Page 10 of Unhaunt Me

“You don’t have to explain that one, Cas. I’ll look in on your egg. Melon and Kelp are capable but the more eyes the better. I agree. Now, have fun, okay? It’s okay to live a little. You’re only this you once.”

***

I didn’t need another excuse to leave the cave. The nights were cooling rapidly and purple leaves spotted many of the trees along the path. The masked ball was being held at Starlight Hall, a rather large meeting place just outside the purple district. It was an all-invited but all adult event. Still, they called it a ball. So I got out the coat and the tie. The latter always tried to choke me the fuck to death, but I wore it anyway. Some ‘Moony’ habits died hard. I almost hunted down a top hat to be a bit extra but decided seeing Tritus for the second time at the ball was extra enough for anyone involved.

“Some of those wannabe high class parties were fun back on Earthside,”my dragon poked at me.“Someone always wanted to leave and hook up instead. Someone was always willing to relocate the host’s car a couple hundred miles from where it was parked. Someone was ---”

He hadn’t ran out of memories to cite but I’d ran out of patience to listen to his rambling inner monologue. Moving the host’s car was one of Ren’s favorite things to do if a party ran boring or if someone was a bit too rude. Did she still do that? Part of me liked to imagine her out there stealing cars and gently putting them down on the tippy-top peaks of mountains. Maybe she had a hoard of stolen cars now. Maybe she emptied out the drug dealers into the Thames and ----

I shook my head. I was too close to Starlight Hall to think about that now. Poor Ren. My poor, poor Ren. The her-colored star-shaped scale on my chest ached. For her? For Tritus? For the life I might’ve had if not for --- Well, not for everything.

I wasn’t the only party goer to fly in as a dragon. Two other alpha guys landed on the far side of the landing field not all that far from Starlight Hall. I double-checked that the shifting back and forth hadn’t eaten my shoes or tie and headed to the paved lilac stone path that led to the ball. Music thrummed inside Starlight Hall. It vibrated the ground under our feet as me and the other two fell in line with those proceeding inside. I sniffed the air for anyone familiar. Sunny would be here somewhere. Teddy too – maybe.

“If Sunny is here. Teddy will be, too, probably. Maybe. I don’t know anymore.”

I hadn’t told any of the crew besides Izora about what happened with Tritus.

“Nothing happened to talk about. We smelled him – barely. He had on that damn spray. He smelled us. We made thedelivery and asked him out on a date. You should’ve kissed him. You should’ve let me out to kiss but NO! You couldn’t do that.”

He rolled his massive eyes as I followed the line to the steps of Starlight Hall. From what I understood about the building it was supposed to be similar to a governor’s mansion back on Earthside. Only the leaders of Starscale 1 didn’t live here. Didn’t even work here. They basically gave it over to the council and it was used for whatever they thought was best for the flight.

My heart thrummed behind my tie. Tritus would be here. He had to be here. We’d agreed, hadn’t we? Well, not in so many words but he’d be here. Right?

“Calm down. He’ll be here. He’s probably more confused than you are.”

“I hope he gets used to feeling like that. It’s not like I can tell him.”

“Shush up about it for now, okay? We did what we had to. If anyone will understand that, it’ll be the Starscales. Leave it be. Find some whiskey and leave it be,”my dragon tried giving me a pep talk.

“Casimir?” Someone called out my name and I froze mid step.

I was on the fourth step from the entrance to Starlight Hall when his voice wrapped around me. On the third, I nearly stumbled when his scent joined his voice in the air. No white, feathered mask with a long tilted up trunk for a nose could hide Tritus from me. Nothing would ever hide him from me again.

I shook my head.

He wasn’t trying to hide from me. It was a masked ball. It was their harvest celebration. The farmers or whatever they called them here had been hard at work to ensure we had enough food to last the winter. This was one of the many parties to celebrate all their hard work and all the land that the Starscale worlds had blessed the flight with. I let out a long, slow breath.

The woman behind me cleared her throat and I almost snapped at her. Her friend tugged her arm, and they stepped around me. She gave me a dirty look and I fought off the urge to flip her the bird.

“Excuse us,” Tritus said to the dragons around us. “We only just met this afternoon.”

One of the dragons behind me let out a wolf whistle and my dragon reared back inside his inner sanctum. I was going to burn his fucking head off. I was going to tear it from his body and parade his charred head around on a Frost-damned spike.

“Mate,” Tritus said gently. “It’s all in good fun. It’s good natured.”

“I’ll---”

He glanced over his shoulder at the dragons squeezed inside the harvest ball and shook his head. He didn’t want to go back inside with all the bodies pressed close together. I smirked. He worried I’d start a fight. Instead of heading toward the party he reached out for my hand. I almost didn’t give it to him. I almost backed down the steps and that might’ve been the best thing for both of us. It might’ve stopped everything in its tracks and saved the whole Frost-damned night. Only, I had to take his hand. That was moving on. Moving on was taking his hand in mine and letting him lead me to wherever the locals ran off to.

The tall, pink-haired, dragon still in the line wolf whistled again. I dropped Tritus’s hand and decked him. My knuckles throbbed as scales exploded to cover them and he swung back. I ducked, coming up while he was still off balance from the missed punch and tackled him. We slid down the stairs, grabbing and tugging at each other, skinning my knees and calves on the stones – his back couldn’t have felt much better. The crowd gasped, turning like a many headed beast.

“CASIMIR!” Tritus shouted but I couldn’t stop.

Pinky swung at me again. This punch caught my chin. Another explosion of scales. Then I punched him, holding onto his chest hair for leverage. He wasn’t wearing a jacket and tie tonight. Too bad for him. It might’ve saved him the free plucking I gave out while I beat his ass.

“CASIMIR!” Another voice cut in.

Not Tritus.

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