Dragon Scales (8 page)

"Fine," Amantea muttered, skulking away before Isaia did something else for him. He nudged some of the odds and ends that were on the floor back toward the trunk they'd come from, wishing his life would go back to making sense. He'd only had to catch a dragon and save his nest, and somehow that had turned into... What, making friends with dragons and rescuing kidnapped sisters and dealing with rogue witches...

"How's that?" Isaia asked, gesturing to his masterpiece. He'd folded up one of his scarves again—thankfully not the one he'd been wearing that time—and tucked it on top of a cushion. Potentially the cushion from the lake cave? Amantea couldn't remember if there had been any cushions in the house before. He shifted forms, careful to make the wrap shift with him, and then flew over to the nest.

It was soft and cozy, and Amantea curled up, tugging a bit of the scarf down over him. He was still cold, but he'd warm up. "Good," Amantea yelled, so that Isaia had a chance of hearing him.

"Good," Isaia said. He loomed over Amantea's bed for a moment, and Amantea was too tired and too small and at too awkward an angle to see his expression well. Isaia stepped away in the next minute, and Amantea shut his eyes.

Everything would make better sense in the morning, Amantea was sure of it.

Isaia was sleeping in his small form. Settled on the edge of his silk nest, Amantea stared at him, wondering why Isaia was sleeping both not in dragon form, which would surely be more comfortable, and also a bare few feet from where Amantea's nest was set up.

He looked softer in sleep, less intimidating, and Amantea still wanted to touch his scales, to see how they felt. Were they warm? Soft? Rough?

He liked breathing, though, so Amantea kept his hands to himself. He'd woken up only a few minutes previously, and he was seriously considering returning to sleep. He didn't want to, though. He'd rather stay awake and stare at Isaia than deal with more dreams of being smothered by water.

Biting his lip, Amantea wobbled his way to his feet, his movements undermined by the shifting of the silk nest under his feet. He launched himself into the air, heading for the kitchen part of Isaia's threadbare house. Once there, he shifted to his large size, grabbing at the wrap around his waist when it tried to slide free of his hips. How did Isaia deal with these things? But then, he
was
always losing them.

Amantea glanced at where Isaia was still sleeping. He didn't have a nest or anything to cushion his head. His wrap had rucked up slightly, showing off his thick, muscular thighs, and Amantea looked away before he started staring again. Food. He was hungry. The cabinets turned up nothing, which shouldn't have been surprising given Amantea had looked through them the other day and found nothing. Sighing, he turned toward the root cellar; surely he could find something there.

"There's some jerky in the third cupboard," Isaia said, his voice rough with sleep. It sent a shiver down Amantea's spine.

"Faeries don't eat meat," Amantea said. He shot Isaia a glare, ostensibly for his suggestion, but more because it wasn't fair he could have that effect on Amantea when he was two-thirds asleep and had only said a few words.

"Oh." Isaia's brow furrowed, making his nose do the cute wrinkling thing, and Amantea huffed. "Um. What do you eat, then?"

Amantea didn't answer that, stomping over to the root cellar. What did he eat? Honestly, Isaia was insufferable. Why was Amantea trying to
like
him? He yanked the cellar hatch open and slipped inside, grabbing at the wrap when the knot tried to come undone again. He was going to find food, and Isaia could cook it for him, and then he was finding his clothes again. These scarves were ridiculous.

When he emerged from the root cellar a few minutes later, Isaia was up and standing in the kitchen. He'd managed to start a fire, and Amantea marched across the room and shoved a few potatoes at him. "Cook those."

"Yes, sir," Isaia said, his eyebrows raising. Amantea huffed again, turning away, and went to storm across the room to where his clothing was. He didn't get more than half a step before Isaia snagged his arm and pulled him around. "Fl-" Isaia started, and Amantea glowered. "Amantea. What is the matter with you this morning?"

Amantea jerked at his arm, but as usual, he was no match for Isaia's strength. "Nothing. Let me go."

