"Yeah? You just have to show everyone how big and tough you are all the time, right?"
His head turned to look back at me. "I have no interest in showing anyone how 'big and tough' I am when I can become a creature that could bring cities to their knees in an instant."
"Assuming the military didn't nuke you, that is."
What happened next wasn't something I was expecting. His hands tightened on the seatbelt. He stiffened and looked away from me, staring back out into the windshield. "Yes. Assuming the military didn't come for us."
The rest of the drive back to their house was in absolute silence. What had I done? What had I said? Were they upset because I'd... fought back a little bit? Because I was taunting Eskal?
I didn't really understand the power struggle in their flight, but I had a decent idea of the prospects of alphas and omegas. It was like a ranking structure, with omegas on the bottom and alphas on the top. Betas fell somewhere in the middle of all of it and, depending on the supernatural species, may not exist at all.
That, of course, was what the books said. I wasn't certain if any of it was true. People published all sorts of things that were fictional but pretended they were speaking the truth. It wasn't as if anyone was out there enforcing fact on new-age religions or those who preferred the term spiritual for their path in life.
Well, no one but me.
I watched the streets go by and wished I was still on the back of a dragon, not bouncing around in a box that was made to be a snow plow.
The house was brightly lit when we arrived, standing out among the other darkened homes on the block. We unloaded the eggs with ease, and Eskal didn't seem to mind prancing around naked in front of the neighbors. Whatever, that was up to him. He hadn't been too impressed about breaking into the damn museum, either.
I could only hope whatever spell craft they'd used to screw with the cameras had worked on all of them. If I was seen on any of the recordings, my life was over. I didn't know if it would be enough to convict me in a court of law, but it damn sure would be enough to ruin my chances of advancing in my career.
It might even put an end to it.
But I'd made my choice and I was going to stand by it. I walked into the dragon's den and sat my egg down with the others. Eskal was kind enough to go and put on a robe, probably for my benefit. I assumed that, if they dropped their clothes every time they shifted, they were probably all pretty used to seeing each other naked.
"I guess I'm spending the night here?" I asked.
Vadriq tilted his head at me. "Doubtlessly. You'll be exhausted after we perform the ritual."
Oh, right.
I rubbed my hands together and sat, staring off at nothing as the dragons moved around me. The ritual. Magic. Proper, large-scale magic intended to bring literal life into the world. I'd done it once, accidentally, in a flash. But five times over? What if it killed me? That much energy flowing through a person was an awful lot to ask after the day I'd already had.
Despite the whole thing we'd just gone through, my phone sat in my pocket. I picked it up and hit Nicole's speed dial, not thinking of the time of early morning it was. Unsurprisingly, she didn't answer. Besides; we'd just seen her railing Doctor Sonnet. She was probably busy trying to figure out what the hell had happened to interrupt her fun there at the museum.
Instead, I ended up folding my hands together. I wasn't the praying sort; which should go without saying. But I was the relatively hopeful sort. Even in the end, when the doctors had said Mom had no chance, I'd still bothered to hope that she would rally again. I'd tried to hold on to that after she'd passed, but it'd been difficult.
So many people in the scientific community were downers. They wanted everything to be cold, hard fact and I wasn't objecting to that; but maybe they needed to hope for a better day ahead. Or hope that they'd find something instead of repeating that the odds were low that they'd ever see a certain impressive object again.
I could just imagine the professors at the museum sighing over the loss of the opals. They'd be impossible to work with for the next few months, assuming I got off with everything free and clear.
It was hard to do after so many years of not doing it, but I managed to capture my feelings and use them to project my thoughts into whatever was out there. Silently, I asked my mom to help me with the spell. I asked her to prove to me that I wasn't crazy, that everything was really happening; that I'd gotten to ride a dragon. That I would again in the future.
When I opened my eyes, the room was dark but for five white candles surrounding the eggs. Oils I didn't recognize had been used to anoint each candle, then each egg. I understood the spell more or less. I was to use the points of fire as a guide to funnel magic through and light each life inside the egg. Assuming I did it correctly, the eggs would pop open. Little dragons would come rushing out.
Eskal, Iyadre, Vadriq, and Nariti would be fathers.
And I wouldn't have to
