Joy appeared perched on Nigel’s shoulder. She was smeared in frosting. “Who’s there?” She leaned in close to peer nose to nose at the man who had gone still with surprise. “Cake?” She held out a fistful of white cake.
“Oh, you bottomless pit!” Louise cried and reached up to pry her carefully from Nigel’s shoulder. “What have you done?”
“So hungry!” Joy crammed the cake into her mouth. “Nom, nom, nom.”
“We fed you before we came.” Jillian tried to wipe the frosting off Nigel’s shoulder but only smeared it more.
“Cake yummy!” Joy licked her hands.
Nikola, who had been watching the door intently, suddenly announced, “Tut, tut, it looks like rain.”
“Nikola!” the twins cried.
“But-but-but mother is coming!” Nikola cried and then grumbled, “Silly old bear.”
Both girls yipped in fear. They hurriedly opened up Tesla’s storage and shoved Joy into it.
Jillian pointed fiercely at Nigel. “You saw nothing!”
Nigel blinked for a moment and then said, “Yes, nothing, nothing at all.”
“She’s using her phone to track me,” Nikola whispered.
“Oh God, did she hear anything we said?” Jillian cried.
“No, I don’t think so.” Nikola was torn between looking at the door and at Nigel, who was watching with eyebrows raised. “She keeps pushing buttons on her phone and swearing. I don’t think she knows she’s already connected to my command system.”
Jillian caught Nikola by the leash. “Come on, let’s head her off. We can’t let her catch us alone in a room with a stranger.”
Louise let Jillian go on ahead. She wanted to say good-bye properly instead of tearing off like a pair of headless chickens. “It was nice to actually meet you. Be careful on Elfhome.” She didn’t know what else to say; she had never had to say good-bye like this before. “Maybe we can get together when you get back.”
“Yes, I would like that.” Nigel calmly pocketed the whistle. “I’m sorry, but I have to ask: what exactly did I just not see?”
He meant Joy.
Louise blushed hotly. “We’re not sure. We — we found her in the box before Sparrow took it to Elfhome. We think there are eleven more like her still inside it. You have to save them.”
Nigel took a deep breath as he realized that saving the baby dragons meant facing down Sparrow with a small army at her bidding. “I will do my best.” He reached out and took both her hands in his. “You should tell your parents.”
“Tell them what?”
“Tell them everything. You two are very intelligent. Your videos — now that I know how young you really are — they’re just breathtakingly clever, but you’re just wee things, and I’m afraid you’re getting in over your heads. These are dangerous people you’ve stumbled into. You two shouldn’t be doing this all by yourself.”
Louise huddled in the back of the car, hugging Nikola tightly. She really wanted the whole night of bad to be over. The only good thing was meeting Nigel Reid, and Joy had totally screwed that up. It was one thing to hand over the whistle and tell him about Dufae’s box. It was another to show him Joy and forbid him from studying her closely. Now they had to worry that Nigel wouldn’t keep his word and pretend that he hadn’t seen the little dragon. That he wouldn’t follow his natural curiosity and try to find out their names and who they were and where they lived. .
At least there was some comfort that he would be on Elfhome in less than thirty days and a universe removed from them for months after that. She wanted to believe that they’d done the right thing in trusting him so much.
Certainly if she didn’t trust someone, it was Anna Desmarais. The gala was supposed to signal the end of the war between her and their mother, but Louise got the distinct impression that it had been a false peace treaty. A new battle was about to break out, and it was going to be worse. Much worse. There was no word or look or action, however, that explained why Louise felt this so strongly. Anna had been polite, smiling, listening carefully to their mother’s conversation and nodding in response.
Ironically their mother had judged their interaction with Anna successful enough to warrant forgiveness for sneaking Nikola into the gala. “I’m still mad that she cornered me for hours, but at least I knew you were safe with Tesla. Were you able to see Nigel Reid?”
“Yes, we saw him,” they said.
“He was awesome,” Jillian added without explaining that the man had dropped everything to spend time in private with them.
