Ryu was silent for a moment, undoubtedly processing what I’d said.
“I didn’t think of any of that. Caleb’s in the area, with Iris, and I’ll send him over to the bookstore to get your dad and the girls somewhere safe until we know what’ll happen. Then I’ll send a crew to do damage control.”
“Thanks,” I said, meaning it. I had to give Ryu credit—he’d been incredibly kind to me ever since he’d become co-leader of the Territory, with Nyx, after Morrigan murdered Orin. I do think part of his equanimity was that he was just so busy in his new role. Busy, but also really, really happy, which I think said something about his priorities. Ryu had loved me, in his own way, but he’d always loved power more.
I never could have made him as happy as his current position did, and that fact had to be as clear to him as it was to me.
“But you did do a good thing, Jane. We’ve got time, now. If you’d just fought off the Red and left, can you imagine what would be going through people’s minds? But while everyone was going over your footage a million times, we were able to get in touch with our contacts in the human governments, start working things out.”
“How are you going to play it?” I asked.
“We’re not sure yet. Everyone’s seen everything at this point. The footage has gone viral on YouTube, and more stuff keeps getting put up all the time. If it was just the Red, we might have been able to contain it with just an ‘extinct species not really extinct’ story, but with all of you involved, we’ll need more.”
“We had to do it. We couldn’t let her destroy Paris.” At my words, Anyan’s arms around me squeezed gently.
“I agree. And what’s done is done. So we have to turn this into an opportunity, somehow.”
“Are we coming out of the closet?” I asked.
Ryu was silent again, thinking. “Maybe” was his eventual answer. “At least in a limited way. We’ll see how everything pans out. A lot is going to ride on you, Jane. You’ve got to stop the Red, and quickly, before all hell breaks.”
“Well, the good news is that I don’t think she’ll be showing up as a dragon anytime soon. That shape’s too vulnerable.” I’d been sorting through all of my impressions of our recent battles, and they were only now making sense. “I think she’s more Morrigan when she’s human, and more Red when she’s the dragon. And the Red is so powerful, yes, but she’s not built for stamina. She’s built to wreck shop, get destroyed, and then rise again. It’s fire, after all. And air.
“She’s also Morrigan, though. When she’s Morrigan she’s less powerful, but she’s also less vulnerable. I think the Alfar makes the Red smarter too. She was trying to be subtle, do things under the radar, until she let the dragon out in Brighton. I think after this defeat, the dragon will let Morrigan take control again. Which means we won’t have a giant fire-breathing lizard on our hands, but we’ll also have a smarter enemy with a lot more staying power.”
What I said made sense, but I knew not to have too much faith in logic. After all, the whole point of the Red was that she didn’t make sense, so I could be completely off base. At the end of the day, all we could do was wait and see what she did next.
“We’ll see,” Ryu said, echoing my own doubts. “Hopefully you’re right. But in the meantime I’ve got to get to Washington and your group has to stop the Red. Call me again if you need anything else.”
“Thanks. Let me know if anything comes up at home.”
Ryu promised he would, and with that we said our good-byes.
I let my arm flop down on the bed. I felt a hell of a lot better after talking to Ryu and making sure he’d take care of my dad. Who would, if I was lucky, never even know what was going on until everything was over.
Closing my eyes, I let myself finally relax.
The best part was that I was already lying up against Anyan, so relaxing meant cuddling back against him, even closer. When I raised my face to his for an upside down kiss, his lips were there immediately. I’d only really wanted a comforting peck, but next thing I know I was straining up against his mouth, unable to resist the lure of the barghest.
And then my phone rang. Again. I broke off the kiss to look at my screen.
“It’s my dad,” I said, swearing.
“Uh-oh,” Anyan said, bracing me against him. I desperately, if rather stupidly, hoped that I wouldn’t need the bracing. Maybe my dad was calling to ask me where I’d hidden a saucepan, or something.
Needless to say, that wasn’t the purpose of his call.
“Hey, Dad!” I said, brightly.
“Dragons, Jane? Dragons?” He sounded really angry.
I gulped. “Um, yeah, sorry. I was hoping you wouldn’t see that.”
“The whole world saw it, Jane. You had an ax. And there was a dragon.”
I closed my eyes, grateful to feel Anyan squeeze my free hand in his own strong fingers.
“Yes, well. I’m okay.”
“You’re obviously okay, but that’s not the point. What are you doing?”
“What I have to, Dad.”
“What do you mean, ‘what you have to’? You just recovered from nearly getting killed. And now you’re trying to get yourself killed again?”
I took a deep breath, trying not to lose my shit. My dad had every right to be surprised and angry.
“Dad, I’ve gotten mixed up in some stuff that’s bigger than me. I didn’t want to be involved, but we can’t help what life brings us. So now I’m just doing my part.”
As I said those words, I realized they were true.
I am doing my part.
“You’re my little girl, Jane. What are you doing fighting a dragon? With an ax?”
I couldn’t help but smile. Even I knew I looked ridiculous with the labrys.
“Dad, I love that you still think of me as your little girl, and I wish that we were having the ‘independence’ conversation about something normal—like going away to college or moving out of the house. But my life’s not been like that, ever. And I have to live it, Dad. I’ve been chosen to do something that I have to do. That dragon you saw, she’s the person responsible for mom’s death.”
“Revenge won’t make you feel better…” My dad began, but I interrupted.
“It’s not revenge. It’s salvation. I’ve been given the power to stop her, and I’m one of the only people who can. And yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds,” I acknowledged. “But you’re going to have to accept this.”
“You could be killed.”
I closed my eyes at the bleak tone of my dad’s voice. “I know. But I don’t plan on dying, Daddy. And I’ve got Anyan with me, and Blondie, and lots of other powerful people. I am going to be fine. It’s you I’m worried about. Caleb’s on his way over… you remember Caleb?”
“No pants, goat haunches?”
“That’s the one. He’s going to come over and take you somewhere till this blows over. Ryu’s also sending some people to take care of Grizzie and Tracy. The media may come to Rockabill, looking for answers about me.”
“I have no doubt Linda or Stuart has already called them to ID you,” my dad said dryly, a hint of his old humor returning. I snorted in agreement, thinking almost fondly of my old Rockabill nemeses.
Even Linda’s better than a dragon, I thought.
Now Stuart, on the other hand…
“You really have to do this, Jane?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And you’ll try to stay safe?”
“Of course.”
After a moment, he sighed. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Keep busy,” I told him. “Try not to think about it. Design Caleb some kind of genital covering.” My dad chuckled at that.
“Can I talk to Anyan?”
“Sure, Dad. I love you.”
“I love you too. Stay safe. I mean it.”
“I will,” I said, passing the phone to Anyan as I extricated myself from between the barghest’s thighs. I got up and grabbed a bottle of water from our room’s fridge. I took a long drink, listening as Anyan said the occasional “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” Eventually he said, “I promise,” and then he said good-bye and hung up.
“What did he want?” I asked, as the barghest set my phone down on the hotel’s nightstand. He held his hand out to me and I went to him gladly, letting him pull me down on the bed.
“He said to take care of you, or he’d kill me,” Anyan said, nuzzling my ear.
I smiled. “Did you tell him it’s my job to save all of you?”
“Your dad is human and of a certain generation. He believes males should take care of females.”
“Thanks for clearing that up,” I said sarcastically, then sighed as Anyan suckled at my earlobe before nipping. I let my head fall back as his lips found my throat.
“You do realize that by ‘taking care of me,’ my dad didn’t mean with sex?”