Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
It seemed like shifting for me for the first time was like a wedding or a wake—everyone brought food and quietly asked how I was doing, and no one really believed me when I said I was fine.
“Are you sure, dear?” She hadn’t actually said the word dragon but she was nervous enough there couldn’t be anything else she was talking about. “Change is hard sometimes.”
What had changed?
The shift from seeing them as aliens to dragons and mages was not as hard as everyone seemed to think.
“It’s not much of a change, honestly.” Trying to look reassuring, I held up the well-wrapped dish. “And thank you for the food. Kenzie isn’t much on cooking, although no one bakes like him. I’ll have to see if I can bribe him to make some cookies I can bring in soon.”
I wasn’t sure what else to say to explain to her that I wasn’t having a mental breakdown.
“Deputy Winslow?” Thankfully, my boss decided to take pity on me and called out from his office. “I need to see you before you head home.”
“Duty calls.” Giving her a polite smile, I set the dish down on my desk. “You timed this perfectly. It’ll still be hot when I get back to Kenzie.”
She made some mumbling goodbyes as I headed into the sheriff’s office to escape and she went toward the front door. By the time I was safely in his office, she’d left the building but I wasn’t going to take any chances by rushing through whatever he’d come up with to talk about.
“Sir?” Standing in front of his desk, I didn’t immediately thank him for saving me just in case he actually needed something.
He just raised one eyebrow and tilted his head toward the front of the building.
“Gone, Sir.” Doing my best not to laugh, I aimed for a serious and work-appropriate response. “I’m sorry my personal life has been such a distraction today.”
That actually got a bark of laughter from him.
“You’ve been the talk of the town all day, Talon.” Shaking his head and mumbling about it being an understatement, the sheriff leaned back in his chair.
Taking a deep breath, he gestured toward the chair opposite his desk. “Sit.”
As I obeyed, he let out a deep breath and frowned. “I’d rather leave your private life private, but this isn’t normal relationship stuff, so I’m going to ask how you’re taking it and if you have any questions.”
I was up to about a thousand at this point, but he probably didn’t want me to list them all.
“I thought you guys were aliens, so the whole dragon thing isn’t much of a mental shift.” I didn’t mind the chuckle he let out because the whole thing was slightly ridiculous. “Kenzie’s dragon forms are beautiful, and he’s very much himself no matter what the outside package looks like. So I’m honestly fine. Questions? Well, I have endless questions, but I’ll get them answered in time, I guess.”
“You know”—the sheriff frowned, still leaning back in his chair as he cocked his head—“there are some classes at the high school that have our history and science built into them. I can probably ask a few of the teachers to put together some reading material for you.”
I knew there had to be some fucking books on the whole thing.
“I’d appreciate that.” Very much so. “It’s basically learning about a whole new country I never knew existed, so I’m starting from scratch, and I don’t want to spend all my time quizzing Kenzie.”
That got another laugh from my slightly insane boss. “Yeah, I can see that being frustrating.”
Luckily for him, he didn’t have anything else to say about my distractible cutie. “I’ll make some calls this week and see what kind of e-books and things are out there. I think it goes without saying that we’re not making the information widely available.”
I snorted. “Yes, I think that’s obvious.”
But it did raise a few questions.
“Why are you guys left alone so much?” The whole thing was odd. “The FBI won’t even come to town to find that fucking gold.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “That was well before my time, but from what I’ve been told, there was some moonshining going on up here during Prohibition and there was…well, let’s call it a standoff that ended unexpectedly.”
Good grief.
“Why didn’t they bring in the army?” That was how nearly every movie or book thought it would go.
He was nearly giggling. “It was a dragon married to a mage and the mage was quick to make it look like the dragon was nearly invincible. Magical shenanigans and all. The uninformed humans from the government were given the impression that nothing would stop dragons, so they quietly declared the whole area off-limits to their people.”
Magical shenanigans indeed.
“And after that?” There had to be more.
“During the World Wars, they figured out we weren’t as magically immune as they thought, but we’re still hard to deal with and it seems that no one wants to see what would happen if they go all we’re the government again.” Shrugging, the sheriff brushed off the chaos that might ensue. “They leave us alone and we do our best to keep crazy confined to the local area. Most of the time we do a pretty good job.”