Page 106 of Robb

That same strange bittersweet feeling came back over him again – the one he’d felt right before he left Sydney. The one he’d had several times over the past few years, always brushed off.

Do they really need me anymore?

And then, a new feeling:

Do I really need the Agency anymore?

It was almost heresy to him, and the dingo growled lowly in its throat.

But it was something that, now it had come into his mind, was going to nag at him until he sorted it out.

The Agency was his entire life.

And maybe that was the problem.

Especially since now Tahnee was his life as well. A big part.

Now is really not the time, he told himself. Later. You can have your midlife crisis later.

The sudden sense of shifters approaching had him on edge, and he readied himself to join the fray yet again – but then he relaxed as he recognized them as being from the Agency.

Bird shifters of various types flew in behind the castle and then came back out in their human forms, apparently having flown in from Melbourne when they got the word that there was something going down. He spotted a couple of kangaroo shifters as well, presumably having bounded all the way here.

I suppose something good came from that conference after all, he thought. Everyone’s here.

The dingo stared at him, appalled. You say that like the conference wasn’t important in its own right.

True, true, he said placatingly. And we would never have met back up with Tahnee if we hadn’t been there, either.

He looked at her now, squeezing her hand reassuringly. He knew that she was officially no longer a target of the Agency, but if anyone even so much as looked at her strangely, they would have to answer to him.

Not that he thought she wasn’t capable of dealing with anyone who might get ahead of themselves. He’d never been able to catch her, after all, and he’d dedicated a fair amount of time and effort toward trying to do just that.

The fresh agents swarmed the grounds, and it was clear that the Hargreaves agents were rapidly realizing that they were now well and truly outnumbered. Any remaining resistance was quickly quelled as a number of cars tore through the gates before coming to a screeching halt, and more Agency staff poured out.

“Hear ye, hear ye!” he heard a booming voice call out, and he watched, bemused, as Hector pulled off his helmet and swept into a deep bow in front of the assembled civilians, all of whom were chattering excitedly about the incredible show they’d just witnessed, before straightening once more.

“We have defeated the mighty dragon!” he bellowed. “Thank ye all for, uh, thou assistance!”

The crowd clapped, clearly enthralled by the performance – which, Robb supposed, had been pretty amazing, if you didn’t think it was real.

“Bloody hell,” muttered Tahnee.

“Huzzah!” cried Zina, who was dressed as a bar wench, and as she raised her enormous tankard Robb could see that it was spattered in blood. He hoped no one else in the crowd noticed. She rushed to Hector’s side. “Thank you brave sir knight, for defeating the mighty dragon!”

“Huzzah!” cried Callan.

“Huzzah!” tittered Trent.

Robb supposed that that was one way to deal with the fact that a giant dragon had appeared out of nowhere – and really, was there literally anywhere else in Australia where they would’ve had a chance in hell of pulling it off?

He could only hope that the crowds had been convinced.

Tahnee turned to face him, her expression strangely free of its usual humor.

“Is it over?” she asked quietly.

Robb nodded. “I think it is. Anne and James are both out of the picture. The dragon doesn’t seem to want anything to do with Hargreaves’s plans. And a lot of their agents are about to see the inside of a holding cell. This is the biggest blow we’ve managed to strike in a very long time.”