Page 35 of Magpies & Mayhem
“Where is my dragon?”
Jordan let me go and dropped to the floor beside me to look under the bed. “What do you mean, where—” He found the same thing I did, empty dragon-less space beneath the bed, and then stood to scan the room.
A soft knock at the door made me scream and come out of my skin, an explosion of feathers erupting on the floor beneath Jordan who didn’t fare much better himself. He hunched over me, snarling like a feral animal.
“Uh, hey, guys? I hate to interrupt, but ya’ll need to take your dragon back.” Allie’s voice was muffled coming through the door, but the scent of burnt orc skin was clear as day.Oops.
It took Jordan several seconds to get himself under control, and then another several to put his pants back on. He opened the door with an unhappy glare. Allie stood in the hall, holding Huck out from her body with a disgruntled expression on her face. She had no eyebrows, and her face was marred with soot.
“I know I said I wanted to dragon-sit, but I think I changed my mind.”
“Thanks. Sorry,” Jordan said gruffly. He took Huck and closed the door in her face, then set him back on the floor while I scrambled to flutter up onto the bed.
“How did he—”
Jordan cut me off. “I must have left the door open on one of my trips into the room while you were in the shower. Sorry. You’ve got food on the shelf in the cabinet in there, by the way.”
That sparked my curiosity. “Did he bring the rat?”
Jordan laughed, dragging his hand down his face and then slumping onto the bed. “No rats to be had at this time of night. Sorry,” he said into the pillow.Dang it. That would have been funny.Points for trying though, stuffy-vampire-butler-Augustus.
I strutted up toward his pillow on my little bird legs, eyeing his sculpted back as I went. I hadn’t even noticed him taking off his shirt, but I was glad he had.Yum. As much as I wanted to shift back and see if he’d let me snuggle, I didn’t have the energy for another shift right now. He was stuck with bird-Sidney for a little bit. I hopped up onto his pillow and padded around to the back of his head, cocking my own head at him to watch him as he visibly cringed when I got too close. “I’m going to touch your hair,” I said to prepare him. When he didn’t respond, I gathered some strands in my beak and gave them a gentle tug, sliding them through my beak from root to tip, gathering a new clump and doing it again, and again.
“What—what are you doing? What is this?” he asked.
“Affection.” Preening made me happy. I couldn’t help it. It was soothing.
“Gross,” he muttered, stilling my movements. I narrowed my eyes at his head and considered giving him an irritated peck until he grumbled, “Do it again.” And so, we sat, like a couple of weirdos, with me preening his hair and him pretending to not enjoy it. My heart was happy.
Unfortunately, my stomach was not, so after we rested a bit, I shifted back, and Jordan warmed my food up for me. Both a burgerandnoodles. I guess Augustus was trying to make up for the lack of rat. I probably should have felt awkward about someone watching me put away two whole plates of food, but I hadn’t eaten much in two days, and I was hungry, so I ignored that impulse. Jordan seemed to relax more as I ate, as though he’d been truly concerned about my lack of nutrition. I tried to ignore that too, because between the stick offering, the sex, and him feeding me, he was already embedded in my little birdy brain. Was he doing this on purpose? I squinted at him, trying to read him, but he was starting to look a little zombie-like. “Is it about that time?” I asked with a mouth full of food.
“Yeah, sun’s coming up.”
I wiped my mouth and dug some clothes out of my bag to get ready for bed. Huck was curled up in the back corner under the bed again, this time fast asleep. Jordan flopped back onto the bed and scooted against the wall to make room for me when I came back. I gave him a side-eye. “This seems like a bad idea.”
“I thought you loved bad ideas,” he said tiredly.
“Are you going to come out of sleep like a hound out of hell again?” I asked.
“No,” he said, tucking his head into the pillow. “This place smells familiar. The cave didn’t, so I didn’t know where I was or why someone was next to me.”
I eyed the floor, wondering if perhaps it might be a safer lodging. Jordan sighed and took hold of my wrist, pulling me into the bed next to him and turning me so I was facing away with my back tucked against his chest again. I still wasn’t sure about this. “Am I the little spoon or a meat shield?” I asked the darkness.
“Go to sleep, Sidney,” was his only response before sleep claimed him.
Chapter 23
Istoodonthesheer knife-edge of a mountain ridge as the frigid wind buffeted me from every side. My hair whipped about my face, and I knew my skin prickled in the cold, though I couldn’t feel it. Above me, the stars shone brightly in the stunning expanse of night sky, and below me was a quiet valley filled with low burning coals. It was nearly a mile down the steep, treacherous sides into the inky blackness, but the glowing embers beckoned me forward. Far, far above, the stars called to me to dance with them in the moonlight as my ancestors had, and their ancestors before them, but I turned to face the valley below. The coals, though dim, had a stronger pull on my soul. I spread my arms and launched myself into the night, easily transforming into my feathered form as I plummeted into the abyss. The sky continued its call, but I didn’t hear it. I only heard the fire.
I woke up from a deep sleep in the same position I’d drifted off in. I found that odd because I usually woke up in all kinds of weird positions. Plus, I expected to be glommed onto Jordan like a lonely octopus again. I realized, as I blinked away the final dredges of my strange dream, that I hadn’t moved because I physicallycouldn’t. Jordan had me locked in the same vice-like spooning hold that we’d been in before falling asleep, only he’d constricted around me even more tightly while we slept. I wondered if that had anything to do with how well I’d slept, but maybe that was just the exhaustion again.
It felt like it wasn’t quite night yet, but I really needed to get out of here before he woke up like a cornered beast. Moving his arms proved ineffectual. Goodgrief,he was strong. I could shift, but then I’d be trapped in the blankets and with a much higher probability of getting crushed in his flailing panic. Trying to wriggle free only caused him to tighten his hold and crush me to his chest. His hot breath blowing on my neck through my hair was slow and steady, otherwise I’d have been tempted to think he was messing with me. That and the fact that he hadn’t erupted off the bed in a snarling burst to greet the night yet.
I waited for him to relax his grip again, and then tried to slideslowlyout from under his arms, but I only made it an inch before he tightened his hold again, this time squishing all the air out of my lungs in a rush. “Jordan,” I wheezed. “Can’t breathe.”
The low hiss against the back of my neck made my hair stand up, but he did loosen his grip. “Sorry.”
I stayed frozen, not wanting to make any sudden moves. “Are you going to freak out now?”
