Page 25 of Dragon My Crazy

I expected pity, but what I saw on her face was understanding.

I’d never had the situation come up to test their loyalty. Who would stay by my side and who would turn on me? I didn’t know.

“There was one. An old crone of a witch. Centuries old, if I had to guess. She is the one who built the wards around my home. Made them tamperproof. I trusted her, but she is gone. She would’ve known what to do with Melantha.”

“What happened to her?” Elana asked softly.

“She went into the woods for one of her rituals and never came back. Leroy and I found what was left of her inside her casting circle.” I didn’t elaborate or say what type of ritual, unsure how she’d react to using others’ life forces to live longer.

Elana nodded as she mopped up the yolk on her plate with a piece of the toast. “And of all the people in the world, you trusted only her.”

“In recent years, yes.” I turned my fork over in my hand. “More than I can say for most. For everyone else, loyalty given by one who has nowhere else to go isn’t the same as loyalty freely given, is it? I pay them. I shelter them. I have never had cause to learn what they’d do if that stopped.”

She looked pensive. “Maybe that’s the wrong way to look at it. Desmon thought the same way once, but the people around him proved him wrong. Loyalty isn’t something that’s just given; it’s earned and built brick by brick, year after year. You don’t know if it’s there until it’s tested. And by then, hopefully, you’ve laid enough bricks.”

I stared at her. “That,” I said slowly, “is far too wise for someone who’s only lived a handful of decades.”

She laughed, and the heaviness lifted. “There you go, flattering me again.”

“That’s not flattery. You’ll know flattery when you see it.” I reached across the table and stole a forkful of her avocado toast before she could stop me.

“Hey—” She swatted at my hand, too late. I popped it into my mouth and made a show of savoring it.

“You’re right,” I said around the bite. “That is better than my steak.”

She made a show of covering her plate with her hands. “No more for you.”

“Cruel woman.” I grinned.

My phone buzzed against the table. It was Luella, with a one-line update: Melly is napping, my lord. I thumbed out a quick acknowledgment and set my phone back down.

Funny. A year ago, this budding town had been a bit of a thorn in my side. Now I found myself thinking about whether I could bring my daughter into town with me so she could enjoy it too.

“Everything okay?” Elana asked.

“Melly’s down for her nap.” I pocketed the phone. “Which means I have you to myself for at least a few more hours.”

“Lucky me,” she said dryly, but she was smiling.

When her plate was clean, I dropped enough cash on the table to cover the meal including a hefty tip for the waitress and stood, offering Elana my hand. She looked at it for half a second, and I recognized the reflex of a woman who’d learned to weigh every offered hand for the price attached. Then she took it.

I grinned, feeling oddly victorious for such a small gesture.

We stepped out onto Main Street, the afternoon sun warm and the air thick with pine and the sweetness of fresh-baked bread from the bakery across the street. Flame and Blaze trailed behind us at a discreet distance.

“This way.” I steered her toward the path that wound down behind the shops, where the town thinned into evergreens and the lake glittered through the gaps. “Trust me.”

“I thought you hadn’t visited before,” she muttered, but she let me lead.

“I haven’t visited the town. But I know this lake from before the residents moved in.”

We hadn’t gone ten steps when I felt a prickle along the back of my neck, an old instinct that had kept me alive through centuries of humans with pitchforks and dragons with grudges. I glanced back. I didn’t see anything at first, but after a moment, my eyes landed on a man standing across the street, half in the shadow of the hardware store awning.

He looked ordinary enough at first. Human, or at least wearing the shape of one. There was a magical aura to him, but nothingthat demanded attention. But he wasn’t looking at the shops or the menus or the pretty mountain view.

He was looking at Elana.

The moment our eyes met, he turned and slunk into the hardware store.