by Zoe Chant
“No, I meant…” Becca hadn’t had a chance to reconnoiter her classroom yet, but she knew how this usually worked. “The newer one, if you don’t mind—it’d be good for kids to get a chance to see a real telescope.”
Ilie frowned. “Shouldn’t there be one at the school? Or… in each room, maybe? They should have school ones.”
“Well, funding,” Becca said, waving a hand.
“Well, exactly,” Ilie replied, and Becca frowned.
Ilie tugged her to a stop. “Becca, Gray’s Hollow was founded by—” he looked around the mall, the people walking past on all sides, and said, “—a wealthy family. A wealthy family that has stayed wealthy, and also been elected in every single mayoral election since the founding of the town. They don’t vote for us because we don’t take care of them—Gus writes a great big tax check every year and hands it over. I guess I’ll get to write my own from now on. Maybe they’ll give me presents, too?”
“I…” Becca shook her head slightly. “I don’t understand.”
“Well.” Ilie frowned. “Okay, so—we Grays, we have all this money, because we… save it. Things.”
“No,” Becca said, remembering the house, the treasure room Cara had shown her. “I, I got that part.”
“I have some that’s mine,” Ilie went on. “It’s not just the house, or my—my collection—” hoard, Becca mentally translated. Hoard of gold, which he might not have been joking about liking to sit on, because he was a dragon until yesterday.
“There are bank accounts and things, too,” Ilie explained. “Radu handles mine for me—not mixed all together like his and Sunny’s, he just—you know, signs things and reads things and tells me the numbers, so I know that I have a net worth of about 2.23 billion dollars.”
Becca looked down at the tiled mall floor. “Did you just say—with a b. Billion.”
“Yes,” Ilie said definitely. “We, uh, we are very specific about our, our possessions. Radu tells me the numbers every month, and I remember them. Radu and Sunny mix theirs, so they have more all together but about the same each, and Teo’s is about the same. Laurence—keeps his apart, so I don’t know. Gus’s is more, though, because he got the main share from our father’s hoard.”
Becca nodded again. She had brought him to a roadside mall in nowhere north Pennsylvania, this guy who had billions of dollars in, what, offshore accounts? And a pile of gold in a cave somewhere.
“Anyway,” Ilie said, waving a hand like it wasn’t important. “We know what we have, and we know that we’re responsible to take care of the town, because that’s—that’s the deal. We pay taxes and provide for them, and they… look after us. Me, especially.”
Becca looked up and met his eyes then, and squeezed his hand.
Ilie smiled back uncertainly. “So we pay taxes, and no one else pays very much, because ours are plenty, but then—I mean, we don’t—we don’t like giving up parts of our—collections—even when we know it’s right to do. There’s one side of us that understands about taxes and taking care of people and making deals, but the other part, uh, the other part can be greedy.”
Becca nodded again, still not quite believing that she was having a dragon-shifter civics lesson under the fluorescent lights of a small-town mall.
“So the people in town give the mayor presents—that’s where the stuff in the treasure room at the big house comes from, mostly. People buy things sometimes, but mostly they make them—we have more jewelers per capita than probably any town in the country, even if a lot of them make one thing a year. Or people get together to make a big present—the tapestries are usually a group thing, and Gus gets clocks sometimes, mechanical things. Anything shiny and special. Unique. Kids make stuff, draw pictures, do little crafts. So on tax day, Gus writes the check and then he gets all these presents.”
Ilie smiled hesitantly. “But I think maybe they’ll give me some too, this year? If I write my own check.”
“I’ll make sure my students do, at least,” Becca managed after a moment, because Ilie looked like this was genuinely something he was worried about. “They’ll be excited to, I’m sure. Especially if you bring your antique telescope to show them.”
Ilie grinned, looking down at it again with what could only be dragonish pride of possession. “It’s only a replica. But maybe I could find where they sell real antique telescopes…”
“I’ll show you on a computer,” Becca said. “You can find all sorts of things online.”
