Page 5 of Dragon Eye (Rise of the Dragon Master)

“Too high maintenance.”

Blondes in San Francisco were all about what you wore and drove. Well, most of them anyway, I couldn’t really cut them all with the same scissor, but definitely not my type. They were too concerned with being the perfect Fashion Barbie.

My gaze turned to her friend, a red head who was biting her nails while looking at the menu. “Too impatient and indecisive.” Three more girls sat across from them. “Bratty, daddy issues, and… gay.”

“Gay?” Nick questioned, glancing at the group. “No. There’s no way she’s—Holy crap,” he whispered, just as a new girl joined them, and kissed the brunette on the lips. “How do you do that?”

I shrugged. “I pay attention, I guess.”

“It’s magic,” Josh answered at the same time and we chuckled. “But that’s what’s fun about life though. All of us being different. You can’t really judge a book by its cover; you need to get to know someone and see why they are the way they are.”

“I’m not judging them,” I corrected. “I can just recognize certain things about people, but I don’t fault them for what I see. I’m just able to readthem, and it helps me make informed decisions.”

Josh’s eyes rolled as he snorted. “Dude, I’ve known you for like a year and you are as single as the day I met you. You need a girlfriend before you start hitting on me.”

“I already have a girlfriend,” I answered nonchalantly.

“Wait, what?! You’ve been holding out on us,” Nick complained and inched closer, ready for me to tell it all. “Who is it?”

“Well, she’s gorgeous, with light green eyes, and bronzed skin. Smart, funny, spontaneous, and so freaking cute—”

“Nice try, but toddlers don’t count.”

Laughing, I turned to face him. “Hey, Suzie is surprisingly mature for her age.”

“You are such a loser,” Josh complained, and walked past me to take an order while I began to wipe clean the coffee station.

I snickered.

“Fine, what about that one?” Nick added, discreetly nodding to the door. “She looks nice enough.”

The moment I looked back, my gaze fell on another blonde. I was about to holler “hell no” when my eyes did a double take. There was something different about her. The girl looked my age, maybe a year older, but that wasn’t what called my attention. Neither were the extravagant clothes she wore, including jean shorts over sweatpants, orange rain boots, and a hoodie with a knitted beanie in 100-degree weather.

No, that wasn’t it.

“Uh, never mind, dude. I can see she’s crazy even without having yourmagic.”

Wrong.

Trouble. My magic screamed trouble when I looked at her. She was trouble with a capital “T”, but there was still something calling me to her.

Smacking the cleaning towel to Nick’s chest, I stepped around the counter and walked towards the blonde slowly, never taking my eyes away from her. She stood in the middle of the entrance, looking all around her like the transition from the streets in bright daylight, to the dimmed, subway station setting had disoriented her.

I stopped walking when our gazes connected, and I finally recognized the look in her eyes. It was the same look my mother used to get when her anxiety got the best of her, and the world around her seemed too much to bear, overwhelming her.

Anxiety disorders were very real, and I had witnessed how it could rob a person of all normalcy and sanity. Dad always had a gentle touch or word for my mom, helping calm her, but sometimes even that wasn’t enough…

Blinking, I noticed the blonde’s blue eyes widen when she looked at me, like she’d recognized me. Startled by the sight, she moved back.

“Are you okay?” I asked at the same time, concern tightened my chest as I took a step forwards.

A guy suddenly bumped into her on his way out, shifting her attention from me. She whipped around on reflex, adopting what seemed like a fighting stance—like she was some kind of ninja or something.

“Sorry,” the guy mumbled, frowning at her irrational behavior, and walked out the door.

When her blue eyes returned to me, she appeared disconcerted, even embarrassed, but her head snapped down to something she held tightly. Whirling around once more, she pushed through the incoming crowd, running out of the Subway like she had just seen a ghost.

What. The. Hell?

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