Page 16 of Sanctuary with a Dragon
Shay smirked. “If she doesn’t, I’ll let you choose one of the spells fromArcanum Obscurato use on me.”
He thought an ancient spellbook that no one understood would comfort me if Everly left? It took the patience of a dragon to refrain from strangling him. Then I caught the twinkle in his eye, and shook my head as I stomped toward my cabin. He was just messing with me, as he always did.
“Ry?” I turned.
Shay’s face was soft. Certain. “She’ll stay. Trust her.”
I nodded and entered the cabin.
Chapter 6
Everly
Iwoke to someone knocking on the front door. I lifted my head from the overstuffed pillow I’d been resting on and glanced around the living room where I’d fallen asleep the night before.
No one was in sight.
The knocking came again, followed by the bright chime of the doorbell. For some reason, I tried to disentangle myself from the blanket I’d been snuggling in. I couldn’t answer the door—it wasn’t even my house—but I did it anyway. I guess I was curious.
The doorbell chimed again, and I flapped my wings and glided gracefully toward the window facing the front yard... then immediately ruined the gracefulness by biffing it and tripping over my own taloned feet.
I gnashed my beak and made a frustrated growling sound.
Why was this so hard?I could fly just fine, but walking continued to elude me. It was frustrating and embarrassing. Then again, I was used to walking on five toes, and they all pointed the same direction, so there was that.
The knocking came again—harder this time—like the person on the front stoop was certain someone was home, but they thought the house owner might just be hard of hearing.
I nudged the curtain aside with my beak and peeked at the person knocking.
A woman was standing there. Again, I couldn’t discern body, hair, or eye color, but her long hair fell to her waist, and she had very symmetrical features. Symmetry, in appearance, usually meant beauty.
Alaric strode into the living room, soaking wet, with a towel wrapped around his waist. A sound escaped my beak entirely involuntarily.
It was the sound of me swallowing my tongue.
He cut his eyes toward me and froze. We stared at each other. He looked like he wanted to say something, but the doorbell rang again, so he sighed and turned to answer it.
“Alissa. Can I help you?”
Alissa sputtered for a moment, probably swallowing her tongue too, then quickly regained her power of speech.
“Hi, Alaric. Can I come in?”
I really liked his name, but for some reason, I wasn’tfond of another woman saying it the way she did. Huh. Something to think about later.
“You caught me at a bad time. Can I get a raincheck?”
That was polite forplease leave.Even I knew that. But Alissa didn’t seem to. She laughed—a sound like the tinkling bells on Santa’s sleigh, high, bright, and merry.
“Oh, but I was hoping I could bring this in for you!”
Silence.
“And I can just heat it right up—it’s no problem!” She swished past him and made a beeline for his kitchen, like she was afraid he might grab her by her long, glossy hair and yeet her back outside.
Did she just...bargeinto his house?
My beak was open in astonishment.
