Page 59 of Cruelly Fated
I hurried into the room, bracing myself for another glimpse of Grandpa’s misery. I nearly tripped over my own feet, yet somehow managed to flop my butt on the stiff stool. Grandpa looked thinner, and his beard had grown out, but nestled in the jungle of white fuzz were his red lips, curved into something I hadn’t expected.
A smile.
“What an entrance,” he said. Was that a jolly tone?
“Grandpa!” I couldn’t believe my own eyes. He looked…happy, and not a single bruise marked his pale skin.
“I’ve had some good days here…” He leaned closer as if we were sharing a secret and dropped his voice by an octave. “I joined a gang.”
What!?
My lips flapped uselessly. My expression contorted somewhere between horror and disbelief. I could feel actual foam trying to form on my tongue. Of course, I should’ve known better than to trust a violent, sexy, unhinged dragon shifter prince with leaving Grandpa in “good hands.”
Grandpa clapped his hand over his chest and broke into a wheezing laugh.
“Oh, you’re kidding,” I said, relieved. So effing relieved.
“No, child, it is true. I’ve just never seen you so flabbergasted. Like it’s the end of the world or something.” He waggled a finger at me in a woo-woo gesture.
I’m going to kill Kyon.
He’d corrupted my grandpa!
“H-how?” I managed through clenched teeth.
“Ah, don’t worry about ol’ me, child.” He waved a hand airily. “I’mstarvingto find out what happened to that dragon of yours after the incident.”
If I had been drinking something right then, I would’ve choked. “He’s notmydragon, Grandpa.” I shoved my tangled hair out of my face.
“Semantics.You can’t fool an old beaver. When I was young—”
“He’s fine,” I blurted. “He got seriously injured. Life-threatening, actually. But then I took off his ankle brace, and he healed like…overnight, pretty much.”After he hunted me down and nearly roasted me like a marshmallow.No need for Grandpa to knowthatpart.
“Serious, you say.” He rubbed his jaw. “I wasn’t his fan at first, but he’s a good listener and he saved my life.”
Oh, fae gods, I hadn’t even considered… Grandpa had been there. Kyon swore Pete made it out unharmed and hadn’t been in any real danger, but he’d never given me details.
I gulped. “Tell me everything,” I whispered.
By the time Grandpa finished recounting the brutal attack on Kyon, I’d gone mute. The stupid dragon had risked everything to protect my family. He could’ve died that night—would have, if not for some mysterious gargoyle breaking his faction’s rules to help him.
“So Aragon offered me a place in his gang,” Grandpa went on, casually, as if talking about a bridge club. “Said it’d be easier than him claiming protection over me.”
My eyelids twitched. I closed my eyes and reopened them after a beat. “Aragon’s a gargoyle…but his gang is mixed?” That was unheard of. Gargoyles didn’t treat other fae as equals. But maybe prison had its own set of rules.
He nodded.
I pressed my lips together, eyes narrowing. “And what exactly do you have to do to stay in this…gang?” I spat the word like it burned my tongue.
“Oh, don’t worry, my angel. We don’t do anything illegal or violent. It’s more of a club, really.”
“A club?” I shot him my best are-you-shitting-me look.
“What else would you call a group of old shifters who sit around playing cards or chess all day?”
“No way…”
“Yes, way.”
