Page 96 of Hunters and Prey

Chapter 3

Cailyn left her mother with a renewed lease on life—with a fire in her eyes that wouldn’t be smothered by any mundane class. She now knew the truth, and there was no going back.

As she tapped her feet on the carpeted floor before her, she ran her fingertips across a raised image in an old book.

The picture was beautifully drawn. The dragon was a majestic creature, revered in mythology from cultures all over the world.

Learning that they were real thrilled Cailyn—and discovering that she had dragon blood running through her veins left her in awe.

I am a dragon.

Those words continued to replay in her mind, and left little room for anything else.

The Internet was great for basic research, but there was nothing like the library for really digging into a subject. So, here she was, having skipped her class because Cecilia’s revelation had made her ridiculously late anyway. Twenty minutes of intensive Internet and library database searching had given her everything she needed to surround herself with towers of books and piles of printouts.

What she would never find in any of the text books, was the lush past of the thirteen dragon clans that inhabited the world.

She stretched and rolled the crick out of her neck. While digging through all this research was a little mind-numbing, at least when she found an answer, the books and articles didn’t turn around and disguise the answer as a riddle.

Cecilia had led her out of the forest, calmly collecting her shoes, and headed back to the house. Along the way she had dropped various tidbits of instruction about life as a shifter.

Never reveal your ability to wizards.

Be wary of revealing your ability to other shifters.

Never fly around humans either in human or shifter form. No levitation of self or things, either.

Always stash clothes where you can find them. Make sure they’re easy to slip on and off.

“Wrap dresses work especially well,” Cecilia had smirked. “Undergarments are optional.”

Cailyn bit back a sarcastic snort and turned back to the book before her. The dragon had the body of a snake, with long outstretched wings. Numerous cultures had all embraced the dragon in their mythologies.

The dragon had been captured in stone, bronze, marble, and paint. It symbolized courage and strength.

The next bit of information Cailyn uncovered made her uncomfortable.

According to medieval lore, dragons mated for life, and if one mate died, the other followed soon, dying from a broken heart.

She couldn’t help the way her thoughts flew to Asher. He was human, without magic or shifting abilities. He didn’t know anything about her world, but he was her world.

But, why does the man in my dreams become a dragon? Why am I the one who is dying?

“That’s Edward Alexander’s daughter.”

“The one who lives in the huge manor in the countryside?”

“The haunted one?”

“Yeah.”

Really?

The voices broke through Cailyn’s concentration, ripping her from research and worries, and dragging her back to the workaday world of rumor and gossip.

“Yeah. Her family is in the mob. I’d stay away from her unless you want to end up dead.”

Cailyn cringed at hearing herself being talked about. She hated being the subject of gossip. All her life, everyone from teachers to baristas had whispered behind their hands about her. The kids she grew up with took rumors and turned them into playground and locker room taunts.

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