Page 21 of Singing the Dragon’s Heart

Chapter

Twenty-One

K ami sang a little, following the stone he could hear into the caves behind Cain’s apartments. Talon followed him, marking their path with a grease pen because chalk would dry things out, and unlike human spelunkers, dragons didn’t have the skin oil that would kill stuff in a cave.

Which was nice, except that now water was dripping around him, and he was cold, because he was always cold, and he didn’t have Reno to warm him up.

Because Reno was a butthead and had said he had work to do and that Kami had said this was Talon’s job now. Which he had. He wanted Tal to have a job that wasn’t going out and flinging himself into danger without Kami to back him up.

Now, these days, Kami trusted the teams, and if Talon went out with them, he would be okay with it, but he was pregnant. He should get to have Talon’s muscle and Reno as an electric blanket all the time.

And unlike Cain and Rowan had said, he’d never started having hot flashes. He wasn’t as cold as he had been, but?—

The song got so loud that he clapped his hands over his ears, his steps faltering to a stop.

“What is it?” Talon asked, his voice sounding distant.

“It’s so loud!”

“I cannot hear anything but a bit of a hum.”

“Which means you can hear it, and normally you can’t!” He felt like he was shouting.

“Kami, this cannot be good for the baby!”

“Hush and let me listen.” If he could just find the melody, could just tune with the stone, then he could enjoy the song, not have it trying to make his ears bleed. Gods.

Talon touched him, but unlike when Reno did it, it didn’t help. He shook Talon off.

Reno, I need your help.

Do you need me to come? I can be right there.

I think it will be faster if you help me just like this. Just send me some energy. Like how you learned how to warm me up even while you were at work.

Okay. He felt the warmth stealing through him, and he took Reno’s power and twined it with his and focused on the stone.

The song throbbed, the bands of it twisting. Then it went back to being death metal. So he pulled more, leaning on Reno when he just didn’t think he was going to be able to do what he wanted.

Then it snapped into place, the melody swelling but not assaulting him. It was gorgeous.

“Kami?” Now Talon sounded totally normal, right there in his ear.

“Sorry. Whoa. That is some stone. Come on, let’s find it. It wants to see daylight.”

“If you’re sure you’re okay.”

“I am.” He wouldn’t tell Tal about Reno, but he sent some love his mate’s way and got a mental caress in return. So sweet, his braaken.

They walked around the cavern they had just entered, and sure enough, he saw a flash of blue in the wall, a ripple of music. “There it is. Maybe an aquamarine. I’ll help you figure out how to get it out.”

Talon grunted, setting down all his tools. “Good. It looks like I will have to swing the pick to get it out. You can barely see it.”

“No. I mean, yes, but I think I can help sing it out.”

“Like a baby?” Talon had gone to his last meeting with Rowan, who had said sometimes dragon babies needed all sorts of encouragement.

“Just like a baby, I hope.” He put one hand on his belly, stroking his little one. “This baby needs to stay where it’s at. We just need the rock baby.”

“The rock baby.” Talon rolled his eyes. “Are you sure about this?”

Sure? He was just making this shit up as he went along. “Sort of? I’m pretty sure it’ll work. Why wouldn’t it work? I am a stud, right?”

“Oh, fuck me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I like you too much for that.” He winked at Talon who shook his head.

“I’m so going to call Reno, you psycho.”

Kami chuckled at his worrywart buddy and then put his hand on the face of the cave wall, the song now as pure and loud enough to rattle his teeth.

At least it wasn’t a death metal song to him anymore.

Come on, come on, Little Rock. You can do it. Come see me. You need to see the sunshine, let it shine for you, in you. I know how much you want to see the sunlight.

He wrapped his mind around the stone and began to tug. He’d done this a couple of times, encouraged stones that were being recalcitrant to allow themselves to be plucked from the walls, but this felt different.

This felt weirdly heavy.

In fact, this time, when he pulled, it felt like he was trying to move a pickup truck all by himself.

It made him a little dizzy, to be honest, and he began to sweat, the exertion making his heart race a little bit.

