Page 22 of To Spark a Dragon's Love
Whiskey would be better.
“Obviously it’s a bruise,” Lucan growled. “He’s asking why you’re even bruising at all. She doesn’t hit you and even if She did, you’re a dragon. You don’t bruise.”
“I think I slammed myself into a wall this time.” I finished the rest of the beer on the second drink. “And anyway, it happens now. Do you have anything stronger than this?”
“Goddess, Malachy,” Lucan started.
I prayed that he would stop.
“I’ll get you some scotch,” Kieran said.
He was always a great friend.
“How long has this been happening?” Lucan asked once Kieran stepped away. I thought about ignoring my brother, but Kieran paused to hear my answer and I really needed that pain relief.
“Fifty years or so.” I shrugged, wincing from the pain. Moving was not the smartest move. You’d think I’d have learned by now, but every fucking time—
“Fifty years!” Lucan roared. “Is this why you told me to stay away?”
My head was pounding, but I was afraid they wouldn’t give me the good stuff if I complained and told him to keep his voice down.
“Her needs are growing stronger, aren’t they?” Kieran came back, without the scotch.
And I remembered he wasn’t that great after all.
“She’s pushing him too hard.” Lucan dragged his hand over his face. “This has got to stop. It’s what? Every week now?”
“Sometimes two or three weeks.” I’m not sure they even heard me over their squawking little conversation.
I squinted one eye, my head splitting in two, as I focused on the cabin below.
“He said things were changing almost two hundred years ago and you didn’t listen,” Kieran scolded my brother.
“I listened,” Lucan snapped back. “But he didn’t look like that then.”
“Well, he looks like it now.”
“How did this happen?”
“Did you expect me to go out in a blaze of glory?” I kept my voice quiet so they had to stop talking to listen. “We’ve known this is what the prophecy signaled for over a century. And we’re dragons. It was always going to be a slow and painful end.”
“But you shouldn’t have done this alone,” Kieran argued. “You should’ve come to us for help.”
I bit my tongue so hard I tasted venom, knowing I didn’t have enough energy for this fight again.
The sound of the service elevator that rose to the roof was a welcome relief.
Fredrick wheeled himself outside.
He took one look at me and tsked, judging the two idiots at my back, “Which one of you thought beer would be enough? Don’t worry, Malachy, I brought you something stronger.”
9
Willow
Necklines and Other Boundaries
“Mommy, open your eyes.” Little fingers pried my eyelids apart, letting the bright morning sun burn my retinas.
