Page 1 of To Spark a Dragon's Love
1
Willow
Everything is Going to be All Right…
I was going to have a panic attack.
Thankfully Riley and Ember were keeping an eye on Harper because I was in no condition to “mom” this morning. If I had my choice here, I’d scoop my kid up and run.
Walking into a witch’s circle last night and dealing with all the supernatural bombs that kept dropping our way was enough to make anyone’s brain explode. Sexy dragon-men fated mates? Magic in our blood? Some kind of soul-pack made before we were born? Add in the fact that mythical tattoos appeared on my best friends’ necks that each had something to do with the end of the world prophecy and…
This was a lot.
“Don’t you worry, about a thing,”I internally sang.
It was what I’d sing to my daughter in times like this. An easy way to pretend that nothing could hurt us as long as we stayed positive. I liked silly songs and making Harper laugh. If anyone asked, those were my hobbies now.
I was still humming as I turned my face skyward, shading my eyes from the rising sun that glittered off turquoise scales and golden claws of the massive beast that circled above.
Nope!My nervous system screamed at me.
I forced my feet to stand steady as the ground trembled beneath them when the dragon landed. My heart fluttered faster than hummingbird wings and my vision tunneled as I fought the urge to rush back to my daughter.
How did we get here?
The plan had been to fight the elements and maybe some assholes from the next town over, scavenging for food and building a homestead off grid while the rest of the world fell apart.
That almost seemed rational compared to what I was facing now.
The dragon who’d landed in front of me was the guardian of the Earth. He was dying. Their prophecy signaled the end. And I was supposed to just walk up there and see if we were fated mates.
But if what Ember and Kieran thought was true… If this was the key to stopping the apocalypse…
I turned to look over my shoulder.
Harper was sitting on Riley’s hip, waving at me in the distance. Lucan and Ember and Kieran were gathered around my little girl. I gave her a short wave in return before swallowing my fear and turning back to the giant monster.
It didn’t matter how scared I was. If there was even a fraction of a hope that I could do anything to help give my daughter a better future, I would.
You’d think I’d be desensitized to dragons by now anyway. These past few months we’d been thrust into their world. The ones we’d met so far adored Harper and accepted her as their own. It made this whole new life a little less frightening to know she had that kind of protection.
But I couldn’t get my breathing under control as I stared at Malachy. He was bigger than any dragon I’d seen so far. His tailwas barbed like Lucan’s and it swept the dirt as his giant wings blocked out the sun before tucking into his sides.
He was beautiful. Monstrously so. His scales were like jewels and so were his eyes that flickered into diamonds as he stared at me from lofty heights.
Me. The human woman standing here as a crazy person in front of a dragon like some sort of offering in a medieval fantasy.
A deranged laugh threatened to escape my lips.
Of course that’d be my role to play here.
An offering.
It’d been years since my body—my life—had felt like my own. What difference did one more sacrifice make? I could do this. For Harper.
Malachy’s dragon lowered his snout, bowing his long neck so we came to eye level.
That swirling green and golden eye regarded me with such a depth of sadness that all the air rushed from my lungs.
