Page 50 of Dragon My Crazy

“Don’t push it, demon.”

He laughed. “You have always been fair and honest, for a dragon. Thank you for releasing me early.”

And then with a puff, he was gone.

Chapter 22

Elana

Istaredatmyreflection in the mirror, remembering the hot mess I’d been not that long ago. But despite the emotional whiplash of feeling confused and betrayed, I couldn’t help but notice something weird: I looked damn good. Like, suspiciously good. Almost younger than I remembered.

Even Tansy had noticed, making some crack about mountain air being better than Botox and needing to get some herself. Myskin was practically glowing. I slathered on my usual face creams anyway.

Ready to face whatever mayhem the day had in store, I stepped out of the bathroom and into the Redrock penthouse.

I’d barely been back in Darlington long when Chief Henderson called, sounding like he’d just chugged three espressos and hadn’t slept. It turned out the EA had been hiding crucial details from the police department, and he’d only just discovered that morning that a certain wizard had pulled a Houdini from containment.

I’d given him the rundown about that fun little phone call I’d received from Samuel and mentioned that I’d be crashing with the Redrocks for the time being. That had been Tansy’s suggestion anyway. The penthouse always had room for unexpected guests.

The massive penthouse spanned the entire top floor of the building and was divided into five separate areas, a corner for each of the three gargoyle brothers and the last corner for Eamon. The central section—which was currently utter chaos—was a communal space where everyone congregated.

Chicken Nugget had gone full banshee mode, screaming, “Such a cutie! Suuuuch a cuuuuutieeee!” at the top of her lungs while perched on a lamp. Meanwhile, Eadie was floating in the middle of the room, just beyond everyone’s reach, bawling her eyes out as Meera and Shelby were trying their damndest to get her to calm back down.

Tansy was MIA. “Where’s Tansy?” I asked.

“She stepped downstairs to grab the food,” Shelby said, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else. The measuring tape around her neck was practically vibrating with stress. “I swear on my favorite pair of fabric sheers, we had this under control. Then Meera went and said—” she cupped her hands around her mouth and stage-whispered, “‘You’re such a cutie’ to Eadie, and all hell broke loose.”

“I didn’t know those were magic words!” Meera protested, looking genuinely remorseful.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Nugget’s vocabulary might be limited, but “cutie” was one of her favorite words. And what she lacked in word variety, she made up for in volume and enthusiasm. The screaming had set Eadie off, and now we had a full-blown meltdown on our hands.

My first instinct was to reach for Eadie, but let’s be real, I had about as much chance of catching her as the other two. I also didn’t know how to get her down either, not without magic, and I wasn’t sure I trusted that yet.

Since the other two women were already focused on Eadie, I put my attention on Nugget instead. Perhaps the crying would stop when the screaming did, and if it didn’t, well, then at least it would be half as loud. I soon had the little sun conure playing peek-a-boo, her favorite game. She was basically a toddler stuck in a bird’s body.

Shelby was just about to take over with distracting Nugget so I could help with Eadie when the door opened, and Tansy came in carrying our food delivery. She saw what was happening, handedme the food, and got to work coaxing her baby down from the air. And when that didn’t work, she resorted to magic.

Compared to Eadie, Melly was a dream. Okay, so she’d lit a few things on fire, but she’d been a perfect angel when I was around. But then again, she couldn’t fly yet. I wondered if I would say the same thing in a year or so.

Except I would never know because I couldn’t risk being around a man, dragon or not, who wanted me for my magic, especially when he could fake caring so well. I wasn’t sure if the chemistry was fake though, because that had felt real. So freakin’ real.

Yesterday, Dizzi had called with an update. She’d been snooping around, trying to ferret out the truth, and I could tell the moment I heard her voice that the news was bad. She’d heard them talking about me, and Leroy had sounded angry that I was gone, asking Emmett how he was supposed to bolster his magic now. Emmett had then told him that he was working on finding him another source. She’d taken that to mean I’d been the original plan.

Tansy had argued that, technically, Emmett hadn’t said anything incriminating. Maybe Emmett never actually entertained the idea, but Leroy kept bringing it up.

Me? I wasn’t sure what to think.

We were in the middle of our poke bowl lunches, with Eadie and Nugget both happily painting her highchair with berry puree, when I noticed a winged humanoid form flying around outside the penthouse, waving his arms like a madman.

Tansy, who was sitting next to me, stopped mid-bite. “You know this guy?”

“That’s Cassian, Emmett’s demon. What is he doing here?”

Realizing he now had our attention, Cassian formed a sign with his arm—instead of normal bodies, demons had soul stuff that they made solid and formed them into whatever shapes they wanted—that said, “Let me in. We need to talk.”

Shelby, Tansy, Meera, and I exchanged four-way glances.

“Do you trust him?” Tansy asked.