Page 126 of Ensnared

It may not always have been easy, but since that strange night when our bond shifted, things have steadily improved with Axel. Er, Azar. Whoever he is. Deciding which name to use is complicated. If I stick to just one in my head, I’m more likely to spill his secret, so I call him Axel when he’s in earth dragon or human form, and Azar when he’s red. It’s. . .bizarre, and I’m still wrapping my head around it.

It’s been almost a week since my dream, and the dragons are wrapping things up in Houston. Azar wanted to just fly to Iceland straight away, but I convinced him that we should pull up stakes and move along.

I may have partially defected, but I’m still a Houstonian. If I can clear the dragons out of my town and let people move back in, I’m going to do it.

“The blessed are still insisting that we should take some of the humans with us,” he says. “Even the ensnared agreed that starting over with all new humans?—”

“But we agreed that I’m in charge of the humans and that includes the ensnared,” I say. “Taking humans from Houston who speak English and understand how the world works in Houston to Iceland is a bad plan. We can subjugate new humans there.” That phrase doesn’t sit well with me, but what choice do I have? It’s either snatch thousands of humans from their homes here and take them with us, or have the ensnared free them and find new recruits in Iceland. That felt like the better way to go.

If we could have left the ensnared here, I’d have pushed for that, too.

“The humans who aren’t ensnared all stay,” I insist. “And about the government in Iceland?—”

“How we handle interactions with the local government falls to me. I’ve attempted to talk things through dozens of times now.” Axel shakes his head. “It always leads to more jets and bombs, and then more humans will die, and I can’t have you all agitated.”

“I don’t get agitated,” I say. “That makes me sound like a Karen, complaining about my cheesecake being too dry.”

“A Karen?” He frowns. “I don’t understand.”

I roll my eyes. “Never mind. It’s a stupid name anyway, and some of the nicest people I know are named Karen.”

“But you said?—”

“Forget it.”

Sammy pokes his head through the crack in my door. “Are you guys fighting about cheesecake?”

“We aren’t fighting,” I say.

Axel says, “What’s cheesecake?”

Sammy’s eyes widen. “We have to eat cheesecake before we leave.”

“I’m sure they have cheesecake in Iceland,” I say. “And I told you that we have to leave today.”

“But what if their cheesecake is gross?” Sammy’s bottom lip juts out. “What if all the cheesecake factories get blowed up when they try to attack us?”

Good heavens. “Sammy, I told you already?—”

“And I don’t want to ride underwater to get there. Jade says Iceland’s an island, and that it’s so cold that you turn into ice the second you land.”

“Jade said that?” It really feels more like a Coral thing to say. “But I told you that?—”

“She said Coral saw it in her school book, and they have huge fish underwater, with teeth that have rows and rows and never stop growing.”

“I have teeth in rows and rows,” Axel says. “And so does Azar. How’d you like to ride with him?”

Sammy’s eyes light up, but then he frowns. “But what about Gordon? He might be sad if I ride with you. I usually ride with him.”

I throw my hands up in the air. “Are you at least done packing?”

“Actually, I didn’t pack at all.” Sammy leans closer, putting one hand by my ear, and cupping it. His whisper’s so loud that I doubt it would do any good if there was someone we didn’t want to hear. “Did you know that Gordon can make me clothes? He uses magic to do it, just like he makes his clothes when he changes shape.”

“Have you asked him for a light saber yet?” Axel asks. “You should tell him that you need one, and then when he’s not paying attention, hit him with it as hard as you can.”

“Axel Earth Blessed, how dare you?” I slap his shoulder. “Are you trying to get my little brother eaten?”

“Gordon wouldn’t dare.”