Page 69 of Her Dragon Daddy Disaster
“What?” Malakai came fully alert and upright, something dangerous stirring in his eyes as they fixated on me much more intensely. “Why not?”
The question was a razor-edged sword. If I told Malakai the truth, there was no predicting his reaction to the revelation I hadfathered a child with a human. Until that moment, I’d thought it unlikely he would do anything rash, but it wasn’t the first time I’d seen that colder, unpleasant nature of his start to show through. I would not risk putting Jakub in danger that way.
“It’s a long story,” I said, trying to deflect. “I’ll write your speech still. Don’t worry. I’m still on your side. I just …”
“It’s that human woman,” he spat angrily. “Isn’t it? She put you up to this.”
I respected Sarah, and she respected me. That said,neitherof us was subordinate to the other, and I resented the implication that not only she was the type to make me submit, but also that Iwould. My hackles rose, and I swayed a little closer.
“Don’t make assumptions about what you don’t understand,” I said coldly. “I’m still the man you know. There are simply other things that call me that I must attend to at this time.”
Malakai sneered, and I frowned. Where was my best friend? The boy I’d experienced life with, daydreaming about when we would someday free our people from the tyranny of unelected rule. What had happened to that dreamer? Where had thatangercome from?
“This close to our goal, and you walk away,” he said, shaking his head. “What happened to the Levi I used to know?”
He became a father.
The response died before reaching my lips. That secret had to stay with me until I could figure out how to keep Jakub and Sarah safe from whoever it was who was talking to me. Until Malakai could sort his head out.
“I could say the same of you,” I said gently. “Is everything okay? You’re not acting like yourself, Malakai.”
“He’s fine.”
I looked up as Lydia slipped off the windowsill, dropping to the floor, wearing a silk nightie that left almost nothing to the imagination. She sashayed closer, cozying up to Malakai, pressing her right breast firmly against his arm in a display that could not have been accidental.
“Levi here is getting cold feet,” Malakai said.
“It’s not cold feet,” I growled defensively.
“You’ll come around. There’s still time, Levi. Time for you to come to your senses about this.”
I wondered idly if perhaps that was what I was doing. Just not in the way Malakai wanted.
“My senses are fine, my friend. I simply can’t be there. I can’t fight. Not at this time. I’m sorry. As I said, I’ll write you the speech. I still believe in the cause. I want to see it succeed.”
“I will succeed,” Malakai said icily. “You will be there with me when it happens.”
“Listen to yourself!”
Raising my voice was the wrong move. Lydia leaned in and whispered something into his ear, which only hardened the frown in place on my best friend’s face.
I ached on the inside. What was she telling him? What was her purpose? Was she trying to turn us against one another? Why?
“I’m sorry, Malakai,” I said, moving to go. “I can’t join you. Not now.”
There was a long silence behind me as I shifted back into dragon form.
“Levi!”
The voice was sharp, wicked. My long neck curved around, until I stared down my snout at the pair of them. So much smaller now.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Malakai spat with threatening precision.
I exhaled slowly, allowing a puff of smoke to curl up from my nostrils. It was my only answer.
Spreading my wings, I rose into the air and left them behind, more uneasy and unsettled than before I’d arrived.
Chapter Thirty-One
