Chapter 13
Edith needed air. Not the polite, open-a-window-and-pretend-it-counts kind, but real air and space… and distance. Somewhere she could think without Jessica’s worried eyes on her, without a room full of people trying not to stare at her like she might either explode or vanish again.
The beach had seemed like the safest option.
It was close enough for safety, quiet enough to be able to think, and far enough that she wouldn’t be bugged at this present time.
So now she stood at the edge of the water, bare feet sinking slightly into the damp sand as the tide rolled in and out, brushing against her toes.
Edith exhaled slowly. “Okay,” she murmured. “We’re fine. Everything is completely under control.” A wave washed over her feet. “That was a lie,” she added.
Her arms folded across her chest as she stared out at the sea, the wind tugging at her hair, her hair, that still felt strange, still too much, still wrong in a way she hadn’t adjusted to yet.
Everything felt different like this, she felt too exposed and too aware.
But it was the relief she felt that was the part she hadn’t expected. She flexed her fingers slightly, watching them move.
“I can’t go back,” she said quietly. “Not to them or to being the small dragon again.”
Her shoulders shifted slightly, as if her body remembered wings that weren’t there right now.
Her real wings, her true form. Her rather large true Dragon form, the one that could smite villages and fry arseholes. Not that she had ever smote a village… the temptation had been there, but she just never had the chance.
She hadn’t shifted like that in so long, hadn’t allowed herself to. It had obviously been too risky, but now the idea of folding herself back down into something so small felt wrong.
“So,” she muttered. “What are my options?”
Should she stay or run again? Or even hide? But this time not near a magical portal that messes with your own magics. That would mean leaving everything she had come to love behind…
Her stomach twisted at that last one. “No,” she said firmly. “I don’t want to.”
Not yet, not unless she had to, not unless there was no other choice. Edith lifted her head again to look out over the horizon, the view always seemed to calm her. She sighed loudly “I’ll figure something out,” she said.
A faint tingling brushed along her back and Edith frowned slightly. Shivering ever so slightly. It was like someone had walked on her grave. “Okay, that’s new.”
She shifted slightly, rolling her shoulders as if that would ease it… only it didn’t. Instead, the feeling grew. Her body reacted before her mind caught up and Edith turned fast.
“Who’s there?” she snapped.
Her voice carried across the quiet beach, harsher than she intended, and her heart kicked up immediately.
Her spidey senses where bang on, even after being magically forced into a shift she didn’t want.
But there, on the far side of the beach, behind a rock, was someone watching her.
She sniffed a little, catching their scent.
It was almost familiar, yet she couldn’t quite put her finger on where from.
Then the figure stepped out, a male, and Edith’s breath hitched.
For a split second, fear locked her in place.
Then she breathed, the exhale taking the fear with it.
She stepped back without thinking, the water pulling at her feet as she retreated slightly up the shore.
“Don’t,” she said quickly, holding a hand out instinctively. “Don’t come any closer.”
Hunter.
Instead of moving he just stood there, his head tilted as he watched her, which somehow made it worse. Because stillness like that, controlled and measured. Well, that was dangerous.
“Who are you?” she demanded, her voice wavering just slightly despite her best effort.
She took another step back. If she took a few more steps she would be able to make a break for the safety of the nursery. The sand shifted under her feet. Her body felt unsteady, too new, too unfamiliar, but adrenaline pushed through the worst of it.
“Answer me,” she snapped.
Edith swallowed hard, her gaze never leaving him. This wasn’t just a random encounter on a quiet beach, this was the beginning of something she had been running from for a very long time.