Page 32 of Fence

13

Ciera

I never understoodhow quickly life could change.

Sure, I’d lost my parents in the blink of an eye. One moment, they were on their way home after celebrating their anniversary over dinner. The next, a drunk driver had crossed the center line and hit them head-on. They were alive, then they were gone. And everything changed. But I was too young to understand.

And Seanmhair. Her loss might not have seemed so sudden if she had only told me she was sick. I would’ve had time to process, to say goodbye. But stubborn her, she’d kept it to herself. Didn’t want to disturb my studies. Once she was gone, my entire world had shifted. Nothing made sense anymore.

Just when things had started to calm down.

Just when I’d gotten a hold on my life again.

I meet a dragon.

He sat on the floor, his back to the wall. I sat on the sofa, my hands clasped between my knees. We weren’t far from each other—we probably could’ve stretched out our arms and touched fingertips—but there were ways to measure distance which didn’t take inches into account. Once I’d first gotten over the shock of who he really was, we could’ve been miles apart.

Every hour we’d spent talking after that had closed the distance. I’d gone from hating him to wanting to hurt him to resenting him, the strength of the passion lessening, until there was nothing but resignation and an attempt at understanding by the time the sky began to lighten. I wanted to understand him.

“I can’t believe it’s almost morning.” I yawned not a split second later, and Fence chuckled.

“I can’t remember the last time I spent all night talking with a woman.”

“I’ve never spent all night talking with a man.” He raised an eyebrow. Amazing how that would’ve made me blush to the roots of my hair before I knew him the way I did now.

“You must be exhausted,” he observed, rather than teasing me.

“I am—but I doubt I could sleep.” My mind buzzed out of control.

Imagine living for a thousand years. Seeing what he’d seen, living through the world’s events. He’d explained how secluded his life was, so it wasn’t as if he’d been in the middle of the action, but he had watched from afar. I wondered if it didn’t feel a little like being God, looking down at humanity as it built itself up, tore itself down and started again.

“You should try.” There he went again. Acting like my protector.

If I hadn’t been so bone tired—not to mention a little nervous around him—I would’ve told him off.

“What will you do? Go back to your hotel?”

He shook his head. “I’ll stay here.”

“Ah-ha. Don’t you think you’re forgetting something?” When all I got was a blank look, I continued. “I never asked you to spend the night. You didn’t even ask permission. But you were ready to tear that guy’s head off for winking at me yesterday.”

And when I considered just how easy it would’ve been for him to do something like that, I felt a little sick.

He wasn’t amused. “I can’t leave you alone now.”

“Why not?”

“I wouldn’t feel right leaving you unguarded when you know everything.

“Unguarded…?” The hair on the back of my neck stood up. “Did you just tell me things that could get me killed? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Killed, no.”

“Hurt, then?”

He grimaced. “I assumed you would jump to the correct conclusion. That was my mistake, not your own. You see, whoever is responsible for the disappearance of the clan might be out there somewhere. Looking for anyone with information to their existence.” His voice was as gentle as I’d ever heard it, but it did nothing to soften the blow.

I reeled from the implications of what he was trying to explain, the nightmare unspooling in my head. “No. That makes no sense,” I breathed. “What would they do? Wander around, sniffing out evidence of research? I mean, that’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, isn’t it?”

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