Fucking.
Hurt.
Apparently, I completely underestimated the tiny human or her desperation to find Cameron.
Me.
She’s looking for me.
I could have just told her. I could have been honest with her and I would have spared myself from a lot of fucking pain, but no. I couldn’t do that, could I? I couldn’t just be blunt and honest. I had to be the winner in this little spat. I had to try to prove my worth as a dragon.
She tricked you. We like her.
Shut up, dragon.
Shut up.
Shut up.
Shut up.
After a minute, the blinding pain begins to fade and I can actually open my eyes and see. Of course, the clearing is empty. She managed to take the baby and her bag of cats. Who carries cats through a forest, anyway? Why would she carry a bunch of kittens around? That’s one thing I should have asked before this entire ordeal went to hell in a handbasket.
We must find her.
We’re in a relatively safe part of the forest, but it really is entirely relative. It’s mostly safe for me, but I’m a dragon. A monster. A beast.
The little human is…
Well, she’s little.
And anything could happen.
We have to find her.
With a growl, I leap into the air and shift. She couldn’t have gone far. Not on foot. Not in these woods. Even if she didn’t have my niece with her, I’d go after this woman because she’s in a vulnerable state and she’s going to be so focused on running away from me that she won’t be paying attention about what she’s running toward.
Hell.
She could be running straight into hell.
I don’t know.
I don’t spend a lot of time in this part of the forest. No one does, really. With a haven like Fablestone, we don’t often wander away. Why would we? Everything we need is there.
Unless you’re David.
This whole thing started with him.
He was the one who was stolen away.
He was the one who had been captured.
If our Fablestone scout hadn’t seen him being taken into the Lucky facility, we never would have known what happened to him. All we ever would have known was that he went out and then he didn’t come back. Maybe Ellie would have wondered if he was walking away from their relationship. Maybe she would have thought there was someone else for him. Perhaps, though, she would have realized it, anyway.
My sister is the bravest woman I’ve ever met until today.
Today, a contender takes her place.