Page 107 of Dragon Fires Everywhere
“Not holding out, exactly,” I say, not sure why I’m defending the very dragon who stomped all over my heart with his giantclaws, but here we are. “Living through something makes it hard to see the forest through the trees, I think. It can takea very wise creature, who understands all the different worlds at play, to show us the right path.”
I explain the time periods, my father’s books that he technically stole from Desmond—who technically stole them from Lillian.Who was hiding them herself.
“It’s like Zachariah,” Ellowyn says, eyes wide. “His obsession with crows.”
I explain the charms and the first reading, and then therippleon the back of the book. And all that wild magic once I revealed it. “Then the two books sort of melded together and becameone. One that has some suggestions on how to beat black magic for good.”
“You’re wrong, Georgie.”
I look at Ellowyn. Octavius is curled up on her chest now. She’s petting him while both of them look at me intently. And Ifrown at her, because I’m just recounting what I read in a book. I can’t bewrong.
“We need Azrael for this,” Ellowyn says firmly.
“Not yet. I—”
Octavius hops off Ellowyn and trots over to me, weaving in and out of my legs.
“I’ll fill Azrael in when it’s... pertinent.” And when I don’t feel like he took a hammer to my heart.
So also maybe never.
“It’s pertinent. He told me so.” She points at Octavius, and I wonder if she’s having some sort of pregnancy hallucination.
“Wynnie, he doesn’t talk.”
“I know,” Ellowyn says, studying Octavius. “It came through me... all weird. I don’t know if it’s a Revelare thing or abeing pregnant thing. It wasn’t like how Ruth talks to me, how we talk to each other, but it was him. And he keeps sayingwhat sounds a lot likeAzrael. Insistently.”
I open my mouth to argue with her. We don’t need an imprisoned dragon with absolutely no desire to help. We don’t need anasshole more interested in holding old grudges rather than solving a problem.
But Ellowyn is in my head then, a channel between only the two of us.I don’t want to be a dick—
Don’t you?I interrupt, because she usually does.
She laughs inside my head, but it fades quickly.I think if I could stand hip to hip with Zander for ten years, you can do this.
That feelsawful, because of course she’s right. For their ten-year breakup full of anger and loathing—of themselves and each other—Zander and Ellowyn came together for the good of Emerson and then the coven. Over and over again.
Then there is a kind of crash at the window, and we all look over.
To see a very large violet-eyed crow.
Who caws at us imperiously and then flies away.
Ellowyn gives me a smirk as if to say,See, and she isn’t wrong.
So.
“I guess we need to go to the cemetery,” I mutter.
We gather and then head over to the cemetery. Ellowyn brings Octavius—who can apparentlytalkto Revelares or pregnant ladies orsomething.
Gideon is already there, though like the last time, he is standing outside the cemetery boundaries. He is not lounging quitethe same way. In fact, he’s holding himself almost stiffly—
And then I see a little trickle of blood coming out of his nose. I rush forward, compelled by a strange twist in my heartI’m not sure I fully recognize or understand. “Your nose is bleeding,” I say, stopping myselfjustshort of touching him.
He lifts a finger to the drip of blood coming out of his nose, then shrugs. “Outwitting curses has a price.”Hurting is part of the price, I think then, remembering something Ellowyn said a long time ago. “Is there a reason yourcatwouldn’t stopmeowingin my head until I had to accept that painful price?”
I blink at Octavius in Ellowyn’s arms. So, not just Revelares or pregnant women, butcrows? Andnot me.
