Gretchen had to think about what would make a difference to Theo. Not the Theo she knew so well by now, but the one she had first met as a vulnerable rookie who still had huge gaps in his knowledge of human society.
She said, “If Phil Locke is alive, then he not only let his partner be framed for his murder, he was also almost certainly involved in a conspiracy to sell protected federal witnesses to the people they were hiding from. People who agreed to testify against mobsters died because Phil Locke and his buddies wanted to make a little extra money. If Phil Locke is dead, he’s innocent. If he’s alive, then he’s guilty—and finding him could be the only way to prove that Cooper deserves to be free.”
“And the only way to get justice for all the other people who have been hurt,” Cooper said.
“Dragons protect other dragons,” Isabelle said. “Sometimes, we protect those who don’t need or deserve our protection. My father did that.”
“Benoit,” Teresa said under her breath. “Riell. I remember that.”
Isabelle met her gaze squarely. “Then you understand why I can’t allow our people to be part of something like that ever again. If anyone has come to you in the last year looking for shelter, he could be this man, and we need to know.”
Teresa turned around, looking back at the dragons gathered behind her.
“You’ve heard all this,” she said, raising her voice. “What do you say to their request?”
One by one, each dragon bent forward and laid their left wing flat against the snowy brick courtyard.
It was a hypnotically beautiful image. They were perfectly coordinated, as if they were all in some enormous synchronized dance that Gretchen had never seen before, and it brought actual tears to her eyes.
This, she thought, this was what these all-dragon cities were supposed to be like. This was why someone would want to live in one. You were isolated, but you could live so openly as dragons that you could develop rituals that had their own beauty.
Teresa turned back to them.
“He isn’t here,” she said. “But we believe we know who you mean. He lives in the mountains outside of Ambergris’s boundaries, but he comes down sometimes for supplies. He flew away a few days ago—I saw him go—and he hasn’t been back since.”
“Have you seen him in his human form at all?” Cooper said urgently.
“Only once. I made him transform when he first arrived—we don’t let anyone past our magical wards unless we can tell who they are.”
“What did he look like?”
Everything was riding on this, or at least it felt like it was. And they were working at a disadvantage. Gretchen knew she must have seen Phil’s photo during the trial, but couldn’t remember much about what he looked like. And if he was still alive, he could have easily dyed his hair or even had plastic surgery to change his face; he could have grown a beard or acquired new scars. It was possible that Cooper wouldn’t recognize a description of him, and it wouldn’t necessarily mean anything. But if he did recognize it—
“Five-nine or five-ten,” Teresa said, her eyes half-closed as she tried to remember. “He was white, with dark blond hair—a little curly. I don’t remember the exact color of his eyes, but they were light—green or blue. He was stocky, and he had big hands.”
Cooper turned away, walking a few paces away from them. His shoulders were shaking.
It wasn’t Phil. It wasn’t Phil, and he must have heard some detail that had been enough to convince him that it couldn’t be Phil: there wasn’t too much a person could do to disguise their height or their general build.
The man they were dealing with must have just been a general recluse.
“I’m sorry,” Gretchen said to Teresa and Isabelle. “Just give me a second.”
She walked to Cooper and put her arms around him. She wasn’t surprised when he turned around and hugged her back, resting his face against her hair. She could feel a little dampness where he’d been crying.
“We’ll find him,” she said. “There’s more than one dragon village out there, and he could easily be hiding somewhere else. We’ll—”
“No.”
“Coop, you can’t give up—”
“I’m not.” He pulled back, and she could see a fire burning in his eyes, as bright as Isabelle’s dragonmarks. Griffin-gold seemed to dance around his pupils. “I’m not giving up. That’s Phil. He’s alive.”