Free Rock Bottom (Dragon Within #4) by Kyra Dune Page B

sounds of the world around you,” he said. “The song of the birds. The
gurgle of the stream. The sigh of the wind through the trees. Let yourself
relax.”
         I closed
my eyes and listened. I could hear all the things he’d mentioned. The way of
the world talking to itself. But it didn’t take long for thoughts and worries
to creep in and push all that away. How was I supposed to relax when I had so
many things on my mind?
         “It’s not
working.” I looked up at him. “I can’t do this.”
         Jonah
laughed, but in a soft kind of way. He slid off the rock. “You can’t expect it
to happen so quick as that.” He came over and sat down in front of me so close our
knees were nearly touching.
         I found
myself looking around, as if I was afraid of being caught at something. “What
are you doing?”
         “Trying
to help you relax,” he said. “I know you have a lot to think about and worry
over. Your friend, Hannah, she’s a talker, that one, and she’s told me a bit
about what you’ve been going through. I thought I had gotten a raw deal but
it’s nothing compared to what you’ve been handed.
         “When I
first came here all I could think about was how unfair it was that I had to be
different from everyone else. That I had to be sent away from my home and my
family. I was afraid, but more than that, I was angry.
         “It took
awhile for me to get over that, but finding I could help people, I could give
them a chance at some kind of life, brought me around to an understanding. I
could take what was given me and use it to find a purpose for my life, or I
could drown myself in misery. I chose the former. Now, I want to help you. I’m
not sure I can, but what you said was right. I can try. And you can try. But I
think it might help if we were friends first. I want to tell you something.
Something I haven’t told anyone. Not my parents. Not Megara. Not anyone .
Can you keep a secret?”
         As if I
didn’t have enough secrets to deal with already. “Lately it seems to be what I
do best.”
         “It’s a
big secret. Much bigger than me showing you the hidden exit out of the bunker.
Lives could hinge on you keeping this to yourself.”
         I sighed.
How could he think pushing something else onto my shoulders was going to help
me in any way? “Why do you want to tell me, of all people? We barely know each
other.”
         “After we
talked yesterday I spent a lot of time thinking on how my training as a spirit
dragon might help you,” he said. “Somehow, that got me to thinking of other
things. I’ve been here with Megara for a little over five years. I was the
first dragon she brought to the bunker after she and Malcolm got it up and
running again.
         “And in
that time, I’ve not been the help to her I could have been. Aside from you,
I’ve only been responsible for bringing in one other hybrid. Not because I
couldn’t do better, but because I was afraid to do better. Megara
frightens me. She frightens me badly. Her radical ideas are going to get
everybody here killed. I didn’t think I had any hope of changing that. Until
you.
         “I wasn’t
sure about telling Megara you existed. I fought over it in my mind for years,
weighing the possible benefits against the dangers. But in the end I decided
seeing as how you’d been raised up, if I didn’t tell Megara about you before
some other clan found you, you were good as dead. So I--”
         “Wait a
minute. I need you to explain something to me.” In case you don’t remember,
spirit dragons can only sense other dragons at three points in their life; when
they’re born, two weeks before and after they come into their powers, and when
they die. “You were in Ireland when I was born. You couldn’t sense me from
clear across the ocean. Could you?”
         He shook
his head.
         A weird
sort of feeling was growing inside of me. “So what are you