The Moorigad Dragon: The Age of the Hybrid, Book 1

"In Deep" Chapter One

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~~In Deep~~

A flurry of heat particles swirled deep within Kyra's throat. They sparked and sizzled like a half-witted science experiment gone awry. Her nose twitched in response to the tickle.

For an endless moment she admired the profile of the man standing beside her, and held the fury within her at bay. She'd known Sebastian less than a year, yet it felt like a millennium. Only he had shown her patience and understanding where her family had shown none. He'd taken the time to work with her on balance and inner peace, help calm her rage. It was because of him she was still sane, still walking the line of indecision.

Her skin shivered with heat, set in motion by his enticing form. A distraction from her practice she neither needed nor minded. But I should mind, she reminded herself. She released the fever from her lungs in one long, slow breath. It exploded from her lips in hellfire. Tongues of seething flame lashed out at the crisp air, the embers seeking new fuel, until a sharp widening of her lips killed the blaze. Kyra never tired of the art of fire-breathing. She could practice for hours.

Sebastian raised a brow in an oh-really kind of way, yet barely looked in her direction. No attempt was made to hide the smile flirting at his lips and he continued to flip through the deck of cards he held. "I've seen you do better," he said with a tease in his tone.

His words meant to challenge, not insult. Of that she was confident. There was nothing in all the worlds she was more sure about than Sebastian. He was the best friend she'd ever had, possibly the only one, and she trusted him with everything about herself. Well, most everything. Possibly a lot. Enough, anyway.

She'd told him more than anyone, little as it actually was. They were bonded through their unspoken runaway status, secret species prestige, and parental pain. He made life at Mystic's Carnival feel like some place she might want to stay long term. Like a real home. Something she'd never really had before.

Her parents never made her feel comfortable enough or welcome enough. Always pushing her to make the choice―the choice they wanted. And each of them wanted something different. Kyra remained unresolved on the decision that would soon have to be made. She'd been told so often to pick a side that it jumbled in her head like debris trapped in a spinning typhoon. She despised both her parents for it, and every member of their clans. It was their fault she was trapped having to make a choice, their fault she didn't belong. Running away was the best thing she'd ever done because it had led her to Sebastian.

A silent, happy-to-play-along half-chuckle rumbled through her chest. She lifted the whiskey bottle, took another swig, coating the inside of her mouth for further fire practice. She used the leather sleeve of her jacket as a napkin, wiping it across her mouth, then turned to face him.

Sebastian hadn't moved in the past thirty minutes. He stood in the same spot, leaning against the same stone pylon, playing nonstop with the same deck of tarot cards. His gaze would wander to the wide river several yards away, then back to the deck.

"Of course I've done better," Kyra said, "but we weren't sitting around Normville with our thumbs up our aft ends at the time, were we? So it's not like I was trying that hard." She swirled the bottle of shimmery liquid and scanned the landscape for the umpteenth time. "Are we someplace in America? Human cities have begun to all look the same to me. I prefer realms where we're free to be ourselves. Places of magic, like the carnival."

The cards in Sebastian's hands stopped flipping. He turned, looked straight through her, a sense of vexation in his dark eyes. Kyra's chest squeezed, bruising her ego in one quick, stumble-fly reaction. It hurt. Physically hurt. Her hand clutched at the cement behind her, but the pain evaporated with the blink of his eye―that quick, that simple. As if it never were.