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“Without a doubt,” I replied. “No one’s born knowing how to hate someone. As much as babies scare me, I can admit they’re completely pure of heart.”
Maddox chuckled, cocked his head. “Babies scare you?”
“Madds, everything scares me.” I grinned, watching the smile grow on Maddox. He had some resemblances to Damien, in his strong jaw and brows, but he had more differences too. The roundness in his cheeks, the shorter hair, the bigger nose, the permanent five o’clock shadow. He was thicker too, like a big icy teddy bear you wanted to hug if he’d let you get close enough. “Point is, I think it’s easier to believe the good in people than it is to believe the worst. If they show that those are their true colors, then fine, believe them. But don’t default to ‘they’re this so they must feel this’. Let people surprise you.”
Maddox squinted those bottomless blue eyes of his. “I like that. I believe it too. Maybe not all the time, but it is nice to be reminded.” He motioned toward the door with an empty water bottle. “Ready? I don’t want to hold you back from hanging with Damien.”
“You’re not holding me back, Madds. You’re the reason why I can do ten pull-ups in a row without bursting into tears.”
He laughed, walking with me out of the gym and into the hall. We were toward the front of the castle, the sounds of people hanging out in the foyer drifting up the stairs. “You’ve been really improving since you got here. I’m proud of you. Really.”
“It honestly feels like it’s been years since I met you guys at the Magic Box. I keep having to tell myself that it really hasn’t.”
“And even in that short amount of time, you’ve come a really long way.”
I smiled, never great at taking compliments. I decided to just accept this one. Not bat it away, not add an asterisk to it. Just accept it. “Thanks, Maddox.”
That’s when the big icy bear of a dragon surprised me, opening his arms and wrapping me up into a tight hug. “I love you. Like you were one of our own.”
I hugged him back. “I love you too, Madds.” And in that moment, I felt like I was hugging a brother. My brother. I felt the love as if he were in the room with me, my twin.
I managed to wipe away the tears before we broke apart.
This—this was an emotion that was written into our very souls, down into the very strands of DNA that built us up. Love wasn’t learned, it was known from the start.
“How’d training go today?” Damien had just come in from somewhere, a thick tome of a book held at his side as the main doors to the castle shut loudly behind him. I was heading to the front gardens where I figured I’d scroll through my phone and get some fresh air before the storm hit, but this diversion was just as welcome. He kicked off his sneakers and placed them into the shoe rack, partially hidden by a potted fern draping its thick leaves.
It was a tiny, meaningless gesture. A man who like tidiness and cleanliness. But he wore a button-up shirt that was undone just enough to show the ruby red patch of permanent scales on Damien’s chest, reminding me that this silly little human thing of putting your shoes neatly into a rack was being done by an all-powerful dragon who’s size eleven Nikes wouldn’t even fit on a single one of his talons, a dragon who could roast me like a pig with a single breath.
Although, if I were being honest, I’d much rather him baste me instead.
“It was good,” I said, Damien wrapping me up with his free arm and giving me a tight side-hug. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact date or time we started to greet each other like this, but I could say that I liked it. A lot. “Madds is putting me through it. But it’s actually kind of fun. Maybe not the first few times, I thought I was going to collapse and die after the second crunch. But now, it’s not all that bad.” I lift my arm and flex. Although I could admit there was still some work to be done, Damien’s green gaze told me the complete opposite. He grinned, licked his lips.
Maybe he did want to roast me?
“What about you? What official dragon business were you getting up to?” I asked.
We walked through the open and airy foyer, past the curving staircase and underneath the domed ceiling that depicted the rainbow flight of dragons in such vivid detail, each one flying around a bright sun. If I had been forced to choose which room in the castle was my favorite, I’d have to say this one. Sometimes I stood here for way longer than I needed to, my neck craned back as I gawked at the beautiful scene.
