Gabriel snorted. “That kid with the silver hair told me I’d find you here. He said you needed a friend.” Gabriel stepped closer, a thoughtful look on his face. “You know, if it was me who all the guards were after for taking something I shouldn’t have, I might pay more attention if I was being followed. I was at the end of the hall when you came in here.”

Ugh. Cyrus was too good to be real. Even after Fort slammed a door on him, Cyrus still sent someone to check to see if he was okay.

But why Gabriel? Unless he was the only one Cyrus could find who’d still even want to talk to Fort.

“I don’t know what Cyrus meant,” Fort said, incredibly glad he’d hidden the Summoning book. “I’m just here to see the dragons.”

Gabriel nodded. “They walked us through here on the tour,” he said. “I never wanted to come, but even I was pretty blown away by this. I’m surprised they left it open.”

“They’ve been doing a lot of work on this floor,” Fort said, giving him a little space as Gabriel neared the dragons. “Probably just a mistake. I didn’t realize they gave all the new students a tour of everything. Last time I saw something like this, I had to… well, rules were broken.”

“Oh, there weren’t any other students,” Gabriel said, staring at the dragon. He reached out a hand and touched it in the same spot Fort had. “Just me and my mom.”

“You got a private look around?” Fort said, wondering again who Gabriel was. “Why?”

“Why were you out past curfew last night?” he asked, giving Fort a sidelong glance.

“Okay, fair.”

Gabriel turned back to the dragon and went silent for a moment. The other boy seemed lost in thought, so Fort took a chance and glanced over at where he’d hidden the Summoning book. From where they stood, it was still out of sight, but if Gabriel moved toward the large cat skeleton, he’d probably be able to see it.

“Do you think there are any left?” Gabriel said out of nowhere.

“What, dragons? Don’t you think we’d have heard about it if there were?”

“Unless they only woke up when magic did,” Gabriel said, running his hand down the dragon’s neck bones. “They could be out there now, anywhere. It’s kind of crazy to think about, huh?”

“If something this size started flying around, I’m going to guess it’d make the news.”

Gabriel snorted. “Use your imagination, kid. Who says they have to look like dragons? Birds are descended from dinosaurs. Maybe dragons hid when magic disappeared. Maybe they look completely different now.”