Ryeth? Ryeth? No answer. Dammit. Hopefully, he wasn’t going to turn into another Casper.  This pack only had room for one mysterious powerful person who didn’t answer direct questions, and that position was already filled. It struck me that I was already considering Ryeth as part of the pack, which was strange. But why not? We already had grumpy grizzly, Ryan the Lion, Phoenix, and the rest of us ragtag misfits, what was one more?

I realized Ryeth had left me the hardest job when I returned to the pack, and Asher approached me with a determined glint in his eye. 

"Simon?" 

"In the flesh," I answered. In retrospect, that may have been in poor taste, considering that my brother had been more than slightly worried about some kind of demon masquerading around in my flesh. So I added, "And spirit. Just me. No dragon demons here." At least, I couldn’t feel him anymore. I didn’t tell my brother that. Not yet. If Ryeth was going to be jumping in and out of my body regularly, that was going to be something Asher should probably know. But until I knew exactly what kind of deal I’d agreed to, there was no point in worrying Asher anymore than I had to, right?

"Prove it’s really you," Asher said.

I glared at him. Like Ryeth wouldn't be able to fake being me? If he could control my body, surely he had access to my memories and shit. And I was too tired to figure out some older brother thing that would convince him. "Fuck off." 

Dallas laughed. "If that wasn’t proof enough, he’s not glowing anymore." 

I looked down at my arms. Ha. I hadn’t realized until I was back to normal that with Ryeth’s presence, I had been a little shiny. I had been slightly distracted with the whole not in charge of my own body thing.

"You going to tell us what happened?" Asher asked. 

I nodded. "Yep." Asher waited expectantly. "As soon as I find out," I added.

Asher turned to Phoenix. "You know anything about this Riot dude?"

"Ryeth," I corrected him. 

Phoenix wasn’t straying far from Ryan. Not that I could blame him. The guy had pretty much died. I mean so had I… Maybe we could start an almost died club or something. We could get matching tattoos. Or if that was too much, biker jackets or something.

"Sapphire Dragon, he said?" Phoenix tilted his head to the side. "He’s one of the good ones, as good as an Ancient can be." 

Ryan nudged him. "Aren’t you pretty Ancient yourself?" 

Phoenix rolled his eyes. "Technically, yeah, but I was never on their level. Sapphire was a member of the Council. They were the ones who decided to imprison us all for the sake of the world."

"That doesn’t sound very much like a good guy to me," Dallas said, and I bristled.

Of course Ryeth was good. I couldn’t explain why I felt that—it wasn’t a logical thought. It was simply something I knew, deep in my bones.

Dallas noticed my reaction. "I mean instead of just getting rid of the bad apples, or tossing them in a cage, they decided to lock everybody up just on potential for badness, right? That’s some thought crime shit there."

Phoenix shrugged. "I don’t think you understand the vast power that the Ancients, individually and as a whole, wielded. You’ve seen one dragon, well I suppose two dragons now, kind of, but you’ve seen only part of what they’re capable of. You have only seen a fraction of their abilities. Any attempt to lock a portion of them up would have resulted in a civil war that would have destroyed the world."

"And now that they're out..." Ryan said, letting the rest of his sentence hang in the air. 

This wasn't the first time someone had tried to tell us the Ancients escape from their prison was a bad thing, but it was only just now beginning to feel real. For me, at least.

The kids were starting to stir, now that Della's hold on them was broken.

"We've gotta find a way to keep her sedated until we figure out what to do with her," Ryan said with a nod at Della. 

"The artreans will surely have something," Asher said. 

"Once they're out of mourning and we can contact them." Okay, I might have rolled my eyes a little. Asher shot me a look and I felt slightly guilty. I got the whole mourning thing. Shit, five of their guys died. I wasn't disrespecting them. I just thought it was a little ridiculous that they completely cut their entire commune or whatever it was off from the world at large. Dealing with creepy ass powers and Ancient dudes was more their cup of tea, not ours. We just hunted bad guys and grew Christmas trees. 

That was a lie. We used to hunt bad dudes—normal bad dudes, not super powerful Ancient bad dudes. And yeah, we had a little Christmas tree plot, but it wasn't like anything was big enough to sell yet. 

Fuck it. Dealing with creepy ass powers and Ancient dudes had kind of become a thing for us, hadn't it? Damn it.

I kinda didn't mind Ryeth, though. And maybe it was because the guy had literally saved my life, but that wasn't anything to sneer at. Without him, I would have been a kid Power Ranger pancake. I was a little pissed he'd disappeared before I had the chance to drill him, but his last words left me with the feeling he'd be back. That's okay. It wasn't like I wasn't going anywhere he couldn't find me.