Page 30 of Fence

“Thank you.”

Her eyes widened. She gulped.

I didn’t look away.

She needed to know how serious I was.

“Don’t joke about this. Not right now.”

“Do I look like I’m joking? Do I sound like it?” I held up my fully-healed hand. “What about this? Does this look like a joke to you?”

She pointed. “That’s impossible.”

“You’re looking at it. You saw it with your own eyes. You wanted me to get stitches not fifty minutes ago. And yet, here we are. I’m fully healed. What does that tell you?”

“It tells me I’m hallucinating.”

“No.” As sharp as a whip.

She flinched.

“You don’t get to play cute now. You know what you know. You wanted to find out more about me, right? This is it. This is what I’ve been trying to avoid telling you—one of the things I’ve been avoiding, at any rate.”

“There’s more?” she whispered. So full of dread.

“Yes. There is. The first thing you have to know is this: I’m part of the clan you’ve been researching. One of its original members. I was born over one thousand years ago.”

She blinked hard, fast, like she might faint. I took a step toward her without thinking, my protective instincts working of their own volition, which made her seize up in terror.

“No! Don’t touch me!”

I stayed where I was, hands by my sides. “You know it’s true.”

“And that’s supposed to help or something?” she laughed wildly.

My heart went out to her. I could only imagine what she was going through.

“There’s more.” Might as well get it all over with at once.

“Are you Santa Claus, too?” she asked, still laughing. “Oh, God, what’s happening right now?”

“Take a deep breath,” I advised.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” she snarled, laughter dying in her throat. “Let me guess. There’s a reason you’ve been alive all this time, but you look like you’re only a few years older than me. Right? There’s a reason why you heal so quickly. What is it?”

“You won’t like it.”

“What a surprise.”

“Fair enough. I only wanted to warn you.” I watched closely, ready to catch her if she fainted this time. “The reason the clan has been a secret for so long is because we aren’t human. We’re dragon shifters.”

Her face went blank. No emotion whatsoever. I waited, holding my breath.

She whispered only one word. “Sgiathail.”

“Winged,” I replied, nodding slowly.

She looked at the floor, hands behind her on the tabletop. “I don’t understand any of it. How is it possible? I’ve never seen anything like this, ever, in any of the texts. People who shift into dragons. I mean, there have always been legends about dragons, but not dragon people.”

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