Page 17

CHAPTER 17

“Yeah, we found them in the middle of some kind of weird ritual,” the arresting SSD Agent was saying into a phone. “Had some innocent trolls on their knees.”

“That’s not what was going on,” I tried to explain. But nobody appeared to care. The SSD raid was early, and this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. We weren’t the bad guys. But while Victor, Zee, and I were being escorted outside, toward the waiting warded vans, Skrinde and Kat stood nearby chatting with an agent, explaining how innocent they were.

We hadn’t yet been cuffed, but as we approached the vans, nearby agents readied pairs of cuffs for each of us.

“Call Agent Leomaris in San Francisco. They know what’s going on,” I urged.

The arresting agent took the phone away from his ear and looked me in the eyes. “Who do you think authorized this?”

My veins chilled, heart turning to ice.

Oh no.

My brother had gotten to Leomaris.

That was the only explanation for why Leomaris would arrest us now.

“At least arrest them too,” Victor said. “You must know Skrinde is a drug baron. If you let him walk free, you’ll be making a terrible mistake.”

The agent eyed Skrinde, who had gotten to the arm-waving part of his fantasy tale. The agent considered Victor’s words.

“Also, Kat is a murdering fuck, so... what have you got to lose?” Zee asked. “Cuff ’em and work it out later.”

“Watch them,” the agent ordered, gesturing at us. “Any funny business and you get the cuffs. Cooperate and this will be almost painless for you.” He waved for a few agents to join him and headed toward Skrinde and Kat.

Zee leaned in and whispered, “So, we gonna run now?”

We could. We hadn’t been restrained, and the chance to escape was fast closing. Once we were locked in the warded van, we’d be trapped in SSD care until we could plead our case. But if we ran, we’d be admitting we were guilty.

“No,” Victor replied, not sounding happy about it. “It is time we face the inevitable.”

A shout went up. I looked over and spotted Kat in cuffs, but Skrinde was sprinting across the street, two agents in pursuit.

“That was startlingly obvious,” Victor sighed.

“They’ll catch him, right?” Uncertainty rattled my nerves. I didn’t like this. Did not like it at all. Not just Skrinde running, but the whole setup. It felt as though we were walking into my brother’s trap without putting up a fight. Surrendering.

I had to get hold of Leomaris. I had to make them see we were innocent—mostly—and that this was all some game my brother was playing.

“We lost him!” an agent barked. “Call the wolf unit in.”

I knew where Skrinde was going.

I could stop him.

I glanced at Victor, met his gaze, and quickly looked away to Zee. Zee looked down, his typically animated expression hardening into a grim frown.

“Everything is going to be okay,” I told them. “Stay here...” I bolted, ignoring Zee’s shout to wait up. He could poof after me unless I ducked out of sight, but he didn’t. I danced around a reaching agent, ignored more shouts, and ran full pelt down the sidewalk. It was late, not much traffic, nobody around. Skrinde was long gone.

The time was now.

Between one step and the next, I shifted, tearing open my glamor and letting dragon pour out. In a heartbeat, I went from running through the street to wings out, flying above it. It would look bad, but Skrinde was not getting away. If the SSD weren’t going to fix this, then I would.

I flapped higher, coasting on the warm updrafts rising off the beach.

Miami from above was even more spectacular, but there wasn’t time to admire it.

Ahead, a black pickup truck wove its way toward the chunk of land sticking out from the city. Skrinde’s enormous estate stood out for its lack of lights, except for the ones glowing from the house in the center that was sparkling like crown.

I soared higher, riding the wind, and circled around to get a good look at the manicured gardens below. Plenty of room for a dragon to land.

Alright then... There wasn’t going to be anything nice or subtle about what came next.

I dove through the air, straight like an arrow, and at the last moment I flung open my wings and landed in the house’s grounds. My clawed feet dug into the soft lawn, and a swipe from my tail took out a few palm trees.

Wings open, I stretched and let out a thunderous roar.

