Page 27 of Magic Forsaken

I was rewarded with a theatrical shudder.

“Why would you go looking for that guy on purpose?”

An excellent question, to which there were no acceptable answers, so I merely offered him a polite baring of teeth and the small shrug of put-upon employees everywhere. “I’m just following orders. Is he around here somewhere?”

I imagined he was probably glaring at one of his lackeys. Or standing somewhere high up and surveying his kingdom with a suspicious scowl on that unfortunately not-terrible-looking face.

“Well, he’s probably in the executive apartment on the sixth floor. But I would recommend against interrupting him for anything short of an apocalypse.”

“Noted.” At least that implied his grumpiness wasn’t just about me. “How do I get up there?”

“Fly?” the man suggested, with a wink and a guffaw that made it clear he considered himself quite the comedian. Not being in the mood to pander to his delusions, I just stood there patiently until he finally deigned to give an actual answer.

“Stairs.” He stabbed a thumb in the direction of the foyer. “Geez, nobody has a sense of humor anymore.”

“Or maybe you’re not as funny as you think you are,” I grumbled under my breath, not caring very much whether he heard me or not.

I’d already started towards the stairs when the guy called after me.

“Oh, and could you tell the boss we’re headed out for the day? Had some issues with the wiring, so we’ll be back on Monday after the electrician shows up.”

Why, yes, of course I would love to be the bearer of your bad news.

I was only about to go confront a literal dragon who might be my new boss. And who might only want to work with me because he could blackmail and manipulate me.

Andwho was also fully capable of eating me if he decided I was a danger to his agenda. With that cheerful thought, I headed up the stairs, not at all comforted by the realization of just how quick and easy it would be for Callum to make me disappear.

But by the time I got to the sixth floor, my thighs were protesting loudly, and I’d reverted to muttering curses at the stupid dragon for deciding he needed a penthouse, while simultaneously wondering how often I was going to have to do this.

At the top of the stairs, a hallway stretched the length of the building, with a window at each end. There were two doors to the left and three to the right, including a narrow one all the way at the end of the hall. Four of those doors had peepholes, as if they’d been converted into apartments, but only one of them boasted a doormat that said “Beware of Dragon.”

An audible snort of laughter escaped me, and I’d barely clapped my hand over my mouth to hold it in when the door jerked open.

Callum-ro-Deverin stood there glowering. For the record, the king of the shapeshifters was just as intimidating while dressed in a basic white t-shirt and jeans as he was in a suit. His hair was slightly mussed, the shadow of beard on his jaw seemed to have thickened, and he wasn’t wearing shoes. It was… Well, it was not lost on me that he was almost unbearably attractive for such an overbearing control freak.

And he was looking at me as if my presence was only marginally less irritating than that of mosquitos or head lice. That was until he happened to glance at the hallway floor and spotted the doormat.

I saw when it hit him.

His jaw dropped a little, he looked back up at me, and then covered his face with one hand.

“Kira,” he muttered. “I swear I’m going to…” He paused and then dropped his hand, as if remembering his audience. “Do you have sisters?”

It was such a bizarrely normal question that it took me a second to find my voice.

“Not by blood,” I answered him blandly. “At least, not that I know of.”

“Most of the time you’d kill to protect them… but sometimes you just want to kill them.”

I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing again. He really needed to stop ruining my expectations. Grumpy dragon overlords weren’t supposed to be funny.

Callum reached down and flipped the doormat over before opening his door wider and beckoning me forward. “You can come in. Unless…” he paused for a moment as glanced at me hesitantly. “If it would make you feel more comfortable, we can meet downstairs.”

It was more consideration than I’d expected after last night. But honestly, the smaller the audience, the better. If he was going to eat me, no one was going to be able to stop him anyway, and if he was going to question me about my past, I didn’t want anyone else to hear us.

“No, this is fine.” I turned sideways and slipped past him into the apartment, trying to put as much distance between us as possible withoutlookinglike I was doing it.

But it didn’t take long for me to be distracted by the sheer unexpected beauty of the space.

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