Page 50 of Dragon in Denial
She and Ketu were mates. Their situation wasn’t unlike little Fiona and Freddy’s; they’d grown up together, and while Antoinette would forever claim Eulalie as her best childhood friend, Ketu had always been there too. She had always felt comfortable with him, had always respected him, and, in truth, loved him.
Now that love had taken on a whole new meaning. A deeper one.
And she needed to come clean, to tell him everything about her vigilante work. She wanted him to know that she trusted him, and maybe, hopefully, he’d give her his trust in return.
Mamástepped into the hall carrying a basket of folded clothes. She paused when she saw Antoinette sitting on the floor. “What happened?”
She shook her head and clamored to her feet. “Nothing. Everything. I don’t know. I need to go see Ketu. Can I? Will you?” Jeez, she couldn’t even speak in complete sentences.
The older woman’s brow creased, but Antoinette couldn’t explain. Not until she talked to Ketu first.
“Go,”Mamásaid. “You know Henri will be fine here with us.”
“Thank you!”
Antoinette bolted.
***
She pounded on Ketu’s hotel door, not letting up until he opened it, a frown puckering his lips. He’d changed back into his gym shorts and his hair was damp, like he’d recently taken a shower.
“We need to talk,” she said, storming into the room without waiting for an invitation.
As soon as the door clicked shut, she whirled to face him. And then she opened and closed her mouth several times, but no words came out.
“Did something happen?” he asked, his anger melting into concern.
“You could say that,” she muttered.
“Is it Henri?Is he okay?”
Henri. Antoinette barked out a laugh. Ketu had called himsonearlier. She wanted that to be true. She wanted Henri to call him Dad.
“What is it, Antoinette? What’s wrong with Henri?”
She shook her head. “Nothing. He’s fine. He’s with your parents and he’s asleep.”
“So my parents are okay too?”
She sighed. “Yes, everyone is fine. Well, everyone except…me and you.”
He canted his head, his brow furrowing. “So this is about what happened earlier with Delilah. Because—”
She laughed. It was humorless, of course, because there really was no humor in this situation, but nevertheless, what the hell were they supposed to do? She had made a deal with a half-witch that would eliminate dragon’s blood from their colony, and just as soon as they were successful, Ketu was going to rush back to Detroit.
This wasn’t his home, not anymore. He’d found his place, he’d figured out where he fit in, and bonus that he’d been able to function without Eulalie’s ghost to cripple him at every turn.
No way would he want to stay here, in New Orleans, even now that they were mates. So what did that mean? Was she willing to move, to leave the only life she’d ever known, to start a potentially better one with Ketu in a whole different state? Hell, it might as well be a whole different country.
Whereas Henri would undoubtedly be excited over the prospect of playing in the snow, Antoinette was perfectly fine with never experiencing more than the occasional flurry, thankyouverymuch.
And there were definitely more than flurries at this time of year in Detroit.
What about Ketu’s parents? She honestly didn’t care about leaving her own family; hell, she hadn’t talked to them in more than a year at this point anyway. Not since she bumped into her mother at that coffee shop, and it had taken the woman a few seconds to place her. And she hadn’t even asked after Henri.
Yeah, Antoinette definitely wouldn’t miss her blood-related family.
Except the deal she’d made with Delilah. She had to see this thing through. They were about to finally fix the colony; Antoinette couldn’t leave them now.
