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“Guests?” Noah didn’t want to stay there tonight. Though he didn’t really want to be camping near a dragon either. “I need to know where the dragon is, so I can organize for the vet to meet us there.”

Pan gave him a small smile. “You know where she is.”

No, he didn’t. He’d let his necklace land on the map, that didn’t mean the dragon was there. He didn’t trust it. He didn’t trust himself or his magic. But Pan did.

CHAPTER25

Pan didn’t tell Noah the only reason they were being treated as guests was because he had agreed to owe the queen a favor, which he’d need to repay at some point in the future. Two tents in exchange for a dragon. The healer in exchange for Liam and Web. The favor in exchange for him and Noah.

Well, mostly Noah at this point, since he was the one with magic.

He was trying not to let that bother him because at the moment his only skill was translating. And that wasn’t going to be needed for long. The more English they spoke, the sooner the centaurs would understand them. The more Noah listened to the centaurs, the sooner he’d be able to understand them—if he listened for the intent, for the magic in the words, instead of listening with his mind and hoping to make sense of the words.

Noah had offered to share the snacks from the backpack in a show of goodwill, which had not been well received because the centaurs didn’t like chocolate. Liam had then shared several muesli bars, which had been much more popular.

And while they were allowed to move around freely, they were followed by a guard, which was irksome. Did they not realize they were dealing with a god?

They did not.

It seemed the queen and her consort were keeping that knowledge to themselves. Perhaps the rest of the herd would panic if they realized Epona had no magic and no power to answer their prayers. She may even be dead.

He refused to believe he was the only god alive.

Or that he would be stuck without magic for the rest of his life. That he would be a no one. But without magic, that’s exactly who he was. Where once the queen would have bowed to him even as she hated him, now she did not care, and she insulted him with impunity while favoring Noah. He was only sitting with them to be the interpreter.

And also to make sure Noah didn’t say something that resulted with him on the end of a spear. That would be inconvenient.

So he kept his smile fixed in place and did as expected. The centaurs shared their food, and he politely took a couple of bites, but he much preferred what Linda had packed for them. The centaurs also liked the human bread, which was unsurprising.

Noah leaned over. “I need to call my aunt about tomorrow. Is there a way to leave this party politely?”

Pan glanced up at the stars to judge the time, but they were too unfamiliar and without magic to whisper in his ear, he had no idea how late it was. “I will tell her that you need to talk to the tent supplier and arrange the healer.”

He relayed the message to the queen.

“He will use the phone to talk to people far away like a Strega?”

“Yes.” In one way it was the same, while also being completely different. And if he understood the technology, he might have been able to explain it better. Telephones hadn’t been around when he was last in the human world. Photographs had been black-and-white. Now Noah pulled the phone out of his pocket and had taken a photo of everyone around the fire like they were friends. He called it a selfie.

“Tell him to do it now so we can watch.” The queen smiled. She had been answering all of Noah’s questions, and Pan was sure that if Noah asked for a ride, she’d order Beard to trot around the camp with Noah on his back. She wanted him to stay with them. That much was clear.

Noah’s expression was tight, as if he knew the answer before Pan passed along the message. “Meredith may not answer.”

“Then you will call Linda or David and be diplomatic.” While he’d never met David, since he was married to Meredith, and Meredith was Linda’s daughter, it made sense that he was like them and had the connections to make something happen. The whole family seemed to be involved in the community and making things better for those in town. They were the kind of people he liked giving his blessing to because they multiplied the magic and used it in ways he couldn’t envision.

Whereas people like Web deserved what they prayed for. The kind of people where giving them what they wanted and letting it go askew was entertaining. Those people often wished ill on others to make themselves feel better, and that kind of magic never turned into anything good.

Noah tapped the phone a few times, and it started to make a noise.

The centaurs stared, the firelight catching in their eyes and gold beads.

A woman’s voice came out of the device. “Thank god, Noah, I was worried.”

“Everything is fine, Mer.” Noah glanced at Pan as if seeking confirmation. “You are on speaker phone, as we met up with some centaurs who know where the dragon’s mate is.”

At least Noah chose his words carefully, because like him, the queen and her consort wouldn’t reveal when they had gained an inkling of English, the same way he had not revealed that he spoke their language.

“Centaurs…I shouldn’t be surprised, yet I am. Where are you?”