Okay, not going to lie, it felt good to be me.

Heat peppered my side, scattering down my scales. I whipped my head around, and there stood Skrinde, Minigun pointing up from the guardhouse. The gun spat out another line of bullets, smattering my wing, punching a string of holes through the membrane.

That was not nice.

I swung my head around, turning and churning up the ground, and thrust my head toward him.

The little troll squealed and bolted seconds before I opened my jaws and bit the guardhouse off its foundations—gun, walls, an’ all.

Spitting the rubble to the side, I turned again, and saw the little troll fleeing up the front steps.

His only advantage was his size. Like a mouse in the grass, he could hide from me.

My only option, then, was to flush him out.

I could have unleashed a wave of flame, but it would probably kill him. There wouldn’t be much meat on a roasted troll, and besides, Skrinde was going to pay for his actions and rot in a Lost Ones prison somewhere. But first, I was going to reduce his empire to rubble.

A single tail swipe took out the tennis courts.

Every step tore up the pretty driveway.

I stomped to the front of the house and bit through the walls and glass, taking out the shiny entrance foyer. Skrinde wasn’t inside. He’d probably run to the back of the house, as far away from me as possible. I chomped some more house away, gradually reducing the sprawling palace to rubble until all that was left was the pool, and Skrinde standing next to it pointing a tiny gun at me.

“Stay back, dragon!”

He fired. The round bounced off my nose.

“Gah!” He looked at the gun, disgusted by it, then tossed it into the pool and raised his hands. “Okay, you got me! I give up.”

I brought my head low and my snout in close. Skrinde trembled. I showed him my teeth in a snarl. Teeth bigger than him.

“Wait! Don’t eat me!” He dropped into a ball, hugging his knees to his chest. “I’ll tell them everything! Tell them it was me, not you. The drugs, guns, pixie strippers, unicorn eggs, all of it!”

Unicorns laid eggs? I huffed, blasting him with hot nostril air.

He squealed. “Please...” he sobbed. “Please don’t eat me.”

Yeah... no. I opened my jaws, tilted my head, and snapped my teeth around him, locking him inside my mouth. With the palace in ruins, Skrinde had learned his lesson. Wings out, I flapped, and took to the air again, ignoring the throbbing ache from the string of bullet holes. I’d heal soon enough. Skrinde wriggled on my tongue. He’d better sit still. One gulp, and he’d be gone. I sailed over Miami’s South Beach and spiraled down again, zeroing in on where the SSD vehicles waited like a string of ants. Landing on the Strip, I tucked my wings in, making myself as small as possible, and plodded toward the angsty onlooking agents.

Zee and Victor were still here. I tried not to focus on how worried they were.

The rows of agents glanced at each other. Nobody seemed to know what to do with a dragon the size of a building in front of them. They scooted back as I brought my head in low and spat out a wet, spluttering Skrinde. He sobbed on the asphalt.

I snorted, and Skrinde yelped. “I did it... I did it all. Arrest me! I’m the one you want.”

I grinned, and sat back on my haunches, the tip of my tail wagging.

See... I didn’t eat every problem. Skrinde would have been all bone and no meat anyway.

Nobody seemed all that pleased. Except Zee, showing me two thumbs up.

Right. Dragons looked fierce and terrifying.

I packed my dragon self away inside my human glamor, shrinking down until I was just Adam again. Everyone continued to gawk, open-mouthed.

Tough crowd. I ambled toward the arresting agent and stopped just in front of him. “Are we free to go now?”

He cleared his throat. “That’s not my call to make. You gotta get in the van, but... you know... if you don’t want to, that’s fine too, I guess... I just work here.” He gulped hard. “Please don’t eat me. I got kids.”

I sucked in a deep breath, and sighed. “Okay, sure. But no cuffs. We’re giving up voluntarily. We need to speak with Agent Leomaris.”

I climbed into the back of the van with Victor and Zee, and the doors slammed shut. A lock clanged.

I could only hope we weren’t making a terrible mistake.