The Platinum Dragon's Mate - Zoe Chant Page 0,29

shift back and forth all the time—I can’t imagine going even a day without shifting at least once.”

She shivered a little, and inside her, her dragon shivered too. I like to be out. Flying, free, where I can feel the sun and the air.

Of course you do.

“How does your dragon feel about staying inside all the time?” she asked suddenly, and then bit her tongue. It was a completely rude question, asking anything about someone’s inner animal. That relationship was private. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

“No,” Reid said. He looked startled, but not angry. “No, it’s fine. I suppose—my dragon isn’t very loud. He keeps his head down most of the time. He’s happy when we fly, but he’s never—made a stink about it, when we’re human most of the time.”

“Huh,” Sage said. Maybe the Oak Ridge dragons really were just a different breed than the red dragons were, with less vocal, less present inner beasts. Because she absolutely couldn’t imagine anyone she knew having a dragon who was fine with just being...suppressed like that.

“What’s it like to be in such a small clan?” Reid asked. “You must all be very close. You rely on each other so much, and you spend so much time with each other. I—we’re not like that so much. Or at least my family isn’t. Too independent.”

He sounded different now. Not nearly so polished. Like he was asking because he wanted to know, for himself.

Sage nodded vigorously. “We have to be close. It’s—well, it’s good and bad, I suppose.” She bit her lip. “You’re right that we depend too much on some people. My father—well. But we need him, because we need every single clan member. That’s why the idea of Athena leaving is so devastating.”

So devastating that neither Jeremiah nor Shiloh would ever allow it, which was why this whole visit was going to end in tragedy, but she hurried past that and kept going.

“I know these people inside and out. I trust them with my life. I could ask them for anything, and they could do the same with me, whether we’re related by blood or not. I would never want to give that up.”

The look in Reid’s eyes was longing. “I do...wish I had that, sometimes. I told you, when I was in school, it was easy to think of leaving Oak Ridge forever. Nowadays, my ties are stronger, but not like you’re describing. If I had to leave, I’d be sad, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world.”

“This clan is our world,” Sage said. “For better or for worse.”

He was silent for a long moment, and she wished she knew what he was thinking. Then he seemed to shake himself out of it, and said, “How many other clans are there like yours, out here?”

That was a bit of a sore subject, but Sage wasn’t about to lie, or refuse to answer. “Fewer than there were,” she said steadily. “We’ve been fighting everyone we encounter, until we whittle their numbers down, or they decide to leave for an easier territory. Mostly it’s the latter,” she added, not wanting Reid to think they were horrible murderers.

He nodded, his face impassive once again. Did he think they were horrible murderers? Because—Sage sometimes thought so.

Perversely, she suddenly wanted him to really know what they were like. “This site used to be another clan’s home, and we drove them away and moved in,” she said. “We were in caves before that, when Rhiannon was really little, and it was hard. But that’s no excuse for driving someone else out of their home.”

“No, it isn’t,” he said quietly.

Sage looked away from him, not wanting to see his eyes anymore. “I wish we didn’t do that. I wish we allied with other clans instead of fighting them. It’s hurting us, in the long run—we used to be over twice as big as we are now, back around when Shiloh and I were born. But people die in battle.” She bit her lip, remembering...her mother. Her aunt and uncle. Eric. So many others.

It all somehow seemed even more pointless and horrible than it had before. So much death, for no reason at all—if they’d only allied with the other clans—they could even be allies with Oak Ridge, without changing anything about their own way of life, what if they just didn’t fight each other—

There was a quick movement in the corner of her eye, and before she could do anything, Reid was suddenly out of his chair—

—and