“I’m sorry, so sorry, that was an accident. Let me...” Amon utters in a deep rasp filled with panic.
Footsteps quickly follow me, one heavy, one light. Then a watering can appears in the hands of a ghostly creature. I grab it, dousing the flames and watching them sputter out.
I wipe my brow, clearing the trickle of sweat as I turn back. “It happens,” I say with a forced smile and shrug, trying for casualness as I place the watering can down. Then freeze.
Because Kacey is next to the dragon.
Rightbeside him.
Beside the big, huge dragon who accidentally creates fires.
The gigantic, powerful being who can’t stop staring at Kacey like he wants to touch her.
I step a little closer, eyeing the tiny space between them. If he even thinks about it I’ll—
“My control has been… slipping, lately,” Amon murmurs, distracting my murderous thoughts and casting a wary glance at his large hands.
“Join the club,” I mutter, making him look up. I give a tight-lipped smile. “Happens to the best of us.”
He tries to return the expression, then looks back to Kacey.
All this time, she’s been staring at the scorched patch of wood where specks of embers still glow.
I’m trying my best to be cordial and polite, only because I can feel how he feels. He’s all warmth and light and nervous apprehension that makes this gargantuan man seem so… small.
Seem like… Kacey.
“Doesn’t it, K?” My fake smile twitches into a little unhinged as I stare at her, nudging her with a thin tendril.
When she looks at me, I widen my eyes.Dosomething,saysomething.Anything.
She slowly turns to him, tilting her head up and up until she’s staring directly into the eyes of the dragon who towers beside her and says—
“I once paralysed the entire canteen.”
My mouth drops open.
Oh no. No.
But it’s too late.
“I really didn’t mean to, like you, I swear,” she adds, but the blurting has only just begun. “I mean, I kinda did, but only because there were so many people and they kept looking at me, and they were saying things, lots of mean things, and I just got so scared that my ghosts came out and—” I close my eyes, I can’t watch. “Well, if you’re not used to seeing the dead it can either make you go a little crazy, or the fear paralyses you. And I guess no one was expecting hundreds of ghosts to just suddenly burst into the canteen and…” Kacey slowly, painfully, trails off.
I peek a look at Amon with one eye shut, then unclench my jaw.
And feel it.
One overwhelming, burning, soothing emotion.
Awe.
He’s in awe of her.
He can’t stop looking, drinking her in, memorising her features.
Kacey offers a tiny, crooked smile. “Sorry, I get carried away sometimes.”
“Keep talking, please,” Amon says softly, urgently, so desperately. “I like hearing your voice.”
