Page 71 of So I Dared a Dragon

Now I’d find out how that played out.

The house was a split-level ranch with a two-car garage and some simple but well cared for landscaping. By all appearances, a happy family lived here.

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. The wait seemed endless, and I was questioning everything. I should’ve texted her, let her know we were coming. No one answered the door for unsolicited visitors anymore. We weren’t on pack land, and we needed to stop playing by rules that never applied to us.

Darcy actually answered the door. Her shocked expression had to mirror mine.

“Calista, you look…. amazing.” She hesitated, and then came forward for a hug. I wondered what she really wanted to say. “What are you doing here?”

I squeezed her, needing a hug from someone who was just happy to see me, with no expectations…unless this wasn’t a surprise.

What if she was working with whoever had been threatening me?

She pulled away, giving me a dazed smile, and then her mouth dropped when she realized who I brought with me.

“Holy shit, you’re Bibi le Bonnet.”

Bibi beamed at her. “And you’re Calista’s friend Darcy, who I’ve heard so much about.”

“I want to fangirl all over you, but you already know how freaking fabulous you are.” Darcy brought her hand to her heart, and my partner in fangirl crime was back. For a moment, I felt guilty thinking she’d gone to the dark side. Like I even knew what the dark side could be. “But you should be in Colorado, filmingThe Mating Game, not in California, so I have to ask the obvious question…”

The good news was, she knew we were filming. Our posts had been seen, even if they had disappeared.

“What are we doing here?” I laughed. “We’re here to see you, and we have to ask you a potentially weird question. Can we come in?”

She hesitated for a moment before she stepped aside. “Sure.”

It looked like the house she’d grown up in. The furniture was slightly dated, but cozy, and there were family pictures everywhere. Even though the house was quiet, I could feel that it was full of love.

Emotion panged in my chest—it reminded me of my home. Sweet moon, I missed my mom and dad. My brother and sisters. My nieces and nephews. Even if they didn’t understand the choices I’d made. Someday, I hoped they would.

Once we settled on the couch, I gave her an abbreviated version of what had happened. As far as I knew, Darcy was human. However, she had plenty of experience with dragons and evil gods. The whole reason we were here was because she could have information we couldn’t find anywhere else. I carefully gauged her reaction before going further.

There were a couple eyebrow raises, but for the most part, she took the developments in stride. Maybe too much? I had to believe she was on our team.

“So we’re wondering if you’ve experienced anything similar,” Bibi added at the end. “If you have any information that could fill in some blanks for us.”

“Wow,” Darcy finally said, blowing out a breath. “I’m really glad you took the time to come see me, because I’ve had some things happen, and I haven’t been sure where to turn. Calista was chosen by Aarix, but the Night God chose me. He wasn’t a dragon, and neither am I. So I wasn’t sure how to explain this.”

She stood, turned around, and lifted her sweater. The skin on her back was red and swollen, and it looked like the very beginning of wings were budding on either side of her spine. I moved closer and saw the tiny webbing that had emerged from the broken skin.

“I thought I was losing my mind.” She lowered her sweater, and when she turned to us, there were tears in her eyes. “I didn’t know who I could tell. My body is growing…something. It’s not normal. I didn’t want to wind up in a laboratory somewhere. I broke off my engagement to my fiancé, because I couldn’t let him touch me. I couldn’t tell him why. He thinks I’m chasing rock stars again, and I can barely even care, because my body’s doing things that shouldn’t be possible. I’m hot like I’ve been burned, my bones feel like they’ve been stretched, and I’m sproutingwings.”

She wiped the tears away from her cheeks as she settled in the recliner.

“Hey,” I said softly, and pushed up my sleeve, revealing my scales. “I think we’ve both been lied to for a long time, and someone’s trying really hard to keep us from finding out the truth.”

“Have you received any threats?” Bibi asked softly as she handed her a tissue. “Specifically, in the form of anonymous notes?”

Darcy’s eyes widened. “Yes. I found some in my textbooks. I thought I had a stalker, so I switched to online classes, but then they appeared in my car. I brought them to the police, but they said they didn’t have enough to investigate. I still have them if you’d like to see them.”

Bibi and I looked at each other. We’d only hoped to get a few helpful nuggets of information about the Night God, but Darcy was in trouble. She needed us even more than we needed her.

“Yes, we’d love to,” I said.

“And pack a bag while you’re at it,” Bibi added. “Because we’re bringing you back to Sunset Springs with us.”

twenty-six

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