Page 15 of The Monster at the End of This Courtship

He looked as exhausted as I felt, though. "The babies are keeping us up at night," he said. "They want to eat at all hours. Clementine is doing some kind of experiment with crickets under her bed. They're so damn loud! But when I ask her what she's doing, she eats the evidence."

I couldn't help but laugh at his parenting tale. "Crickets, eh?"

"We try to keep them out of our cabin, but we can't keep her from bringing them in." He sighed. "Our children are only a few weeks old and already have personalities and hobbies after their first molt."

"That's intense," I said. "No one knew they would be this way?"

Lark shook his head. "The first hybrids might have known, but their parenting books were destroyed in the dragon fire. Before now, the betas had been molting less frequently below ground. We only have Coz and Grindl's boys for reference. They're molting at the same rate."

I was beginning to appreciate the sacrifices the first hybrid kobolds had made to ensure our survival. Several dozen kobolds had given their lives and magic to create the changeling circle. They'd sent hundreds of kobold alphas and omegas to Earth to escape the dragon's notice. Even if it was a misunderstanding, I'd seen the dragon. They were scary as fuck. I could understand why no one had approached them to ask for their side of the story in almost a century.

"Where are you from?" Lark asked. "What part of the US or Europe?"

"Europe?" I frowned. "Some of us are from Europe?"

Lark nodded. "Any country with lax adoption laws and a strong economy."

"I haven't noticed any accents."

"It's part of the original changeling spell to make us look human. We return knowing how to speak Ignitas common language." He grinned. "I'll cast a spell for both of us while we're on Earth. All human language will be translated into kobold for us, and when we speak, people will hear us in their native tongue."

"What if I want to stay?" I asked. "I won't be able to understand my parents and friends?"

"You can't stay," Lark said. "Not this time, anyway. I'll bring you back and train you on the spells you need. How strong is your magic?"

"Merritt says I'm in the middle of our class." I wasn't great at spells, but I wasn't trying, either. In my head, being good at magic meant I would need to stay on Ignitas, but now Lark was telling me I would need to learn magic so I could return to Earth permanently. "I'm from the US," I said, answering his first question. "Texas."

"Do you like fast food?"

I had to laugh. Odessa, Lark's sable dire weasel, perked up at the mention of food.

"She loves burgers," he said. "I'll have to stop somewhere to get her one."

"Yeah, there's a great place just off the highway near my apartment."

Lark and I buckled into Odessa's dual saddle, and then we hurtled through purple mist that reminded me of galaxy dust in the night sky. It dimmed and disappeared entirely, overtaken by a blackness far darker than anything I'd ever experienced. Then, we emerged into a light so bright, I flinched away.

I opened my eyes to find us rolling on a Texas highway in a large cargo van. We were less than two miles from my home.

"Odessa?" I asked, patting the seat.

"Magic," Lark answered. "Sorry I didn't prepare you for the transition. I figured it would be similar to how you arrived on Ignitas."

"I don't remember." I honestly didn't. One moment, I had been struggling to fit into a tuxedo a size too small. The next, I'd been standing naked in a field, looking like something out ofGodzilla. "Exit here," I said. "There's the burger joint."

The van sped up of its own accord, and Lark laughed. "Easy, there, Odie."

I stared at the scenery, taking it all in while Lark pulled up to the drive-through window, ordered for us, and then parked in the far corner of the lot. This had been my home for twenty-four years. Why did it seem foreign to me now? The single sun in the sky burned the grass brown where it could grow. Most of the ground around us was paved with concrete.

Lark distributed the food between us. Then, he pulled into a parking spot and hopped out to give Odessa her treat under the hood. Lark was so fast! I hadn't had a chance to take a bite before he was back in the driver's seat.

"How long were you on Ignitas before they paired you with Odessa?" I asked to pass the time while we ate.

"A few months." He grinned. "Best part of training, if you ask me. I loved learning magic. Bonding with Odessa was the culmination of everything I'd learned."

"How do you communicate with each other?" Merritt had also bonded with a dire weasel, but he said his connection wasn't strong enough to transport them to Earth. Lark and Odessa must have bonded well to get so close to my home on the first try.

"Magic with intention," Lark said. "She trusts me not to hurt her, and I trust her to take us to the right place. She pulled the location from your head before we left Ignitas."

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