Page 8 of The Dragon's Stone Hearted Mate
“What about Ni and Teddy?” Preston cocked his eyebrow a mile high.
“They have Zinnia and I don’t want my goddaughter anywhere near that man – dead or alive! I met him once. Horrible aura. Horrible fucker in general. You’re not coming along to fight him. You’re going to be there in case the Postcard Men decide that’s a good time to knock me on my ass! You are coming, aren’t you?”
“What do we tell our parents?” Preston asked, his knitting needles paused now.
“That we’re going to visit our cousin. What else?” I smirked.
“I get to go sightseeing while we’re there,” he said, starting to knit again. “I’m not traveling halfway around the world and not getting to see the city.”
“I will get you a tour of Clarence Moonscale’s underwear drawer if that’s what it takes,” I laughed.
“Ewww… I don’t need to see their leader’s underwear,” Preston crinkled his nose.
“Good because I’d have to faint to distract them and with my luck the pretend faint would turn real. Dern made the Postcard Men out to sound like real assholes.”
“And you’re buying the souvenirs,” Preston continued knitting while rattling off his list of expectations for our trip to Moonscale London.
Chapter Five
Morvan
Camp Air, somewhere in the Other World
“CAMP AIR.” Cutter read the camp’s sign aloud. He shrugged his shoulder and rubbed his ear against it as if hearing something I couldn’t. Sure, cats had good hearing, but so did dragons.
“Leave the crazy cat alone,”my dragon scolded me.“Not his fault he’s a bit out there.”
The path had led us to the sign that read the camp’s name in over a hundred different written languages but still had room for little pine trees around its edges for decoration. It was surrounded by trees with only one straight forward path clear to move toward the camp. If I squinted, I could just spot someone standing at the edge of camp waving to us. Ignoring them, I turned my attention to my traveling companion.
“Any ghosts here?” I asked Cutter when we stopped to read the sign.
“Not yet. They like to come around the most at dawn or dusk. It’s why I always wake up so early,” he said as if I’d known him our entire lives. “Gotta be up before them so they can’t sit on my chest while I’m asleep. Though, this is the Other World. So they might not come at all while we’re here. I hope so anyway because I could use the bre---”
“Greetings!” A tall woman with a high blonde ponytail waved to us from a few feet away.
How had she scurried so quickly to join us? I made a mental note to keep an eye on her. Can’t trust anyone once your owntwin hires a hitman to take you out. Out of habit, I sniffed the air, but the speedy blonde was wearing pheromone blocker spray and smelled like a candle shop rather than whatever she shifted into. My dragon rolled his eyes, but I managed to keep his frustration out of my voice as I called back a greeting to her. Even if I get nothing out of Camp Air, Cutter probably will, and I think he needs it more than I do.
“Hey!” Cutter called back, projecting his voice like a lion might sound off a roar through his territory.
“Big mouth lion,”my dragon rattled off into my thoughts.
“Greetings!” The blonde said again.
I fought off the urge to bury my face in the crook of her neck to see what she was hiding. That was usually one of the first places that pheromone blocker spray wore thin. At least, it was the only place it wore thin that I was willing to sniff on a woman.
“Welcome to Camp Air! Morvan and Cutter, right?” she asked, smiling so that upbeat energy oozed from her.
I crinkled my nose, but Cutter smiled back at her.
“That’s us,” Cutter nodded. “I’m in cabin three, I think.” He said and dug around his pocket until he found his papers again.
“You’re both in three,” the blonde nodded. “I’m Sherry and it’s nice to meet you.”
“Hi, Sherry,” Cutter shook her hand and then I did too because I was here to give this whole thing a try, wasn’t I?
“Gonna leave with half our brain melted from the happy-ooze. Ask her who died?”my dragon suggested but I wasn’t in the mood to be that big of a dick.
“Right,” Sherry nodded when she realized I was out of pleasantries. “Right this way. I’ll show you where the cabin is. You’re the last two to arrive. The traffic at the gateways has been hectic today. Everyone’s running a bit late but you two are right on time. Cabin Three overlooks the lake and is right next to Pinky. No one knows where he came from, but he adds a cheerfuldemeanor to camp. He’s this statue carved from rhodonite which is a stone that promotes love, healing, and its energy really knows how to knock down the toughest walls around anyone’s heart. When I’m not volunteering at the camp, I run a crystal and divination shop that has a strong focus on healing. After my wife died it was rocks that saved me.”
