Page 68 of Cruel Daddy Dragon

My heart gives another jolt as he says it again—I can tell in his rumbling tones that he means it. No one has ever spoken those words to me and meant them the way he has. My stomach has butterflies in it.

“I…” I try, but my throat closes a little, and I nod, “Thanks.”

Rufus just chuckles, and he loops his arms around my waist. I pause for a moment and then relax into him, leaning into his chest. I feel like I can tell the eyes on us—and despite a little snickering, followed by a harsh hiss by someone else, no one says anything.

It's… okay. It’s okay to be affectionate here. It’s…safe.

It's strange to realize it so suddenlynow,but it suddenly occurs to me that no one in this room is going to think less of meas the Sheriff for being with Rufus like this. They’re still going to respect me.

So when Rufus leans down and kisses me, I feel free to kiss him back for the first time in front of people.

Chapter 22 - Rufus

It’s early the next morning when we all leave for the cave. Kaius carries Julie, Milo carries Lena, and I carry Sarah. Orion goes first, and we make sure to let him put a decent amount of distance between himself and the rest of us. Since he’s unladen, he keeps swooping around in elliptical patterns, breathing in the air from all directions. As we get close to the hole, I look at the other two:

“Hold up!”

Kaius and Milo stop, hovering in the air. I hover ahead of them.

“O,” I say to Orion, “are you smelling anything?”

He dips down and swoops low to the trees. So low that the tips of the trees tap his feet as he flies over the canopy.

“Nothing so far,” he calls back, “No signs of Eclipse. We may have gotten lucky, and those two were the only two who knew about the hole.”

He looks down and back up to us:

“I’m going to go down and have a closer look,” he says, “If I raise the alarm, you three fly off with the girls.”

I swallow thickly and nod to him. Orion folds his wings and plummets down into the canopy. There’s a long moment of silence, just the gentlest scrunching and cracking through the trees as Orion (I assume… Ihope) crawls through the branches to check if it’s safe.

After a few moments, we don’t hear anything else—just silence.

That’s good. If we’re not hearing the sounds of battle coming up through the trees, then we’re probably in the clear. But still… doubts niggle at the back of my mind, and Sarah leans over and voices them:

“Are we really going to leave him if Eclipse is down there?”

I don’t answer. I don’t want to solidify it by saying the quiet part out loud; that feels like it would make it real.

But soon after, Orion calls:

“All right! It’s safe!”

I look to Kaius and Milo and nod. The pair of them nod back to me, and we all soar down together.

“Hang tight,” I tell Sarah, “this is probably going to be scratchy.”

“Okay,” she answers.

I turn down and try and swoop through the canopy. It’s a tight fit, and I try to move myself back and forth so that Sarah doesn’t end up being scratched to hell and back. I don’t think I always succeed; I hear her gasp lightly and feel some of the branches catch. Once we finally get to the ground, I swing her off my back, and she has a litany of thin red lines over her skin. I brush my hand over hers.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

Sarah scoffs.

“You think I can’t handle a few scratches? Come on, Rufus.”

She strides off. I have mixed feelings swirling in my stomach. On the one hand, that kind of attitude hasalwaysbeensoattractive to me… On the other hand, Celeste was always like that…

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