Page 55 of Hexual Healing

“Regrets?”Baz asked, appearing beside me with two cups of the glowing green alcohol I now knew was colloquially referred to as ogre piss.

Mmmm, how appealing.This was soooo named by a barely pubescent frat boy.

“Thousands,” I said, taking one.“But not about this.”

I thought about all the wounds he'd taken for me, at the steady certainty in his eyes, at the way he stood close enough to offer comfort but far enough to minimize the curse's reaction.

“Especially knowing that,” I said as I brought the cup to my lips.The alcohol tasted like brown sugar and poor impulse control.Like it was made just for me!

My magic immediately responded by turning my hair rainbow-colored and making tiny fireworks appear around us.

“Your magic seems happy,” Baz observed.

“My magic’s drunk.”

He chuckled and took a sip of his drink.

The celebration continued around us.At some point, the house figured out how to play music through its walls and had some kind of musical war with the disco ball.People were dancing themselves into a frenzy.

“This is so cray cray,” I said, watching Mrs.Henderson grinding on her potted rose.The rose was raining dollar bills down on her.“Does she take that thing everywhere she goes?”

“This is Assjacket,” Baz replied.“We specialize in crazy.”

“Good,” I said, leaning slightly against him despite the curse's protests.“Because I don't think I can do normal anymore.”

“Normal’s vastly overrated.”

“Says the secret Berserker dragon hunter.”

Baz chuckled and held out his glass.We tinked them, as much as one can tink together two red plastic cups, and stood there, watching our weird little town celebrate an impossible victory, and for just that moment, the curse felt less like a death sentence and more like…a problem to solve.A big problem, sure, but I'd faced big problems since the day I was born.

And…

I guess I’d never really had backup before.

Well, not since my high school best friend, but we’d lost touch ages ago.Disappearing in the middle of the night and not talking to people kind of did that to relationships.

“Tomorrow, we start looking for ways to break the curse,” Baz said quietly.

“Tomorrow, we probably get attacked by more damnable dragons or I’ll have another dragon-themed nightmare.”

“Also, true,” he said with a chuckle.

“But tonight?”

“Tonight, we're alive.And that's enough.”

It wasn't enough.Not really.But he was right about one thing.We were alive.

And I wasn’t going down without a very unpredictable fight.

The party continued until dawn.By the time the sun rose, half the town was passed out in various locations in or around the house.

I stood on the porch with Gary in his travel terrarium, watching the sunrise paint the town in gold and pink.

“Ready for a brand-new dragon-free day in Assjacket?”Baz asked, joining me with two steaming mugs of coffee that smelled like liquid salvation.

“No,” I said honestly.“But that's never stopped me before.”