Page 108 of Evil Hearts

“Yes. I am with you.”

“As the pendant?” Lewis eyes darted up and down the hallway.

“I have shed my dragon form …”

Lewis’ heart opened. “That silver thing I saw this morning …”

“Yes.” The pendant remained unchanged, yet there was a soft heat emanating from the smooth surface. “I’ve changed. I am no longer who I used to be.”

The man suppressed a sad smile. “Aren’t we all?” His chin flicked up to check the time on his phone. “So you’re just a pendant now?”

“I can change into the form you met me as, along with some other shapes. But I no longer hold my original body.”

Lewis squinted past the flickering light. He held a palm over the pendant, clutching the warmth.

“Though … I am happy with what I am now …”

Lewis sniffed, and nodded. “That’s enough.” He proceeded down the stairs.

The sky held no clouds and stretched as an endless upturned sea. There was little traffic as Lewis sailed home. A small sigh left his chest as the distance closed between him and his duties, but it wasn’t as though this weekend hadn’t happened. It wasn’t a dream that one forgot after breakfast. He was different today than he had been on Thursday. A small bit of hope had nested in him. Better still, a bit of magic curled along his sternum.

“I … I thought you left,” Lewis said, hand tightening on his steering wheel.

“I’m over two-thousand years old. What’s seventy years spent with you?”

“You’re going to come with me? Andstaywith me?”

“It’s time I moved on from here.”The man glanced past the window. The stretch of river veered away from the asphalt, giving way to farmland.

“Well, whether you stay with me or not … it’s up to you.” Lewis smiled. “Don’t feel like you’re bound to me just because I was nice to you.”

“I will keep that in mind.” Huk pressed a little jade snout against the pit of Lewis’ throat. “You were more than nice, however. Do not undervalue what you do. Do not undervalue yourself.”

Lewis’ lips curled into a lopsided smile. “You as well.”

Huk raked a tiny claw over his skin beneath the collar of his shirt. It pawed affectionately.

Lewis tingled from the sensation. He shrugged it off and retrained his focus on the road. “You might like our house. My parents have a koi pond in the back. Something to remind you of the old country. You could probably dwell in there if you can transform into a fish”

“But as a pendant, I’m right up against your skin.”

Lewis balked and felt his face flush. “Just so you know you have options.”

“I can assess my options tomorrow.”

End

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