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Including the fact that he had left his brothers alone with Hawk, and they were either sitting in awkward silence or grilling him unmercifully. Yikes.

“Come on, kiddo. I might not fly you anywhere, but I will walk you back down to your house.” He didn’t want Brand and Devon frantic and out hunting for her in a storm in Lunastra. They still weren’t used to the unpredictability of the weather in the dragonlands.

“Yeah? I bet Helena has made cookies!”

“Oh, that sounds good. How’s Nevvy doing?”

“She’s good. She and Sebby are best friends. Likebestfriends. It’s so cute.”

“I’m glad. She was so nervous about coming here.”

“She’s nervous about a lot, but Sebby is really sweet to her.” She wrinkled her nose. “We’re both firstborns. We kinda butt heads.”

“Bang bang. Like goats.”

“Oh, god, the goats.” She laughed. “Sebby has those.” She rolled her eyes. “I am not a farmer. Not. I am alibrarian.”

“You are, huh? I know your dads are both book people.”

“Uh-huh. So is Ollie. I love it. So I want to work at one of the big unis. Or in the village. Whatever.”

“There are huge universities here?”

“Huge! There are big cities like Denver, but with dragons.” She rolled her eyes. “Silly Cosmo.”

“Wow. Do they look like human cities?” His dad was from the middle of nowhere, and there was a lot of Lunastra that he hadn’t seen.

“No. No, they’re wild. You’ll have to see the books. Amazing! And?—”

“Arielle! Arielle, where are you?” Tyson’s roar filled the air.

“Uh-oh. They sent Uncle Ty.”

“Whoops.” Cosmo went to the door. “She’s in here!” He waved furiously, hoping his pink showed through the blue. “Tyson! Here!”

“Is that you, Cosmo?” Tyson trudged up to the casita, peering at him through the snow and wind.

“It is. She’s in here.”

“Ah, good. Good. Ri, you scared us all to death.”

“I—” She glanced at Cosmo, and he offered her a smile. “I’m sorry. I was mad. It was stupid.”

Good girl.

Ty gave her an indulgent look as he stepped in to warm his hands. “Well, reckless. You’re never stupid. But your dads want to meet your friends. They just didn’t want you to go rightnow.”

“Yeah… Uncle Cosmo sort of told me that… I misunderstood and flew off the handle.”

“Well, I think your dads will understand. Maybe we can apologize and make cookies?”

She nodded and went to Tyson for a hug. The huge dragon hugged her tight, then glanced at him.

“What are you doing out here? It’s summer where you are.”

“It is. My brothers made me mad.” He winked at Arielle. “Now I need to go apologize.”

“Is everything well?” Tyson asked, and he nodded.