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Silas frowned.

“It’s a human joke. No one wants to be the adultiest adult in the room because it puts you in charge.” Oh, shit, he’d fed the dragon. Did that now make him the most qualified human when it came to dragons? That wasn’t good.

Silas said something in another language and nodded. “You don’t want to be the last fisher on the fishing boat because you’re the only one left to sacrifice to the mermaids.”

Noah felt his eyebrows lift and was unable to stop them from crawling toward his hairline. “What?”

“Your fishers no longer sacrifice to the mermaids, do they?”

“No,” he said slowly, not sure where this was going or if he wanted an explanation. “Because we don’t have mermaids…or at least I don’t think we do. And if we did, they weren’t bothering anyone.”

Silas snorted. “Mermaids always bother people, and they always expect an offering so they don’t sink boats and cause storms. Which is why, if you are the last fisherman on the boat, you must do what is needed to save your city.” He sighed dramatically, and his shoulders sagged. “I am the last fisherman and the adultiest person here. I guess I should be grateful I don’t need to throw myself into the sea for the mermaids to eat.”

CHAPTER13

“Absolutely not.” Linda crossed her arms and glared at Pan. “You can’t take Noah dragon hunting. I need his help here.”

Pan tilted his head. “We are not hunting dragons. We are searching for his missing mate. She may be injured.” He hoped that she wasn’t dead. While the city was damaged, there was plenty more damage an annoyed and upset dragon could do, and it wouldn’t make a good first impression on the humans. Pan was beginning to realize how much human cooperation he needed to achieve anything.

“He’s a kid with?—”

“I’m twenty-one,” Noah said as if that disproved Linda’s point.

Only twenty-one. Yet Noah had twenty-one more years of experience in this current version of the human world than Pan. Noah had lived his entire life in this world. The bits that Pan remembered were long gone. There were no carriages or opium dens. There were no painted warriors or druids. Everything he knew about the human world no longer existed.

There were more humans, for a start.

And their technology had progressed rapidly.

Perhaps the lack of magic had forced them to develop other means of making miracles.

Linda shook her head. “Pfft, practically a child. What do you know about looking for dragons?”

“Not a lot. What does any human know about looking for dragons?” Noah countered. “But I have helped search for lost dogs. And I fed the dragon out the back.” He stood a little straighter. “That makes me the resident human expert.”

Linda barked out a laugh. Pan was tempted to join in, but he wanted Noah on his side. He needed to keep Noah close because, somehow, he had the occasional glimmer of magic.

“You don’t really need me here, and I need to do something useful,” Noah continued.

Linda shook her head. “Given that Silas negotiated the use of this place for the vampires?—”

“I did no such thing.” Pan stamped his foot in frustration. It was less satisfying without hooves. The soft leather of the vampire boot scuffed the floor instead of offering a resounding ring. “I said that passage would need to be negotiated with the owners of the tavern. You own the tavern, and you have the right to demand payment and compensation. You can refuse.”

“And what kind of twat would I be if I refused? They’re stuck in that palace with rotting bodies and no running water. No one can survive that.” Linda jabbed her finger at the two maps on the table. “And how come their leader isn’t out here talking to me?”

“He is dealing with the dead, most of whom are his blood relations. Plus, the children left behind.” That was the easy answer. And while it was also the truth, there was a lot he was leaving out. Feryn was mourning the loss of his family, his city-state, and his world. Sometimes older vampires and elves, who had lived several centuries, developed a kind of melancholy from having seen and lived too much. He felt it occasionally, but for him, it was solved quite easily. He flitted to another continent. He found new followers and granted new prayers or reinvented himself with a different name for the different place. And if he was really tired, he visited a different world.

Elves and vampires rarely took off on a jaunt to see something new, mostly because they worried about their responsibilities and their families. Which made him believe that most of the melancholy was caused by responsibilities.

Which he now had.

What he’d give to go back two hundred years on this world and lie disheveled on a couch, drink absinthe and smoke opium, and fuck until he forgot about everything.

Moving through time was not something he’d ever wanted to do. He didn’t know of a single god with that ability. Perhaps it was because magic was always expanding and growing, and to go backwards meant using magic in its current form, which didn’t exist in the past. This couldn’t work. Trying to make theories about magic without being able to touch it made his horns ache.

Pan lifted his hand, showing Linda the ring again. “I am acting for him. Will your human authorities know what to do when confronted by a vampire, or will they panic? What will they do if they find the dragon?” He bit off the words. “How are the human authorities dealing with my people? Are they being helped or ignored?”

“Nan, please. I want to help.”