"Nothing?" Isaia repeated, and Amantea tried to pull his arm free again as his traitorous mind wondered if all of Isaia was as warm as his hand was. "Which is why you're storming around the house like someone stepped on your wings?"

"No one stepped on my wings," Amantea snapped. He twisted slightly, but that only caused the stupid knot in the stupid scarf to slip. Amantea grabbed at it with his free hand, barely managing to catch it before it fell free completely. Tugging it back into place awkwardly, he added, "These are useless."

Isaia laughed, his eyes traveling up from Amantea's hips to meet his eyes. He finally let go of Amantea's arm, and Amantea's traitorous heart started beating too fast. "I can show you a better knot."

"No," Amantea said sharply. "I'm putting on my own clothing."

"All right," Isaia said, raising his hands. "If you insist."

Amantea huffed for the third time, annoyed at the small smile on Isaia's lips, like he was amused by Amantea. Ugh. This day was turning out terrible, and he'd been awake for less than half an hour. Storming across the room to where his clothes had been spread out to dry, Amantea wrinkled his nose at the lake water smell to them. Nothing to do for it, though, unless he wanted to keep wearing the wrap and braving the chance that it might fall free at any moment.

He glanced over at Isaia, but he had his back to Amantea, doing something to the potatoes. Amantea removed the wrap and quickly dressed, stifling a sigh at the way his clothing smelled. He could trust it to stay in place, and that was more than the wrap had to go for it. It also covered more, and Amantea wanted that security, even if it was silly.

"We'll go see Naldo after breakfast, if that's all right," Isaia said when Amantea reluctantly rejoined him. The potatoes were gone, potentially in the stove, and Isaia was chewing on a piece of jerky.

"That's good," Amantea said. "Then I can go home." He wanted home. He wanted his nest, clothes that didn't smell, food that wasn't roasted potatoes or scavenged seeds and berries. He wanted to not be dealing with an infuriating, attractive dragon who thought he was barely better than a flit.

"Yeah," Isaia said softly. "You can."

Amantea tilted his head, confused at the tone of Isaia's voice. Was he imagining the sadness to Isaia's voice? Probably. Isaia pushed away from the counter he'd been leaning against. "I'm going to go see if Teria wants something to eat."

He didn't wait for Amantea to reply, heading across the room in great, giant strides, leaving Amantea feeling lost and confused. Wasn't it a good thing for Amantea to be going home? He'd stop annoying Isaia, and Isaia would probably be heading to his actual home, too. He had his sister, and they were going to deal with Naldo shortly. Everything would be back to normal, for both of them.

Amantea ignored the thought that he didn't want things to be normal again. Normal meant boring, meant dealing with his mother pressuring him to find some lovely faerie his age to nest with. Meant harvests and potentially moving the nest since it had been found, and dealing with all the arguments and bickering over where they should move, if they should move at all...

It sounded tiresome just thinking about it. The little comforts—his nest, good food, clean clothing—paled in comparison. Maybe he could spend a few days and leave again? His mother was already going to have a fit that he'd run off. He was too young to be on his own, after all, never mind that he'd gotten further in stopping the destruction of the nest than anyone in the nest had. They were probably still fighting over how to proceed.

Sighing, Amantea trudged over to the stove. As he'd suspected, Isaia had tucked the potatoes inside. He fished them out with a pair of tongs next to the oven, even though they likely weren't finished cooking. They were too hot to handle immediately, so Amantea set them on the counter and scowled at the empty house. He could hear raised voices from outside, but he refused to give into his curiosity.

It was a few minutes later that Isaia returned, slamming the door behind him. He looked his usual angry self, and Amantea focused on nibbling on his half-cooked potato. He'd thought Isaia and Teria would have had a better relationship, given how upset Isaia had been that she'd been kidnapped.

"Teria is coming with us," Isaia said, scowling. He returned to the counter, picking up his discarded jerky and taking a vicious bite of it.

Amantea nodded. "Do you fight a lot?"