And he could hear Talon in the back of his mind. Or was it that his ears were ringing and he was hearing with his ears instead of his thoughts?

It didn’t matter. He was committed now, pulling hard, and he could feel the stone’s willingness to come out. It wasn’t that it was being stubborn; it was just so blasted big.

Sure. Come on, come on, come to me. Let’s go. I’ll take you outside and you can shine. You’ll be someone’s. Someone’s going to need you so much.

“Kami! Kami, you’re scaring me!” Talon tugged him away from the wall, breaking his concentration, and his knees buckled.

Luckily Talon caught him.

“What did you do that for?”

“Your scales are almost transparent. You were looking like you did when you lost your stone!”

I’m coming, love , came Reno’s voice. What is it? What’s wrong?

Nothing. Seriously. Just a big rock.

Bullshit. I lost you there for a moment. You were completely gone.

No shit? He looked at the wall, where a terminus of the stone could be seen now.

“Hailee, what in hell is going on?” Reno came running into the cavern, all puffy and blowing smoke.

“I’m working. You’re supposed to be working too. I’m fine.”

Talon rolled his eyes. “He’s not fine.”

“You’re not helping,” he snapped, and Talon stuck his tongue out at him.

“It’s not my job to help you, except that it is, and I am,” Talon growled. “Quit confusing me. He’s not okay, Reno. He turned clear. I could see his veins. I could maybe even see his lungs.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. “I have clothes on, dipshit.”

“You know what I mean.” Talon shook his head. “It was scary.”

“There is a baby in there, hailee.”

“I know,” he growled. “I’m fully aware that there is a baby in here. That’s not the point.”

“What is it you were doing?”

It was hard to be mad at Reno when he had his concerned face on. “I was calling the rocks.”

“This isn’t Labyrinth .”

“Look, no one wants to hear about you and your David Bowie obsession, Reno. I was just doing my job. There’s this stone. Look at it. It’s right here.”

“It looks really big.”

Talon grinned at Reno. “That’s what he said.”

“Stop it!” Kami snarled. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”

“Hey!” That was both of them.

“Excuse me?”

“Seriously, Talon. Don’t you have a pickaxe?” Reno was beginning to smoke again.

“I was going to do the thing with the pick, and Kami told me no. He said he was going to like suave the stone out.”

“Suave?” he asked, and Talon blew out a sharp breath.

“Shut up.”

“What is going on?” Cain appeared like a jonquil popping out of the snow.

“I’m working,” he yelled. “Go away. This isn’t your…rock room anymore.”

“Kami, did you have a stroke?”

He turned his back on all of them and focused on the stone again. Fuck these assholes. They were conspiring against him, and he knew it. They all had beers and chips and things when he wasn’t around. Did anybody ever offer him barbecue chips? No.

No, they offered him things like spaghetti and meatballs and oranges and fresh fruit, things that were good for the baby. They had less salt in them because he was a little swollen, and Rowan said it was important, and he didn’t like Rowan either.

Wow, you’re grumpy.

He ignored Reno.

He was not grumpy. He was working, and no one would let him do his job.

Now he wasn’t completely sure what that job was, but this rock was coming out of this fucking wall, and that was clear.

He stared at the rock.

You are coming out. You are going to let go of the wall and come to me and let me not look like an asshole in front of all of these dragons.

This time, the wall groaned really loud, and a couple of pebbles fell out of the ceiling.

See, you’re doing a great job.

“Hailee, I think that you should stop.”

“Working.” Come on, don’t make me look like an asshole. Do me a solid, and I’ll find you a good dragon that will be yours forever. Come out of the wall. Out of the wall.

There was that weird creaking noise again, but louder this time, and he was pretty sure that he heard somebody say “oh”, when the pebbles fell.

“Reno, this is bad. Not normal bad, but more like the only kind of bad that Kami can get us into, and I didn’t think he could get us into that kind of bad here. That’s why we stopped being on the road.”

