Page 70 of So I Dared a Dragon

“But everything else that has disappeared has had some connection to Sunset Springs history,” she said. “The forums don’t.”

“Unless they do, and we haven’t made that connection yet.”

Bibi’s mouth formed an O.

“What was the last thing posted about my episode?” I asked as I clicked onThe Mating Gameapp.

“You and Aarix on the red carpet, heading into the museum, and then I posted a text with a cute teaser, saying the two of you may or may not have spent the night together,” she said.

I squeezed my eyes closed and shook my head to make sure I could trust my vision. “Did Hannah make a post this morning?”

“I’m not sure.” Bibi came to look over my shoulder at the image. “Are you sure that’s the most recent image? Is the Wi-Fi working? We posted that before your episode started.”

She was acting nonchalant because we didn’t have time for the proper freak out that this development deserved.

I scrolled as hard as I could, like it would make a non-existent post appear. I looked up at Bibi. “I didn’t do this. Everything else disappeared because I touched it. Declan told you these were gone—which meant he saw them and then he didn’t.”

“But who?” she said. “Could it be the same entity responsible for the notes?”

“What did the person who came to the door look like? I heard her say she recognized you.”

“She was a cute little hotel employee, or so I thought. She had her hair in a ponytail and she was wearing a branded polo.” Bibi shrugged. “There wasn’t anything that stood out about her.”

“Okay, so we need a plan. A new plan. We’re leaving the keys on the console and never coming back here.” My mind was going a million miles an hour. “We need to talk to our security team ASAP. Nothing ever really disappears on the internet. Chances are the lost posts are still on the servers. I don’t think they wanted to erase anything about our date, but I’d be really interested to see what the viewers posted.”

“I’ll alert Hugo. He’ll insist on meeting us here.”

I shook my head. “We’ve got to keep this small. Not draw any more attention than we already have. Once we talk to Darcy, should we ditch the rental car and fly back to Sunset Springs?”

Bibi shook her head. “You don’t have control over your dragon yet. And if we’re being tracked, they could follow us onto the plane. If you let loose with more fire? The plane would go down. We just got lucky that you didn’t incinerate this room.”

“You’re right. I’m just so frustrated. How did they find us here?”

“They’re watching us.” Bibi shuddered. “I hope we aren’t putting Darcy in danger.”

Wait. “Unless Darcy was already in danger, and we were just a bonus for them.” Not that that made anything better. “Either way, we need to talk to her. It would be irresponsible if we didn’t.”

With a loose plan in place, we got ready. I’d never felt less human as we left the hotel room. It was later in the day, past checkout time, because we’d planned on staying another night. I’d planned to wear an oversized hoodie to hide my scales. But I was too warm, and there was no telling if the sweatshirt would even do the job. They were starting to spread, but they hadn’t reached my neck. Yet. Soon I might have more scalesthan Aarix. It felt funny, as did my leggings. I came up to Bibi’s shoulder now, which was something I’d never accomplished without wearing heels. My nails were getting long and thick, but with some gel polish I could make those look human, at a casual glance.

I hated the idea of hiding. I’d been on the run for so long, thinking I was trying to find myself. Not having the foggiest notion of what that would mean. Now that I’d finally blossomed into my actual animal, it all seemed so trivial. I could breathe fucking fire. Soon, I might be able to fly.

But if we were going to save these dragons, I needed stay human just a little while longer.

“We’ll head to her house first,” I said as we got in the car. Bibi was driving; it went without saying that I couldn’t be trusted to operate heavy machinery at the moment. “If she doesn’t live there anymore, then we go to the community college. They probably won’t give us any info, but between the two of us, we can probably charm someone into talking.”

“I asked Hugo to do a search for her, and very little came up.” Bibi gave me a warning glance as she drove. “We need to prepare for this lead to run cold.”

I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Darcy and I followed each other on socials, even though neither of us posted often anymore. Last I knew, she’d started school and had met a nice, human guy. He seemed way more normal than anyone she’d been attracted to in the past, but I understood why she’d choose someone like him to settle down with. Stability was sexy, or so I heard.

I typed her name into the search bar and groaned when my worst fears were confirmed.

“Everything she posted is gone.” I scrolled again, but it didn’t make anything magically appear. “The most recent post is from before we went to Tennessee.”

“Then Montana definitely isn’t behind this,” Bibi said. “Because they have no reason to be concerned with her.”

“Except for she’s connected to me.” I groaned. This was the absolute worst time for the Montana wolves to throw a tantrum, looking for attention. Bibi thought she was doing the right thing by calling them, but all she’d done was awaken a sleeping, angry wolf.

The GPS announced that we’d arrived at Darcy’s house, and I had a strange feeling of déjà vu. The last time I’d arrived here, I’d been in the driver’s seat, and there had been such a sense of relief. We’d brought Darcy to safety, away from the Night God’s grasp, and she was free to start her new life.

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