“Sam stay not mad?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “If you say something I don’t like.”
Tiggy swallowed and wrung his hands together. “Okay. So. Dragon. We tell him. ’Bout destiny. And stuff.” He glanced nervously at Gary, who nodded for him to continue. “And he said. Um. Fuck off?”
“Fuck off,” I repeated.
“Yes. He said Sam fuck off. He not help.”
“Oh my gods.”
“Shh, Sam,” Tiggy said, pushing a big finger against my face.
“Oh my gods.”
“Shhh, shhh, shhh.”
“Tiggy,” Gary hissed. “His face is doing that twitching thing! Stop touching him before he bites you or takes away your soul!”
“Tiggy keep his soul,” Tiggy said, taking a step back, bringing his hands up to cover his chest. “It mine.”
“If that dragon wasn’t large, scary, and could eat me,” I snarled, “I would so kick its ass right now! Godsdamned Jekhipe!”
“Oh,” Gary said. “That’s one other thing? He doesn’t like the name Jekhipe. Says that was the name the gypsies gave him.”
“Of course he doesn’t like it. Okay, you know what? I’ll bite. What does he want to be called?”
Gary’s lips twitched. “You need to remember that mentally, he’s only fourteen years old. And has a lot of feelings. And says that we’ll never understand his pain.”
“I’m the denominator,” I said to no one in particular. “That’s just who I am. It’s like all I get is the crazy. Everywhere I go.”
Gary was rather gleeful when he said, “He says his name is Zero Ravyn Moonfire.”
I hated everything.
JEKHI—EXCUSE me, Zero Ravyn Moonfire—told us in no uncertain terms that we were not allowed to stay in the dome come nightfall. “It’s mine,” he growled. “And you already took away my best friends, so I don’t even want to talk to you right now!”
“Your best friends,” I repeated, trying to get a handle on the situation.
“The mermaids!” Zero shouted at me. “You completely destroyed the mermaids!”
“They were your friends?”
“Yes! Sort of. Okay, not really, but they understood what it felt like to be an outcast with a face that no one could possibly love!”
“Oh,” I said. “Come on. Your face isn’t… that bad.”
“Good job,” Ryan said. “Really. I believed it.”
Zero slithered toward me, the hood around his face expanding, spikes twitching.
“Eep,” I said, taking a step back.
“See?” he wailed as he deflated. “I’m hideous.”