Chapter 12

CHAPTER12

Jade’s snout itched. It had been itching for the past hour, but he hadn’t found the energy necessary to scratch it.

Maybe if he’d eaten anything in the past few days, but once Jade got back to his den, all he’d felt like doing was lie down and sleep. He’d been so still that a few rodents had even dared to climb all over him, unaware that he was a dragon and not just a pile of rocks.

He couldn’t remember how long it would take him to waste away. A few decades, probably, although moss might start to grow on him before then. There were stories told about a dragon that had lain down on a meadow and become part of the landscape. Humans and animals would all climb the hill and pick flowers off it.

Jade hoped he would at least become a nice treasure for somebody else. Maybe a human would find his eyes and turn them into a necklace. Or a few of his scales could be shaped into earrings—

No, not earrings. Anything but earrings.

He let out a long, suffering huff and tried to sink lower to the ground.

A sudden change in the air made his ears twitch. Jade kept his eyes closed and ignored it. Usually ignoring things made them go away.

The air pressure only increased, though, until a strong gust of wind blew through the cave entrance.

“Jade?” a rumbling voice asked. “I know you’re there.”

No, Jade was not there. Jade was sinking into the ground and becoming stone. Jade was not going to have visitors.

Despite his lack of response, the visitor entered the cave, her talons scraping against the ground.

Ugh, she knew that was bad manners and she did it every single time.

It didn’t take long for the visitor to find him. Her orange scales shimmered in the light streaming in from the hole in the cave roof.

“How long have you been like that?” Citrine asked, lowering her head down to his level.

“Go away,” Jade responded listlessly. He turned his head to the side so he wouldn’t have to look at her.

Citrine was the most annoying of his siblings. She was a few decades younger than him, but she acted like she had all the wisdom of the world. When she started talking, she wouldn’t stop until she’d explained everything in excruciating detail.

And unlike most of Jade’s siblings, she didn’t know how to mind her own business.

“I heard you destroyed a city,” Citrine said as she plopped down across for him, sending dust and pebbles flying.

“It was a small village,” Jade answered curtly. “And it was in my territory, so I don’t know why you care.”

“It was a city,” Citrine answered. “I only care because last time I saw you, you were talking about how great a place it was.”

Before Jade could respond, something meowed.

He popped an eye open and was confronted by a small calico reaching out to bat his snout.

“Go away,” Jade told the cat, but she, like Citrine, ignored him.

Citrine laughed. “Oh, she’s a brave one. Her name is Sage. Only a year old and already wanting to come everywhere with me.”

Jade flicked his tongue out, which surprised Sage into jumping back and running to the cat making itself comfortable on Citrine’s front talon.

“Did you bring your entire collection?” Jade asked, noticing one cat snuggled on Citrine’s head, with another two leaping over her tail.

“No, only the ones that wanted to come.” Citrine nuzzled Sage. “Eight in total, although two of them are exploring your cave. Did you know you have rats living here?”

“Great, thank you for bringing your extermination service. Now just leave me alone.”

Jade rolled over onto his side—more movement than he’d wanted to commit to earlier—only to be confronted by another cat, a big, fat brown tabby with a notch in his ear.

This one had even less shame than Sage, going straight up to Jade’s jaw and rubbing his head all over. “Mrow,” he said, with all the wisdom of a cat.

Which was not actually a lot of wisdom, but cats were full of themselves like that.

“So, not to put a downer on your pity party or anything, but why did you destroy a thriving city?” Citrine asked. “It was hard to get any decent information from the locals. They just kept shouting about the dragon.”

“If you must know,” Jade answered in annoyance, “I’m nursing a broken heart. I deserve at least one destroyed city for that.”

Citrine laughed, and the big brown tabby chose to take that as permission to jump on Jade’s snout and settle itself between his horns.

“A broken heart? When did you fall in love? Last time, the only thing you cared about were your boring history texts.”

Jade really shouldn’t even think of indulging Citrine. She needed to learn to mind her own business. Her cats shouldn’t have been allowed to crawl all over him.

But the cat between his horns started purring, and another one of the cats was now curled up against his tail, and maybe Jade did want to be a little bit dramatic. He’d never been dramatic when he was young.

