It was as much a home as any place could be.
Even though it was, there was part of Jason that still didn’t feel as if the city was home.
It was strange to think that way, and stranger still he understood precisely why he did. Though he had been welcomed here, not only by Sarah but also by her parents and Henry and William and the others he’d met, there was a faction that did not welcome him. A faction, including the Dragon Guards, made him feel like he was still an outsider. That made him feel as if he were still a misfit.
Would that ever go away?
He wanted to protect Dragon Haven, but he also understood it was more than just protecting Dragon Haven. Jason wanted to protect the dragons.
When he had first come here, he had assumed that was what the people of Dragon Haven had wanted as well and had believed that they had shared values in that, but the more he had learned about these people, the more he had come to wonder if that was true or not.
He smiled to himself and started into the city, taking one of the main roads, before he veered off.
He needed to return to Dragon Haven, but there was something else he needed to do first.
He needed answers.
And he needed to check in on his small dragon charge.
He veered through the trees, ducking underneath branches that strained to brush at his face, focusing on the energy he could feel from the small night dragon. As he got closer to the dragon, he could practically feel the shadows starting to coalesce around him, as if some energy to them tried to wrap around him, to consume him. It was almost as if some power built up and around to squeeze upon him.
At first, he thought that maybe it was nothing more than his own illusion, but the closer he came, the more he realized this was not just the illusion he’d placed.
This was an illusion the night dragon had layered onto it.
It augmented it, adding even more power.
How much had the night dragon grown in just the last few days?
The night dragon had already proven he was incredibly powerful, and with each passing day, Jason had come to see and feel how powerful the night dragon would become. He was a mixture of other dragons, and that mixture made him into something more, something powerful, something incredible.
He passed through a darkened section of the forest, so dark that it pushed out all the daylight as if crushing it.
Jason paused. “You can reveal yourself.”
There was no response.
Strangely, coming into this part of the forest, he not only could feel the dragon around him, but it squeezed in such a way he could not feel anything else. It was almost as if the dragon prevented him from feeling any other connection. The sense of the ice and iron and forest dragons faded from him. The awareness of the dragons in Dragon Haven faded. It left Jason with nothing more than the energy that surrounded him. At least he could still feel that.
“You can step forward,” he said, this time more firmly.
He turned his focus inward, squeezing his iron dragon glove, reforming that connection, and heat surged in his hand, binding a connection back to the iron dragon. Cold flared within him, as if the ice dragon forced that connection between the two of them. Distantly, he was even aware of the forest dragon, as if whatever the night dragon attempted could not separate him from those primary connections he’d made.
“You’re getting stronger,” the night dragon said, slithering forward.
Jason cocked his head, regarding him while suppressing a smile. The dragon looked small, but the shadows around the dragon made it difficult for him to appreciate any scale or sense of size. He was left with the same question that he had other times. How large would this dragon eventually become?
“I should be the one saying that about you.”
The dragon slipped between the trees, shadows trailing after him. “How long do you intend to hold me here?”
Jason shook his head. “Am I even holding you any longer?”
The night dragon paused and looked over to him, darkness filling his eyes. “No.”
Jason breathed out. “It’s dangerous beyond the forest.”
“So I understand.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I saw what you saw,” the dragon said.
“And what was that?”
An image came flickering into view before him, but it was one that took a moment for Jason to process and understand just what it was the dragon showed him.
A bone.
“How did you see that?”
“I saw what you saw,” the dragon said.
Jason let out a frustrated sigh. Maybe the dragon could help. “I don’t know what the bone means. I don’t know what Lorach is after.” He looked over to the night dragon. It felt strange asking such a young dragon for advice, but the dragon was precocious, and given his connection to so many of the other dragons, he couldn’t help but feel as if the night dragon might have him an understanding of things he shouldn’t have had otherwise.
“I don’t know, either,” the dragon said.
“Why would they want bones?”
The dragon slipped between more trees, forcing Jason to turn with him, to follow and watch him. “There is power in bones.”
“Power?”
“Heat. Other power, depending upon the dragon.” Shadows swirled out from him again before settling. The darkness was almost absolute, compressing down upon Jason in a way that made it difficult for him to see much of anything other than the night dragon. “Power. Would they want that kind of power?”
Jason shook his head. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t put it past Lorach to use that kind of power to their advantage, but why would they need to? They have dragon pearls. They have dragons. They have—”
“This is a different kind of power.”
“How different?”
The dragon slipped between other trees, shadows trailing, and when he stopped again, he seemed larger.
Was he feeding?
Jason had no idea what this dragon would feed upon, but he doubted that he hunted the same way that the other dragons did. Maybe the dragon fed on the darkness itself.
“There are others who can use a different power.”
“You mean there are others who can use the power of the dragon remains?”
“Other power.”
Could that be what Lorach was after?
He wouldn’t put it past Jessica. Jason didn’t really know what she might be capable of, other than using dragons, and all their parts, to draw upon as much power as she thought she would need to attack—and defeat—Dragon Haven.
“I will keep searching,” Jason said.
“I fear the time is short.”
Jason started to smile. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” He tipped his head back, almost as if sniffing at the air, and the shadows circled around him. “There is a change. I can feel it. Can you?”
Jason watched the night dragon, but whatever the night dragon detected, he did not.
As he looked at the night dragon, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was something quite strange with this dragon. It was the same way he had felt every time that he had been around the dragon, and though he’d playfully attempted to partake in games with the dragon, there was still part of him that was left wondering just how powerful the dragon might be.
What Jason knew with certainty was that the dragon was far more powerful than the other dragons. Even in his small form, he’d proven he was an incredibly powerful dragon, and he grew with that power with each passing day, coming to understand all aspects of his own connections, to the point where Jason wondered how powerful he would become.