Page 169 of Nine-Tenths

Because I have never once in my queer little life passed up the opportunity to be a dramatic bitch, I pull a dollar coin out of my pocket. I hold it up, face-side out. It takes everyone a second to get it.

"The fuckingqueen?" Hadi says. "Are you serious?"

Dike plucks the Loonie from my hand and stares at the embossed profile. "You can do that?"

"Apparently," I say, patting Dav's thigh showily. "This guy right here used to hang out at court when he was a snot-nosed shit."

"I was never ashit," Dav protests gamely.

"I'll just have to ask Elizabeth Regina to verify that," I snark back.

"You're crazy, princess," Onatah says. "It might actually work, but I also think you'recrazy."

"I am not content to spend the rest of my life with my head down hoping Simcoe will let us both not only live in peace, but just live in general. He wants your territories—and Dav being all happily shacked up is a distraction he could try to use to his advantage."

Dav grumbles, a low serpenty noise of displeasure, but doesn't disagree.

"Come with us," Dav says, low and imploring. "Show them what the world could be—"

"No," Onatah says.

"What? No, you know I can't speak on your behalf—"

"Nuh-uh. You saw how well that went for Matoaka. Man, she'sburiedover there. I'm not letting Simcoe have the satisfaction," Onatah says using the same Big Sister Voice I've heard from Gem. "You have to do this on your own, and we both know it."

"I don't—!" Dav starts, stricken, but then he squeezes his eyes shut, frowning hard. "I need you," he says, soft and small.

"I know you do," Onatah says, just as small, just as soft. "But what you're asking me to do, Dav, that's not fair to me. Besides, if you go, one of us needs to stay to protect both our territories."

"Yourterritory," Dav insists.

"Onatah's?" I ask. Dav flushes, realizing that we've got an audience of interested humans. "No, hey, it's cool, honestly, the size of your patch is not anything I give a shit about. But like, are you talking about giving itallback?"

Dav heaves a frustrated sigh. "As much as I can."

"The Europeans, they ate away at the whole continent, bite by bite," Onatah explains when Dav doesn't elaborate. "There are so few pockets of protected territory left. 'Reserved' for us, as if this Continent was a goddamned restaurant and we'd been rude and forgotten to book our table in advance. My people sided with the British during the war, and they promised our payment for fighting on their side would be their retreat up the peninsula."

"But Simcoe lied," Dav explains. "He never returned it."

"No. He put him in charge of it, instead." She jerks her thumb at Dav.

"What a fuckhead!" Mauli blurts.

"When I realized the settler propaganda was nothing but falsehoods," Dav picks up the narrative, "That the land wasn't underused, or underpopulated, I tried to return it and go back to Wales. But I had already been trapped into it—Simcoe had the queen's ear and I was commanded to stay. I could have defied it, but that would have meant—" he gives Onatah a significant look.

It would have exposed her to Frank.

Panic shoots through me as I realize what he's saying. If we're successful, if he moves home, Ihaveto go with him. I don't know if I want to move to the other side of the ocean!

He must hear my heartbeat kick into overdrive because he says, "Don't worry, Mine Own. I'll be keeping Fynyth. Onatah and I sorted this out decades ago."

"More like you came to me and sobbed 'tell me what you need'," Onatah chuckles.

"I won't deny it," Dav allows. "It was unseemly for me to make the decisions when all of yours had been ignored."

"Which is why I'm cool with you staying. I know what it's like to have your home taken away."

"I love it dearly, and I don't need more than the farm," Dav sighs. "I grew up where dragon's territories are small, dense,and contained. No more than an estate, a village or two, a dozen farms. No more people than they can speak to once a week, no more land than they can walk in a few days. It is what I prefer."

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