Page 85 of Thexan

“All right,” she said, and though the words were cautious, they were not empty. “Then I’ll wait to panic.”

“That would be appreciated.”

Her mouth curved faintly, and then her little boy, who had been staring at Thexan with increasing fascination, pointed one small hand toward him.

“Is he a dragon man?”

I closed my eyes for half a second.

Callie made a sound that was half gasp, half smothered laugh. “Mico.”

Thexan’s head turned.

So did Tanner’s.

So did everyone else within hearing distance, because of course the one person in the entire settlement who was not afraid to say the obvious would be a four-year-old.

Mico did not seem concerned by the attention. He leaned against his mother’s arm and pointed again, more firmly this time, as though clarification were required.

“Dragon man,” he said.

The yard went very still.

I started forward, not entirely sure whether I meant to rescue Callie, Mico, or Thexan from the moment, but Thexan moved first. He did not approach quickly. He crossed the yard with measured steps, each one controlled, stopping at a distance that allowed Callie to retreat if she chose.

She didn’t.

Thexan lowered himself slowly to one knee.

The movement changed everything.

Standing, he was impossible to ignore. Kneeling, he was still large, still unmistakably alien, but the shape of the threat shifted because he had made himself smaller for a child.

Mico stared at him with absolute seriousness.

“I am not a dragon,” Thexan said.

His tone was so solemn that I had to press my lips together.

Mico considered him. “You look like one.”

“That assessment is understandable.”

Tanner coughed once behind him, badly disguising something that might have been amusement.

Mico leaned forward a little, still safely in Callie’s arms. “Do you breathe fire?”

“No.”

“Oh.” He looked disappointed. “Do you bite bad men?”

Callie made another strangled sound. “Mico, sweetheart—”

Thexan did not look offended. He considered the question with the same grave attention he gave everything else.

“If required,” he said.

The yard changed then.