Page 6 of Pets in Space 10

Harmonia knew she should have waited before coming straight to the spot she’d traced from the Basin of Visions.

She should have followed her original plan — travel beyond the local village, gather native garments, blend in like any reasonable observer from another world.

But the moment she had locked eyes on the man, she had known she was lost. Then, to see him standing barefoot in his kitchen, grumbling about gators while scratching himself in the most delicious way — all reason had flung itself into a black hole.

Landry Savoy, he’d said. A curious name. Earthy. Southern. Fitting, somehow.

He was taller than she’d expected. Broader too.

His hair — black as volcanic glass — stuck up in soft, tousled waves that spoke of restless sleep and a lack of combs.

His jaw was strong, dusted with scruff, and his voice held the lazy rumble of someone who didn’t rush for anyone.

He moved like a predator half-awake — deliberate, wary, coiled with the kind of potential that made her toes curl.

And when he’d tried to button his shirt…

She had almost lost control.

The man had somehow fastened the third button to the fifth hole and carried on like it was fine. Her magic had itched to fix it. Her hands had almost followed.

What is wrong with me? she wondered, carefully slicing through a ripe mango he’d handed her moments before. The juice clung to her fingers — sticky, sweet, and golden. She licked a drop from her knuckle and blinked at the warmth that rushed down her spine.

This is lust, she realized with a start. This is what the other mage assistants kept teasing me about.

Her cheeks flushed. She quickly lowered her gaze, focusing on slicing the fruit with immaculate precision while trying not to imagine Landry without his shirt on — again.

Who am I kidding? I want to take all his clothes off!

She wasn’t completely inexperienced — she’d had admirers back home, a few flirtations, a kiss behind the starlight orchard on Zelos when she was seventeen — but this… this was something else entirely.

This man made her magic pulse.

And not just from his looks. There was something within him — an energy. Untrained. Wild. Laced with something old and unfamiliar. It called to her in a way she didn’t yet understand.

“So… you grew up in Zelos?” he asked, dropping the eggs into a cast-iron skillet with the grace of someone who’d done it a thousand times.

“Yes,” she replied distractedly, watching the way the muscles in his forearm flexed as he stirred.

He grunted. “And… that was… nice?”

“Yes.” She smiled. “The perfect place to hide a dragon — and knowledge of the universe.”

“Uh… huh. And… Enyo?”

“A magical realm. A council of mages. Lots of floating libraries. Terrible seating.”

His eyebrows lifted. “I feel like you’re screwin’ with me.”

“I’m not. Though now that you mention it, you’re surprisingly easy to mess with.”

“Fantastic,” he muttered. “I’ve officially been adopted by a sarcastic alien librarian.”

Her lips twitched, but before she could respond, movement caught her eye just beyond the smudged kitchen window.

A kaleidoscope of shimmering pinks, reds, and violets.

She straightened slightly, her knife hovering over the cutting board, and tilted her head just enough to see through the fogged glass.

Something small and serpentine darted across the dock.

She saw a flash of sapphire fins and a tail striped in cobalt and firelight vanish into the boat tied just outside.

A second later, a wide pair of luminous violet eyes popped up, peering through the window with wide curiosity. Long pink ears twitched like feathers in the wind. A wet snout pressed against the glass and fogged the center in a heart shape.

Harmonia sighed and bowed her head, the corners of her mouth twitching.

Of course. Water dragons. That was what she had sensed. Their energy signature was not unlike Pow-pow’s.

She peeked up through her lashes at Landry, who was muttering under his breath as he shimmied two slices of toast onto mismatched ceramic plates. He looked up at her just as Lilypad licked the window.

He dropped the spatula.

“What. The hell. Is that?!” he barked, stumbling back and knocking into a stool. The stool tipped. Landry grabbed for the stool and windmilled for balance, swearing when his hip hit the corner of the table.

Harmonia burst into laughter.

Landry’s eyes were locked on the window. “That — that thing licked the glass! It had ears!”

“It’s a water dragon,” she said lightly, setting down her knife.

“It’s a what-what?” he demanded, pressing his back to the table like the maple wood might shield him from tiny lizard goblins.

As if on cue, the front screen door creaked open with the sound of old hinges — slow, dramatic, and slightly squeaky.

“Wait, why’s the door open — ”

A blur of color zipped through the air.

Lilypad, her tail sparkling with glittering magic and her wings humming like a dragonfly on espresso, looped once above the breakfast table, chittered excitedly, then hovered in front of Landry’s nose.

