Free Betrayal Foretold: Descended of Dragons, Book 3 by Jen Crane Page B

last night like Mr. McCreight.”
    “Forster, please,” he said.
    “Sorry. Forster.”
    “Oh, I flew like I hadna flown in years,” she gushed. “We talked and soared until nearly dawn. I canna remember ever feeling that free, though I know I must’ve known it long ago. O’ course they wanted to know everythin’ about my…” Bay’s voice slowed and cracked with emotion, but she powered through, “imprisonment, and about Eiven and Stryde.”
    “Bay, Eiven and Stryde’s circumstances were what all of us here were facing. What we all feared.” Forster looked sympathetically at Mother. “And of course we knew of Edina’s horrific plight.”
    Mother turned her head in an attempt to ignore the conversation. I wasn’t surprised at her response. That she didn’t deal well with her past was no secret to me, of all people.
    Forster went on, “Hearing Bay’s stories was therapeutic for us. It reinforced what we suspected—that coming here to Pearl was the right choice, tough as it was.”
    “’Twas healing for me, too, Forster. Not just finding my own kind, but reliving some of the old days, the good times with Eiven and Stryde. Recalling those memories has soothed my soul.”
    Forster met her warm gaze before clearing his throat and turning to us. “Would you like to meet some of them?”
    “Yes,” I said in a rush and Mother “Mmm’ed” noncommittally.
    He laughed at my eagerness. “All right. Let’s go into town.”
    “Well, folks, this is where I get off,” Gaspare said.
    “Oh no. Stay,” I pleaded.
    “I’ll catch up with you all this afternoon. I still have Thayer to run, you know, and Forster’s perfectly capable of showing you around.”
    Gaspare prepared to trace and I raised my hand in goodbye to him before a thought struck me. “Gaspare, wait! Will you go by The Root today?”
    “What for?”
    I shot him an irritated look. "To check on Ewan. To tell him I’m all right, that I’m safe. I want my friends—you remember Boone and Timbra—I want them to know you didn’t execute us.”
    Gaspare shifted and his posture was suddenly stiff. His frown made him look older than he’d ever seemed. “They can’t know, Stella. Everyone must think you dead…or at least lost forever.” He reached to touch my arm, but I jerked away. “I’m so sorry.”
    “No way,” I shook my head furiously. “No freakin way, Gaspare. That wasn’t part of the deal. You never mentioned that or I’d never have agreed to it!”
    “Deal? What deal?” his voice rose, but he quieted again. “I got you out of there before Gresham had no choice but to jail you—or worse, before the mob killed you. I brought you to a place where you and your family can have a fresh start. You know that Bay and Edina wouldn’t survive being imprisoned again. No, there was no deal…and there’s no other way,” he said sadly.
    I was fighting mad, my hands squeezed into tight fists. “We could’ve gotten out of there ourselves. We killed Brandubh, we could have fought our way out.”
    “Oh, and more death and destruction would certainly instill confidence in the inherent good of dragons? Come on, Stella. You three would’ve been on the run for the rest of your lives, which here in Thayer are very long. Is that what you’d rather have? A life of hiding? Of fear?”
    “No. I don’t know. I should’ve had a choice. There's no way I'm leaving Ewan. You can't expect me to just forget about him, to abandon my friends and start a life here. That's crazy. They don't even know I'm alive!”
    His guilty face said he'd already thought of that.
    My tone softened when I pleaded, “Oh, no. No. You can’t let them think me dead, Gaspare. It’ll kill them. It’s cruel, not to mention completely unnecessary.”
    “It is necessary. If your friends don’t act as if they’ve lost you, if they’re not completely convincing, people will ferret out the truth. If you want to live here with Bay and your mother and start a new life