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Keon’s smile smushed back into a straight line.
“Thought so,” Mahon said. “Helena. A few more times, if you please, then we can go home.”
Keon backed away and shifted back into dragon form.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said.
“It’s easier this way,” he said, somewhat cryptic.
“Don’t get too cocky.” Mahon warned me.
Deep breath, pull the ribbons, gather it tight,flip.
Box clamped shuthard. I startled at how fast it happened. Fluttered my wings to stay upright rather than topple over.
“Very good,” Mahon said while Keon rumbled approval. “Back again.”
Keon shifted into human form. I gathered myself, squirmed a bit, andflip. Which also involved me sort of dropping onto the ground. Oof. That last step was a doozy.
“Is it supposed to feel... tricky?” I asked Mahon the last time through.
Mahon nodded. “Remember how our magic works: we don’t transform, we adjust what already exists. It will take time for the new order to be established.”
“Or, since you are chaos,” Keon added, “that you are giving form to something.”
“Even humans are beholden to order,” Mahon told Keon.
“No, no, makes sense.” I could live with it being tricky. I just wanted to make sure that wasnormal. Because normal was a precious and rare commodity in my life, and I was down to be normal.
Nine
Success euphoria kicked in on the way home. It was like taking my final final FINAL exams and certifications and getting that letter that I hadpassed.
Auryn had been with me for that one. He’d picked me up and twirled me around and fucked me against the kitchen counter and I’d made bad jokes about the unripe bananas in front of my face.
I caught Keon’s hand before he let go of mine. “Come up.”
He looked at the building, then back at me, blue eyes turbulent. A few drakes walking down the street cast glances our way. Mahon headed on up the stairs.
I sighed. Fine. “Auryn and Akoni won’t be home for a while. They’re pulling shifts.”
Keon’s gentle pull against me eased, and he followed me into the roost. I led him upstairs. “You haven’t seen the third floor, have you?”
“I’ve never been anywhere but the bottom floor.”
“We haven’t finished decorating.” Auryn had about as much interest in interior decorating as he had had topside, which was to say, none at all. His room at A’ka’s had been like a prison cell. “Most of this is a product of Akoni nesting.”
“Akoninesting?” Keon asked.
“Auryn and I, when we had our apartment topside, were total college dorm room bums. We had all this mis-matched beater furniture. You’ve seen his room at A’ka’s?”
“Yes.”
“Think that. But a whole apartment.”
“Willingly?”
I laughed. “Come on, Keon. He was grunt status at the hospital, and I was working my first Adult Engineer job. We didn’t have a couch when we first moved in—he had a beanbag—and we were likewe should get a couch. Adults have couches, right? Then we realized how much work it would be to choose a couch. So we went to a website with a lot of couches for sale and used a random number generator to choose one.”
