Page 81 of His Greatest Treasure

Alfie looked flustered but pleased. He blurted out. “I was hungry before then.”

“Oh?”

“Maybe shifting is a lot of work. I was hungry right after that.”

“But we went to the kitchen after you shifted for the first time. Why didn’t you have some of that apple pie?”

He nuzzled my hair and I realised he’d been doing that more and more, getting my scent in his nose, claiming me in public.

“Mrs. Wilson didn’t give me any.”

“You could have asked for some. She likes feeding people.”

He shrugged sheepishly. “I didn’t like to. She’s a bit scary.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Alfie was such a darling. I’d need to look after him.

“Perhaps we should go down to the kitchen now and see if she’ll give us some breakfast.”

He nodded and we clambered out of the bed together. As he stood, I ran my handsover his body. I was fascinated by the flame above his heart, proud that he’d let me mark him. It shimmered and looked like it was flickering, like a real flame.

I put my mouth on him again, and wondered if I’d ever got tired of doing that. Of making my mate come into my mouth.

Once we were clean, Alfie dressed me again and we climbed onto the window ledge together. I didn’t like being that high up. When I looked down at the ground, so far below me, I whimpered and Alfie wrapped his arms around me.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let you fall. I’m going to shift and that will take up a lot of room but I’ll be careful of you.”

We shuffled round until Alfie was at one side of the ledge and I was at the other, and then he shifted, filling the space with his golden scales. They shone in the early morning light.

I had to gather my courage to climb up onto his shoulders and I clenched my eyes shut as soon as I was on him and trusted him to get us down to the ground safely.

Of course he did that. He would never let me fall.

Once we were inside the castle again, Alfie took my hand and ran up to his room, where he dressed. And then we snuck down to the kitchen again together. Mrs. Wilson was already there and she had me sat at the table straight away. Alfie only sat down next to me because we were still holding hands. He kept glancing at Mrs. Wilson as though he expected her to tell him to get out.

She didn’t. She plated up food and set it in front of us, bustling round. We were just finishing when she suddenly went still. Her head tilted to one side, as though she could hear something we couldn’t, and her mouth pressed into a thin line.

I opened my mouth to ask what the problem was but the siren sounded before I could. And that answered that question, too.

Chapter 33

Alfie

This time when the siren sounded, at least I knew what it was. My dragon surged up inside me, and I felt its presence just behind my skin. It wasn’t trying to rip out of me or anything, but it was right there, listening and alert. I realised that it’s what it had wanted to do last time. Just be there. Be able to protect my clan.

I grabbed Blaze’s hand and set off for the grand hall again. As I got there, I realised that there were noticeably fewer people than last time. Glenwise, Rhod and Conley weren’t there. Great Aunt Evangeline wasn’t there and I didn’t think she had the energy to fight, even if she did make it downstairs. She’d used up most of her energy just getting there yesterday to see me. I mean, to see my dragon.

Inside me, it growled.

Because I’d just realised that, last time, we’d had a Guardian. Right now, though, we didn’t. Glimmer had been banished.

I turned to Blaze and whispered, “Do you think someone’s attacking the border again?”

My mother burst into the grand hall and came straight for me. She rushed at me and hissed, “Get out. Go and hide, somewhere out of sight.”

Alarm shot through me.

“But- has someone got in?”

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