“I like her,” Tabitha observed drily. “It’s exhausting being the only one in the family who abuses you. I definitely needed reinforcements.” Apparently she’d already forgiven Kelly for the silverware incident.
Gabriel shook his head. “With a mother like that,” he said to Kelly, “How could I possibly have been expected to grow up normal?”
As they pushed their plates away, an attractive dragon couple who appeared to be in their late twenties strode up to them and greeted Gabriel.
“Kelly, this is my cousin Orion Garrison, and this is his much-too-good-for-him wife, Cadence,” Gabriel said. “Orion, Cadence, this is the woman I hoodwinked into getting engaged to me.”
Cadence rolled her eyes in sympathy. “I know how that goes,” she said, sliding into the seat next to Kelly.
“You do?”
Cadence laughed. “Kind of. I heard about the Fair Maiden thing. That was brilliant. My engagement wasn’t quite that dramatic; basically, I just hid out at Orion’s castle to avoid an arranged marriage, and then whoops, next thing you know I’m engaged, then I’m married and there’s four dragonlings.”
At Kelly’s startled look, she added, “Don’t worry, I’m apparently freakishly fertile. You probably won’t have multiple babies.”
Kelly glanced nervously at Gabriel and scooted her chair away from him. “Four?” she echoed faintly.
Gabriel shot Cadence a reproachful look. “You aren’t being particularly helpful,” he informed her. “I’m trying to convince her not to flee my castle, change her name and go in the Federal Witness Protection Program.”
“She’s known you for a few days and she’s still here.” Cadence shrugged. “I’d say she has a strong constitution. Or terrible taste. Either way, I think you’re good.”
“So other than basically kidnapping a bride, are you staying out of trouble, cousin?” Orion asked Gabriel.
Kelly snorted, halfway hiding it behind her hand.
Orion grinned at Gabriel. “So is that a no? You’ll never change, will you? Well, we’ll leave you to dinner. And congratulations.”
“Call me if you need help with the wedding planning,” Cadence said, handing Kelly a card with a phone number on it. Kelly thanked her and tucked it into her purse.
A few minutes later, a murmur ran through the crowd. Kelly looked up. Everyone was staring at the stage.
The ice dragons had stopped performing. They stalked over to the edge of the stage. The expression on their faces had changed; their eyes were blazing blue with anger.
“Is this part of the show?” Kelly whispered to Gabriel.
Before he could answer, the dragons began blasting Pandora’s family with streams of icy air.
The Maplethorpes leapt to their feet, screaming. Their chairs went flying. Their hair was frozen and dripping with icicles, their faces rimed with frost as they pushed through the crowd and ran for the door.
The ice dragons jumped off the stage, running after them, but the dragons in the crowd, already on their feet, rushed over and blocked them. There were fire dragons, there were ice dragons, there were clouds of steam and screams of rage.
Gabriel grabbed Kelly. “We need to get you out of here,” he said. “You’re not fireproof.” He quickly hustled her out of the front door, keeping a firm grip on her, protecting her from the screaming, hysterical crowd and from blasts of fire and ice. His family was close behind him.
When they got outside and crossed the street, they saw the Maplethorpes were out there, shivering, frantically combing icicles from their hair with their fingers.
“Where’s Evangeline?” Tabitha asked, looking around, worried.
They all looked around, and Kelly spotted her, walking out of the park towards them, alone. Her friends must have run off when everyone had run out of the restaurant screaming. If she had even been with anyone; she’d seemed like she just wanted to get out of the restaurant and sulk.
“Is she really safe out here by herself at night?” Kelly wondered. “What if someone tried to mug her?”
Gabriel snorted. “Please. I’d worry more about the muggers than I would Evangeline. She’d roast them like a pig on a spit.”
The Maplethorpes spotted Kelly and stormed over to her, only to be held back by several centurions who’d just arrived at the scene.
“You did this!” Pandora’s father shouted at Kelly as he pulled icicles from his hair. “You have powers! I’ve heard about you! You’re a witch!”
“I’m an empath, not a witch, and I most certainly did not,” Kelly protested.
Gabriel put his arm around her shoulders. “We should go home right now,” he said to her, and they all piled into their limousine, driven by one of his servants, and headed back to the castle.
