Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Fuck. It’d even made it impossible to feel bad about leaving my family and everything I’d always known.
Magic was fucking ridiculous…but sometimes there were benefits.
In the last month, the fully furnished house I’d been renting for years had unexpectedly sold, the store I worked at part-time for human contact had hired a new full-time employee and didn’t need my help anymore, and I’d finished up the last few big projects I’d been working on.
Yep, nothing suspicious about the timing of it at all.
“But why not just book a vacation somewhere?” Going from glaring to looking confused, Jeff shook his head like I was an idiot. “You liked the beach last time you went there.”
I still couldn’t say why I’d gone down to the North Carolina coast, but he wouldn’t want to hear that. Jeff liked logical, so he also wouldn’t want to hear that I had no idea why I’d gone on five different vacations to the States in the last year. Sure, we might’ve grown up going back and forth because of our dual citizenship and all the relatives we still had down in Montana, but there was nothing reasonable about any of it.
The rest of our friends and family thought I’d gotten a bit of wanderlust but that wasn’t the right word for what I was feeling. I just couldn’t explain that without them wanting a better answer…and there wasn’t one. I just had to go and I knew I’d eventually figure out where I was going.
“It was beautiful but I’m not sure where I’m going to visit yet.” Yep, it was just a visit where I took everything I owned. “Airfare is nuts and takes too long to get anywhere lately. I thought I’d take my time and see where I end up.”
Following whatever the fuck had me looking at maps and planning the road trip from hell.
Looking around the trailer, Jeff went back to shaking his head like the confused little brother he was. “Did you forget you really dislike driving more than a few hours at a time?”
I was not that dumb.
There was nothing but CBC Radio and trees for days.
“Nope.” I was not an endless road trip kind of guy. “But the plan is to take my time and work as I go. It’s not like I’m going to be behind the wheel all day.”
Well, endless driving wasn’t the plan, but something had been making me crazy, like an itch between my shoulder blades I couldn’t scratch, and I had no plan to ignore it. So I wasn’t going to promise to take things slow.
He didn’t need to know that, though.
“You’ll stop when you’re tired, right?” He wasn’t stupid either, but he looked more relaxed when I nodded. “You really packed your hoard?”
His wife was a pain in the ass.
“It’s not that big.” Antique watches weren’t a common hoard, but I was glad they were portable. “I’ve got them in a lockbox under the bed. There’s a ton of storage under it and you basically have to take the damned thing apart to get to anything down there.”
Jeff sighed again, obviously not happy with the answer. “That’s good, but I still don’t know what’s going on. Just a week or so ago you said you were going to start planning your new studio. That was why you started packing up all your art stuff in the trailer.”
That’d been right before the weird push had started.
“I think this is going to be good for me.” It wasn’t a lie even if it wasn’t an answer and didn’t make sense. “It feels right and my art is fairly portable. Who knows, I might even find some beautiful places to stop and explore for a while.”
Every part of me said leaving was the right thing to do, so I was going to follow the push.
I’d never questioned my instincts before, and I wasn’t about to start now. I was a dragon. This was something important and I wasn’t going to question that. We weren’t humans living a life where they planned everything and hoped for the best.
We were fucking magic…and I was going to follow where it led.
“Is this about what Erin’s mom told you?” As he straightened, Jeff finally looked less pouty and more like he was ready to accept that I was leaving. “She wasn’t sure about it.”
Erin’s mother was one of the best mages in Canada and I wasn’t going to argue with her.
“She said to follow the push.” She’d also given me a few hints that I wasn’t sure I believed, but they’d wait. “Even if it drove Erin crazy.”
That got a laugh from Jeff. “My wife is just a little upset that you’re leaving.”
“Because I’m the best brother-in-law ever.” I put up with their ridiculousness and she didn’t have to hide being a little from me. “But don’t worry, I can still be a long-distance bad influence.”