“I think that Talon is right on this. You know, I think that Kami’s trying to destroy the mountain.” Cain was starting to irritate him.

Okay, you look. Help a kid out. Notice I’m tired and I’m willing to whine. No stone wants a whiny stone singer. And who came up with that name anyway? That’s a stupid fucking title. Why couldn’t it be something neat like, oh, he didn’t know…

He couldn’t think of anything, which was probably why nobody had come up with a name that was better because nobody had thought of it either.

Fuck him, he was tired.

Also, he really wanted some barbecue chips now. Maybe in a sandwich?

A turkey and provolone and bacon sandwich with barbecue chips.

He tapped the stone with his finger sharply, letting it know that he was getting a little frustrated. “I said come out, you.”

A chunk about the size of his head fell out of the wall, kind of landing in his arms, and he ended up flat on his butt holding this great big rock.

Problem was that the sound of its song had just quintupled in volume.

Oops.

“Get the stone,” Reno snapped at Talon.

Talon grabbed it out of his arms, and Reno yanked him off the floor, lifting him into those brawny arms. Cain followed, a few more pebbles raining down, along with a sluice of water.

“Shit!” That was Reno. “No going back in there until we can shore it up, baby.”

“But the rock…”

“It showed you it was willing, and gave you a large chunk,” Cain said. “But you could collapse the whole cave.”

“No. It’s not?—”

“Baby, you were not wearing your reasonable face.”

Kami sighed. “Okay, maybe not. But I think that vein of aquamarine might be important.”

“And we’ve marked its location. I promise.” Cain had to puff a little to keep up with Reno and Talon.

“No one else will sing it out of the cave, baby. I promise, but you have to wait until after the baby is born.”

“But I—” Kami stopped, his eyes widening as he heard another kind of song in his head, thrumming through his body.

He put a hand on his belly. That wasn’t a rock. That was his kid. Their kid.

He’d heard little whispers, but now it was a full-on chorale.

“What?” Reno stopped, looking down at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I can hear the baby. Like whoa.”

“Oh, wow.” Reno kissed him, then started walking again, never even breathing hard from carrying him. Butthead.

“Where would you like the stone?” Tal asked him.

“In our apartment.” He craned his neck to see over Reno’s shoulder. “Is that okay, Cain?”

“Of course it is, Kami.” Cain stopped when they hit the door from his long hallway, smiling at them when they paused to look at him. “Call me when you know what you want to do with the stone. And have a few chips, Kami. Just a few won’t hurt him, Reno. Even Rowan can’t deny him a handful.”

“Okay, boss.” Reno winked down at him.

Talon lugged the stone back to their apartment, then kissed his cheek. “You need to rest and listen to your little one instead of the stone for a bit.”

“Yeah, yeah.” But he had a feeling Tal was right. Now that he could hear his baby so well, she drowned out everything else.

“Lunch tomorrow, Talon,” Reno said. “Our treat as a thank-you for all you do.”

Talon flushed, his eyes glowing a moment. “Thank you, friend.” He headed across the hall to his quarters, closing the door behind him.

Reno took him into the house and sat him on the couch. “Let me get you the chips and a drink.”

“I’d totally take some juice. But I don’t need chips. Will you just come sit with me?”

That got him a bright smile, Reno nodding. “Pineapple orange banana?”

“Oh, gods, yes.” Reno got him. Really got him.

They sat together, and he sipped his juice from the circle of Reno’s arms, on Reno’s lap. His favorite place to be.

“So what was it about that vein of rock, love?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I can’t even think about it now. All I can hear is our girl.”

“You can—Girl? We’re having a baby girl?”

“We are.”

Reno laughed, the sound one of pure joy. “Oh, hello, little girl. Soffar loves you. I do.” Reno talked right to his belly.

A tinkle of bright sound, like laughter, was the answer. “She loves you too, Papa.”

Reno kissed his neck. “No more spelunking for a while, okay? Please?”

“You have my word, babe.”

Those pebbles really had been telling him something. It was time to listen while someone else shored up the cave.