He shrieked.

Well — not shrieked exactly.

It was more of a strangled, masculine shout of alarm mixed with a string of colorful expletives.

“Oh, hell no. Nope. I’m not awake enough for this. I need — ” he flailed a hand toward the coffeepot, then stopped cold when another blur zipped in through the still-open door.

Pug appeared, his body longer, sleeker, striped in sapphire and cobalt, fins glowing with a faint neon shimmer. He skidded across the table, knocked over the salt shaker, and perched triumphantly beside the toast, tail flicking with smug delight.

“NOPE!” Landry exclaimed, turning in a circle with wild eyes. “Nope. Nope. Nope. I need something stronger than coffee. I need moonshine. I need a priest. I need Space Force!”

Harmonia clutched the edge of the counter, laughing so hard she nearly dropped the bowl of fruit.

Lilypad chirped and landed on Landry’s shoulder, nuzzling his cheek like an affectionate cat with gills. Pug chirped, too, then dove snout-first into the eggs.

Landry froze, staring wide-eyed at the tiny dragon with its nose buried in his plate. “Oh, hell no! Those are my eggs and I’m not sharing it with a flying gator. And what the hell is this thing doing? Is it licking me?”

Harmonia wiped tears of laughter from her cheeks. “She likes you.”

“She has teeth. She’s literally purring in my ear, and her breath smells like a barbeque grill.”

Pug made a delighted sound and belched a small, harmless puff of steam.

“Oh, that’s just fantastic,” Landry muttered. “I’ve got magical swamp lizards hijacking my breakfast, a glowing librarian in my kitchen, and I’m still not wearing pants with a belt.”

He glanced down at his jeans, which were definitely slipping a little too low.

Lilypad chirped again, clearly delighted.

“Food for Pug and Lilypad… please?” Lilypad asked with a hopeful expression, speaking English.

Landry gave up trying to stand and plopped down into an old wooden chair that had seen better days.

It creaked dangerously under his weight.

Harmonia quickly cast a spell, her hands moving with practiced ease to reinforce the chair as Landry stared, awestruck.

The petite female water dragon was sitting on the table and staring back at Landry with an expectant expression.

Harmonia shook her head, still grinning. “Welcome to the multiverse, Dr. Savoy.”

He turned slowly toward her, utterly bewildered, his hands lifted in defeat, and muttered, “Why do I feel like I’ve fallin’ down the rabbit hole and landed in the middle of a strange scifi movie at the same time?”

Harmonia just smiled.

***

Forty-five minutes later, Landry absently flicked a slice of mango toward the pudgy little dragon balanced on his knee.

Pug snapped it up with a happy chirrup and licked his fingers before giving him a look that clearly said more, human.

Landry obeyed without thinking, snagging another piece and handing it over.

His gaze, however, wasn’t on Pug.

He was following the flicker of motion zipping through his home like a bioluminescent gremlin.

Lilypad.

The violet-and-rose scaled menace had scurried under his bed — how, he had no idea because of all the junk under it — then, disappeared into a kitchen cabinet before she reappeared on top of his bookcase.

She stared down at him upside down like a smug bat, then vanished again with a chirp and the faint pop of magic.

She was in his bathroom now, based on the splash he’d just heard and the amused sound Harmonia made behind her glass.

He gave his eggs a protective glare and shifted his plate farther from Pug’s reach.

The twin dragons had annihilated his first breakfast with the efficiency of small, adorable velociraptors. Harmonia, possibly out of pity or self-preservation, had offered them part of hers. They’d taken the fruit and eggs with sparkling eyes and tiny, satisfied sighs.

Traitors, Landry thought as Pug purred and nestled closer against his chest.

Across the table, Harmonia took a slow sip of juice.

She’d removed her cloak, draping it neatly on the peg near the door, and in doing so had exposed a body that Landry was desperately trying not to think about.

Her tunic clung in ways that were definitely going to shorten his lifespan, and her trousers — form-fitting, dark brown, tucked into soft leather boots — had nearly ended his mental stability when she’d bent over to straighten a basket filled with his research equipment.

She’d caught him staring — at her delightfully curved buttock.

All thoughts of chivalry had fled his mind in that moment, but his body was frozen — well, a very fiery kind of frozen.

He was just getting his libido back under control when she turned and leaned forward to pour him a glass of juice, and the soft swell of her breasts beneath the embroidered neckline had caught the light just so and —

He almost stabbed himself with his fork.