Page 73 of Escaping my Dragon

“He is,” Lilith agreed. “But only because he never knew any better.”

“You think he’s going to suddenly decide he’s not going to be some rampaging monster? Have you met him?” I couldn’t help but poke a hole in her idea.

“He doesn’t lack for arrogance, but then again, we all have that trait, don’t we hatchlings?”

“Because we are superior beings,” Abaddon stated, matter-of-factly.

“Who must be careful. While there are some who would accept us, there are more who would hunt dragons down to extinction again.”

“Why didn’t you save us?” Alistair accused. “You must have seen what happened.”

“I did. I saw the infighting. The destruction. The way my kind wished to dominate instead of cohabiting. They earned their fate.” Lilith shrugged.

“That’s cold. Those were your, uh, niece and nephews?” Joslyn’s exclamation turned hesitant.

“They were behaving as savages and got what they asked for.”

“Aren’t you worried this newest batch will do the same?” Noah swept his hand at the smaller dragons.

“If they’re dumb enough to attack the humans, then they will suffer the same fate. And rightly deserved. Now, while I’d love to continue conversing, the hatchlings need to be removed from this area before the military returns.”

“To go where?” Persephone asked.

“Somewhere we can get to know each other without interruption.” Lilith then winked. “Anyone want to see the hoard I’ve accumulated in the Himalayans?”

A chorus of yeses followed.

“Excellent. I’ve just one more thing to do before we take flight.” Lilith took a few steps in my direction. “Love your show by the way, but you’ll understand when I say, you can’t be allowed to talk about what you’ve seen and heard these past few days.”

“You’re going to kill me.” Stated, not asked.

“Goodness, no. I’m too much of a fan. But you are going to forget.”

I met her gaze, the depths of them swirling as if the cosmos were contained within.

“As if I could ever forget.”

You came to Antarctica and didn’t find anything unexpected. There are no mysteries here. The voice inside my head insidiously whispered. Dragons aren’t real.

Not real.

Not.

Real.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I blinked as I found myself outside. Not alone, either. I stood with Noah, Vernon, and Joslyn, who all wore a dazed expression. How had I gotten here? Last I recalled, I was in the Italian station, in bed with Noah. No wait, we’d gone outside to—what exactly? I couldn’t quite recall.

“What the fuck happened?” Noah rubbed his face.

“Good question. Any idea how we got up here?” Joslyn glanced around with a frown.

Weird how none of us could remember. For some reason, I glanced to the sky, then to the mountain that was now just rubble, taken down by an earthquake, or had the heat from the volcanic eruption weakened the ice that held it together?

“Must have been the adrenaline that made us forget the race to higher ground. Good thing that alarm alerted us to evacuate,” Vernon supplied.

I almost asked what alarm when I remembered. “We had to escape before the tidal wave caused by the earthquakes struck.”