Dragon Awakened(73)

Purcell reached for the cigar that he’d set in the ashtray when Magda had banged on his door. “I have an idea, but it will mean widening the circle of the Chosen.” And inviting another Dragon in, not something he was fond of doing. Purcell figured about fifty people could survive on the Deus Vis the reactor emitted. There were not many vacancies left.

She gathered his free hand in hers. “Am I still one of the Chosen?”

Her fear of being excluded shadowed her eyes. And filled him with a rush of his own power. He got to play god, in a way, choosing other early generation Deuces and esteemed members of the Concilium or Guard, along with their select family members.

He patted her hand and pulled out of her grip. “Of course.” She didn’t know that she was the only Dragon thus far, and only included because of her affiliation with Darren. But Purcell would live up to his word. The Deuces he had chosen were purists like himself. None would be mating with Magda.

She stared past him, wiping away her tears. “The last thing Darren said…”

“Was what?”

Her smile was as vacant as her eyes. “That he was willing to die for me. That’s the kind of man your son was.”

Purcell couldn’t imagine his son being so noble. “You should return to your home. I imagine both the Mundane and Crescent authorities will be investigating. We’ll come up with a story. You were out, your husband was concocting something in his lab and accidentally blew it and himself up. Who knows what kind of crazy thing he was working on? You don’t, certainly. You can play the grieving and shocked woman well enough. After all, you did a good job just now.”



They’d saved thousands of Crescents. Cyn should feel good. Relieved. Well, if he could focus his thoughts on all that and not Ruby. Of course, that would be easier if he wasn’t patrolling the road that the Yard was on.

He picked up his cell phone and fought the urge to call Ruby’s number. Instead, he called Kade. When he didn’t answer, Cyn called another Vega he’d served with.

After Parker answered and Cyn identified himself, he said, “It’s great to hear from you, but I can’t talk right now.”

Cyn could hear noise in the background. “You wouldn’t happen to be investigating an explosion, would you?”

“Yeah, I sure am. An outbuilding, blown to bits. You know something about it?”

“All I can say is look closely at the woman who lives there.”

“She just returned from an errand and found this. She’s all broken up but she’s cooperating. We’re questioning her now, but she claims to have no idea what her husband was doing when he blew himself up.”

“I’d detain her for as long as you can. Check out her story.”

Cyn signed off. Ruby should be safe for a little while at least. As exhausted as he was, an uneasiness twisted his stomach. Once Magda was taken care of, he would have no reason to contact Ruby again. The thought burrowed into his chest.

He called Glesenda. “Hey. Everything normal?”

“We don’t have any uninvited guests hanging around, if that’s what you mean.”

“I’m not coming in today. See if Dave can teach my cane class this afternoon.”

“Is it because of that chick? And the demons?”

“No, that’s over. We took care of the guy behind the demons, and the chick is not in my life anymore.” He felt a stabbing pain at those words.

“Too bad about the chick. She fired you up. It was good to see you like that.”

He grunted in response.

“But,” she continued, “there’s no need for a substitute teacher. Six of the students have canceled, along with a bunch for the other classes. There’s some bug going around. I even feel run-down, and I never get sick.”

“Have any Mundanes called in to cancel?”

“Hmm. Now that you ask, no, only Crescents. Pretty strange, don’t you think?”

He couldn’t tell her that everyone would be feeling better soon without explaining, so he said, “Go ahead and close early, get some rest.”

Which is what he should do. The uneasiness was getting stronger, though, and his Dragon was downright agitated. Something didn’t feel right.

In Brom’s prophecy, and thus Moncrief’s stories, Garnet and the Dragon Prince defeated a huge monster. And he and Ruby had—the tulpa. In Moncrief’s version, the Dragon Prince died, but that was obviously his spiteful addition. Garnet had returned to her kingdom to find it still under siege by the Shadows. From Ruby’s description, they sounded like demons. Garnet and her army went on to defeat them and all was well.

All did not feel well here. If something was truly wrong, Brom should be sensing it. Demons were supposed to return to the Dark Side if their summoner died. Any demons here to do Darren’s bidding should be gone. Including the parasitic demon. Cyn headed to Brom’s and took the back way in again, getting no answer when he called Brom’s name. As he entered the house, he saw no sign that the man had been back. But he did see that the ribbons were still fracturing.