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This night felt very similar. A monumental shift just happened, and I needed to decide how to navigate it.
“Both of them?” I asked, the words tasting like spoiled milk in my mouth.
Maddox nodded. The blue scales on his face glittered under the warm, flickering light from the gas lamps.
“How?” was my next question. Anger still bubbled up in my chest, but it was being tempered by guilt. Maddox wasn’t the only one holding a secret about our case, so how could I really be mad at him?
Still—I was pretty fucking pissed.
“I found them before you and I met in that attic. Trust me, I would have told you right from the jump if the stakes weren’t so high.”
I looked into his blue eyes, searching for any kernel of truth. It was difficult not to melt under the ice dragon’s gaze, even when all I wanted to do was smack him for being so dumb. We were supposed to be working on this as a team. Keeping some of the most crucial information from me didn’t feel very team-like. I propped my elbows on the bar top and rubbed the bridge of my nose. I picked up my empty glass and swirled it. Maddox read my mind, uncorking the whiskey bottle and splashing a hefty amount back into my cup.
“I really wish you had told me sooner,” I said before drinking down the whiskey in another single gulp. It was already beginning to warm up my fingertips, the alcohol working its way through my body and making this situation feel far less anger-inducing than it had initially been.
“I’m so sorry, Caleb.” He reached across the bar and grabbed my hand. “I want you to know that I’m not keeping anything else from you, nor will I ever.”
And yet I was keeping something from him. Now, that wasn’t fair. I had to tell him about my past with the Crimson Ring. He needed to know. Had to?—
He leaned across the bar and kissed me. All thoughts burned away to ash as his lips found mine, his hand going to the back of my neck. I pressed against the edge of the bar, diving headfirst into the kiss. His tongue swirled around mine, his taste filling me, erasing all of the anger and doubt I had been feeling moments before. His kiss had that power. Or maybe he knew how to work with illusions better than I did? Wouldn’t be too difficult, considering I could barely keep a spell up and working for longer than an hour.
“I’m sorry,” he said again, his nose touching mine, our breath mingling. I kissed him back.
“It’s okay. I mean it. I understand why you did it.”
Tell him. Tell him. Just say it.
Maddox smiled so wide that a dimple appeared on his right cheek. I rubbed his cheek with my thumb. He must have shaved this morning, his dark five-o’clock stubble just now breaking through, scratchy under my fingertip.
“Do you want to see it? My horde room?”
His question derailed all thoughts of my confession. Everyone knew a dragon’s horde room was the ultimate in privacy and secrecy. From my brief time studying dragons in school, I remembered learning that each one collected something different, keeping their collections inside magically altered rooms that were extremely difficult to get into without prior permission. There had been horde break-ins in the past, but most times, it was easier to rob from a museum than it was to rob from a dragon.
“I’d love to,” I answered. My heart started beating a little faster. Why was I nervous about this?
“Come this way,” Maddox said, walking around the bar and holding his hand out for me to grab. I did without even second-guessing it. He grabbed the black bag holding the toy he’d bought earlier (because of course he wasn’t going to leave that behind) and walked me out of the speakeasy, the statue rising back into place and the stone wall stitching shut again as we walked down the hallway and toward his room. He opened the two tall double doors and allowed me to walk into his bedroom first.
It was a sanctuary. Dark drapes, dark black bedsheets on a low bed with a plush green headboard, dim lighting, a stunning piece of art hung up behind the bed. It was perfect, but it wasn’t the room I wanted to see.
We crossed the bedroom and walked through an arching doorway. His bathroom was directly ahead of us, but to our right was a door that was barely noticeable. He placed his hand on the handle, and a lock clicked open. I immediately started to wonder what kind of things I’d find behind the door. What would Maddox be collecting? It was something that I had found myself thinking about on a few other occasions, my thoughts always going back to something sexual. Vibrators, maybe? Bottles of lube?
