Dragons Do It Grumpier by Gemma Cates

Author:Gemma Cates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gemma Cates

12

CONOR

Kira and I managed to get to her apartment without encountering Zelda, but I wasn’t sure avoidance was the best solution.

Unfortunately, Kira’s grandmother had kept her in the dark about her magical lineage for some reason. Whatever it was, she wouldn’t like me showing up and undermining her choice to remain silent on the topic. Or worse, busting open the bigger grand deception that magic was real and it existed everywhere around us.

“Pickleball,” Kira said as she walked up the steps on the side of the garage.

“Pickleball?” I had a vague understanding of the game, but I didn’t see the relevance.

“You looked worried about Mimzy. She’s at pickleball. I wasn’t sure she’d go, what with her being all stressed out about my unplanned overnight with you. But it seems she did.”

Saved from a confrontation with a dishonest and protective matriarch by pickleball. That was new.

But I was willing to accept Zelda’s absence for the reprieve it was. I was leaving. And as ill as it sat with me that Zelda was hiding Kira’s true nature and history from her, she obviously loved her granddaughter. There was a story there that I was neither owed nor had time to delve into, given the transitory role I played in Kira’s life.

Kira opened the door and was about to enter her apartment when I stopped her and stepped in front of her.

There was magic inside.

Had I misread the situation? Kira was unaware of my nature, that I didn’t doubt. But perhaps she was schooled in some low-level magical art? Was a practitioner of some variety?

“What’s wrong?” Hands on my back, she peeked around me.

“I heard something.” A half-truth, since I’d felt something. I tried to get a better read and discovered there was more than magic inside her home. There was a magical presence inside.

“I’m sure it’s just Donald.” She tried to move past me, but I stopped her.

“Donald?” But even as I asked, I saw the orange ball of fur stalking through the studio apartment. “You have a cat.”

Pets and magic were an unpredictable combination. Some magical beings imbued their pets with magic. Dex always had. He had a horse that had lived into its sixties, and even then only died because it received a lethal wound in battle.

No one knew why it happened, and in Dex’s case at least, it wasn’t intentional, just a side effect of living in close quarters with him. Centuries ago, we spent more time with our horses than with our family. Today, I suspected Dex had a dog in his life that was enjoying exceptional health.

But a cat?

I’d never met a cat who’d been the recipient of such a gift, but on closer inspection, Donald revealed himself to be exactly that: a feline touched by magic.

Since Kira’s magic was barely detectable, it had to be her grandmother who’d influenced the creature.

A fact she confirmed with her next words. “He’s not mine. He’s my grandmother’s.” She tapped my shoulder. “Can I go in now? I’m hungry, and I really want to shower before I change.

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