16. Corin

16

Corin

Maya’s mouth dropped open. Panic flared behind her eyes.

“Oh no. Our meeting. I didn’t—is it that time already?”

“We agreed on eight thirty.”

“Oh…” She half-turned, staring helplessly up at a space on the wall where he was certain there had been a clock the day before. On closer inspection, he found the clock on the floor nearby, with half a banana mashed against its face.

“I didn’t realize it was so late!” Maya’s sudden perkiness was so fake it put his teeth on edge. His dragon whipped its tail unhappily. “Sorry. I’ll need a minute. We had a … disturbed night…”

“Did you sleep at all?” His words rang in his ears, harsher than he’d intended. “Did either of you sleep?”

She shot him an aggrieved look that ran out of steam before it was even fully formed, and rubbed her eyes.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but—”

“Forget our meeting. Get some rest.”

“I can’t rest, I have to…” She gestured at Tomás, who was clinging to her neck and grizzling like a coffee machine about to blow.

Corin caught the toddler’s eye. A wave of formless telepathic feeling washed over him. Frustration and exhaustion and—

Ah. Oh dear.

If that was what he thought it was, then leaving sleep-deprived Maya to deal with her toddler today was the worst thing he could do.

“Leave him with me,” he said, pretending a confidence he certainly did not feel. “You need to sleep. There’s no point in us discussing anything when you’re falling asleep on your feet.”

“And you’ll look after Tomás?”

She had to be exhausted beyond all reason, Corin thought, because the Maya he knew would never allow herself to look or sound so openly doubting.

“No self-respecting dragon would ever allow harm to come to a dragon shifter child.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about. Have you even interacted with a toddler before? In your life?”

“Yes, I—”

“Other than when Tomás showed you his hoard the other day?”

Even exhausted, Maya missed nothing. “His little friend who turns into a seal chewed on my shoe yesterday, if that counts.”

“It doesn’t. Sorry. Don’t worry. I’ll have some coffee and be fine. We can still talk about all the stuff. Did you get the report from your people yet?” Her shoulders sagged.

He wanted to hold her. His whole body ached to put his arms around her and let her fall asleep in his embrace.

While her house burned down around her, most likely.

“You need to sleep,” he told her firmly.

She shook her head. “I do not need to … sleep. Okay? I’m fine.”

“Clearly you are not, since you just said the word sleep as though it’s a foreign concept.” He meant it as a joke, but the wan expression on her face stalled him.

How many mornings like this had she spent without even a friend to call upon, trying to hide the fact that her child could transform into a dragon?

“Go,” he urged her gently. “Go and rest. We’ll be fine.”

And she did. Leaving him with Tomás, who glared up at him with the naked suspicion he was used to dealing with from other dragons.

Not ones who were this small, however.

“Hello, Tomás,” he said.

Tomás blew a raspberry at him. Then, with a look in his eyes that was far too calculating for a human child this young—he assumed—but absolutely perfect for a dragon—he also assumed—Tomás blew out his cheeks.

“Not working quite like you’d hoped, is it?” Corin found, to his surprise, that he was smiling.

“Awawa hoo !” Tomás puffed, then stuffed his fingers into his mouth, looking disgruntled.

“Hoo! Hoo!”

Old memories nudged their way up. Corin’s own dragon was peering out through his eyes, fascinated.

“No wonder you couldn’t sleep.”

He was going to need backup for this. Or at least, he needed to warn the town’s guardian what was coming.

He sent a brief telepathic message to the shimmering gold bubble that was Apollo Jenkins’s mind, then quirked one eyebrow at Tomás.

Tomás blew discontented bubbles, his mind a firestorm of frustrated power.

* Whozzat … Blackburn? You’d better have a good reason for getting Felicity and me out of bed this early. Or are you hoping for a fast exit from town?*

*There is a situation that requires your help. Can you and Felicity meet me at Maya’s house?* He frowned as Tomás puffed his cheeks out again. * Bring a fire extinguisher.*