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“Of course, Uncle,” he says. A little too smooth. A little too agreeable. He’s definitely up to something.

I need to look into this. And I need to do it without drawing too much attention to my growing suspicions.

“For now, this one needs to get showered and to bed. She’s had a long day of flying lessons.”

“I have,” Melissa interjects. “And they were all terrible.”

The tension becomes defused as Nox smiles. He enjoys her rebellious nature. It reminds him of himself, I am sure.

I usher her out of his chambers, and ensure I take the seal from her.

“I think I should keep this safe,” I say. “There has been a great deal of trouble around it. Time to ensure it does not end up where it does not belong again.”

Melissa does not argue for once. I am quite impressed. She not only found the artifact we were searching for the moment it returned to her range of feeling, she sniffed out a fake one.

“You did very well,” I tell her. “You may be having a little trouble finding the nature of your wings, but you understand the magic of this place. You are linked to it. You belong here, Melissa. Not just with me, but with everybody.”

She smiles at me, a soft, gentle, happy little expression that I rarely get to see on her face. She is usually a more strident creature, one way or another.

“You really mean that?”

“Yes. Absolutely. You have been fated from the beginning. From the first moment I saw you. Your connection to this place has always been extraordinary.”

“That’s ‘cause I played the game,” she reminds me.

I loathe that game, but I also know that it is not the root of her connection.

“No. I sensed you. I felt you the same way you feel this seal. I am attuned to you. You belong here. With me. You are part of the fabric of the magic of this place. Remember that next time you feel frustrated with the learning process. You have already come so far. You are a creature like no other. Now. Come. You need a bath.”

“I need a bath?”

“Well,” I amend my words. “I need you naked, wet, and oily.”

She blushes and giggles, an absolutely gorgeous sight. I sweep her up into my other arm, carrying her with as much reverence as I do the seal.

CHAPTER 13

Ornix

In the days that follow, the interaction with Equinox leaves me uneasy. He didn’t want to hand over the seal. I left him unattended in the human world with an artifact capable of all manner of terrible things, and he came back playing games. Testing us, almost.

The boy is up to something, but I cannot tell what. Since his return, he has spent no time whatsoever doing anything besides playing on those damn computers. I have told him to shut the game down, amend it so players are not being fed the secrets of our realm, but I do not know that has happened. In fact, I believe it has not.

I should go to the human world and have the game shut down. I did try to get my associates to handle it, but apparently it’s not as easy to just turn the whole thing off as I imagined. A lot of human investment is surrounding the IP now, and there are a great many people determined not to allow the damn thing to be taken offline.

I want to keep an eye on Nox, but there’s nothing to watch. Just an uneasy feeling that something is happening right under my nose. It is as I said about the seal; the ripples of past events are converging and there is nothing I can do to stop them. I can feel the currents of energy. I just can’t see them yet.

“I don’t need you to tell me how to fly! I have already flown before!”

I am distracted from my pondering by the sound of my mate causing absolute havoc in the training room. I know it is my mate, because only my mate screeches curses at that particular pitch, and none of the dragon whelps would ever dare to say the things she is saying to Instructor Wraith.

She comes storming out of the training wing with a chain trailing from her harnessed form, and she is followed by Instructor Wraith, who looks as angry as I have ever seen him. He steps on the chain as she rushes toward me, stopping her in her tracks and then yanking her back in a manner that is actually rather comedic, though of course I cannot laugh.

“Get back here! You do not leave the lesson without being dismissed!” Wraith snaps at her.

I step off the stairs, manifest my wings and let myself glide to the floor in front of the pair of them before a tussle ensues. I have a feeling things are moments away from violence if Wraith keeps yanking her around like a naughty puppy on a chain.

“This human is an unworthy wretch who refuses to follow even the simplest of orders,” he says. “She’s closer to an animal than a sentient being.”