House Of Gods 9 - Samantha Snow Page 0,74

apartment now. Besides, I think he’s here for a reason.”

“Who?”

“The dragon.”

“How can you even tell that it’s a—actually, never mind I don’t really want to know.”

Brenna laughed, and the dragon snorted in its sleep.

“What reason could anyone have for sending you a dragon?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. Maybe it’s meant to bring something into this world that is missing, or maybe it’s supposed to be kept safe here from something else; maybe it’s even meant to be taken somewhere else or to take us somewhere else when it’s older. I really just don’t know.” Brenna rubbed the dragon’s head softly with her hand. Its scales felt cool and rubbery. “But I do have a strong feeling that it is meant to stay with us, at least for now.”

“Are you sure you’re ready to go back to the apartment and back to everyone and everything?”

“Yeah, I think so. It’s been so wonderful having this time together. I’ve even lost track of the months. We’ve kept our promise, and we can return together, as one.”

Brandt nodded. “I agree. But I still want to make a habit of escaping here to the loft.”

“Absolutely!”

He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her hair as she leaned into him. “So, what are you going to name it?”

“I hadn’t really thought about that,” she said as she looked at the little sleeping beast who seemed to be dreaming and showing its pointy teeth in what looked like the shape of a smile on its mouth. “How about we name it Prophecy.”

Brandt turned the name over in his head. “I think it’s perfect,” he said as he got up to retrieve their glasses and bottle of wine.

Brenna smiled.

They sat together for the rest of the night, finishing their bottle of wine and marveling over the fact that they were now caretakers of a magical dragon.

The next morning, Brenna tidied up the loft and readied to go back to the apartment. Brandt used his power to slowly ease the individual memories of them back into the minds of their friends. They would have no significant gap of time missing, only a few hours at most, in which they would tell them they had gone for a walk in the city. He even created some new memories that hadn’t really happened to fill in the time that they had been gone and make it seem as though the two of them had been there all along. The dragon paced in circles around the floor as Brandt worked on restoring the memories. It would occasionally walk close to him and brush his tail across Brandt’s leg. When Brenna was finished getting ready, she sat down on the floor, and Prophecy came to stand in front of her.

“What are we going to say about the dragon?” she asked Brandt as soon as he had finished.

“I guess we can’t just say that we found him in the street on our walk, huh?”

Brenna's face formed a cute scrunch as she laughed at his comment. “I mean, stranger things have happened in this city.”

“True.”

“But how are we going to get him to the apartment unnoticed?” she asked as she watched the dragon snort little puffs of smoke from his nostrils.

“Mortals can’t see magic anymore, remember?” Brandt reminded her.

“Not even an actual dragon walking down the street in front of them?”

“Nope.”

“All right then,” she said as she threw her backpack over her shoulder and stood up. “Ready?”

“Yeah. Should we put a leash or something on him?” Brandt asked.

Prophecy looked offended.

“Can he understand me?”

Brenna shrugged. “This is my first dragon. I literally have no idea how this works.”

The dragon walked over to her and sat down on the floor by her feet, then looked up at her with an impatient face.

“I think he can walk with us on his own,” she said.

Brandt grabbed his bag, too, and the three of them crawled down the staircase and out of the loft. The sound of breaking dishes echoed in the hallway as the waitstaff dropped what was in their hands and gawked at the blue dragon, which pranced across the floor in front of them. The one man who had delivered the dragon egg looked to be the most impressed. He wasn’t as shocked as the others were, although still equally in awe, as he smiled at Brenna and bowed his head toward the dragon.

“Thank you,” Brenna whispered to him as they walked out. “For everything.”

“It is my pleasure,” the man smiled. “The loft will be here waiting