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“Anyone want?” he teased before going back into the kitchen and dumping it out.

“We should head out,” I said.

My mom looked surprised. “You’re not staying here? Your friend can stay too.”

“No, I don’t think that’s a great idea.”

My dad called from the kitchen, “We’ll make sure our rain noise machine is at the loudest setting so we won’t hear anything.”

“Dad!”

“Eric!”

Damien laughed while my cheeks burned. I rolled my eyes and looked back to my mom. “It’s not safe. The vampires are still after me for some reason, and I don’t want to put you guys in danger. I’ll stay with Damien until it all blows over.”

“And you’ll keep my son safe?”

Son. Something about the way she said it made the word carry a world’s weight of meaning.

“I won’t let anyone harm a single hair on his head.” Damien’s jaw set, the lines slashing in bold strokes, as if done by a paint brush.

I realized my mom didn’t know the full picture. “He’s a dragon,” I said, watching as her eyebrows jerked up her forehead.

“Oh, well, wow.” She went on to execute the most awkward curtsy ever. It made us all start to laugh, the sound a pleasant reprieve from all the crying and tears.

“No need for that, ma’am. Us dragons aren’t very stuffy about etiquette. Always thought bowing looked pretty stiff to me.” He smiled as he opened his arms. What happened next warmed my heart as if he had breathed fire directly down my throat.

“I will take a hug, though,” he said. My mom smiled and disappeared into Damien’s arms. I could see Damien’s gesture was exactly what my mother needed to know I was safe. To know that I was with someone who cared.

When they separated, my mom quickly wiped away tears as she turned to look back at the kitchen. My dad clattered around with pots and pans in the sink. Most of the smoke had gone, but the scent of burnt dough still lingered.

I went to the front door and stopped with my hand on the handle.

“What was her name?” I asked.

My mom knew exactly who I was speaking about. “Lily. Lily Miranda. You have her eyes. Gentle, kind, intelligent, with a huge spark behind them.”

“I wish I could have met them.”

“I do too, Robby. I do too.”

Before we could break down into more tears, I opened the door and stepped out into the quiet night. Damien shifted in the middle of the street, my mom and dad both watching with their jaws slack. I climbed on and waved, the surreal quality of tonight making it seem like we flew directly up into one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings.

Damien floated through the sky, the wind caressing me as I let myself think about Lily and Chris.

I wondered if Damien could hear me crying, trembling around my hold on his neck.

Chapter 14

Blind Dates or Fated Mates

Robby

You know what one of the oddest sensations in the world is? When said world is rocked by some kind of life-altering news, and yet everything else goes on exactly as it was before you were irreparably changed. The only life that was blown off track was yours, but that track still remained completely intact. The smiling fae bagging groceries, the grumpy barista making drinks, the flirty (and oblivious) woman shopping for talismans. All of them were acting as if nothing monumental in the world had shifted, like everything was going on business as usual.

But it wasn’t. How could it be? Not when I was hit with the visceral facts: my biological mother was brutally murdered, my twin was separated from me and killed before I could ever meet him, my parents kept the truth hidden, and now my death could be the potential key to stopping the dragon fall.

I leaned against the glass counter, feeling light-headed. The scent of burning incense wafted in my direction as a customer opened the door, the ocean breeze following them into the Magic Box. I knew I should have taken Maddox up on his famous omelette burritos. My stomach had been tangled up in knots these last couple of weeks, though. It made getting anything down a mission that seemed near impossible.

At least Claire hadn’t fired me, so there was that. I could be thankful for some modicum of routine in my life. Originally, Damien put up a fight, wanting me to stay locked up in the castle until they could figure out what was really happening. But two days of not stepping outside drove me nuts. We came to an agreement that Damien would fly me to and from the shop to minimize the risk of being jumped and kidnapped by a mob of vampires. Claire got some other Marvel friends together and placed new wards around the area, promising an attack in the shop wouldn’t happen again, and if it did, the assailants would be instantly teleported out to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where Bessie the famous hippocampus would likely lambast them with her horn and eat them for dinner. If anything got through, Claire would step in and beat them away with her mastery in utilizing the physical red threads of mana.