Cinnamon roll.
When he’s not coming out of a yearslong imprisonment, the guy is quiet and kind. Bo is asweet on the outside, sweet on the insidecinnamon roll that someone will devour one day.
19
Bo
I’m standingon Main Street, staring at the sign that readsNever Judge a Cover, when I hear words I can’t ignore.
“Thank you, Professor Novac.”
That name.
Hisname.
The dragon whose hoard magic trapped me for seventeen years. Who stole almost two decades of my life.
You were going to steal from him, a small voice in my head tries to remind me.
But the consternation rises so fast in my chest that the words are drowned out. I turn in the direction of the speaker, searching for the gray-haired man with purple eyes. But all I see is a white woman with long black hair who sits at a table outside of Coffee & Claws. She has a laptop in front of her and glasses perched on her nose.
As if sensing my attention, she glances up. Through the lenses, I spy a set of purple eyes.
Novac.
I’m reminded that they said the dragon was dead. But that doesn’t mean that he didn’t have any offspring.
I stalk up to the woman, fists clenched at my sides.
“Are you related to Dimitri Novac?” I demand, looming over her.
She flinches. The reaction doesn’t give me any satisfaction. All my life, I have been scaring people. You would think that I would be used to it by now. I rock back on my heels, then step back. Giving her space but still staying to hear the answer.
“He …” She blinks up at me. “Yes. I’m his daughter, Delta. He passed away. Did you know him?” Her head tilts with the question as she continues to peer at me.
I frown. “His house cursed me.”
Her eyes widen. “You’re the … Mor told me about you. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that happened to you.”
I don’t like her bringing up the red-haired witch. I don’t like thinking of the kind woman in this moment when I am clutching my resentment like a safety blanket.
“Your father trapped me for seventeen years,” I say with disbelief. “And you didn’tknowabout it?”
Delta shakes her head. “If I had known, I would’ve told him to free you.” She shifts in her seat, gaze dropping to her laptop and then rising to meet mine again. “But I’m also not sure thatheknew how to reverse the enchantment.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that magic doesn’t always work under our direction.” She waves at her laptop like it’s got something to do with her hoard protection spells. “I don’t doubt that the magic trapped you. But I also don’t know that my father knew how to fix what had been done.”
“Well, a witch did,” I grunt, glaring at the ground. “He could’ve asked for help. I could’ve been freed years ago.”
But why would a mythic help a monster who had broken into his house?
It’s a completely valid question that, for some reason, Dimitri’s daughter decides not to ask me. She doesn’t bring up how I ended up in my curse. Only reasons through how I stayed there.
“You’re right.” She nods. “He could have asked for help. He should have. But he didn’t, and I don’t know why.”
“And now he’s gone.” Giving me no one to direct all this anger at. Not when I’m also spelled against harming Sev. All this rage and nowhere to place it. Will the fury live inside me and fester?
