Page 50 of Into Ember

“What’s going on?”

“We have to leave,” Leif says.

“What? Why? You haven’t even explained—”

“We’ll explain on the way.”

“To where?”

Vick steps up. Pressed, precise, hands behind his back like he’s about to give a briefing, because apparently he is.

“As leader of the Ásp Móra, Leif here—”

“Muffin,” I say.

Vick stops. Looks at me. Looks at Leif. And the smirk that crosses that man’s face should be illegal in several of these realms they keep talking about.

“Muffin here,” he continues, “should have taken you directly to the Vestry.”

Leif groans.

Worth it.

“Vestry?”

“Think of them as the— what does your realm have…” He considers. “President. If he got to boss around everybody. Like that, only more of them.”

“Ohh.” Then it lands. “Wait. Seriously?”

“Yes. Your Muffin here — all of these men make up the most respected military unit in this realm.”

I look at them. Military. The most respected military unit in the realm. Which, fine, would explain several things I had personally attributed to gym memberships.

“Even…”

“Yes, even my son,” Vick laughs. “The Vestry sent them to find Erik. Which they did. And now they need to report back. As fun as I’m sure the idea was, hiding out here with their recently found… mate…”

My face goes fully red. Great. Wonderful.

“Protocol and all that,” he finishes.

“I don’t like it.” Brock, from the counter, arms crossed. “This isn’t a good idea. They knew she was there and couldn’t name what she was…”

“They’ll want to see her too,” Rayner says.

“Oh.”

“Ohhh. That— no. No, I’m just me. Just a journalist from Chicago.”

“You’re a hell of a lot more than that,” Vick says.

“Oh yeah, the whole dragon thing.” I wave a hand. “Right.”

He looks at me for a long moment. Then he bends down to my level, which takes a while, because there’s a lot of him.

“I know it’s hard to believe. So let me put it another way.” His voice goes quiet and exact. “I am seven hundred and sixty-five years old. And I have never seen a female dragon.”

Seven hundred and sixty-five.