Page 6 of Snapdragon

“Well… Look, Flora. This Karl guy has been going at it, and the label believes that they have found their golden ticket, as it were.”

I’m glad I’m sitting, the pastel hues of my living space blurring together as the room spins.

“No.” I tell him, brokering no argument. That doesn’t stop him though.

“All it would be is a few dates. A publicity stunt. Something the label can control without actively looking like they’re contributing to it. We’ll find a way to break it off at that point and then we can move on with our lives.”

I sigh. “What do you know about him? Sebastian, I mean.”

“He’s apparently a very big name in the Monster music industry. He’s on his fifth album, got a few platinum records.” Well that explains his attitude then.

“What about him, though?” I push on. “What kind of Monster is he?”

“Oh, um, I didn’t think to ask.”

“What? So I’m just supposed to publicly associate myself with him, and you didn’t think to ask?!” I am struggling to calm my breathing now, my foot tapping on the rug.

“I’ll find out, don’t worry. We’ll get through this together.”

“You won’t have to do anything,” I counter. “I’m the one who will have to be near him, Frank. This isn’t what I signed up for when we met. I just want to make my music and perform, that’s all.”

“Don’t be naive, Flora. Sometimes record labels will have their artists do stunts like this for PR. It happens all the time, it’s part of the job.” I can hear his exasperation in his voice.

“But not with Monsters!” I had expected something like this to happen at some point, but with an actor or something. A Human actor.

“I know, you’re right. I’m being insensitive. This is a big ask.” At least he was finally seeing reason. “Think about it, OK? I won’t rush you on this one like the photo shoot.”

“Lucky me,” I say, hanging up.

I toss my phone on the couch, heading back out to the balcony to finish my coffee. Now I needed to come up with a good plan to get out of this.

Chapter 4

I hold out the door to a man with a takeout bag and a tray of smoothies before I can actually make it in to Rosie’s café. I usually avoid the busy lunch rush, choosing to grab a late breakfast most days.

There’s a hectic energy surrounding Rosie as she flits from table to table. I grab a seat tucked away in the back to try and avoid the crowd.

I hadn’t planned on coming here today, I had wanted to spend the day in solitude. But after that call with Frank, I needed my best friend. Not that she is going to have any time for me right at this moment, which is fine. I can have lunch while I wait for her to be free.

I order a Buddha bowl from Farrow when she swings by, her bubblegum pink hair blending in perfectly with the surrounds.

My phone dings with a text from Frank:

He’s a Dragon Shifter. That’s all I can get.

A Dragon Shifter?! He can’t mean… does he… become a Dragon?

I think back to yesterday again, imagining his form. He did have those scales, and he was huge. I can’t imagine how the whole shifting thing would work though.

Intrigued, I pull my laptop out of my tote bag. I’ve never even tried to search much about Monsters online before. Where to even start?

“Dragon Shifters,” I mutter to myself softly as I type it into the search bar. I get a pop up immediately, warning me that there is sensitive content. I hesitate, before clicking through to see the results.

The first result is All You Need To Know About Dragon Shifters, so I click through. I barely scan the first few sentences before I realize that this is in fact very sensitive content. Whoever wrote this blog post is sexually interested in dragon shifters.

I click back before I can read too much. I scroll through the next few results before finding an excerpt from an academic text. Perfect, this is more what I’m looking for.

The contents within may not be factually correct, as much evidence is based on unverifiable eye-witness accounts.