Page 17 of Hoarded By the Dragon

“Kalos has his fingers in most businesses in this city.”

“Huh, I guess he’s never needed an art restored.” How would I respond if I saw him again? I blow out a breath. It doesn’t matter. He wants nothing to do with me, and by all rights, I don’t want anything to do with him either.

I adjust my seat with a wince at the tender muscles of my hips.

“Do you need some healing salve?” Stella asks.

I clear my throat. “I’m good. I have some. I just feel… off.”

I didn’t notice it as much before, but the jarring displacement of something different I’d felt this morning hasn’t faded.

Stella straightens. “What kind ofoff?”

“You think it’s a witch thing?”

Stella tries to look patient, but fails. “Have you been meditating?”

Being raised by humans left a lot of gaps in what I know about magic and myself. It’s not like there’s a crash course calledSo it Turns Out You’re a Witch. Stella has done her best to teach me as much as she can, but as the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know.

My cheeks burn. “I’ve been a little busy.”

Stella waves a hand. “Everything is a witch thing. You are not only your body, and you need to keep track of what your senses are telling you. So, what kind ofoffare you feeling?”

I crease my brow. “I’m not sure?”

She exhales, back to trying to be patient. “You won’t know until you go looking.”

I take a breath and try to tune into the sensations of everything to pinpoint this disconnect. The savory whiff of food from our finished plates. The warmth of my coffee cup. My sore body. The humming wards of my apartment.

I close my eyes on my next inhale, the air cooling my throat, expanding my lungs. Both Stella and I have magic, hers clusters tightly around her, while mine is a little spacey, searching. I place my hand on my heart, wondering if the dick of a dragon broke more than I let myself accept. There’s a tinge of campfire there, and I slide my hand to the bite he’d left at the crook of my neck, Kalos’s sneering face flashes in my mind and my hand wanders away, retreating. My lungs fill again, and I embrace the sensation of my chest moving before moving on, lower.

The sensation sparks, and I try to focus.

Something is there. Something new.

I open my eyes, and Stella is staring in shock at where my hand is resting on my lower stomach.

“Oh. My. Gods,” she says.

5

KATARINA

“This is impossible,”I breathe.I can’t be—I can’t even think the word right now.

Stella makes a high-pitched mouth sound. “Not impossible, just highly improbable.”

“But I have an amulet!”

Now Stella frowns. “What amulet?”

My face burns. “The one that magically stops STIs and… pregnancy.”

Stella’s face pales. “I’ve never sensed that kind of amulet on you. Show me.”

I undo the thin chain with shaky hands and hold it out to her. It’s a simple thing—silver with a tiny medallion the size of a bead. Stella holds the chain, and my stomach drops at the conflicted, angry look on her face.

“Did Nemo give you this?” she asks.

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