Page 19

“Yes, we all fucking know frogs are real,” Zee said. “And they are more terrifying⁠—”

“Yes, frogs are very bad,” I interrupted. “Awful things. Almost as bad as gremlins, which we have a lot of, and need to deal with. We should go do that, right now.”

I braced against the bar to push away, but paused, the weight of their gazes settling on me. Not in a judgmental way, more of a . . . slightly sympathetic way. Of course, they’d suspected I wasn’t human for weeks.

But acknowledging it made it real, and opened the door to talking about what I really was, and that came with its own enormous problems.

I stayed on the stool and absorbed the realization that my secret was out. Some of it.

“So, that’s how you killed three demons and fucked them up so bad the SSD had to scrape bits off the sidewalk with a shovel,” Zee said. “Impressive.”

I winced. That had not been my finest moment. “I was having a bad night.”

Zee snorted. “Not as bad as theirs.” He took a sip of his drink. “What, did you want some kind of dramatic reaction? I can swoon if you like? I’m a fuckin’ pro at swooning.”

Oh.

Well.

“Erm, no, that’s fine.” So, that was it? No screaming, no running, he wasn’t going to leave?

I glanced at Reynard, expecting a loftily arched eyebrow, but what I got instead was a tiny, corner-of-his-mouth smile. It could almost be classified as a smirk? Zee knew what I was, but he didn’t know who.

Victor did.

He’d said the words, “It’s you.” Putting two and two together, and coming up with the end of the world.

I looked at Tom, who’d been busying himself nearby. He turned his head and issued a small nod, as though he approved.

“The only thing I don’t get is why you gotta hide it,” Zee went on. “Do I hide my magnificence? No.”

“Perhaps you should work on that,” Victor said with a dose of dry sarcasm.

Zee glowered. “People hate. That’s their problem. You’re a dragon. So what?” He stopped as a thought occurred to him. Zee’s wings spread and his grin grew. “I fucked a dragon? Best birthday ever.” Another thought occurred to him, and his grin turned sly. “There ain’t no way my jizz parasites are infecting a dragon.”

“Your what parasites?” Victor asked, blinking.

“Don’t ask,” I groaned. “Please, really, don’t ask.”

Zee waved him off. “Far as I see it, this is all win-fucking-win. There aren’t many of you left, right? We should be fucking celebrating.”

As far as I knew, there weren’t any dragons left. I was the last. The prophecy had made sure of that, and I’d maybe helped hurry things along a bit since most everyone I’d ever known had turned on me because of it. So I’d maybe had to, very reluctantly, murder them all.

“But it’s okay if you’re not ready to come out, I got your back.”

“As have I, Adam,” Victor agreed.

“Thank you,” I croaked. “Both of you. It’s been a long time since I’ve had friends.” Never. It had been never.

“Friends with benefits, amiright?” Zee winked.

They were a whole lot more than friends, but one revelation was enough for now. The two most important people in my world knew what I was, and that was . . . okay?

“Right, so let’s go catch hundreds of gremlins without scaring the fuck out of the few remaining guests we have.” Zee shoved away from the bar. “Could be worse, right? You could be the fucking Prophesied One.”

I froze. Victor gave a small throat-clearing cough. He knew. I knew. We both knew he knew that I knew he knew. He opened his mouth to say something like, “Do the right thing and tell him, now.” I kicked his shin under the bar, and laughed. “Right!?”

“That loser has a lot to fucking answer for.” Zee hopped off the stool and sauntered toward the exit. “I’ll get the traps.”