“My secret?” I paled, and Mittens took that moment to swat at my danglingfeet.
Nadine looked confused. “That you’re a dragonshifter?”
I sighed in relief. “Right.” Man, I was getting paranoid. I really needed to hear back from Evaalready.
I told Nadine I would change and meet her downstairs and she left. I had promised to help cook for this bunch, so I needed to pull through. If I thought we might stay here a while, I would plant a garden. I hadn’t had a back yard since my mom passed, and it would be nice to garden again. It reminded me ofher.
After cleaning up, I put on my favorite pair of tight cargo pants and a black t-shirt with one of my drawings screen-printed on it. It was an iridescent hummingbird drinking soda from a straw. I grabbed my new phone and tucked it into my back pocket as I made my way down the stairs. As I was rounding the corner, I overheard Dom and Logantalking.
“It took every ounce of willpower I had not to gut them all,” Dom seethed, and I knew right away who he was talking about.Druids.
Logan chuckled. “You know, beheading them is myfavorite.”
My stomachchurned.
Dom spoke next, his voice was full of rage: “We should hunt him down. Killhim.”
Logan sighed. “I know and you know that I want nothing more than to have a world where druids don’t exist, but … I tried, and he’s toopowerful.”
Now that had my attention. “Who?” I asked, and Logan spun around, took one glance at my t-shirt, and then a half smile tugged at hislips.
“Did you draw that?” he asked, indicating myshirt.
Shock ripped threw me. How the hell would he know that? “Yeah…” Isaid.
He nodded. “It has yourstyle.”
Logan Sharp knew my drawing style? My dragon coiled tightly inside of me and a pulse of warmth shot down my legs, making a slow burn start between my thighs. Okay, it was official. I needed a hysterectomy or something. My dragon lady parts were malfunctioning and I was stuck inheat.
I changed the subject. “You were saying you tried buthewas too powerful. Triedwhat?”
Logan shared a look with Dom and brought his left arm up to rub his right shoulder. “About five years ago I tried to kill Ardan. We hunted him down and I tried to take him out. I thought if I could kill the evil master, the minions would … goaway.”
Holy shit. “Whathappened?”
The room had quieted. Sophie, who was cooking in the kitchen, had stopped, and Gear and Cooper, who were playing video games, dropped their controllers; Nadine stopped sharpening some knives. They all looked atLogan.
“I nearly died. He tore my arm right off. Keegan got me out. Otherwise I wouldn’t have madeit.”
My mouth dropped open. “The master of all evil druids tore your armoff?”
He nodded, rubbing that spot again. “Yes. It took about nine months to growback.”
My eyes widened. “GROWBACK?”
Logan chuckled. “Dragons are descended from lizards. So yeah, it grows back as long as you don’t bleedout.”
Holy freaking crap! I’ll admit I had the same thought. Take out this Ardan character and save the world, but clearly that wasn’t on the agenda. Unless you wanted to lose anarm.
“Didn’t he see you? I mean, now he knows what you look like…” Imused.
Logan shook his head. “I wore a ski mask. We alldid.”
Geez. I couldn’t imagine getting your arm ripped off. If I thought Steven and those other meatheads were scary, then I didn’t even want to meet this Ardancharacter.
“Alright, enough storytime, I need help in the kitchen,” Sophie announced, pulling my thoughts away from Logan’sstory.
“Right,” I muttered, and threw myself into the task at hand—making forty chicken soft tacos for ten hungryshifters.