Ilie nodded, satisfied, and turned to lead off again. He was headed in the wrong direction—or maybe not, because she could see a candy-shop sign—but he stopped short as they passed through a big mall intersection. Becca looked to see what had caught his attention, and she had to laugh.
A jewelry store. And while another guy might have stopped because he was thinking about—worried about—buying her a gift, or even, with the way they’d been talking, maybe a ring…
Well, she was pretty sure that Ilie’s reaction was ninety percent an inability to walk past that many shiny, precious things without at least looking. Of course, it was a mall jewelry store, not even one of the really classy chains; he could probably afford to buy everything in there if he wanted to.
“See something you need?” Becca teased.
Ilie tore his attention away from the display cases to give her a sheepish smile. “Maybe? Do you mind…?”
Becca shook her head. “Let’s look.”
Ilie towed her over immediately. She expected it to turn into a long lingering window-shopping session, but he made a slightly repelled sound at one of the cases. “Those aren’t even real.”
Becca glanced at the prices, which seemed real enough. “Maybe just for display? So the real ones don’t get stolen?”
“Hm,” Ilie said skeptically, and he continued, frowning so intently at the cases that the saleswoman who approached with an eager-to-sell-you-things smile faltered and backed away.
“Well,” Ilie said, his brow uncreasing. “Oh, maybe… maybe?”
Becca looked down. She wasn’t much for jewelry, but she couldn’t help admiring the necklace under Ilie’s hand. It was silver—well, white gold, according to the little card beside it. It was set with sapphires and diamonds. Not quite a choker, but something short that wouldn’t, for example, get lost in her cleavage.
“That’s—pretty,” Becca said, as she realized what the price card said. Pretty and definitely real.
Ilie beamed at her like he’d made it himself. He looked back and forth from her to it, frowning now in concentration.
“Ilie?” Becca had a feeling that Ilie actually intended to just casually buy a necklace that cost thousands of dollars and expect her to put it on with her T-shirt and jeans.
At least I’m wearing a scoop neck, she thought, a little hysterically.
“They’re not really the color of your eyes,” Ilie said. “But in the sun, when they sparkle… it would look nice. I think?”
She didn’t know how to tell him that the necklace would also require a ballgown. He might buy her one of those, too, and she hadn’t braced herself for trying on dresses today.
“It’s beautiful,” Becca said. “I just… I really thought we were sticking with gifts like pieces of candy for right now.”
“Half a house,” Ilie said absently, looking down at the necklace. He looked up and said helpfully, “This is smaller than half a house.”
“The house is just sort of… there already,” Becca said. “You didn’t buy a house for me.”
“Would you…” Ilie drew back slightly. “Would you rather have things from my hoard? I’ll give them to you, I just—you can always have more, right? And this one is…”
Becca half expected him to have some profound opinion on the significance of a sapphire and diamond necklace that didn’t actually match her eyes, but Ilie said, “It’s right here. You could wear it now.”
Becca burst out laughing. “Oh, well. When you say it like that. Why not, then?”
> Ilie beamed, too obviously pleased with her agreement for her to even point out that she was being sarcastic. He pulled out his brand-new wallet and one of those nearly unmarked black credit cards. Ten minutes and one very flustered saleswoman later, Becca was wearing a necklace that cost more than her car.
She kept touching it as they navigated through the mall, and Ilie’s gaze followed her fingers each time. They would drop down to her cleavage, too, but there seemed to be an entirely other charge he got from seeing her wearing the necklace.
He was not, she thought, quite out of the habit of being a dragon yet.
They both stopped short at the doors out to the parking lot. It was pouring rain, and even as they stood there, lightning flashed in the western sky.
“We’ll have to make a run for it,” Becca said. “Or—I could go, and bring the car close, so your new stuff doesn’t get wet?”
Ilie shook his head, tucking the bag from the astronomy shop under his arm and frowning hard at the sky. “I should have… I knew this was coming.”