Isaia grumbled something, shooting a glare at the front door, presumably at Teria. Out loud, he said, "She starts it, mostly."

Amantea snorted, stuffing more potato into his mouth when Isaia shot him an exasperated look.

"She's got a chip in her shoulder," Isaia said, his mouth twisting. He turned the bit of jerky in his hands over, fidgeting with it. "We share a mother, but her father was human, and a lot of dragons don't hold with that."

"Oh," Amantea said. He frowned. "I didn't know..." Amantea wrinkled his nose. He had heard of cross-species relationships, obviously. They were rare, but they did happen. He'd never heard of a child being a result, though.

"It surprised everyone," Isaia said. He shrugged. "She's only got one dragon form because of it, but she's more dragon than human, but even dragons can be idiots."

"Everyone can be idiots," Amantea muttered, thinking of his own clan heads. He didn't know what they'd do if a half-faerie was born. Probably spend years debating what to do about it.

"True," Isaia said, sighing. He tossed his jerky aside, slumping. He stared morosely at the floor. Amantea frowned, his stomach twisting. What had Isaia so upset? They were about to finish this ordeal... but maybe that was it. Teria had mentioned Isaia and Naldo had been lovers previously. Maybe Isaia was upset at the prospect of dealing with him again.

"I'm going to go make the circle," Amantea said. The sooner they were done with this, the better. He didn't wait for Isaia to reply before heading back over to the root cellar. He fetched up the number of potatoes he would need and set up the portal in the center of the room again, anchoring it to bring them directly to Naldo's backyard.

Isaia fetched Teria at some point. She looked as cranky as Isaia, but she did nod at Amantea in greeting, which Amantea returned as he set up the anchors.

"You let me deal with him first," Isaia said to Teria as they stepped into the circle. "You can have your crack at him after we sort out the threats against Amantea's nest."

"Yes, yes, you made that clear outside," Teria snapped. She bared her teeth at Isaia. "Let's get this over with."

Amantea activated the portal, taking a deep breath when they appeared in Naldo's backyard. It smelled sweet, with several blooming, unkempt flower beds lining the yard. It was a better smell than Amantea himself, who still smelled of stale lake water.

Naldo opened the back door seconds after they arrived, looking worse than the last time Amantea had seen him. His skin was sallow, and he had dark shadows under his eyes. His clothes hung off him loosely, and Amantea couldn't remember if that had been the case the last time he'd seen Naldo or not.

"Fucking faeries," Naldo said, but there was no heat in his words. He sounded exhausted, and Amantea frowned at him. What was wrong with him? "I assume you're here to kill me, then?"

"No," Teria said sweetly, her mouth curving in a predatory smile that made Amantea nervous.

"Wait," Isaia said, casting Teria a quelling look that did nothing to deter her smile. "First, you stop the blackmail on Amantea's nest."

"I did," Naldo said. He sighed, glancing off to the west. "After he ported you away last time, it wasn't worth it any longer. The rest of that nest was worthless. Farthingworth never wanted to do it, anyway."

Amantea scowled, but he didn't disagree. He felt like he was missing a piece, though. Why bother, if this was the end result? What about the dragon scales had been so important, and why was Naldo giving up now?

"Well, that's set, then," Teria said cheerfully. "Can I now?"

"What do you want dragon scales for?" Amantea asked. He edged in front of Isaia, frowning at Naldo. "How do we know you won't try something else to get them?"

"I won't let him," Teria said, rolling her eyes. She sniffed, dismissing Amantea with a derisive look.

Naldo laughed weakly, which turned into a coughing fit, which kept going for a few minutes, leaving him gasping for air. When he finally caught his breath, he said, "It won't matter. I'll be dead in a week at best. The dragon scales were my only chance at a cure."

"You have got to be kidding me," Isaia growled. "You tangled with a manticore? And you thought this was the best way to get the scales?"

Amantea shot Isaia a querying look, baffled. He'd heard of manticores, but he didn't know much more than that it was a fool's errand to go anywhere near them.