Page 32 of Red Dragon’s Flame

“I probably wasn’t supposed to either. Seriously though, Mikah’s the best. So you should let him take you to Al-Maddeiri. And if you think he’s hot and want to boink him or anything, that would be even better. I think he’s lonely. If he wasn’t stupid old, I’d probably have a crush on him myself.”

Devon felt her face get red.

Michelangela’s eyes grew wide, and she threw herself backwards on the bed. “You do think he’s hot! Awesome. You should totally do him. He hasn’t had a girlfriend in so long, I don’t even know if his dick works anymore.”

Devon couldn’t help it; she started giggling. “He’s not that old.”

“He’s a dragon. He’s like, two hundred or something, but even in human years he’s probably thirty. Totally old.”

Devon was still trying to process the thought of a two-hundred-year-old man who looked like Mikah, when the door opened and the dragon himself came in. He stopped dead when he saw Michelangela, hands on his hips.

“What part of ‘Don’t bother Devon’ did you not understand?”

“It’s okay,” Devon said quickly, although Michelangela didn’t seem noticeably upset by the rebuke. “We were already friends online. And we were having fun.”

Mikah’s eyebrows went up as he looked suspiciously from one of them to the other. Devon felt herself blushing again.

All he said was, “Okay. I talked to King Emon and he says I can bring you to Al-Maddeiri on a temporary basis, as long as we leave the damn flying monkeys at home.”

He’d obviously picked up Michelangela’s description of them. Devon wished making fun of them made them less scary, but it didn’t. “Happy to leave them behind.”

Mikah added more slowly, “You’re not going to like this next part, though. Emon takes threats to his territory very seriously. He wants to talk to you as soon as you get there, and he needs to know everything you know about whoever is after you, so he can put up the proper safeguards. Otherwise, the deal’s off.” He hesitated and said, “He’s really a good guy. He’s just responsible for a lot of people.”

Devon looked at Mikey, who was nodding. Apparently, she thought this King Emon could also be trusted. Mikah said, “Please don’t tell me you’re taking advice from a rebellious teenager.”

“She’s a very good judge of character,” Devon said. “She likes me, after all.”

Mikah rolled his eyes, and Michelangela made a dick-grabbing gesture while he wasn’t looking. Devon choked back a giggle.

To Mikah, she said, “I’ll tell him everything I can.”

“Then you’ll come?” His face lit up.

She nodded.

She just hoped that when King Emon found out how little she knew, he wouldn’t kick her out again.

Chapter 16

They went to Al-Maddeiri through a magical portal.

Devon had to repeat that to herself.

Magical.

Portal.

The dragons created it on the roof of the penthouse, like a tornado lying on its side. They walked into the wide end and were enveloped by swirly gray clouds, only there was no wind and no flying debris. Also no wicked witch, and no Toto. Best of all, no flying monkeys.

Just mist and a feeling of being nowhere at all.

Devon couldn’t swear that they didn’t end up in Oz, though. They came out on the roof of a castle—her and Mikah and Michelangela and a tall chestnut-haired werewolf named Brock. A really big castle with acres of roof and wings and turrets and courtyards, mostly in shadow because it was nighttime.

And there were people—not crowds, but too many for her taste. At least a dozen, surrounding their little party and separating her and Mikah.

One of them—a man with dark hair and a harried expression—pounced on Michelangela, talking nonstop about why the hell did she always have to walk straight into danger, she was a trouble magnet, she’d Ubered off to a murder scene and almost gotten killed twice.

“On rooftops,” Mikey put in. “Both times. Are you sure we should be standing out here?”