Page 14 of Magick and Lead
“You walked right past me back there.”
“Oh. I guess my mind was someplace else.”
“I’ll say,” her eyes narrowed. “So?”
I saw she held her reporter’s notebook in her hands. She tapped her pen on the page.
I frowned. “So… what?”
“So, give me a statement, silly. You’re going to be flying again. The Silver Wraith is back in action.”
I leaned close to her. “Right. Except most people don’t know I’m the Silver Wraith, remember?”
“Fine. The manrumoredto be the Silver Wraith,” she amended. “The base press office has given me permission to tease out your identity. To reveal you, bit by bit. Now that the tide of the war is turning, maybe pretty soon instead of flying planes you’ll be a full-time celebrity.”
Nothing could have pleased me less than becoming afull-time celebrity. I was about to tell her so when Michaels, the General’s chief aide, jogged up to us.
“Major Inman. Excuse me. We were supposed to give you this,” he handed me an envelope, saluting.
“Thanks,” I said, returning his salute.
“Oh, that must be your invitation to the medal ceremony,” Kitty said. “Can you give me a quote on that, at least?”
I glanced at the envelope in my hand, then at Michaels. He gave me a nod.
“What medal ceremony?” I said, tearing open the envelope.
“You haven’t heard? You’re getting a Platinum Star for your spy work—” Kitty said. “It’s to be handed out by the president himself.”
I’d gotten the card free of the envelope, and my eyes scanned the gold calligraphy. She was right. I was getting the highest honor my country had to offer… for betraying the woman Iloved. I fought the urge to crumple the card and throw it on the ground.
Michaels cleared his throat. “Sir, if you don’t need anything further?—”
“Dismissed,” I said, and he turned on his heel and departed.
“I’ll be covering that event, too,” Kitty said, sidling so close that her breasts brushed against my arm through her sheer dress. “You can’t avoid me forever, Charlie. And listen, just because you don’t want to get married doesn’t mean we can’t still… be friends.”
I was keenly aware of Kitty’s body, so close to mine. She’d always been pretty, but the past few times I’d seen her, her beauty had seemed sharper, more perfect, as if her skin had become not flesh but porcelain. She’d always been attractive on a chemical level, too, but now she was positively magnetic in a way that felt more like hypnotism than pure chemical attraction. I felt her draw, her magnetism, almost like a drug, or like the intoxication from Prelate Kortoi’s tea back in Maethalia. The feeling didn’t make me want to be friends with Kitty. And it didn’t make me want to bed her, either, especially with the way I felt about Essa. No. Kitty smelled of danger. Seeing her now only reminded me that I didn’t want her in any way. Honestly, it made me want to run.
I stepped back from her, turned, and threw a leg over my motorcycle.
“Here’s your quote,” I said, firing up the bike’s engine and shouting over its rumble. “I love flying. Planes are a hell of a lot easier to handle than people.”
“I’ll see you at the medal ceremony, Charlie,” she shouted over the grumbling engine.
Instead of answering, I released the clutch and roared away, leaving Kitty in a cloud of smoke.
7
ESSA
Iheld the spoon of cooked oats and bacon flecks out to the little dragon, but he clamped his mouth shut and shrugged away.
“Come on, open up,” I tried again, but he pushed the spoon back at me with his tail.
Charlie.
The dragon baby projected the name into my mind—a plea, like a child calling for their daddy. It was heartbreaking. And it was worse because dragons didn’t talk with words; they spoke with feelings. So instead of a string of vowels and consonants, the nameCharliebrought with it his face. The rough feel of the stubble on his cheek. His scent—like maple syrup and summer mornings and earth after a rain. The low rumble of his laugh. The feeling of his hand, gentle and soft yet callused where the fingers met the palm. It even carried the feeling of his presence when he entered the room. Smug humor. Quiet confidence. The feeling of safety, knowing that he’d tear the world apart to protect you.
