Page 31 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
She apparently understood, because she made atsking noise and put away her phone.“I’m an artificer savant.Everyone wants me, and yes, I realize that makes me sound horribly conceited, but that’s why demons are tracking me.There were two in Brno that are particularly difficult to avoid, and I just hope they haven’t come back.”
“They’re wrathies.They’ll be back,” Jim said, absently sucking a tooth as it glanced around the room.
“Wrath demons seek you?”Yrian asked, a swell of emotion taking him by surprise.He suddenly found himself enraged on her behalf.How dare demons bother her?She had clearly devoted herself to helping others, and what was her payment for such kindness?Demonic pursuit.A surge of protectiveness triggered his fire, which he fought down with pained determination.“Which ones?”
“Candy and Andy,” she said, tapping on her phone again when it burbled a short musical sound.
He missed his phone device even more.His meowed when a new dancing-cat video was available.
“Better known to the rest of us as Furcand and Andromalius,” the demon said.
Horror crawled up Yrian’s back, instantly pushing him fully into protector mode.“Those belong to Kashi,” he said, his voice coming out a near snarl.
“Whoa,” Jim said, backing up until it ran into the wall.
“Ack!”Becket yelled at the same time, slapping at the fire that roared out of him, spreading quickly across the tile floor, and up her legs.“What is it with you and fire?I thought you guys had better control of it?”
“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to harness,” Yrian said through teeth gritted with determination.He fought to leash his emotions—and thus his fire—his mind automatically going to the memory of the first time he’d seen Amice.That normally centered him, giving him the strength to battle the elements that warred within him, but for some reason, the sight of Becket standing at the door to his cell was what came to mind.
“Really?The other dragons don’t seem to have a problem with it.At least, not that I noticed,” Becket replied, turning her attention to him as she put away her phone again.
“They are not the Firstborn.”
“One of them was.Baltic.He’s your brother, isn’t he?”
“He is a Firstborn, nottheFirstborn,” Yrian said, taking a deep breath as the fire slowly dissipated.“We have different mothers.His was a dragon.Mine is a fury.”
Becket gawked at him, incredulity written all over her freckled face.He decided he liked that face, liked the fact that she didn’t mask her emotions.Amice hid her emotions in deference to his, preferring to keep her feelings and thoughts secret from all ...until the day she didn’t.
I’m sorry.I’m so sorry, Yrian.
“One of your dragons mentioned something about your mom being a fury, but I was making glamours, so I didn’t really take it in.Your mom was the elemental-beings sort of fury?I thought they went away a few thousand years ago.Just how old are you?”
He shrugged.“Many millennia.I do not know how many.Does it matter?The First Dragon impregnated my mother, a fire fury, bringing the element of fire to dragonkin.”
She looked thoughtful before asking, “But your surname is Shadowsworn.Does that mean you have some affinity to shadows?Wait—forget I asked that.You have to stop distracting me with fascinating tidbits about your life.We need to get you to Paris now, before Kostich finds us.”
“You find my life fascinating?”he couldn’t help but ask, startled and gratified at the same time.Even before the time he’d retreated to his griefscape, no one had ever declared his life fascinating, not even Amice.Chaotic, yes, but fascinating?It was an odd sensation.
Becket whapped him on the arm.“Are you kidding?You’re, what, the second dragon who ever existed?Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that your life is fascinating.”
“You are an artificer,” he pointed out, feeling that he should reciprocate interest in her.It wasn’t at all difficult—she had a way of filling his mind that should have stirred concern but, for some odd reason, instead seemed simply to be the way things were meant to be.“You must live an interesting life.”
“I wish,” she said with a grimace.“Mostly, it’s all about protecting myself and hiding from baddies who want to use me for their own purposes.OK, enough chat.I can almost feel Dr.Kostich out there looking for us.”
The decision was made even before he was aware of it.“We will depart now,” he informed the portal attendant, who had returned with a dusty bottle of wine.“We will go to Brno.”
“I’mgoing to Brno.Youare going to Paris,” Becket insisted.
“The First Dragon promised you protection by kin.I am kin.I will protect you,” he said, ignoring the fact that as of a few hours prior, his sole focus had been escape in order to aid the dragons against a threat that had yet to be explained to him.“We will go to Brno.”
“But ...”
“Configure the device,” he told the portal attendant, who handed him the bottle.“We go to Brno.”
“Okey doke,” Simon said, going over to a small desk where he tapped on a keyboard.“You may want to take off your shoes, and wrap your arms around yourself just before you step into the portal.”
Yrian looked at first the bottle and then Becket.He pulled off the cork and offered it to her.“Would you like some?”
