Page 16 of Dragon My Crazy

“She spends time with Luella. And she’s seen Leroy now and then. And she goes swimming in the moat with our moat monster.”

“Moat monster?”

“Yeah, Kai is a kraken. We keep the moat salted just for him.”

“Okay, so she has people. But she still isn’t turning human, so clearly, we need something else. And besides, you can’t plan on keeping her here until she’s grown. What kind of life is that?”

“No, I plan on keeping her here until she can shift. No one will blink at a human child.”

“And then what? They know you’re a dragon. They can make the connection.”

“Do they, though? I hide what I am well. The people in town do not need to know who I am.” How did I explain to herthat dragons learned to hide what we were over the course of centuries for fear of being hunted? It was going to take a lot for me to leave that habit behind, especially when it had helped me survive for so long.

Desmon was different in that he’d used his museum to give pieces of his treasure an assessed value, effectively turning almost useless pieces that were worth nothing and hidden away in a cave, into rare oddities worth millions. Once upon a time, it hadn’t mattered what humans thought, but it did now. I had to give it to him. It was an excellent ploy and had turned his medium-sized hoard—for a dragon—into something truly valuable.

It also afforded him the opportunity to trade and acquire new pieces. Things ran very differently now than they had centuries ago. Not much went under the radar now, and humans had their electronic eyes everywhere. Magic still worked to hide our dealings, but it took a lot more to cross all our T’s and dot all our I’s.

“Don’t the people of Solstice claim to have settled here to be under the protection of a dragon?”

My jaw clenched at that. They had, which irritated me because I’d been so certain that I’d kept my location a secret all these years.

My phone buzzed from my pocket. It was Leroy, requesting a meeting at my office about the illegal loggers who’d trespassed into my range. We were trying to negotiate with the company directly instead of turning them over to the authorities. It would be better for everyone involved.

I sighed. “I have to take care of something. Will you join me for dinner tonight?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“I’ll be back soon.” And then I was out the door and hurrying down the stairs to my office.

The faster this gets done, the faster I can be back with my enchanting witch.

“ThisElanawomanisnot what I’d expected,” Leroy said. “I thought you said she had plenty of magic.”

I’d finally gotten off the phone with the logging company. The call had taken much longer than I’d expected, and I’d thought I’d have time to meet up with Elana again and perhaps show her around the outside of the castle before dinner. But dinner time was fast approaching, and I was still in my office.

“She does. I saw it at the gala. She must have a spell hiding her magic.”

Leroy made a face. “I do not detect such a spell running.”

I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anyway. She’s not here for her magic.”

“You are still interested in the woman to be Melantha’s governess. Is Luella not doing a good enough job?”

“She’s doing fine. But Melantha still hasn’t shifted. You know how important the next few months are.”

“Still, I do not trust the woman. How do we know your brother isn’t using her to infiltrate our defenses? Do you know those two demons—”

“Ifrits,” I corrected.

“Ifrits, yes, yes.” He waved a hand. “Do you know they are going around poking their noses into everything?”

“Are they?”

“They are. I do not trust them.”

I wondered if he had a good reason, or if it was because they were two of the very few supernatural beings in my fortress that he could not control. Perhaps that was reason enough.

“Have Cassian keep a watch on them.” Cassian was a demon who owed me a debt. But while technically the debt was to me, it was Leroy who held him bound until the debt could be paid.