Page 24 of Here Be Dragons

I unwrapped the box, lifted the lid, and held them out to her. She selected one and bit into it, humming with pleasure the moment she tasted it.

Q-Tip put his front paws up onto the top of the fence and stood on his hind legs, curious to see what was in the box.

“Is this area large enough for him?” I asked.

“Oh, plenty,” Carly said. “Q-Tip is only a free-roam bunny when I’m at home and can supervise him. When I’m away, like atwork, he stays in a fenced-in area so he won’t get into too much trouble. Thank you for bringing him here.”

I grunted. Now that the pleasantries were over, I got down to business. “You said that Leonard was looking for a ‘key’.”

She furrowed her brows. “Yes.”

“I have something to show you.”

Chapter 13

Carly

Thiswas the key Leonard and his thug friend kidnapped me for? It looked nothing like one.

I reached for it the moment I saw it, unable to stop myself, and felt the tug as soon as I touched it. It was faint and I didn’t quite get a vision, but it was there. I opened my mouth but stopped myself before I said anything. I wasn’t sure I should tell Desmon. Not everyone reacted well to hearing I “felt” items.

“What is it?” Desmon looked at me, then at the small shard of pottery. “You can tell me.”

“Okay. But first, let me give you some background.” I took a big breath. “Sometimes things…speak to me. Not in words. They give me feelings, or I have visions.” I held up a hand. “I know it sounds weird, but they just do. I tried telling my parents when I was little, and they thought it was cute that I had such an active imagination. They just brushed it off.”

I’d always felt like an afterthought for my parents. They weren’t bad parents,per se; they did everything required to raise me, but it was very clear that they only had me because they felt they were supposed to. Their need to roam and travel always came first. The second I was away at college, they went on the road again.

I still remember my surprise when I called home one day and found the line was cut. For months, I had no idea where they were until one day I got a text message from an unknown number with a photo of them in Machu Picchu. They were happier than I’d ever seen them, and I realized how much of a drag it must have been for them to stay in one place long enough while I was growing up so I could finish the school year before moving on again.

We lived in a new city almost every year, and after a while, I was afraid to make friends because I knew I’d just have to leave them. I never inherited my parents’ need to roam. I was very relieved when I realized I could stay in one place to finish college.

“It wasn’t until after the fall of The Wall, and I was in college and working closely with one of my professors, that I finally understood that these sensations were magic. I’m not a witch or anything. I mean I can’t cast spells like Seth does, and I can’t talk to objects and make them talk back. I just get visions from them.”

Desmon perked up. “How do you mean?”

“It doesn’t happen with everything. Most ordinary objects remain quiet, but every so often, I come across something that just…I don’t know how to explain it…I just feel it. Like, when I was a volunteer at another museum, I met a battle axe that was super full of itself. It thought it was the best thing since sliced bread, but at the same time it missed its wielder and mourned his death. I have to actually touch the object for any of this to happen. Which is a good thing, I guess, because otherwise, it would be quite loud in the museum.”

“Interesting. And you’re feeling something from this right now?”

“Yes.”

“What is it saying?” He looked excited, like I was about to tell him something very important.

I felt bad I was about to disappoint him. “It’s not quite like that. It’s notsayinganything. It’s just a pull. I’m not getting a full on vision.”

“Seth did say there was magic in this. I can’t see it, even though usually I would. Can you see magic?” he asked.

“If you’re asking if I can see a magical aura, no,” I said, disappointing him again. “To be honest, you’re only the second person I’ve ever told about this who took me seriously.”

“Who’s the other person?”

Did he sound jealous?

“One of my professors back in school.”

“Places like the University of Darlington have courses catering to our kind. But according to your resume, you went to a mundane, that is to say,regular, college. I know there are many professors worldwide who are monsters or magic practitioners who hid what they were before the fall of The Wall, and they weren’t able to talk to their students about magic.”

“The Wall fell when I was still in school,” I clarified. “And it suddenly came to everyone’s attention that one of my favorite professors was a nymph.”

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