Blast and brimstone.
I swallow.
Boone isn’t done, though.
Next, he pulls out a lockpicking kit. Not one of the cheap, larger, unwieldier ones the Order provides, though. This is Boone’s personal kit that he paid for himself, having to work off his own family’s debts for longer to buy it. It’s smaller. I’ll be able to slip it into the biggest pocket on the back of my tactical vest.
But… I shake my head. This is worth a lot to him. “I can’t.”
“You can,” he insists. “I’ll just use one of the Order’s until you get back.”
I stare at him. “I might not come back.”
His lips go crooked, but he doesn’t say anything before he digs back into the duffel bag. “And then there’s these.”
He holds out a drawstring leather pouch that rattles a little, something inside clacking. Curiosity always was a failing of mine. When I don’t immediately reach for it, he bounces it on his palm. “Come on, Lyra-Loo-Hoo. You know you want to.”
I pluck it from his grasp, then pour what’s inside into my hand and stare.
Teeth?
“Um…” I look at Boone. “Gross?”
“My relic,” he says, as if that’s not a big deal.
I almost drop them right there, and they clatter in my hand a bit. “Hells, Boone. You can’t give these to me.”
“They’re my relic. I can do what I want with them.” He shrugs. “They haven’t been useful to me as a thief anyway, so…”
I still don’t want to take them. “What are they?”
“Dragon teeth.”
The teeth are stark white, tan at the roots, and they come in so many different shapes, all of which remind me of ancient weapons. Single long, curved swords. Tiny, straight daggers. Three-pronged caltrops. And hammer-like molars made to crush instead of rend. “They’re so…”
“Impressive?”
“Small.”
I glance up to find his shoulders silently shaking. “They’ve been enchanted to be carried more easily, but they will still work fine. You plant them in the ground—any ground—and within minutes they will grow into bone soldiers that cannot be killed and who will obey your commands. Use them wisely.”
“What, exactly, do you think I’ll be doing?” I ask cautiously. It’s almost like he has an idea, but I’m well aware that’s not possible.
“Who knows?” he says. “If you use them, great. If not, I’ll take them when you get back.”
He has no idea that of all the things he brought me tonight, if I’m going against monsters at some point, these teeth might come in the handiest. Even so, I can’t take his relic. “These…have to be worth a small fortune. Even if you don’t use them, you could sell them and finish paying off your debts ten times over, probably.”
He shrugs. “I received my Deed of Fulfillment two years ago.”
I go still, staring at him with wide eyes. Two years? “So you want to stay in the Order?” I ask slowly. “Become a boss?”
“I have reasons for hanging around.”
I don’t ask. He doesn’t say.
“Still…these could set you up when you go legit.” I hold them out. “You shouldn’t give them to me. Everything else is more than enough.”
He lets me pour them into his palm, then takes the leather pouch and drops them in with little clicks of bone on bone…and holds the pouch out to me.
I have no clue what to do with this Boone. Yes, he’s always been nice to me, but in an oblivious, we-work-together sort of way, layered with the flirty way he is with everyone. Maybe even in a pity sort of way. But self-sacrificing friendship? No.
For the second time in two nights, tears mist my eyes, and I blink at the sting.
“If you don’t take them, I’ll just throw them away,” he says.
Knowing him, he means it, too. I huff. “Stubborn to the bitter end.”
Boone winks. “Says the pot.”
I grumble some more, but I snatch the bag from his hand. “How long will they last?”
“Until whatever you need them for is over. One use only.”
“Got it.” I set the pouch on the bedside table and look at him expectantly.
Only instead of leaving or whatever else he thinks he needs to do, he remains still as an awkward silence fills the room.
“You were always fascinated by dragons,” I say to break the silence. “Always reading about them. I guess now I know why.”
