Page 46 of Hoarded By the Dragon

“Unless you wanted to.”

The silence now is full of expectation. This isn’t a topic I like to discuss, and why am I being so open with this dragon who has ignored me?

The answer to that question comes easily. It’s not like he’s going to reject me, he already has. And maybe it’s an old wound of mine that still aches. Maybe it would do me good to talk about it.

“No one came for me,” I say. “They would have known I’d have unexplainable abilities. There are Council-run orphanages, they didn’t need to put me in the human system, but they did.”

“Is that why you ran away?” he asks, voice soft.

“From the beginning, I knew that something was different with me. Humans aren’t sensitive to things, but it must have been obvious enough that no one ended up adopting me. I always imagined running away, finding somewhere I belonged. At first, I wanted to run away to the circus.” I laugh at the memory. It’s a sad laugh.

“And what would your act have been?” Kalos asks, not making me feel nearly as pathetic as I was.

I hum. “I wanted to work with the lions and tigers, but assumed that’s what everyone else wanted to do too, so I made sure to practice being an acrobat as a plan B.”

His lips twitch. “Ah, the origin of your tumbling skills.”

“Guilty as charged.” I shrug. “Anyway, some kids at school burst that bubble. They said that circuses like that didn’t exist anymore, and the ones that did exist wouldn’t take a kid anywhere.”

“What assholes,” Kalos growls.

I raise a brow at him.

“There was no harm in letting you believe what you did.”

My smile is wry. “We live in the real world, and I was too weird for the real world. I knew things were going to happen before they did and wasn’t always careful enough when talking about it. I didn’t know anyone like me.” I bit my lip before continuing. “So the first time I met someone who was also too weird for the real world, I was hooked.”

The words flow easier now. “I had a dream that I was positive wasn’t going to come true about meeting a man with gray skin and pointed ears. Then I stumbled upon him in the backroom of a coffee shop while trying to find the bathroom.”

“I was shocked.” I snort. “He was shocked and definitely not human, so I started peppering him with questions. He gave me his card and told me I was special and if I wanted to know more, I should relocate to the city. That there were more people like that there. And if I needed anything, I should give him a call.”

I swallow. Half expecting Kalos to laugh at how gullible I was, but he says nothing.

“I packed a bag and took the first bus there. I was only six months from turning eighteen, but I couldn’t stand to wait any longer than a few days.”

Kalos’s hand on my stomach tenses, his talons catching on the fabric of my shirt. “He tempted you out.”

“Yep,” I say easily. “I thought he was being helpful for the most part. What I didn’t know was that there was a ward on that room to make sure the business being done wasn’t disturbed, which is why he was unglamoured. I was rather lucky that I had walked in after his clients had already left.” My laugh was breathy. “It would have been so much worse if it was just five minutes earlier.”

I was stupid. Innocent in a way that I didn’t think I could be after being bounced from foster home to foster home. But stopping the story here would feel like lying, only showing the parts to Kalos I’d rather he see.

“I had a hard time when I got here. I didn’t want to call the guy right away. I already knew how to look for the strings attached to the things people offered, and nothing he was going to give me would be free. So I tried to get people to talk to me about magic. Tried to find paranormals. I thought I was going to show up…” I trail off.

“And find people like you,” Kalos says.

I nod. “Yeah. In the end, I called him. Turns out he had a job for me and a place to stay. And that’s how I started stealing. We made a pretty good team. He’d do all the background work with his skills in mixing magic and technology, and I have my… talents. We fit.”

I expect derision from the dragon under me. I was naïve, chasing something I didn’t understand, trying to find where I belonged, but he doesn’t. He dips his head and brushes a kiss to my forehead that hums with care.

“It’s natural to gravitate toward your own kind,” he says. “To search them out. Even now, the few dragons that are left keep in contact, and we are creatures who are solitary except for our families.”

“I don’t think I could forgive my biological family for leaving me with humans.” My voice is rough. “I got into more trouble than I could handle trying to find someone similar to me, whether they were related to me or not. Now that I know more about witches in general, it’s clear that some witch families aren’t great to their members, so it’s better for me not to know exactly where I come from.”

“If that is what you wish. You will always have a place here, Rina.” The words are careful, but they cause an earthquake in my soul.

I frown at him at the same time my heart lodges in my throat. “Don’t promise things like that.”

Don’t offer something only to take it away later.

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