful because Alfie’s shoulders slumped. I reached out a hand and tentatively touched one of them. Alfie looked me in the eyes and I felt that burning inside me again, only this time it was a nice feeling.

“Do you want to try?” I asked. “I’ll be here with you.”

“Okay, I’ll try.”

We sat there and it didn’t look like anything happened. Eventually, I asked, “Can you feel your dragon coming out?”

“I can’t feel it at all.”

“You should be able to feel it at your core. Dragons can feel their dragon inside them, the way I can feel my wick at my centre. It’s the very core of me.”

“I’m not sure I have a core.”

I waited a while longer while Alfie frowned with concentration and his brow became shiny with sweat. Then I leapt up with alarm and cried, “You’re bleeding!”

Alfie looked startled, then lifted his sleeve to his nose and wiped it where the blood had begun to drip.

“That never happened before,” he said. “Maybe I burst a blood vessel.”

“I think we should stop for today.”

I didn’t mention it, but I didn’t plan to start again, either. It had only been a few drips of blood but the sight of it had made my wick scorch with fearful heat.

“Maybe I’m not ready to shift. Thank you for trying, though. Nobody else has even tried to help me.”

“Why not?” I demanded. That heat inside me was unsettling me, making me feel like fire even though I was in my human form.

“Maybe they know I can’t do it.”

“But Morgan couldn’t do it, either, until he got a tutor, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“So maybe once you get a tutor, you’ll shift. Why doesn’t Morgan’s tutor help you?”

“No, he left ages ago.”

“Why doesn’t the elder hire a tutor for you?”

“Um, I don’t know. Maybe they’re expensive.”

Sparks of anger burst from my fingers as I demanded, “Are you not worth the expense?”

Suddenly Alfie leapt up and began to stamp on the floorboardsaround me.

His voice was panicky. “Watch out, you’re burning the floor. And the ceiling. Are you alright? You’re not hurt? Fire can’t hurt you, can it? That was silly; of course fire can’t hurt you. I didn’t mean to panic. I mean, I wasn’t panicking. I was just… surprised. That’s it, I was surprised. You can burn things if you want to. Although maybe don’t burn the den down because then you won’t be able to stay here because it will be too cold.”

I was so relieved to hear him babbling that all my anger fizzled out of me. I so rarely got angry but it blew over quickly. I was always sorry about it afterwards.

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