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I couldn’t hold his gaze. Of course he would think of that.
“That’s what you meant by being up high, isn’t it?” he choked. “You meant flying.”
I nodded. “Yes. That’s what I meant.”
“And I’ll fly like that….way up high in the sky.”
“Yes. You will.”
He started to smile and then frowned. “Mommy…..she doesn’t know……”
“She knows now. She saw me…..” I broke off. I couldn’t say it. Riley. She would turn her back on me now.
“She saved me. She saved me and Wilcox from that dragon.”
“I know,” I told him. “I saw.”
“Did you…..What did you do to him?”
“I tried to kill him, but he got away. He’s the same dragon that killed my father and he came here to kill you. He couldn’t get to you running around the country, so he came here instead.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get our Clan together to guard this stronghold so you and your mom are safe…..and then I’m going to go out and hunt him down. I’m going to keep hunting him until I kill him. That’s the best way to protect you. It’s the best way to protect all of us.”
His bright eyes found mine one more time. They were already getting brighter, now that he knew what he was and what he would become. “I’m going to be the leader of this Clan someday, aren’t I? I’m supposed to be the leader after you.”
I nodded again. “Yes. You are.”
He nodded back the way he did yesterday. He already accepted it. “I thought so. The other kids….they treat me differently. They treat me as the leader.”
I didn’t ask how he knew that when he’d never spent any time around other kids. Of course he knew. Of course he saw the way people treated him. He was born for this. It was in his blood and bones.
“I want you to do me a favor, Connor,” I told him.
“What is it?”
“I want you to promise me you won’t leave the stronghold—not for anything. I don’t know if your mom will try to take you away, but if she does, I want you to find a way to stay here. She’s….upset about this. I don’t know what she’ll do, but if she tries to take you away, I need you to resist and stay here. This is the only place in the world that will be safe for you and I don’t want either of you running around out there now or ever again. Do you understand?”
He only nodded. “She won’t leave.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because she loves you. She needs you. She might be upset, but she won’t leave.”
My throat constricted at those words. How could a child so young understand the situation this well? He really was a born leader.
He knew his mother better than anyone. He even knew her better than I did. Of course he knew by now that she loved me. His child brain put two and two together that she needed me, too. She needed me a hell of a lot more than she realized.
I stood up. “I have to go downstairs to take care of our defenses and plan my next move against our enemies. The other kids will be spending some time with their parents for a while. If you don’t want to stay here, you can go upstairs to my apartment. No one will bother you there.”
He nodded again and walked me out of the room. How did a five-year-old become something like my closest confidant and lieutenant?
It would be like this from now on. He and I would work together to run this Clan. I would teach him in ways my father never got a chance to teach me. I would tell him all my secrets and we would defend the Clan together until he took over in my place.
He paused out in the corridor and looked up at me. “Will you take care of Mommy? Will you make her feel better?”
I cringed. “I’ll do my best. I don’t know if she’ll talk to me.”
