Page 29 of Dragon Slayer

7

WISH YOU WERE HERE

Donna let her hang out at the barn as much as she wanted, still taught her lessons, and let her ride Brando – in the indoor, where it was shady and the ceiling fans were going –, but she’d been officially banned from working. Mia hated being cut off like that, ostracized. The other students gave her sympathetic looks; all of her own students had called to express their condolences. Monica had baked her cookies. It was like everyone was paying their respects before she was even dead, and it got under her skin.

But there were bittersweet moments of goodness. She’d never gotten to spend so much one-on-one time with Brando. Riding him, bathing him, grooming him for long hours, working Show Sheen through his tail until it was gleaming and tangle-free.

She hand-grazed him now, on a low hill overlooking the rest of the farm, the Rockies a dark stamp along the horizon. Mia sat in the grass, lead-line held loosely in one hand, other wrist propped on her raised knee. The wind played with Brando’s mane, sweeping his forelock off his face, so she could see the bright white star that lay beneath.

Val lay on his back beside her, hair spilling across the grass, gaze trained on the tattered clouds that trailed by lazily overhead. He wore his modern jeans and tee ensemble today; Mia kept glancing over for glimpses of sharp hipbones.

They’d been quiet for several moments, just enjoying the sunshine and one another’s company. But then Val’s head rolled toward her and he said, “There’snothingthey can do?”

She didn’t have to ask for clarification. She took a quick breath, nerves shivering low in her belly. She hadn’t told him about her father’s offer yet. Since that first phone call, Edwin had left three voicemails and sent her five texts. Outright begging now.Please, Mia. Let me help you.

She shuddered.

Val noticed, sitting up suddenly, gaze going intense. “What?”

“My…” She had to wet her lips. “Remember how I said that I don’t get along with my father?”

She could never smell him, never sense him like she could a real person who was truly there. But she had the sudden sense that he stiffened. His voice came out flat. “Yes.” His eyes were trained to the side of her face, though. Very blue in the sunlight. “I remember.”

“Remember how I also said he was a scientist?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he…he called me. The other night. When I got back home from the hospital. He said that he – well, I never knew what he was working on. He would never tell us, only that it was important.” Shit, she was babbling. “Anyway, he said that he’d been developing an experimental drug serum. Miracle drug, he called it. He said that if I went to Virginia, he could give it to me, and that it would shrink the tumor. That it wouldcureme.” She finally turned to meet Val’s gaze, and was startled by it; the raw, unnamable emotion in it. “I don’t even know how that’s possible,” she said, just a murmur, pinned by his wild expression.

He swallowed several times, throat bobbing, and glanced away; his eyes darted back and forth, gaze shifting across the grass. He looked paler – more like his true color, the day he’d shown her how hereallylooked.

“Val?”

“That…that…” He panted, mouth open, flash of pink tongue sliding over his fangs. “Yes, okay. Yes.” He looked at her again, eyes feverish. “You should take him up on it. Let him give you the medicine. Yes…”

Mia frowned. “Val–”

“No! No, wait!” He shut his eyes, shook his head, winced. “Side-effects,” he hissed mostly to himself.

“He said there weren’t any.”

His eyes popped open. He reached to grab her shoulders, but the touch never came, hands flickering above her, trying and failing to land. “You can’t know that,” he said, frantic now. “There are side effects. Everything has consequences, Mia,everything. Especially miracles. Those never come without strings.”

She’d never wanted to touch him so badly. “I know. Believe me, I know.”

They stared at one another, her questioning, him reaching.

“I don’t want to do it,” she said. “I don’t trust him.”

His mouth pulled to the side, half-grin and half-grimace. “I understand.”

And somehow, she thought that he did.

~*~

“Hi, sweetie,” Kate greeted when Mia opened the door. She had three suitcases on the ground at her feet, enough clothes and personal effects for an extended stay. An extended stay thatwasn’t enough time.

Mia stepped back and opened the door, knowing a pang of guilt, and a deep, deep frustration. “Here, let me get your bags. It’s the least I can do since I couldn’t pick you up.” She wasn’t allowed to drive anymore, doctor’s orders. She’d been taking Ubers everywhere, and Javi had given her rides to and from the barn.

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