“Great. So I’ll just let Kevin carry me across the gigantic divide by hanging from his claws.”
“I promise I’ll try to not drop you,” Kevin said. “And I’m mostly good at keeping my promises. Though if you want, I could always just chuck you across. See how good the old arm is. Sam! Tell your side of beef I’ve got a good throwing arm. Sam knows. I play ball with my boy. Father-son time, you know.”
“Kevin, don’t throw my boyfriend across the cavern.”
“You sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
“You guys are no fun,” Kevin grumbled.
“What do you mean pretty sure?” Ryan asked me with a scowl.
“Love you,” I said sweetly before turning back toward Zero.
“There,” Kevin said as I walked away. “You’ve said your goodbyes. You’ve had a little lip action. We appreciate you flying Kevin Air, emergency exits are all around you, but I suggest you use them only if you have a death wish. Should there be a water landing, I’m sure your ego could be used as a flotation device.”
“Har, har, can we just—holy fucking gods, why are you going so fast!”
The sand and dust kicked up around me as Kevin rocketed into the air. I glanced up, lifting my hand against the sun in time to see Kevin catching an updraft and flying far higher than he should have, just to fuck with Ryan. I was going to give Ryan so much shit about the way he was screaming. It was awesome.
Zero was waiting for me, lying in the shade of a crumbling battlement. I hadn’t been lying when I told Ryan that it was better if Zero stayed here. I honestly believed that. But I couldn’t help but think that I wanted him with us, at my side, so I could keep an eye on him. I’d known him for less than a day, but I already felt protective of him. Maybe it was his mental age. Maybe it was because of his insecurities. Or maybe it was just because for all intents and purposes, he was my dragon, just like Kevin was. I didn’t know him as well as Kevin, but I could feel him like I could the other dragon, though I wasn’t sure when that had happened. I had my suspicions, but I’d have to ask Kevin about it.
Zero understood. In fact, I thought he was probably relieved that he’d be staying behind, at least for now. It was a lot to take in. And it felt… right, that we had a deadline, given that he’d only be awake for a year. Everything would be said and done by the time the year was over. It had to be. There was no other choice.
“You didn’t tell them,” he said.
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Tell them what?”
“What the star dragon told you.”
This made me pause. “You heard?”
“Bits and pieces. It was… blurred. Like a dream.”
“You can dream?” I asked, unsure why this surprised me.
Zero sounded amused. “I am alive.”
“What do you dream about?”
“Trees. Fire. Flowers. Stars.”
“Why do you dream of fire?” I asked.
He snorted, and a little curl of smoke shot from his nose. “I’m a dragon. I was born in fire,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell them?”
I watched him for a moment, trying to decide what to say. It felt important, like he was testing me. And I wanted to get this right. Finally I said, “Do you believe the gods are absolute? That they control everything?”
“If you’re asking me about free will, I’ll remind you that I’m fourteen and really only care about myself.”
I couldn’t help it: I laughed. “Dude. You’re an ass.”
He smiled, looking rather pleased with himself. “I like making you laugh. It’s a nice sound. Can I tell you something?”
I nodded.
“When I was five, humans came for me. I don’t know if they were terrible people. I don’t know if they were villains, or if they were just scared of something they didn’t understand, but they wanted my blood spilled upon the earth.”
My hands twitched to reach out and touch him, but I kept them at my side.
“I escaped, but not before they’d cut me. Broke through some of my scales. I thought about hurting them, about putting my teeth into their flesh, but I couldn’t make myself do it. I didn’t understand them, and they didn’t understand me, even when I cried at them to stop, that I would leave if they just let me. They didn’t let me. I got away, but only after I knocked them down. I didn’t mean to, but I hurt one of them. A woman. She hit her head on something. A rock, I think. It was scary, because she was bleeding and crying, and I just wanted to go. I tried to tell her that I was sorry, but she thought I was coming to eat her, because she screamed and ran away. So I left.”
“It doesn’t matter if they were villains or not,” I said. “No one should hurt another just for the sake of doing it. Or because they’re scared.”
“But aren’t you scared?” he asked me. “You’re scared, and you’re going to have to hurt someone. To stop this. Because when a life ends, it hurts.”
“My hand is being forced.”
“Maybe those people who came for me thought the same thing. That they were being forced.”
“Did you hurt anyone?” I asked him. “Did you give them any reason to see you as a threat?”
“No.”
“Then what they did was wrong.”
“Is that absolute?”
I balked at that, wondering how he’d been able to complete that circle.
“They chose to come for me,” Zero said. “They made their decision out of fear. Am I supposed to believe that was the path the gods set them on? That if they’d succeeded, that my life didn’t matter as much as theirs did?”
“Dude,” I breathed. “So heavy.”
“No,” he said. “I don’t believe things are set in stone. Look around you, Sam. Stone crumbles. Be it from time and age or the minds of men, it still crumbles. But I also think when a dragon god tells you something, you should listen. And maybe you should tell those closest to you about it.”
“It’s Ryan,” I blurted. I winced. “Shit.”
Zero’s eyes went wide. “What?”
I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. I thought voicing it would make it more real. I didn’t want it to be real. “Vadoma showed me,” I said begrudgingly. “My grandmother. In one of her visions. Sooner or later, Ryan will die.”
“Everything dies, Sam,” Zero said lightly. “It’s the price we pay for being alive.”
“Do you believe in me?” I asked. “Do you believe I can do what I say I can do?”
“Yes,” Zero said promptly.
“Then you best believe me when I say that I will see that stone turn to dust before I let anything happen to him. I don’t care what Vadoma says. I don’t care what the star dragon says. He’s not going anywhere.”
“Chills,” Zero whispered. “So many chills. I want someone to love me the way you love him.”
I smiled at him. “One day, someone will. They call us HaveHeart, you know. For Sam Haversford and Ryan Foxheart.”
Have you ever heard a fourteen-year-old snake dragon monster thing squeal like he’s just heard the greatest thing in the world? I have. It was a lot louder than I thought it would be. “Oh my gods,” he said. “I could just die.”