“My treasure came to me,” Jade explained with a huff. “A beautiful human, like you wouldn’t believe. Strawberry blond, with beautiful bright green eyes. But it wasn’t just his features. He was curious, and kind, and wanted to believe the best of everything, and…” At least in his dragon form, the tears couldn’t come as easily. “Larkin left me, Citrine. I trusted him. I took him on a nice trip. We had a beautiful time. And he left.”

For a few minutes, Citrine said nothing. At least she understood the pain Jade was going through, and knew she had to be tactful. Maybe he’d misjudged his sister.

Then she ruined that illusion. “Okay, I don’t understand why you haven’t chased him down already.”

Jade lifted his head to glare at her. The cat on his head didn’t move at all. “Because he asked me not to. What’s the point of chasing him down if he’s going to be like that?”

“Did he mean it? Or was he being coy, like ‘noooo, please, don’t make me enjoy myself with you?’ Humans are really bad at saying what they actually mean.”

It was true that Larkin was particularly bad at expressing himself. He always said no at first, but melted easily under Jade’s touch. But that was sex. Not when they were simply chatting and enjoying food.

“I think he did mean it. And he’s a prince, so half the time he’d be talking about his duties to the kingdom. It was cute.” Jade sighed loudly. “I kept telling him none of that mattered. But he cared anyway.”

“A prince?” Citrine tilted her head, sending the cat that was napping on her falling. It landed on its feet and immediately jumped back on top of her, completely unbothered. “Is he the one getting crowned, then? Between shouting about the fire-breathing dragon, the humans talked about some coronation or other.”

“No, that’s his brother. The one who sent Larkin to me in the first place. He told Larkin there was a wyvern living in this cave.”

Citrine had the decency to look insulted. “A wyvern? No! We’re nothing like wyverns!”

“That’s what I told Larkin!” Jade sat up properly, but he made sure to keep his tail where it was to not disturb the cat. “His brother set him up to be killed by me!”

Now Citrine snorted. “So you just let your treasure go back to the brother who wanted him dead?”

…Oh. When she worded it like that…

She blew a small flame at him. “I guess if you’re fine with him dying, that’s on you. I would protect every one of my kittens with my life, but I value my treasures more than you do, it seems. On the other hand, there are plenty of humans out there. Maybe you’ll find another one that catches your eye.”

Anger flared up in Jade, and he snapped at her. She evaded his teeth but laughed.

“There is nobody else like Larkin! Take that back!” Jade snarled.

The cat on top of Jade’s head slipped down a little, his paws pushing Jade’s eyelids down.

“If there’s nobody else, I don’t know why you’re just moping here. I wouldn’t have let him go.” Citrine extended her talon out to Jade, and the cat hopped from his head over to her.

“I hate that you have a point.” Jade groaned and flopped down again. “You’re right. I have to go. I have to bring him back and save him from his own naivete.”

“I always have a point. Sometimes only the cats understand it though.” Citrine lifted the brown tabby to her face and nuzzled it. “What a good boy you are, Thyme.”

The cat’s purr echoed in the den.

It would have been easier if Larkin were a cat and satisfied with food and affection. But as cute as the cats were, Jade didn’t enjoy their company the way he enjoyed Larkin’s. He wanted Larkin back.

And even if Larkin didn’t want to come back, Jade had to at least stop something disastrous from happening.

“What else did you hear? About the human situation?” Jade asked.

Citrine set the cat down again. “The coronation is in… a few days? Something like that. I haven’t heard anything about your treasure, or if I did, I didn’t know it was important.”

Jade got up, and unfortunately this time he had no choice but to disturb the cat by his tail. She, like all of Citrine’s collection, was used to it though.

He’d have to pack clothes in case he needed to infiltrate the capital as a human, but he really wanted to simply swoop in and grab Larkin, to show the world that Larkin belonged to him now.

“All right. You can leave now, Citrine.” Jade paused, then rubbed his head against hers. “And thank you.”

“No problem. I wouldn’t want my brother to waste away in an undignified way.”

Citrine laughed when he swiped at her again.