“Dude, did you just jinx us?” Flint asks.
Xavier shakes his head. “You guys worry too much. Trust me. My wolf is super chill, so this place must not have any booby traps or anything. We’re good to go. Now, how do we find a bone we can carry that’s still solid?”
“Well, some of the tailbones are pretty small,” Flint suggests. “At least if you get one from the end of the tail.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea,” Macy tells him. “So we just have to find a tail.”
Again, we look around. And again, I’m overwhelmed at the magnitude of the task in front of us. Because, unlike human remains, these dragons aren’t grouped by individual skeleton. Bones lay wherever and belong to whomever. Very few of the fragments I’m looking at seem to belong to the same bone, let alone the same dragon.
“I think we need to split up if we have any hope of actually finding something,” Jaxon says, and I have to agree with him. This place is massive, nearly two hundred yards wide, with some of the bone piles two stories high.
“Macy and I will take this section over here,” Xavier says, pointing to the front right half of the cavern that will also allow Macy to finish creating the portal back to campus.
“Flint and I will take the front left,” Eden tells us before heading that way.
“I guess that leaves the back right to Jaxon and Grace,” Mekhi suggests to Jaxon. “While I take the back left.”
“Actually, why don’t Hudson and I take the back right, while you and Jaxon head to the back left,” I suggest, and everyone turns to look at me. “Look, he’s here whether we want him to be or not, and he has just as much at stake in helping us find a bone. I say we use him.”
Jaxon’s jaw clenches and unclenches for a few seconds, and I can tell he wants to protest. But some of what I’ve talked to him about these last few days must have finally gotten through, because he just nods. “You’re right,” he says before turning to Mekhi. “Let’s go.” Then they both fade away.
Everyone else gets busy searching, but Hudson is just standing there staring at me. “What’s wrong?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “What’s going on? You know I can see only what you see, right? I’m not really here, Grace.”
Actually, I think I’d forgotten that. The moment we’d shared earlier had seemed so real, so tangible, that I’d genuinely forgotten he wasn’t. I glance at Jaxon in the distance, wondering what he was thinking when I even suggested this. I’m about to tell him I’ve made a mistake when Hudson pipes up. “Hey, I think I found one!”
I quickly turn and realize he’s pointing at the rib we’re currently standing under. It’s the size of a house and not something I could even move, let alone lift.
“Great choice.” I roll my eyes at him but don’t try to fight the half smile turning up one corner of my mouth. “Now, let’s see you carry it.”
He grins. “You know I’m more like management, right?”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Come on, let’s go find a bone Flint or Jaxon can actually carry.”
As we start searching, I think about going over to Jaxon and telling him what happened between Hudson and me. But he and Mekhi are in the middle of digging through a giant pile of bones, and this doesn’t seem like the time. Besides, it’s not a big deal. It can wait until we’re back at school. Jaxon will just be glad to hear I’ve made my peace with what happened to my parents.
I turn back to Hudson, feeling lighter than I have in a very long time. “All right, smart-ass,” I tell him, “let’s see who can find a bone first. And hurry, okay? I want to get out of here before a swarm of locusts decides to suddenly attack us.”
Because whether Xavier’s wolf senses are chill or not, I know Eden’s grand-mère was right. My inner voice is begging me to leave this place as quickly as possible.
85
Dust and Dragon Bones
Now that I’m focused, I start searching through the piles of bones like a woman on a mission. I’m determined to get this done—while we managed to sneak off campus pretty easily, I’m not so sure we’ll be able to get back on with the same ease. Not with the way the Circle is sniffing around.
“What does a dragon tailbone look like anyway?” I ask Hudson as we finally get to the back right quadrant of the room.
“I have no idea,” he answers. “My plan is to find any intact bone that we can, period, and get it to the front of the room. If it’s small, great, we’re out of here. If it’s not, then we have a backup in case things go to shit.”