Page 27 of Under the Dragon's Spell
"But you can throw it off?"
"Sometimes. I'm not entirely sure. I think if he pushed harder, he could win, but he hasn't tried so far."
Michael nodded, considering this. "Well, I don't know if there's anything like fate involved, but why else would you have this power?"
I shook my head. "No idea."
He stood from the bed. "I'm kind of jealous of you."
I laughed shortly. "Don't be. This is a mess. His mother hates me, I hardly know him, but we're thinking about having a child together? The whole thing is insane."
"Well, what did you think would happen when you applied for this job?"
He had a point there.
"I did it to stop my brother from nagging me to get a job, initially. And then I saw Tyrel and…" I shrugged helplessly.
Michael smiled softly. "You know life is what happens when you're making other plans. That said, if you really feel you need to get out, don't wait too long. If you two are really fated, it's not going to get easier."
I nodded at him, because it already felt impossible for me to walk away from Tyrel. "Be careful on your date tonight," I advised him. Tyrel couldn't use his magic on me without my knowledge, but Michael was fair game.
"I will be."
After that, Michael left the room, saying that he had to get ready. For his date. With Tyrel. Goddammit. I wasn't an aggressive person, but I wanted to smash something.
11
TYREL
I hated going along with my mother's wishes, but she had insisted on the dates. Apparently it was impossible for me to just pick someone and be done with it. No, she wanted me to know my choices.
What a colossal waste of time.
Of course, I couldn't tell her that I'd already made my choice without also making her even more suspicious of Adrian and what exactly made him so attractive to me, so I went along with this asinine charade and picked my date up at 8pm.
Michael didn't seem too ecstatic about going out with me either, which only served to heighten my irritation.
Smile, I told him with my magic, but his smile came too easy and it wasn't genuine and it didn't appease me. Before meeting Adrian, I'd taken some pride in the fact that I could make my human partners be happy even when they were set on being miserable, but now I was bored with the image of fake joy on my companion's face.
I released my hold on Michael and decided not to use any more magic for the rest of the evening. Holding my powers back was new to me, but I figured doing it for one night wouldn't be so bad.
We got to the restaurant—which my mother had picked for us—and a handsome young waiter showed us to our table.
"Were you making eyes at that waiter?" Michael asked as soon as we sat down, surprising me. I'd thought he was theshy, soft-spoken type. My mother had advised me that he was a virgin, which I guess was supposed to make him more interesting to me, but I wasn't one of the dragons with a fetish for that kind of thing.
"What if I was making eyes at that waiter?" I leaned in, curious now what he would say. "Would that upset you?"
"Well, considering that you're supposed to be on a date with me, this would upset me if I had any illusions that you were interested in me at all."
"I'm not?"
Michael looked down at the tablecloth, as if he was suddenly afraid he was saying too much. It was tempting to use my magic on him to make him hurry up and speak, but I waited. "I know that you're not," he said eventually. "You're interested in Adrian." Michael raised his eyes at me again. "He told me about your magic."
"Has he now?" That wasn't good. I didn't care that Michael knew, but Adrian shouldn't spread that kind of information around when I was trying to keep it secret—to keep him safe.
"I'm not going to tell anyone."
"Not willingly, no."
