Page 35 of Dragon Unhinged

“All right, all right. I’ll share my secrets, it’s only fair since you shared yours…finally.” She stands up and sets her phone on the bed before she reaches for the ring she always wears on her left index finger. “I’m not exactly what you’d call human.”

As she pulls off the ring, the whole room spins in color and gets brighter. I squeeze my eyes shut and open them again, the sensation is gone, but so is my best friend.

Gone is the short blonde bob, the septum piercing, and most of the details that shaped Ellie. Even the color of her eyes changed.

Instead, a woman with spiky violet hair, bright green eyes, inhumanly sea foam green eyes, stands in front of me with, I kid-you-not, full on wings. Delicate wings fluttering in the dim hotel room light giving them the appearance of being made of prisms and glass..

No feathers, no stereotypical butterfly shaping. They’re amorphous, changing and shifting as they move and the light bounces off of them differently. As soon as I drag my gaze away from her wings, they fall on her pointed ears.

“I’m a fae. Ellie is short for Ellyandra.” She spins around once giving me a view of her back and spectacular wings. She gently slips the ring back onto her finger. “And since I’m spilling state secrets here, you can stop worrying about checking everywhere we go for bugs. No one hears any of my conversations unless I give them permission.”

“Oh. My. God.” I stare at her, my mind still trying to reconcile the woman I know with what I just saw. “You’re not human.”

“Nope. And thank the gods for it.” She chortles, and then holds up her hand as if she’s just realized that her statement could be offensive. “Not that all humans are bad. But seeing how they’re reacting to the supernatural, I’m more than happy to know better than to buy into all this mass hysteria or weird obsession.” She hops back up onto her bed before gesturing to mine. “Any questions you want to ask, I’ll answer what I can.”

My mind is spinning in a thousand different directions at once, and nothing seems even remotely coherent enough to try to put together an actual question.

“Or maybe we order up some room service and you can just sit with the information a while. You really don’t have to say anything. Except, maybe…” Her eyes fill with a concern I’ve never seen on her face before, one that almost looks like I could hold both our fates in my hands with how I respond next. “You still want to be my friend, right?”

“Are you kidding? This is amazing.” I quickly cross the gap between the two queen-sized beds to crawl up onto hers and settle next to her, draping my arm around her shoulders. “I never thought I’d have someone I could trust to tell anyone about Declan, or about the fact that I think the supernatural community is totally getting the raw end of this deal, and now, not only do I have a real friend, but I also get to be friends with a fae.”

She flings her arms around me and squeezes tight, laughing against my cheek even as I feel the dampness of tears trying to fall between us. “I have wanted to tell you for so long, but with how everything is, and who your father is, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to.”

I let out a slow, steady breath, and hug her back, just as tight. “Your secret’s safe with me. Just like I know you’ll keep mine.”

“Always. And not only that, we’re going to find a way to get your man out of captivity. No shifter should have to fight to the death in those rings. Humans have been up to all kinds of shitty antics long before now, but it’s getting worse.” She pulls out of the hug and wipes her eyes with the backs of her hands. “There are plenty of people trying to figure out where they’re being held, to work out what spells bind the shifters. Some fae have even infiltrated the rings as fighters, trying to get more information. But they keep moving things around and the amount of magic they have at their disposal is downright bizarre. They have to have some powerful witches or fae or something working for them. Zane can’t even establish a money trail. Or a magic trail.”

“I feel like there’s so much to this whole world that I don’t even have the faintest idea about, and you’re talking about fae, witches, shifters…what else is real? The internet is wildly full of disinformation.”

She shakes her head and heads for the phone. “We’re definitely getting pizza and chocolate if you’re going to want me to explain the entire supernatural world to you in one night.” She scoots over to the hotel phone and dials the number for room service, ordering far more than either of us could ever possibly eat. “I can’t wait to tell you everything I know.”

Chapter

Fifteen

BRIANNA

The weekend passes way too quickly. It’s one of the best weekends of my life. I’ve never had a friend to share my true inner self with, no one to tell my secrets to, and now Ellie and I are closer than ever. And as a bonus, I learned so much about shifters, about death-battles, but we’ve just barely scratched the surface.

Even with the weekend being a wild success, I still can’t wait to get back to Declan.

There’s no way for me to contact him when he’s in the cell. Ellie tried a lot of different techniques.

But I know in my gut that if he’d been made to fight, if he’d died, that somehow, I would know. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking.

“Okay, next time you’re with Declan, copy down as many runes as you can. Anything on the cell walls, doors, the cuffs, on Declan himself. If the other shifters will let you into their cells, make notes of anything different between the guys.” Ellie’s driving much slower back to the compound than she did to get me away from it. “If you can convince your dad to let me sleep over sometime soon, I want to meet this dragon of yours, see theset up for myself. If there’s fae magic that may have the potential to break him and the others out, I’ll find it. In the meantime, be careful.”

As we pull up to the gate, she reaches into her purse and pulls out a smoky grey crystal pendant. “I’ve woven some extra magic into this, but the smoky quartz itself should help dispel any unwanted eyes and ears trying to find what you’re up to. You’re damned lucky if you two haven’t been found out yet, but that’s no reason to push the limits now. Keep the crystal on you at all times. Wear it in the shower, when you’re working out, when your man’s making your toes curl during an orgasm. Always.”

I slip the chain over my neck and nod. “I can’t tell you how awesome it is to have someone I can share all this with. Seriously, you’re amazing.”

Ellie just laughs at me. “You’re just getting your feet wet in the supernatural world. I’m sure you’ll find that I’m fairly mundane, all things considered. But I appreciate the compliment, nonetheless.”

I stare at my house as we pull up the drive. It seems darker, more gothic in the grey afternoon light. It’s like it’s leering down at me. Has my father enchanted the house? Or more likely, it’s because I don’t really want to leave Ellie, not wanting to go back to being under my father’s thumb, even with the prospect of seeing Declan.

God, do I want to see Declan though.

I’ve slept fitfully all weekend, wondering if he had to fight. Wondering if he’s even going to be downstairs when I sneak down there tonight. Wondering if he’s missed me as much as I’ve missed him.

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