Page 55 of Bombshell

The sound of a heel meeting the wood floor made me realize that the witch had stomped her foot like a petulant child. “I am not used to not getting my way. Seven hundred years I’ve been on this planet and no one has ever picked a dirty little mule over me and what I can give them.”

Dallan clearly had finally had enough because the sound of the shop bell tinkling signaled the door opening as did the sound of whooshing water as it filled the lobby. The witch let out a surprised squawk that was cut off as she was pulled from the shop by one of Dallan’s funnels of water.

Silence hung heavy in the lobby.

“So…” Heath began awkwardly. “Who’s gonna explain what the hell just happened?”

His words seemed to finally break the horrible numbness that had taken over me and I pushed Dallan’s arm up and ducked under it.

I glared at him. “Dallan can, seeing as he’s the one who was looking for the contract in the first place.”

“Lass—” Dallan began but I ignored him as I made for the stairs. “So you’re not going to let me explain? At all?”

I shut the door to my apartment that didn’t feel like my apartment at all anymore and slid down the hard wood until I was sitting on the floor.

Every inch of this place was full of things that I loved and had collected over the years, but now as I looked at all of it I felt like I’d just been kidding myself.

Over the past few months all of the hurt and anger that had been twisted up inside of me had slowly started to untangle with my abilities growing and my relationship with Dallan finally moving forward. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere that had been closed off to me for so long and like I could move on from all of my bullshit.

But a random witch’s use of the word mule had brought me right back to being a little girl and not understanding what that meant until James Reid had told me in the meanest words possible when we were ten years old.

It had been largely disproven that all halflings would be sterile like the crossbreed between a horse and a donkey—but many pureblooded supernatural creatures used the word mule like a brand to warn people off from being with us. From mixing our already muddled bloodline even more.

Mule was a term that was largely frowned upon now, but that woman had used it so easily, reminding me that, outside of Port Haven, the world still thought of halflings as less than—like we shouldn’t exist.

There was a knock on the door that I was currently leaning against. “Lass?”

“I don’t want to talk right now.” My voice came out sharp as I closed my eyes and leaned my head back.

I heard Dallan sigh. “I was going to tell you about trying to find a witch to help Daphne, but I hadn’t found any viable options yet.”

“Bullshit,” I said with a derisive snort. “You seem to have found one just fine and you get a fuck and an ink extraction out of it too—win-win, right?”

“That was never an option for me, Effie, and you know that.” Dallan sounded upset, his voice lowering as he settled on the other side of the door.

“But I can’t give you everything someone like her can. I don’t even know if I can give you children,” I said, my voice cracking a bit. Last night Dallan had told me that he didn’t mind either way if we had children, but I wasn’t even sure if Icouldhave children. I was a mule and no amount of magical powers was going to change that.

It was never something I’d let myself consider before. If I pretended the possibility didn’t exist, it couldn’t hurt me. The most fucked up kind of out of sight out of mind.

But now that I’d let Dallan in and we became each other’s, I found myself selfishly wanting all of that and thinking, maybe, just maybe we could.

There was a long silence on the other side of the door. “Effie, open the door.”

“No,” I said, worried seeing his face would ruin my resolve to be pissed at him.

There was another heavy sigh before I heard Dallan get up and walk away, his footsteps loud on the stairs.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and buried my face in them.

Minutes later, a thump had me looking up to find Dallan stepping through the large windows that overlooked the ocean.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he crossed the living room and held a hand out to help me to my feet.

The tentacles on Dallan’s face curled inward as he grinned. “You said no about the door, but you never said anything about the windows, Lass.”

As furious as I was with him, I still had to admit it was charming as hell.

Begrudgingly I took his hand and let him help me up.

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