Page 51 of Dragon in Boots

“You mean I have to raise it not to?” she asked. “Will Heebie help?”

He laughed. “Male dragons don’t do that. Neither do most females. Their young are left to fend for themselves, which is probably why they’re so wild.”

She couldn’t allow that. “So what do I do, Dash?”

He looked away, his jaw flexing.

“Dash, I’m asking you a question. You know about dragons. You have one as a pet, for Christ’s sake.”

His intense eyes whipped to her face. “He is not my pet.”

“Then what is he to you?” she snapped. “Tell me the truth.”

He set his mug on the counter. “I am his slave, his companion and protector, too.”

Slave.“You told me that dragons eat their slaves.”

Dash nodded.

She slid back in her chair. “But you take care of him. You love him.”

He nodded. “In a way, yes, but he’ll still end my life. It’s tradition for their kind. I know too much, and their top priority is protecting their species from discovery.”

Her eyes teared—half with confusion and half in horror. “Why, Dash? Why don’t you run?”

“Because he and I have an agreement—a sort of contract. He helped me live under the radar after the gods exiled my kind, and in exchange, I promised to look after his interests, protect his identity, and serve him.”

“Can you repeat that part about being exiled?” She’d been so absorbed with her whole dragon situation that she hadn’t put the pieces together. Dash had disclosed his very old age, and if Heebie was the dragon, then it meant Dash was something else. “What are you?”

He looked away with a sigh. “A demon.”

“Like, from hell?”

“Demons are actually species from a different realm. There are hundreds of types. Some good. Some bad. I’m a vanity demon, which means I survive on adoration. It’s how Heebie’s kept me alive all these years. He emits powerful pheromones to draw attention, and I soak them up. We move to a new city or country every ten years so that no one catches on to the fact I don’t age.”

Just likeTwilight.

Dash went on, “Of course, Heebie can shift into anything he wants to.”

So he pretends to be a kitten. That drinks Fireball.“He saw me naked.” She’d taken a shower and dressed in her bedroom when Heebie was staying with her.

“Yeah. He told me.”

“Oh my god! What a shit!”

Dash shrugged. “Dragons aren’t angels, and if they were, they’d still look at you naked. Angels talk a holy game, but they’re huge peeping Toms.”

All right. Angels were real. She was a dragon. Dash was a demon. What next? Was it going to turn out that her toilet paper was a poo-eating gremlin? Maybe her zoo outside was really shape-shifting broccoli.

“I need a minute.” She got up and went outside to her porch to take in the fresh air. She looked up at the early morning sky, wondering how she’d missed so many things—being a dragon for one. And two, how one or both of her parents were not her biological family. Third, how there were so many species hiding in plain sight.

“You okay?” Dash said from behind.

“No.” She rubbed her temples.

“I’m sorry about all this.”

“Me too.” She sighed. Especially because she felt a connection with Dash, and now she didn’t know what to do with it. This entire situation was terrifying.

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