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However, her pack had been confiscated and searched, her clothes destined for the wash before the rest of her belongings were returned to her, minus anything that could be used as a weapon. Sayonara pink plastic lady razor and waterproof plasma lighter. The only item that really mattered was her knife, currently in the possession of Goliath. It was the only thing she had of her father’s that held any meaning.
When the servant left, Jessie snatched a pastry and shoved it in her mouth and then glanced behind June to where Orik stood tensely, his arms crossed over his massive chest. He stared back, his dark expression unreadable. She was still seeing those iridescent smoky colors around both him and June—they were fluid, morphing like bubbles in the wind with their every movement, yet vaporous at the same time. Jessie wanted to reach out and swipe her fingers through one to see if it had substance, which made her question her own sanity.
She was fairly certain she wasn’t dreaming any of this—she’d performed the pinch test…several times. “So I guess that was adragonthat ripped my ship open like a tin can?” Still, her tone was dubious.
“Yourship?” Orik muttered, raising an eyebrow.
“I basically colonized that ship, so yeah, it’s mine now.” She stabbed the table with her finger. “Maritime law.”
He grated, “I’m afraid we don’t recognize human laws here.”
June cleared her throat, getting back on track. “Yes. That was a dragon. It was Orik, in fact.” She gave him a sidelong glance of rebuke. “Sorry if he scared you.”
“Bullshit.” Jessie leaned back in her chair, regarding Orik with a dubious look. Back on that ship, he’d been standing on the other side of the hatch only seconds before thatcreaturehad shredded it like cheese. Was she expected to believe they were one and the same? “You justpoof, turn into a dragon? Just like that?” she snapped her fingers.
His gaze went cold. “I doonapoof.”
“What? Too macho?”
He just gave her a look that saidwhat do you think?
She had to admit, the guy was a ripe specimen, all muscle and oozing sexuality. She could imagine the wordsdon’t fuck with metattooed on his hulking chest. The prick taunted her with her Ka-Bar visibly clipped to his belt. She wanted it back. For the umpteenth time he caught her eyeing it. Each time she did, he tapped the sheath as if to mock her, just as he did now. She sent him a caustic look.
“Would it help if you saw him transform?” June offered. There was kindness in her voice, an honesty that was hard to deny.
At her words, Orik dragged his gaze from Jessie for the first time and stared at his queen incredulously. “I’ll no’ leave you alone with her, Your Majesty. No’ even for the time it takes me to shift.” He rubbed the spot near his shoulder where Jessie had shot him. Blood stained his shirt still, but the wound was presumably in the process of healing. Accelerated healing—another tidbit of info they wanted her to swallow.
And she might have to.
Each time she caught a glimpse through the bullet hole in his shirt, she thought the wound had changed, becoming less red. She looked again now, and sure enough, the flesh was just a little darker than the rest of his skin.
June sighed. “Okay, thenI’lltransform.”
That snapped Jessie’s attention back, her disbelief ratcheting. “You? But you said you were human.”
“I am. Well, Iwas.” June floundered for a moment, blushing, which caused Jessie’s eyes to narrow. “To be honest, I don’t know what I am anymore. Not really…at a biological level, I mean. I didn’t mention this before because I know this is all a lot to take in and—well, okay, here goes.” She inhaled a long breath and let it out before resuming. “A few weeks ago, I died…then I was brought back to life by a witch who used the power of a dragon’s soul. So…the side effect is that now I can turn into a dragon…” June bit her bottom lip, looking painfully aware of how farfetched that sounded.
Jessie leapt up and began to pace, her blood pressure rising. “Awitchbrought you back fromthe dead. Like, with magic.”Ridiculous!“Come on! I’m being punked.” She laughed without humor and wagged her finger at them. “You almost had me. If this is some fucked-up reality show, I am going to sue the shit out of you. I didn’t sign up for this.” Yet she knew it wasn’t. She’d lived on that ship for weeks. Alone. Terrified. Eventually resigned that she might die like that, with no one ever knowing what had happened to her.
She realized her anxiety was at its max when the room appeared to be shuddering with her body.
June and Orik glanced around as though seeing it, too, but surely they were reacting to something else. A noise, maybe…because they had super hearing, too.
As she forced herself to relax, her vision returned to normal. June put her hands up in a calming gesture and then stood as though to approach, but Orik levered his arm straight out, blocking her path.
“Yeah,” Jessie huffed. “You’d better stay back, because I’mthisclose to knocking someone’s teeth out.”
Orik’s expression darkened further and he shot her a murderous look. “Threaten me all you like, but doona threaten my queen.”
“Holy cow, Goliath, take it down a notch. I’m not actually going to hit anyone.”
“It’s fine, Orik,” June assured. “She’s just frightened. It’s understandable. I was too at first.”
The tension didn’t leave Orik as he continued to glower at Jessie.
“Here. Let me show you.” June gestured to a door that led to a huge balcony. “Seeing is believing, right?”
Jessie glanced between Orik and June. “You’re going to change into a dragon? For real?”
