Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
“My man has wings.”
“Really?” I couldn’t be less interested.
“Yep. Not the fluffy kind. You know. Like an angel.” She blushes. “He’s no angel.”
I don’t want to hear anymore about her ‘man.’ But I don’t want to leave yet, either. I feel like I should try harder. She is my one true love. My first love, my only love. And love can’t be all peaches and cream, can it? There have to be pits along the way.
Pits one shall overcome. Pits that shall be… whatever. Analogy over.
“The bat kind,” Madeline continues.
My ears perk up. “Did you say bat wings?”
“Mmm-hmm.” She practically moans out her affirmation. “Yeah. They’re like leather. Soft and—”
“Is his name Darrel, by chance?”
And just as these words come out of my mouth, the bell over the door jingles. Madeline smiles in that direction, her whole face changing and turning into… well, adoration seems like such a strong word. But there it is.
I already know who just came in, even before I turn and look at him.
Batty stares back at me, a strange look on his face. Then he redirects his attention to Madeline and that expression turns into warmth.
“Have the two of you already met?” Madeline asks as she makes her way around the counter. “A dragon, Darrel. It’s crazy, right?” She joins Batty and they slip their arms around each other like they’ve done it a million times before. So easy. So comfortable.
My heart begins to ache.
Then Madeline gasps and holds up her arm, pointing at a red spot. “Oh, no!” Her eyes flash to Batty’s. “Oh, no! It’s coming back!”
Batty looks at me when he says, “Go put some ointment on it, Maddie. I’m sure it will clear up.”
Madeline nods, looking panicked now. “OK. But will you watch the store for me?”
“Sure, babe. I got this.”
Madeline rushes out the back and I turn to look at Batty. “Babe? What the hell is going on here?”
“Let me tell you what’s going on here, Tomas—”
“So you do remember me.”
“Of course I remember you.”
I point in the direction Madeline went. “Well, she didn’t!”
“She didn’t. Because in order to save her—to prevent her from turning into a fucking beast for the next four or five thousand years, thanks to your selfishness—I had to do some pretty complicated backtrack magic to keep her transformation in check. She has no memory of anything before six weeks ago.”
“Six weeks? What are you talking about?”
“That’s how long you’ve been gone.”
“What?”
Batty sighs, relaxes a little, and his tone changes. “Look, Tomas, I know you think you’re in love with her—”
“Think? I’m absolutely certain!”
“Just listen to me. I’m not trying to be a dick.”
“Well, you could’ve fooled me.”
“I’m trying to save her, Tomas. Save her from the sentence you placed on her.”
“I didn’t do anything! In fact, you were the one who brought her back from the dead!”
“She wasn’t dead. You can’t bring people back from the dead. She was in a transition. Your…” He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. “You, Tomas. You are the problem.”
“What problem? You’re not making any sense! She’s a dragon!”
“She’s one-fifth dragon, Tomas. I’ve done the genealogy for Eros. He put me in charge of all the magic after the sanctuary crumbled and we escaped to Savage Falls. After you, and Pell, and Pie ruined everything and then just… disappeared.” He throws up his hands. “My point is that Madeline should not be transforming. At all. She’s one-fifth dragon. It’s not even enough to be a chimera.”
“So I just, what, made it all up?”
“No. You didn’t make it up. She was turning into a dragon. But the only reason she was turning into a dragon was because of you.”
“What did I have to do with it?”
“Your pheromones. They trigger this change. You can’t be around her, Tomas. If you keep coming by here, she will get sick again.”
“Sick?” I blink. Is he calling me sick? What I am, is that sickness?
Batty places both hands on my shoulders. “Tomas. I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m simply trying to save her. You cannot be here. You can’t see her anymore. You are the trigger.”
“What? But I love her!”
“If that’s true—”
“What do you mean ‘if?’ I do! I love her. And before you fucked everything up with your sparkle sand, she loved me too!”
“Maybe that’s true. But it doesn’t change anything. If you love her, Tomas? Then you will leave her alone. Because if you stay here, you will ruin her.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - PELL
“You shall call me queen!”
Callistina’s rage rocks the room as she slinks out from the corner. She is… disturbing. Even to a monster like me. And it takes me long moments to grasp what I’m actually seeing.
Pie as well. Because her words stutter out like she’s still in the middle of processing. “You… what… this…” She looks at me. “What is this?” She’s pointing at Callistina.