GWEN

I don't say anything to Andrea until we get back to our room. I'm so mad—and terrified—that I could spit, but I manage to keep my calm until we get back to our bedroom and shut the door quietly behind us. It's peaceful inside the school, the concrete walls muffling any nighttime noises there might be outside.

Andrea gives me a woebegone look, but I ignore her, heading to the window. The glass was removed long ago and metal has been set and welded into the window frame to provide protection from dragonfire. The metal is thin, though, and sometimes you can hear noises through it. I move as close as I can and listen, waiting to hear roaring, or growling or…something, anything that would indicate that the dragon followed us home.

But there's nothing. It's completely quiet outside.

"So…that went well." Andrea gives a shaky laugh that turns into a sob. "Fuck. I almost got us killed."

I turn to look at her. She's got her hands over her face and sits on the edge of her bed, her shoulders slumped. She looks pitiful and I feel like chastising her right now would be like kicking a puppy. But I can't just not say anything. I lick my lips and then push my hair back off my face, trying to calm myself. "So…what happened back there?"

Andrea shakes her head, her hands still covering her face. "I freaked out. I saw it and just…lost it. I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was going to react like that. I don't…I don't know what I was expecting. I guess for him to be more civilized, like Rast. Maybe to show up in human form. But I saw him and my brain just shut down." She takes a deep, shuddering breath. "I saw him and thought we were dead."

"It's okay," I say softly. "I did, too. Anyone would panic being that close to a dragon." I touch my hair, because I can still feel his hot breath there, and I know I'm going to have nightmares about it tonight. "Of course, most people wouldn't try to go out and confront one, but I'm going to chalk it up to temporary insanity."

A small, hysterical laugh escapes her. "Temporary insanity. Yeah. That sounds better than telling everyone that I thought a dragon was in love with me." Andrea's breath hitches and she sounds dangerously close to sobbing.

"We're not telling anyone," I say firmly.

She looks up at me in surprise, her eyes and nose red. "We're not?"

"No. I'm supposed to be the voice of reason around here. I'm not telling anyone I ran off in the streets after a dragon." I cross my arms over my chest and pace in our room. "No one has to know what we did. We won't say anything to Amy or Rast. We won't say anything to Cass or Lu or Benny. Or Daniela," I add, because it feels awful and wrong not to include my missing sister. We're going to get her back, I tell myself firmly. That's all there is to it. "There's enough going on in the fort without getting everyone all riled up about us paying a visit to a dragon. We just won't say anything at all."

"We—we won't?" Andrea takes a shuddering breath.

"No one got hurt, right?" I pace back and forth, back and forth. I wish I was brave enough to go across the school to where my doves are kept. Their cooing is so comforting that it relaxes me just to be around them. I think of their chicken-wire cages and the warm, feathered gray bodies within and try to relax. "Everything's okay," I tell Andrea.

I figure if I keep saying it maybe I'll eventually believe it, too.

"I…guess." She doesn't sound convinced.

I'm not entirely sure I am either, but I'm also a big fan of “fake it til you make it.” "Let's track this back. Did you tell anyone else about your plan to go see a dragon?"

"No," she admits in a small voice.

"Not Benny?"

"Never. He'd laugh at me." Andrea sounds wounded at the thought, and I wonder how much tonight's disaster hurts her. She hasn't said, but I think she's really lonely. I'm starting to suspect she had a lot pinned on the idea of being a dragon's girlfriend, because she's not the same vivacious person she was when we left a short time ago. Something inside her seems defeated.

Just another problem for me to fix tomorrow. "Okay, if I'm the only one, I'm sure not going to tell anyone." I force a bright smile to my mouth. "You tell Benny I found out about the gap in the fence and he has to fix it pronto or else he answers to me. That's another problem solved. I lost my pepper spray, but it was almost dried out anyhow." I mock-dust my hands as if everything is handled. "I don't see any more problems."

"You don't?" Andrea sounds shocked, and her jaw drops. "What about the dragon?"

"Er, what about the dragon?"

She gives me an incredulous look. "Gwen, it's obvious I wasn't his mate. But the way he was looking at you, sniffing you—"

I shudder. "Don't say it—"

"You're his mate. You're the one he's looking for."

I fix my gaze on her and make it as stern as I possibly can. "We are not telling anyone about this." Maybe by the time it leaks out, I'll figure out an answer to the problem…or the dragon will lose interest and wander away. A girl can always hope.