“Oh, that’s right, you told me,” Becca said.
Then she remembered that his ability to predict the weather was all tied up in his being a dragon, and she wasn’t sure what else to say.
He shrugged and gave her a smile that wasn’t nearly as bright as it had been in the mall. “Run for it?”
Becca nodded and pointed out her car—Ilie’s natural sense of direction didn’t seem great. They pushed through the doorway and into the drowning warmth of an August downpour.
They ran together all the way to the car, and she quickly unlocked the doors and ducked inside. Ilie threw himself in on the opposite side and shoved his purchases down between his knees.
They were both soaking wet, and Ilie was still frowning. He looked around at the rain as it beat loudly on the roof and windows of her car.
“Buckle up,” Becca reminded him.
When they were both seatbelted she eased her way down to the end of the parking lot. A few turns took them to the state highway that would lead them back toward Gray’s Hollow.
Ilie stayed quiet beside her. She could see his hands working against each other in her peripheral vision, but she didn’t have a lot of attention to spare. They weren’t in proper mountains here, but every road was hilly, and she had to concentrate to see anything through the rain.
After twenty tense, quiet minutes she pulled over at the top of a rise, at a spot where the shoulder gave way to an upward slope covered in trees instead of a drop-off. The sound of the rain lessened a little when they were stopped and partially sheltered by the trees.
“Why are we stopping?” Ilie asked sharply. Becca noticed that his restless hands hadn’t stilled.
Becca waved to the view through the windshield, which was mostly the whiteout of rain and mist, with glimpses of the road before them.
“I can’t see, and it’s just getting worse. We need to wait out this part of the storm. Believe me, I’d rather be getting home to some dry clothes, but—”
“We need to get home,” Ilie said, and she could hear the anxiety under the intensity of his voice. “I need to—Becca, I don’t know where Mouse is.”
“I’m sure he’ll have gotten under cover somewhere,” Becca said, looking involuntary northward, toward Gray’s Hollow. She reached for Ilie’s hand, and he took hers in a tight grip.
She tried to make her voice soothing. “Animals know how to deal with storms.”
“Mouse hates storms,” Ilie said in a small voice, all the sharpness gone out of him. “I always—I was always with him, before. I would protect him. We would go down into the caves and—I don’t know if he can get in without me. There aren’t any doors, but there’s some… magic.”
Becca was suddenly conscious again of the weight of the necklace she was wearing. Of course there was magic to protect a dragon’s caves full of hoarded gold. Of course.
“But… how does that work? He’s been there before. Will the magic recognize him?”
Ilie shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. He might be just—sitting there, trying to get in, or looking for me to let him in, or…”
Ilie shook his head sharply and stared at his knees.
Becca bit her lip and looked out at the rain again. It was getting worse, if anything. They wouldn’t help Mouse by getting into a car accident.
Lightning struck, near enough to be just a bright flash all around. Only a couple of seconds later the thunder roared around them. Ilie’s hand clamped tight on hers and his eyes squeezed shut.
Becca knew that he was imagining Mouse—his pet, and his only real companion when he was a dragon—out in this alone. The dog must be scared and soaking wet and still not understanding where Ilie had gone.
“If I,” Ilie said, so quietly it was almost lost under the pounding rain.
Becca squeezed his hand, encouraging him to go on.
“If I were… If I shifted. If I were a dragon right now…”
Becca’s jaw dropped, because she didn’t hear regret in his voice. She heard shyness, a hesitation to offer a solution.
“Ilie, could you change right now if you wanted to?”
Ilie bit his lip. “I love you. You’re—you’re the most important—”
“Ilie, I never asked you to never change back,” Becca said.
Ilie looked up at her with wide, startled eyes. Even though he was technically her own age, Becca thought that Ilie was still very young at being a human adult.
“I mean—honestly, I was regretting that I never got to see you that way,” Becca said, squeezing his hand again. “I’m so curious about dragons, and there you were, a dragon right up until I got close enough to really have a look at you.”
