Page 46

“You heard what Silas said.” Noah used the name Pan wanted people to use. “The dragon is tired and cranky and hungry and missing his mate?—”

“Yes, and then he’ll start burning things. And then we’ll be ordered to kill him. It’s a mess. I am aware.”

“I don’t think we should be killing dragons. They are the symbol of Wales.”

She glared at him, and it took everything he had not to step back. “There has already been violence between humans and the mythologicals. A dragon burning homes and buildings will be a danger to everyone.”

“All the more reason to help prevent it.”

“Noah, the military is being rolled out. This is a large-scale disaster that will take years, decades, to recover from.”

“I’ve seen the news. Maybe the military and the people in charge need to be asking Silas how to help. Or the other mythologicals who speak English…or something instead of rounding them up.”

“We aren’t rounding them up. We are protecting them. There are a lot of angry people in town who’ve lost people.” She lifted her hand. “On both sides. We don’t know anything about the mythologicals?—”

“They are literally in our stories.”

“Stories which are old and may only carry a grain of truth.”

She was right, but why were some myths real and others discarded as fantasy? “That hasn’t stopped people from believingsomestories are entirely truthful.”

Meredith sighed. “I’m not debating religion with you.”

Noah tried to act innocent. “I might have been talking about Greek myths or Cinderella.”

“You weren’t. Look, you don’t know Silas, and he was kissing you. You’re hardly impartial.”

He knew Pan’s real name, which was more than he bothered to find out about some guys he’d fucked or let fuck him. Though that wouldn’t win him the argument. “Was I supposed to let him starve?”

She remained silent for a moment before sighing and shaking her head. “No.”

“I said I’d help with the dragon. My word matters.” He echoed Pan’s words. “Web and Liam can also help.”

Her eyebrows twitched as if she was biting back a comment about his friends. He’d seen the same expression on his mother’s face too many times not to recognize it. “And how are you going to search? Why hasn’t the other dragon been flying around searching for her mate? What are you going to do if she’s dead? This is dangerous. There might be wild mythological animals out there.”

He hadn’t considered wild animals.

Weird mythological wild animals.

“Liam lives on this side of town. We can use his car. And we’ll take water and such.”

Meredith stared at him. “You’re not using the dragon to fly around?”

“Yeah, nah, apparently riding a dragon isn’t a thing.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “We’re hoping to leave him here with a side of beef or something. And the dragon is going to need to hunt, which means farmers might lose the occasional animal. I think there’s some logistics to work out.”

“Some logistics?” She pursed her lips and blew out a breath. “It’s a logistical nightmare. It’s not one city or one?—”

“I know.” With social media and the news, there was no avoiding that this was a global problem.

“No, you don’t, Noah. When there’s a disaster, other countries and cities volunteer their resources. They can’t. Because everyone is in the same situation. Getting water and power and sewage working again is the priority, and that’s the tip of the iceberg. Roads need to be fixed, otherwise the trucks that transport food and other goods won’t be able to get through. They will be the priority, not our little suburban streets…” She shook her head. “We can’t ask London to send extra medics or cadaver dogs to go through rubble because they’re in a worse situation. The morgue is full of humans and mythologicals. It’s going to take months to check all the buildings, to make sure they’re stable. It will take years to rebuild, and it will never be the same.”

Noah swallowed. Knowing it was global was one thing, but he hadn’t thought about what that meant. Growing up in Australia, when it was bushfire season, America often sent equipment and firefighters, and Australia did the same for them. And when there’d been a tsunami in Asia, lots of countries had sent help.

They helped because they could. Now, everyone was on their own.

“I’m trying to help. I need to help. To do something. And David will have plenty of human volunteers, but who is volunteering to help the mythologicals? You heard what Silas said. If they listen to the language, they can learn it, but who is going to talk to them? Or take a radio or a TV. I’m sure they would like to help their own people.”

“It’s not that simple.”