Page 65 of So I Dared a Dragon

“They’re everywhere.” I was excited any time I had a chance to show my dragon something new. “And I swear, these devices listen to us, so it will probably pop right up as soon as you open any of the apps.”

“Let’s see these online gurus.” In a fluid motion, he pushed the sheets away and rose from the bed to retrieve his phone from his overnight bag.

It was such a mundane thing for a spectacular creature to do, and I wondered if I was being selfish, dulling down his power for him to fit into my life. Then I reminded myself that he’d turned me into a freaking dragon. I wasn’t dulling anything. I would do absolutely everything to rise to this occasion. To not shy away from the inevitable challenges and shrink when it got hard—which it definitely would. Aarix had risked so much for me, and there was no way I could let him down.

He came back to bed and snuggled next to me. I loved how normal this was, the two of us propped against pillows, having a scroll sesh, when absolutely nothing else about us was ordinary.

When the screen lit up, it was full of notifications. All I could read was Luca’s name at the top of almost all of them before Aarix expertly swiped them away.

“Wait.” It took everything I had not to snatch the phone away from him. Patience didn’t come with my dragon superpower starter pack. “Go back. Those were from Luca. He might have found something important at the museum last night.”

“I’m not ready to deal with Luca yet, sunshine.” He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer. “We’re still on our date. The rest of the world can wait until you show me how to find these videos.”

Seriously, could this dragon get more perfect? My heart wouldn’t be able to take it if he did. He handed me the phone. And with every ounce of restraint I had, I refrained from showing him how to Google “The Museum for Shifter History” and “incidents” and instead found someone making millions teaching people how to tap into the ancient laws of the universe.

He stared at the screen in disbelief. “That’s it? That’s all they do?”

“They make it look easy, which is the hard part.” I swiped to the next one. Now that we’d watched one, the algorithm would feed us a steady diet of them.

“I don’t understand how they make money.” He frowned as the video replayed.

“This is how they hook you—with their short form content, their podcasts, their lifestyle aesthetic posts. Then they give you a little freebie, in exchange for your email, of course, and eventually convince you to buy the product that will absolutely positively change your life.” I chuckled. “Ask me how I know. I might be a member of more than one manifestation academy. But no one managed to actually change anything until I met you.”

“Ah, now I understand what you meant by people benefitting from you not feeling special.”

That hadn’t been what I meant—I’d been talking about my pack. But Aarix always saw things on a different level, and I was really excited to join him there.

A knock at the door made me jump.

“Hello!” Bibi’s voice rang out through the cabin. “Your chariot awaits.”

I hoped it wasn’t a bad omen that she’d replaced Marissa and Bjorn on their babysitting shift.

Aarix blinked rapidly, just as startled as I was. “I can’t believe it’s already time to go.”

“Time gets away from you when you get sucked into the internet.” I put my head back on the pillow and groaned. I was so not ready to leave, but today was the absolute worst timing for a rot day. Even if I was showing an ancient dragon how to become a social media millionaire.

Rally, I said to myself.

“Be down in a minute,” I called out before planting a quick peck on Aarix’s cheek. “We need to get dressed.”

He nodded and rose from the bed in all his naked glory and pulled clothes out of his bag. I could watch him bring the extraordinary to the mundane all day long, but there was absolutely no way my fairy dragmother arrived without her camera crew, and I had no plans of giving them a walk of shame.

It would be a stride of pride and I would look fucking awesome doing it.

I took my bag into the bathroom. It was the first time I’d gotten a good look at the new me. A lot of the old me had survived the transformation. My skin was still pale where it wasn’t covered with scales. A few blotchy red patches had bloomed, probably from being in bed, but I wondered if they were the beginnings of more scales. I was still round in the hips, belly, and butt. My thigh dimples didn’t magically disappear. But I had an armor of golden scales that shone like flames in the mirror. They covered my arms, went between my cleavage onto my belly, and covered most of my back.

They were beautiful. Fuck that. I was beautiful.

The bra was a whole new kind of torture. My skin was still sore from the bloom of scales, like I had been sunburned, but it was a necessity since magic had not yet blessed me with perky boobs. Bibi had packed one of my favorite sweaters. It was super soft and oatmeal colored. In the front, the neckline came right to my collarbones, but it dipped down to just above my bra strap in the back. She’d paired it with faded jeans with rips covering the thighs, and chunky casual beige boots that felt like slippers.

Now to get these fuck knots out of my hair.

I’d do a total reset once I got to Bibi’s house, but for now, I started braiding. My heart pounded, warning me that the braid would reveal my new scales.

Before last night, I would’ve been all too willing to hide. But I wasn’t interested in keeping secrets anymore or playing small to make anyone else comfortable.

Smoothing the braid over the front of my shoulder, I headed downstairs. Aarix was already down there, charming Bibi and Hugo. They’d been inseparable ever since their reunion, and every time I saw them, he was touching her. Even now he had a protective hand positioned at the small of her spine.

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