The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,54
come over for the afternoon to see Aidan, the first and oldest of her orphans, while he was there. Mike, Coahoma, and Attor were all still upstairs with Aidan and the team, while the rest of Lyndi’s kids were down here with Blake. Their antics echoed off the rounded cavern walls, drilled and widened to accommodate a full-sized dragon flying out of the mountain in full shift.
Blake’s senses were top notch if he could tell from a distance who was coming down the tunnel.
“Come play with us,” Blake urged.
All her boys, eager to help another young dragon the way they’d been helped, had decided to use the short time they were there to work with Blake on shifting to human. Though as she rounded a corner, what they were doing looked more like a game of chase to her, with her boys, all in human form, running around under Blake’s legs. They were going to get squished by a baby dragon not used to his own size if they weren’t careful.
In a move that sure seemed deliberate, he managed to sweep his tail under several of them, taking them out while avoiding them with the spiked end. Only William, one of the biggest and tallest, given he was nearing eighteen in human years, managed to hop out of the way in time, his dark hair flopping into his red-brown eyes with the move, so he missed the second swipe and ended up on his backside next to Elijah and Marin. They all rolled quickly to their feet and sprinted away.
Lyndi shot raised eyebrows at Sera who sat off to the side with Delaney and Cami and got a laughing shrug in return. Props to Blake for a move like that. Maybe he’d been in this form so long that he had the size thing figured out.
“Come on, Lyndi,” he called again, wearing what passed for a grin in dragon form, still gruesome even on his smaller face.
“The last time I played that game, I lost a chunk of scales,” she said with a laugh, holding up both hands in mock defense. “I don’t think Drake or Finn would be too pleased if I couldn’t do my job thanks to something like that.”
“I’ll keep you safe, Lyndi,” Elijah offered in his sweet way.
She caught a flash of his sandy mop of hair from under Blake’s belly. Unusual for a green dragon to have that color hair, but his mother had apparently been from the Americas.
“You’re the one who did it,” she reminded him with a wrinkled nose.
Elijah had to hop back as Blake dropped into a quick crouch trying to squish him. He didn’t quite make it and his burst of laughter was followed by, “You pinned me. I give!”
In a flipping maneuver, Blake launched himself out of the way, managing to corner William at the same time. Not an easy thing to do. A red dragon, William tended to be both quick and good at maneuvering, even in human form. Though the small scar on the bottom of his chin said he hadn’t always been so lucky.
Meanwhile, Elijah was left still sitting on the ground. So nice to see his serious face split in a rare, wide grin, though Lyndi made a mental note to get the kid to the orthodontist. Those teeth were not going to straighten themselves.
A tug on her hand had her looking at Marin’s face, his white-blue eyes turning bluer with his excitement, and she softened to goo. Currently her youngest, she still worried that his time alone in the wilds had left him malnourished. He was on the small side, even for his age, which in human years was closer to nine, but he looked more like seven or eight. “I’ll protect you, Lyndi.”
Her heart cracked, too heavy to stay whole watching them all now. What a world to be born into. How was she going to protect them? What if the Alaz came for them, too? Blew up her house with a grenade launcher, like they’d done to Aidan and Sera? What if they weren’t as lucky and didn’t get out in time? What if… Gods above, so many what-ifs.
“I already said I’d protect her,” Elijah called out from around Blake’s bulk. Then he managed to dodge around Blake, jumping from a stalagmite to a slim outcropping and down beside where she stood with hardly a blink.
“You did it the last two times.” Marin, standing closest, shoved his brother in the arm.