Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
And it all started with a girl called Pie.
Pie is the catalyst.
You see, this is how magic works. It’s just like… like a chemical reaction, except it’s magical. You start with a snippet of this and that, add something spectacular to the mixture, and wooobam! You get something brand-new.
Pie is our something spectacular.
Her presence in the magical reaction affects Pell and I both. Which is curious, but not something I want to think about now.
Right now, I just want to think about Pie.
I remember seeing her outside on the lawn, just standing in the front of the sanctuary looking down at herself. I might even have startled her when I called out.
I think she was going to leave.
I think I was the one who stopped her from doing that.
She blames Grant or that flier she saw for her change of fortune, but it was me. I was the one who really sealed her fate. Because if I had not been on the terrace that morning there would never have been a slave caretaker of Saint Mark’s Sanctuary called Pie.
She went to the door and I went back inside fully intending on meeting her down there. But I got lost in the hallways. They took me on a trip. The time is fuzzy, but all I know is that when I finally did make it downstairs, I was new again.
It doesn’t happen often, so it’s quite a big deal.
I could touch things. And feel things. And I didn’t have to wear the dragon body or the ghost one, either. I wasn’t human, of course. Have never been human. But it was very nice to have legs and arms and a face a woman could appreciate.
My eyes dart to Madeline. She is covered in scales now. Even her face. Which, I have to admit, surprised me. Because my current face is not covered in scales. Only my lower body is. She is a gorgeous dragon, though. And maternal, too. The eggs are huge underneath her human-sized body. Massive, like boulders. But she sleeps on top of them, draping herself all over them, doing her best to keep them warm.
They are in no danger of getting cold now. Two dragons in the nest is more than enough heat. Our radiant bodies alone are enough to incubate them to the end. Neither of us needs to actually sit on them.
I reach over and slide my fingers down Madeline’s red-scaled cheek.
She is a blood dragon, like me.
What are the chances?
One in a trillion, maybe?
“How are we feeling, darling?”
Madeline growls at me, snarling and snapping her sharp teeth, forcing me to pull my hand away.
I chuckle. “That’s marvelous, my love.”
She is… well, I would not call her a disappointment. Not at all. She is my new best friend. She is my new lover, though we’re taking our time in that respect. She is my partner. We are in this together now and that feels wonderful.
But she is not as sweet as she used to be.
In fact, she is rather mean now.
I do not hold this against her. Waking up a dragon is a confusing time. In fact, everything about being a dragon is confusing.
I think I’ve mentioned this.
It makes one do… punishable things. Imprisonable things.
Which is part of how I got here, of course. Dragons will be dragons.
But she has me to help her along. I had no one when I was born, because I hatched out of the egg and wasn’t transformed by a magical bat-person. But Madeline has me to guide her through this.
She is not a prisoner.
Yet.
And she will never be one, if I can help it.
Though, if the eggs hatch, there’s not much chance we will be welcome anywhere.
But that’s OK. There will be five of us then. Five dragons are enough to change the course of a universe and all we really want to do is escape this prison and be free to find our happy endings.
When I brought Madeline in here she was, for all intents and purposes, dead. But Batty owed me and he paid off his debt in magic, bringing her soul back to her body for a second chance.
Of course, his magic would not have worked if Madeline wasn’t already who she is. Deep inside, she was always a dragon. Though on the outside, for the most part, she was just a lowly eros.
The dragon gene is recessive, popping up every seventh generation. I wish I had her whole family history. I would love to know her ancestors.
The eggs, though, are not hers. She will not reach reproductive age for centuries.
No. These eggs have been here in the dungeon with me for thousands of years. I had hundreds of them when I was banished to my prison, but most of them disintegrated from rot.
Only these three are left now. And until recently, they were nothing but petrified shells. There must be two dragons in close proximity for eggs to incubate. These three looked just like rocks before Madeline moved in. Like a bit of crumbling wall or foundation stones. But within minutes of her arrival they began to change, and glow, and undulate with the waking of the dragon hearts within.