Page 67 of Nine-Tenths

He moves to grab it, but I dance out of the way before he can.

Auntie Pattie watches all of this with an amused expression but shrewd eyes.

"Well, now what?" I ask after Dav and I have scuffled ourselves out, and I've jammed my way under his armpit to take advantage of his draconic heat. Scotland in early winter is chilly in a way that’s different than Canada.

"Did you have plans for after you were outed to my boyfriend…

lover… there's got to be some word for what Dav is to me. I'm his Favorite and he's my…"

Dav and Auntie Pattie share an awkward glance.

"If you tell me the answer is 'master', I'm kicking you into that river over there," I warn them.

"It's my turn to ask prying questions," Auntie Pattie says with a mischievous grin, changing the subject with the subtlety of a drunk elephant. "Why are you really over here?"

Dav and I squirm.

"Dav's sister is—"

"Oh, come off it, you numpty. You think the courts are so separate that nobody chatters? I have friends in Whitehall."

"And what are your friends telling you?" Dav ventures, wary.

"That you're agitating a fair few folk," Auntie Pattie says.

And then she smirks. "But also that most of those being agitated deserve a good shake-up.

Most of Liz's advisers are damn near as ancient as she is, if not older.

Woosley spends more time asleep than awake, I hear. He'll be Turning Over soon."

"Turning Over?"

Auntie Pattie cuts a look between us. "Did he not tell you?"

Dav heaves a put-upon sigh. "No. I didn't want to overwhelm Colin with everything the microsecond after we kissed the first time, and it's caused a never-ending refrain of recrimination from everyone I know."

I pat his tummy consolingly, mocking him only a little. "Dav made a book for his first Favorite. Sat her right down on the ocean crossing and made her read it cover to cover before he'd let her accept his suit."

Dav startles. "Who told you that? Oh. Onatah."

"And he didn't do that for you?" Auntie Pattie asks.

"I sort of bumbled into the whole thing, you know, and…"

"Colin was already so… agitated."

"Freaked out."

"Discomfited."

"Freaking the fuck out—"

"That I thought it would compound the issue."

Auntie Pattie interrupts our playful banter. "But you could give him the book now?"

Dav shrugs. "I didn't know he was aware of it. And he hasn't asked for it."

"I'm asking now."

"It's at Fynyth."

"I'm gonna pinch you if you keep being sassy!"

Dav laughs. "No you won't."

I peck a kiss off his cheek instead. "No, I won't."

Auntie Pattie lets us settle, and then says: "Forgive me but… first Favorite?" Dav immediately goes still and silent. "Ah. My condolences."

"Thank you."

"Turning Over?" I prompt.

Auntie Pattie looks at Dav, leaving this one to him.

"Dragons don't die of old age," Dav says slowly.

"Oookay…" Are they pulling a prank on me? Though, when they would have had time to plan it, I'm not sure. Right, when I was pacing. "That's literally what happens when you get old but…?"

"For humans, yes," Dav says. "But ours…" he gestures at his own chest. "We solidify."

"Solidify," I repeat, deadpan.

"Turn to stone," Dav says after a pause.

Then he takes a deep breath and plunges ahead, ripping off the band-aid: "Dragons are born in human shape, and as the centuries pass we spend less and less time on two legs, until it's more comfortable to be in dragonform all the time.

And then the stone takes over, little by little.

Cell by cell. We stop eating, stop making fire, and then, one day just… stop altogether."

I shudder, horrified by the image of Dav going still… forever.

"Normally the end comes with lots of warning," Auntie Pattie says gently. "Dragons will choose a cave, or a plinth, or the back corner of the Estate's Sleeping Garden, somewhere they'd like their remains to either be protected from the elements, or on display for their hoard."

I blink hard, eyes burning, throat closing up.

I hadn't expected to be smacked between the eyes with a frank discussion of Dav's fucking death today.

"And… and what about me?" I ask, voice trembling, and Dav splays a hand on my chest, over my heart, against my lungs. Reminding me. Breathe. Breathe into his hand. Just breathe. So I do. "Favorites live as long as their dragons. Do… do I turn into a goddamned statue, too?"

"You'll simply fall asleep," Dav says softly, pressing his nose into my hair. His voice is low, as much to comfort me as to keep this from being overheard by anyone else. "Not long after I do."

I judder once all over. There's something particularly morbid about knowing exactly how you're going to die.

"Okay!" I shake off Dav's arm and wipe at my face. "Okay. Topic change, please. Before I actually have a full-on meltdown."

"Actually, I'd rather we return to the first one," Auntie Pattie says, stamping her feet to warm up in the chill Scottish air. "What, exactly, are you two bully lads up to that's got every uppity priss twitching?"

Dav shoots me a look that says, Can we trust her?

My reply look says After everything she's offered us? Yes .

So we lean in close, make sure nobody is paying us too much attention, and we tell her everything. When we're finished, she shoves her hands in her pockets, rocks back on her heels, and has a good chew over what we said.

"Well, now," Auntie Pattie says at length, and then stops, thinking.

She doesn't go on, and we give her space to contemplate.

"Well, now," Auntie Pattie repeats, chewing on her lower lip, the same way my Mum does. Same way I do. But this time she finishes her thought: "Seems to me that if you cannae get in to see a queen, perhaps you ought to be seeing a king instead."