Page 212 of Nobody Told Me Thrift Shops Sell Stolen Dragon Heirlooms

“Obviously.”

“And I’m grateful.”

“But?”

“But this is something I need to do with my mother.”

Quinn understood faster than most people would have. This wasn’t me shutting her out. It was me needing a private moment with my mother and trusting her enough to believe she would still be there when I came back.

“Okay,” she said.

Max lifted his head and watched the goodbye closely, prepared to intervene if necessary. He had recovered quickly from what had happened at Dimitris’s estate, mostly by sleeping hard, eating harder, and accepting praise as his due.

The new dragon bed I had ordered for her apartment had arrived two days ago. Quinn had objected to the cost and the size, but Max had sniffed it, then settled down to sleep.

“I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” I said.

“Take your time.”

“I don’t want to take my time.”

I stepped closer. She rose on her toes before I could bend fully and kissed my cheek. It was gentle and chaste. It affected me more, somehow, than when she kissed me like she wanted to take me apart.

“I’m proud of you,” she said.

The words found some unguarded place in my chest. “You don’t know what I’m going to do yet.”

“Yes, I do.” Her thumb brushed over my jaw. “You’re going to show up. That’s usually the important part.”

I covered her hand with mine.

For a moment, I allowed myself to stand there, in her narrow entryway, with the woman I loved touching my face and her dog monitoring us from a bed too large for the room. It wasn’t the life I had imagined. It was less orderly. Less defensible. It required room for another person’s habits, fears, jokes, family, pride, and preferences about thrifted lamps.

I wanted all of it.

“I should go,” I said.

“You should.”

Neither of us moved.

She smiled. “Besides, Avery is taking me on a girl’s date tonight.”

“Avery called it that?”

“She called it a post-heist decompression meal with mandatory margaritas, but essentially, yes.”

“I see.” I kissed her deeply because leaving without doing so had become impossible, savoring her taste of coffee and mint toothpaste.

Max huffed.

“Yes,” Quinn told him. “Very dramatic.”

I went up to the roof before I could let myself stay.

I shifted on the roof of Quinn’s building after making certain no one watched from the adjacent apartments. New York received most miracles with annoyance if they interfered with parking, but even here a dragon at dawn could draw attention.

When I rose above the city, the day opened around me in silver and blue. The buildings fell away beneath me. The rivers caught light. Clouds dragged their shadows over bridges and traffic, over the indifferent rush of human life continuing below.