Page 77 of Payne's Envy

We were two pieces, always meant to be as one. Finally, we stuck together.

Our future was in peril. I needed to remember what happened.

Rest wouldn’t come with my body primed and ready to claim my mate. Maybe the memories would visit me. I pressed my nose into her hair and inhaled. Joy was rain. That feeling in my chest, the rightness, that fucking happiness, was something I dreamed about. I didn’t let myself touch her out of fear of something in the past.Fuck… I knew with everything in me, I waited for that day. Prayed it would come.

I was right in the middle of what I begged for, so why couldn’t I remember? Did I despise myself so much I created that version of myself? I didn’t know if I’d ever understand why I lost so many precious memories. How did I fix it? How did I fixmyself?

Squeezing my eyes shut, I inhaled my mate again. The foul odor I’d become so acquainted with as of late filled my nostrils with its filth. I opened my eyes and slipped out of the bed. Joy was asleep. My abrupt movement awakened her. Joy’s bright, steel-blue eyes widened as she looked at me.

“Sleep. I won’t let them enter this room.”

“I won’t leave the fighting to everyone else.”

Joy's words triggered a memory, and suddenly I was immersed in it.

“I don’t want to kill anything,” young Joy whispered. “Mommy says I can heal like her. Why should I hurt someone if I can save them?”

“Not everyone is good. Some demons and even humans are bad. So evil they’ll do worse to others if left alone.” I took her hand in my bigger one. It wasn’t as big as Dad’s yet, but it would be. And I could protect her so she’d never have to do something she hated. “But I can do the parts you don’t like, so you don’t have to. Your father wouldn’t be mad if you chose not to be a Reaper.”

“Will you become one when you’re old enough?”

I puffed my chest out. “Yes. I want to protect people.” Most of all, you.

“Then I will, too.”

Before that memory, I had already sensed the beauty of my mate’s soul. She was a soft creature. She killed out of duty and to protect those she could. I wondered if she truly wanted to.

I had failed her over and over. She killed many times to protect me. It was no surprise that my spirit was full of self-hatred.

“Follow me outside.” Taking her hand in mine, I led her toward the door. I didn’t want Melanie yelling at me for destroying her castle again. “You’ll ride on my back as I kill the dragons.”

Joy stopped. I turned back. Her chin trembled as she rapidly blinked at her hands. “We’re mortals.”

My heart felt like it dropped into my boots. “For how long?”

“It’s different each time.”

A roar shook the castle. The items on the dresser rattled, and the mirror wobbled as constant thuds hit the castle. There was another deafening roar and fire burst through the roof. Joy’s room melted like wax, drooping and sliding down the walls in huge clumps. I shifted into a dragon and shielded Joy as the heat pelted my wings. The rest of Joy’s old bedroom crumbled under my hulking form.

I roared. “Joy!”

“I’m okay.” Her touch was soft as she placed it against my scales.

“I’m going to—”

“Do it!”

A clawed hand gripped my head and yanked. I growled, calling for Joy’s shift as I looked up. I shot a fireball at his arm. The creature howled in pain and moved away from the hole in the ceiling.

“She’s in heat.”The dragon’s thoughts penetrated my head, and I stiffened. “She’s mine, and you’re in the way.”

Since when could those creatures talk?

Anger licked up my spine. Flames burst across my scales as I tore out of the castle. The dragon was crouched, tail swishing left and right as he watched me step onto the tower with him.

I paused, letting my claws dig into the shingles. That dragon was different. While the others before him appeared to be rotting in places, that one seemed well in comparison. Sparse flames moved up and down his wings, dying out for a few seconds, then beginning again. He wasalmostas big as me.

Each time the creatures returned, they were stronger.

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