“You wouldn’t,” Ilie looked out the window and then back at her. “You wouldn’t be scared? Cara was scared.”
“Well, Cara was taken by surprise,” Becca said, remembering how comfortable Cara had been with Gus in his dragon form when she saw them at home. She could be as easy with Ilie, couldn’t she?
“Ilie—if you can change, if you need to change, do it. I could never be scared of you.”
“I love you,” Ilie repeated, sounding delighted this time, and this time Becca actually remembered to answer him.
“I love you too,” she said, leaning over to give him a quick, hard kiss. “Now go get Mouse.”
Ilie's smile turned mischievous. “Come with me?”
“Come—fly with you? In this?”
“You have a strong stomach, right? You said you liked roller coasters.”
Becca looked out at the rain and back at Ilie. “You’re on.”
Ilie sat back and yanked his shirt off, then bent to untie his shoes and kick them off before he wriggled out of his jeans. Becca let herself enjoy the spectacle of a wet, naked Ilie in the passenger seat of her car until another bright flash of lightning whited out the world.
“Ready?” he asked, yelling as the thunder hit.
Becca grinned and nodded, glancing out to be sure the road was empty before she opened her door. Ilie had gotten out on his side, and ran naked into the middle of the road—the only clear space big enough, she realized. Becca looked again for oncoming cars.
She didn’t see any, and when she looked back Ilie was already changing, growing impossibly. His wings stretched up above him as Becca stared at the most wonderful thing she’d never imagined the universe might contain.
Ready?
It was Ilie’s voice, but she heard it in her mind, not issuing from the dragon’s head bending on its long serpentine neck to look her in the eye. He stretched his wings forward to shield her from the rain, and it drummed down on them like it had on the roof of the car.
Becca laid her hand on his snout, which was black and scaly, warm to the touch. She looked into his silver eyes, which were just the same.
“Ready,” she said.
She barely had time to wonder how this was going to work before Ilie’s great clawed hands were closing around h
er, cradling her against the huge expanse of his chest. She was suddenly out of the wind, pressed against the flexible armor of his scales.
There was too much too see all at once—the way his talons curled gently around her, the way his scales fit together, slightly iridescent at their edges. She could feel the great bellows of his breathing, and when she leaned her cheek against a plate-sized scale, she could hear the thump of his heart.
Then there was an upward leap, and a huge sound of his wings beating, and they were flying into the storm. Rain beat at her as Ilie sliced through the rain. Wind buffeted them from all sides, but Ilie soared on it, banking from side to side in great sweeps of his wings.
And in her mind, under and all around the noise of the rain, Becca could hear him laughing in joy as he held her safe and flew with her through the sky.
Then all at once she heard and felt his laughter stop. His grip on her tightened, and he was soaring higher, his wings beating hard as he fought the storm. Becca looked down, to see where they were. The swinging view of forested slopes made her squeeze her eyes shut, pressing her face against Ilie’s chest again.
Sorry, Ilie said, sounding grim. We have to hurry. Mouse is trapped.
“Do you know how to find him?” Becca asked, not bothering to shout. If Ilie couldn’t hear her in some way other than her voice, he wouldn’t hear her at all.
There was a flash of lightning somewhere much too nearby, and thunder shook them from all around.
Yes, Ilie said. It’s easier like this. I can find him now.
The bottom dropped out of the world as they fell into a dive.
Becca shrieked, startled, and she felt Ilie clutch her a little tighter. She whooped again for the sheer adrenaline of the fall, knowing that she was safe with Ilie.
What Ilie said to her wasn’t words or a sound at all, just a warm sense of gladness.
“I love you too,” Becca repeated into the wind and rain, and she was sure Ilie heard.
A moment later the ground was looming up, huge and green, and Becca squeezed her eyes shut again. They landed lightly, though. Ilie kept her in his arms as he began to walk across the slope toward a tumble of bare rock, stark in the middle of the green grass and trees.