Page 2 of Dragon Heir

I really am going to kill my sister someday. Probably not today, but some dark day I will snap.

“You should have everything you need for hotcakes, honey,” Mother says as she unloads a cooking iron onto the counter like it’s made of glass. She’s dabbing at her eyes, and when I head over to help her, tears start rolling down her cheeks. “I hope you won’t mind me saying that even though I’m glad you got accepted, I wish it was a little closer. Our village is so far away. I can’t believe you’re all grown up and leaving me already.”

“It’s not like I’ll be gone forever,” I say. “I’ll be home for holidays and summer break and…”

Mother nods, tears flowing more freely now. I can’t help but feel like it’s goodbye, no matter how fiercely I promise her it’s not. Which is ridiculous. Of course it’s not goodbye. They’re my parents.

“Mother thinks you’re going to meet some guy here and get married,” Sadie says as she leans into the counter. “I’m hoping for something more along the lines a fae lord whisking you off to keep you in his sex dungeon and torture you with pleasure until you expire mid-climax.”

“Oh, Sadie.” Mother sniffs hard and swats her with a spatula. “Leave your poor sister alone.”

“Hey, it could happen,” Sadie insists. “My friend said the Wild Hunters come through here. Then she won’t even have to seduce Pax to lose her chastity belt.”

“I don’t wear a chastity belt!” I protest.

“Ignore your sister,” Mother says to me. “You’ll have that experience when you’re ready.”

“I’m so glad this is a family conversation,” I mutter. “Should I break out the board games and we can decide who I have sex with over a game of runestones?”

“Just don’t get pregnant,” Father says as he passes.

“Seriously?” I widen my eyes at Mother. “Him too?”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say don’t get pregnant if you’re thinking of taking that step with Pax,” Mother says, smiling fondly at the thought of having my bestie for a son-in-law.

“Mother!” I look around. “He could be arriving at any minute. You’re worse than Sadie.”

She bats a hand in the air. “No, I’m not. Sadie is the one who told everyone. I just want grandkids with your color-changing eyes and his mischievous smile and…”

I walk away, praying to the dragon queen that my mother will stop talking about Pax and my potential babies before my lifelong platonic, best friend arrives to the dwelling that I rented for us.

Scratch that. The pile of excrement I rented for us that is somewhat shaped like a dwelling.

Knowing Pax, he won’t even notice so long as he has a bed, but if he does, he’ll give me hell for the remainder of our lives. The thought of Pax makes my chest feel a little tight, though I’m not exactly sure why.

Except for a couple short, casual letters that he took way too long to return, we haven’t talked at all this summer. It bothered me more than it should—so much that I started worrying that I had some type of unhealthy co-dependency with my friend. But then I realized it was more that I was mourning that fact that no matter what the future holds, we’re never going to be able to go back to the village school or be those kids again.

Pax’s distance is the first sign of that.

Unloading my furniture and crates takes shorter than I expected, and soon I’m standing with my family in front of the hovel, and they’re closing up the borrowed carriage.

“We can wait for Pax to arrive,” Father says as he rocks on his heels.

If they wait for Pax to arrive, they’ll return the dog-and-carriage late to the werewolf pack outside the village. People say that they’re a kind and generous pack, as far as werewolf packs go, but if you hear stories about humans that cross packs, you know. As I told my father, we didn’t need it. I could have hitched a ride with only a duffle. Plenty of students arrive that way, but Father wouldn’t have it.

When I insist that I’m fine here waiting for Pax, though, the tension around Father’s eyes smooths out. Mother holds onto me and cries until tears are tumbling out of my eyes too.

When Sadie hugs me goodbye, she whispers, “You need to finally make a move, sis, and quick. Some girl will snatch Pax up the second he steps on campus. My friend’s sister told me her beau went off to finishing school, and poof! Some other girl stole him away. It happens to all the hot ones.”

“Seriously, Sadie. Pax and I aren’t like that,” I say, even though my chest feels suddenly hot, and my gut is clenched into a ball. Poof, taken away from me. The very idea makes me want to vomit, but I roll my eyes and pull away. “He’s my best friend.”

I can’t deny he has charisma. He’s also a royal pain in the ass, especially when he chases off guys who try to flirt with me by telling them he’s my boyfriend… Directly before making out with some other girl the second the threat of me paying attention to someone besides him is over.

“Your best friend who’s in love with you, dimwit. And you’re in love with him. You’re both just dumber than dung,” Sadie says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“No, we’re not, Sadie.” I shake my head and sigh. “We’ve been besties since we were kids. That’s all we are.” I was going to say that he’s like my brother, but even I can’t manage that big of a lie. I’m pretty sure that when a sister cuddles up to her brother, it doesn’t make her lady bits tingle the way mine do every time Pax holds me close, or tickles me, or sneaks up behind me and scoops me into his arms to make me yelp with surprise, or…

The day is cooling as the mule-dogs trot off down the road, though the humidity still makes my pores prickle with sweat. The unmarked wagon rolls slowly down the street, and I sit on the porch, watching my family retreat from my life. They turn the corner, and I can’t help but feel something final about it, which is ridiculous and just plain melodramatic.