Micalerianicum told the Dragon Council he would protect you against them. You were there, when you shouldn’t have been.”
Drake looked straight at me, and I nodded. “I know. I lived it too. None of it really happened, did it? When I woke up, Mick was his dragon self, and I bet the Dragon Council had no memory of you fighting them.”
“They did not.” Drake’s sigh held deep regret. “All the same, I tendered my resignation with the council. I am no longer employed by Bancroft.”
I blinked, and Colby whistled. Mick looked unsurprised, so Drake must have already told him.
“But it didn’t really happen,” I argued. “It was only a dream. Or an alternate reality that fled when we woke.”
Drake gazed pensively at Flora, who was laying out crystals around the mirror. “That does not matter. That night I saw Bancroft’s true colors —he was willing to kill Micalerianicum to prove a point, when Mick was in the right. I realized that, to Bancroft, the might of the Dragon Council is more important than the lives of those who have made sacrifices in the fight against evil.” He looked at me again, sorrow and shame in his dark eyes. “Bancroft and Aine are more interested in their own power than keeping the world safe. I decided when I woke from this dream that I could no longer work for the Dragon Council.”
I listened in surprise, but Colby was even more stunned than I was. “So you finally saw the light, did you Drakey? You might not actually have a heart of stone.”
“They let you quit?” I asked. “Didn’t they try to stop you?”
Drake gave me a patient look. “As I explained before, I took the job with them of my own free will. I had a salary, along with room and board and a pension plan. But none of that is worth losing my integrity.”
Gabrielle had joined us from the hotel in time to hear him. “Dragons have pension plans?” she asked. “What, more things for your hoard?”
“Yes,” Drake answered in all seriousness. “Annually, I am given a bonus to take back to my island.”
“Cool.” Gabrielle slid her hands into her back pockets and looked him up and down. “Show it to me sometime?”
“Hey, my hoard’s way wickeder than his,” Colby said. Gabrielle looked over her shoulder at him and sent him a broad wink.
Colby wasn’t finished. “Does this mean your position with the Dragon Council is vacant?” he asked Drake. “What are the qualifications, besides being a good toady?”
Mick rumbled with laughter. “You’d never make it with the Dragon Council, Colby. They’d end up killing you, or you them.”
“Why would you want to?” I asked. “You’ve never had anything good to say about the Dragon Council, and Bancroft held you prisoner for a while.”
“I know.” Colby studied the blue sky. “But someone needs to keep an eye on them, don’t you think? Bancroft knows me, and I can pretend to obey his every command. Plus, I wouldn’t mind a pension plan and yearly bonuses.”
Mick looked thoughtful. “Not a bad idea. Sure you won’t reconsider, Drake? You could be our inside man.”
Drake gave a faint shudder. “No. Not after seeing their true colors. I knew Bancroft and his ilk were not kind, but they have a cruelty I did not understand. I cannot unlearn what I’ve learned, and I cannot pretend anymore.”
Gabrielle shot him a smile. “The scales fell from your eyes, did they?”
Drake’s glance at her held embarrassment. “So to speak.”
“Good.” Gabrielle brushed past Drake, letting her shoulder move across his upper arm. Drake flushed a dull red.
“Real funny.” Colby looked back and forth between Drake and Gabrielle, his eyes narrowing. He lost his good humor and began to growl.
My grandmother came hobbling into this interesting situation. “Gabrielle, come with me.”
Gabrielle rolled her eyes. She grabbed my wrist and towed me a few feet from the group as Grandmother and Elena moved briskly toward the railroad bed. “Drake wasn’t meditating that night,” Gabrielle said in a low voice. “He was with me, out near the railroad bed behind the saloon. I guess I was too much for him, because he passed out.”
“Wait.” I pulled her to a halt. “What do you mean with you?”
“What do you think I mean?” Gabrielle’s dark eyes held triumph. “All right, so we didn’t have actual sex. But we made out—a lot. Dragons have a boatload of passion. I can see why you like Mick.”
“You,” I repeated, my mouth stiff. “And Drake?”
“Yes, me and Drake.