Smoked - Mari Mancusi Page 0,51
aloud, what would she do?
She thought back to Emmy’s cold eyes as her gaze rested on her children. How Zoe’s hopeful face had crumbled as the mother dragon turned her back on them. The sound of Zavier’s dismayed whine as his mother flew off, leaving them essentially orphans. Scarlet squared her shoulders. No way was she about to put her dragons through that kind of rejection again. After all, she knew far too well what it felt like.
Caleb gave her a sympathetic look. “Don’t get me wrong,” he said. “You’ve done an amazing job raising them up until this point. But even you have to admit it’s getting to be too much. We need help. They’re eating more than the two of us can hunt for each day. Soon they’ll have outgrown the maintenance shack. Where are we going to hide them then?”
“I know…but…”
“It takes a village to raise a dragon, Buttercup,” he said in a gentle voice. “We should be thankful we have a village to fall back on. With all the people donating to Emmy’s cause these days, they have, like, unlimited funds. Zoe and Zavier could eat like kings and queens—versus the pitiful scraps we’re able to scrounge for them now.”
She squeezed her hands into fists. “But Emmy—”
“Emmy is their mother. Once she sees that they’re good dragons, that they’re not a threat to anyone, she’s going to have to accept them as her own. I know she will.” Caleb smiled. “I mean, look at them. Who could not love these big fire-breathing dorks once they got to know them?”
Scarlet shot a glance over at Zoe and Zavier, her heart panging in her chest. Zoe was doing a goofy little show-off dance as Zavier chirped his approval, flapping his wings in time to her steps. She sighed. She wanted so badly for Caleb to be right. But still… “You’re sure?” she asked, turning back to him. “You’re absolutely sure? It would kill me if something were to happen to them.”
“I know. But I’ve already figured this out. As you know, tomorrow is the anniversary party—to celebrate six months of Emmy being on air. They’re doing this huge celebration and live streaming it across the world. From what Luke was telling me, they sold over four million subscriptions to the online event.”
“And…?”
“And so everyone will be tuning in. They’ll get to see the joyous mother and baby reunion, broadcasted live.” He grinned, looking proud of himself. “Don’t you see? There’s no way Emmy will be able to just turn her back on her babies then. Not with everyone watching. She’ll have to give them a chance—at least for the cameras. And then, once she actually interacts with them, she’s going to realize how awesome they are.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“Then the rest of the world will,” Caleb pointed out. “And Trinity and Team Dragon will have to accept them too or risk having their fans turn on them.” His eyes sparkled his excitement; he’d obviously been conjuring up this idea for some time now. “And again, once they get to know them and realize they’re no more a threat than Emmy is, they’ll welcome them into the fold.”
“I guess that makes sense,” she said slowly, still feeling a nervousness crawling through her stomach. “Still, why now? I mean five months ago, you were just as concerned as I was about keeping them a secret. What’s changed your mind?”
He gave her a sheepish look. “I wanted to wait until they hit puberty,” he explained in a slow voice. “Some dragons—well, they don’t always stay tame. When they hit a certain age, they become violent and wild and destructive—the kind of dragons that could very well want to break away and destroy the world—like Emmy feared. We call them hybrids. And since we didn’t know these guys’ full parentage, we didn’t know for sure whether they were hybrids or not.”
Scarlet stared at him, realization washing over her like a tidal wave. She scrunched up her face, trying to ignore the feeling of betrayal stabbing her in the gut. “So you’ve been waiting this whole time,” she whispered. “You believed from the start that Emmy could be right, that they could grow up and turn on us.”
“Yes,” Caleb said simply. “But,” he added, “I wouldn’t have let that happen. I was fully prepared to…take care of things if they suddenly went south.”
“Take care of things? What are you, suddenly Connor?” Scarlet cried, horror coursing through her now. She found herself stepping in