“Well?” I said, looking up excitedly. “Did you find anything?”
She shook her head, and my spirits fell. “I’m sorry, Opal. I’ve read every entry on magic conversion that I can find, and they all agree there’s no way to convert normal magic into dragon fire. Trust me, it’s been tried. Dragons have been bullying mages into looking for ways to beef them up artificially since the dawn of human magic, but it’s never worked. Not once. Until you.”
That was gratifying, I supposed, but it didn’t help with our current problem. “So you’re saying there’s nothing that can show me how to do this better than I’m already doing it?”
“Considering that what you’re doing is supposed to be impossible, I’d say you’re doing amazingly,” the doctor said. “But no. Unless you’re willing to feed him another dragon, I couldn’t find any other way to build him up. You’re just going to have to keep transferring the fire yourself, I’m afraid.”
Damn. It wasn’t that I minded feeding my father now that I was no longer desperate to kick him out of my life, but dragons needed a lot of magic, and I’d had some very bad experiences with taking in too much power. Every transfer I’d made so far had left me exhausted, and that was barely a drop in the bucket. At this rate, I’d be shoving magic into my dad for the rest of my life. It looked pretty hopeless, but when I turned to ask my dad what he wanted to do about it, I was shocked to see him smiling.
“We can manage.”
“Are you crazy? What about Korea? You can’t defend it as you are, and I can’t get you back into fighting shape fast enough on my own!”
That sounded pretty bleak to me, but my father just shrugged. “You brought me back to life when I was supposed to be dead. That’s one miracle already. Now we just need a second.”
“I’m flattered you’ve developed so much confidence in my abilities, but ‘hope for a miracle’ isn’t a plan.”
“I have faith,” he said, lips quirking. “And you have a knack for doing the impossible. Every time I thought I had you cornered, you found a way to wiggle free, even if it meant moving the world. I’m hoping that insanity will work for me rather than against me this time.”
Technically, I’d moved the world twice to save him so far, but I didn’t want to encourage this madness. “It’s not going to work,” I said firmly. “I simply can’t feed you fire fast enough on my own. If you want to get back on your feet before someone snatches your territory out from under you, we should look for a dragon. Surely there’s someone you can pay for a fire donation?”
Yong snorted. “No dragon worth the name would ever trade fire for money. Power must be won, and unfortunately I’m too weak right now to defeat anyone worth eating.” He shook his head. “We’ll just have to keep going and see what happens. If you continue pouring fire into me as you have been, I should build up past my base replenishment rate eventually. Until then…”
He stepped out of his body, which keeled over at my feet, making me yelp.
“Little warning next time, please!” I yelled at his smoky ghost.
“I thought this was the obvious move,” my dad said with a shrug. “This form is weak and unable to interact with the outside world, but it costs me almost nothing to maintain and is invisible to humans. That makes it superior for our present circumstances.”
“You’re not invisible to dragons,” I reminded him. “The Spirit of Dragons specifically said—”
“If one of my enemies sees us, I’m no more dead in this form than I would be in that one,” he replied, his lip curling in disgust as he passed his smoky foot through his physical form’s bony rib cage. “I’m barely stronger than the human I resemble. I couldn’t fight a hatchling, let alone a full-grown dragon.” He shook his head firmly. “No. If I must be diminished, I’d rather be in the form that saves my strength and draws less attention.”
“Can’t argue with that logic,” Dr. Kowalski said, turning to me. “I can stash his body in one of my spare bedrooms if you like. This place is even safer than your apartment, and the DFZ wants him out for a while so she can clean your bedroom.”
“Why is the DFZ cleaning my bedroom?” I asked. “I thought scrubbing was mortal work.”
“Normally yes, but this is a matter of security,” Dr. Kowalski replied. “Now that you’ve called the Spirit of Dragons to your place, she can find her way back anytime she likes. Since your apartment is currently floating inside the DFZ’s magic, that means she can also find her way into our god. Our great city enjoys dragons, but she isn’t stupid enough to leave a back door open for one, so she’s going to do a bit of rearranging. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll like the result.”
I wasn’t worried about losing my bloodstained bedroom, but I was worried about my dad. It was his body, so I guessed it was his choice, but his smoky form looked way too much like a ghost for my liking. I hadn’t been able to handle the thought of my dad dying before we’d made our truce. I really didn’t want to be reminded of it now that I finally had hope things were getting better.
“Are you sure about this?”
“No,” Yong said. “But sometimes you have to make the best of bad options, and it’s only temporary. The more magic you feed me, the stronger I’ll get. Even if you don’t come up with a shortcut, which I’m certain you will, I’m sure I’ll be myself again in no time.”
“And how long is ‘no time,’ exactly?”
He thought a moment. “A few centuries.”
I knew it. Damn immortals! But other than some general cursing, there was nothing
