He nodded. “Alright, send the fifty-K to me and Sloane can have the hundred. It’s herscale.”
My eyes widened. Fifty-K? Did he say K … as in fifty thousand? I heard the door shut and knew that Eva and I were nowalone.
Eva looked at me. “Do you have your bank details onyou?”
I shook my head in shock. People didn’t wire transfer one hundreddollars.
“How much for the red scale?” I had to ask. I needed to hear itagain.
“A hundred thousand sweetheart. Just give me your full legal name and I can have my guy find your bank account.” She winked. “He’s good with thatstuff.”
When I could get my mouth to close, I nodded. “Right. Okay.” Holy shit of all shits. One hundred thousand dollars for a single dragon scale. Maybe there was a bright side to this life afterall.
Eva reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. It was something my mother did and it caused a lump to form in mythroat.
“I know what you want to ask, sweetheart, but I can’t make you human. Now that your dragon has come out, there’s no putting herback.”
Disappointment crashed through me, because it was what I wanted to ask. “But … you said there was a spell … that someone had hidden my powers. Can’t you do it again? I don’t want to be likethis.”
Eva frowned. “Someone did hide your powers, honey, and when your mom died it slowly started to fall away. Now your dragon is out and your powers will be too and there’s nothing I can do to stopit.”
I don’t know why I felt like crying. It was stupid,really.
“You think my mom hid my powers, don’t you?” I needed toknow.
Eva screwed the lid on a jar and looked up at me. “No. I think your mom paid a very powerful sorcerer to do it, and then she kept the spell alive with her own magic. Somehow. Then, when she died, the spell slowly diedtoo.”
I shook my head. “My mom didn’t havemagic.”
Eva shrugged. “Okay. It’s that or she wasn’t your realmother.”
Anger flared up inside of me. “You think my mother would lie to me? She wouldn’t! You didn’t knowher.”
Eva set the jar down and placed her hands together in prayer pose. “Forgive me for saying hard things, but I was a mother once. I would have done anything, even lie, to protect mychild.”
She shrugged as she made her point. I didn’t want to believe what Eva was saying, but I also knew that denial got me nowhere. Knowledge was power. “You think she was asorcerer?”
Eva shook her head. “It would take a very powerful sorcerer to be able to mate with another dragon. A sorcerer that powerful wouldn’t have succumbed tocancer.”
My brows furrowed. “Ashifter?”
Eva shook her head again. “Skyborn are purebloods, and shifters cannot produce offspring withthem.”
“What, then?” My foot was tapping as the anxiety ran through mybody.
“Sloane, sweetheart, I don’t know what she was. I’m just glad she kept you safe. Now, you need to stick with Logan and the pack to stay safe. Do you understandme?”
I nodded as I chewed mylip.
“I’m not kidding. Don’t run off. If you run, you’re dead,” she saidominously.
Great. That was confidence inspiring. “I won’t.” I didn’t have anywhere to go. Well, I guess I was about to be a hundred grand richer, but I knew nothing about being a dragon, and now that I knew my transformation signaled the hunters, I couldn’t afford toleave.
Logan wasn’t too bad on the eye either. Bonus for staying. My dragon purred inside of me at the thought and I just chuckled. She was totally still in heat. I didn’t care what anyonesaid.
“Thanks for everything. Sorry for getting upset,” I said lamely. I had always had a fiery temper, but I was also good at apologizing, so at least there wasthat.
Eva smiled and reached out to smooth my hair again. “I can’t imagine what you must be feeling. It’s a shock I’msure.”
