Chapter One
When you’re a dragon slayer, it’s rare to think that your life could ever be normal. And this isn’t some LARP where I run around the woods with friends playing pretend; this is the real deal and I have the scars to prove it. There are far too many graves in my wake for me to ever think I’d find a little house with a picket fence and live a life of quiet contemplation.
But in this moment, I was experiencing the closest thing to normal that I’ve seen in a couple of years. It was glorious, and something I would give my right arm to keep. At the moment, Jai Li and Katie were both happy and hale. Well, Jai Li was healthy. Katie was in a sort of remission. Whatever was attacking her body had taken a hiatus and that’s the best I could hope for. I was content.
So, when Katie asked me to go with her to a birthday party in Bellingham for Ginny Prine, one of her old college cronies, how could I refuse?
To be honest I didn’t even try, but on the drive up I came up with several spectacular ideas. By the time Katie and I were in the fancy-schmancy restaurant and the hosts were handing out wacky party hats and noisemakers, I was ready to give a couple of them a whirl.
I didn’t exactly hate Katie’s friends. Not all of them, anyway. There was this one couple: Melanie, an ER doc, and her squeeze Dena, who was an EMT. They were cool enough. Katie and Melanie had been friends since high school and sometimes lovers in college. Nothing there but friendship these days.
I could take her.
And I really dug all the Black Briar folks. We’d gotten into enough fights together, protecting each other’s backs, standing toe-to-toe against cultists and giants, dragons, and all manner of creepies, that I trusted these people with my life.
But her old college friends? That was a whole ’nother world. I didn’t know any of these people when I went to Western Washington University, even though they were only a few years behind me, and I didn’t care to know them now.
Right or wrong, I pegged them as pretentious and judgmental. I could feel them staring at me, talking behind their hands. Okay, maybe I was being paranoid. These were mostly faculty, grad students or lawyers, doctors and teachers. You know, professionals. I was the only one with her head half shaved and calluses on her hands from hammering steel and wrangling horses. I was being the good partner, sitting in clothes that made me want to vomit while Katie beamed at anyone who looked our way.
She’d tried to get me into a dress, but I think she was kidding. Gods, I hope she was kidding. Either way, I had T-shirt, jeans, and boots in the truck. The second this soiree was over, I was ditching the gawd-awful pant suit and getting back into my shit-kicking gear. Even if I had to strip down right there in the parking lot.
The things we do for love.
The party was at Madrigals, one of those posh restaurants perched on a cliff overlooking the Bellingham Bay. It was famous for its seafood and breathtaking views. No way I’d ever afford a place like this. Good thing the party was a buffet. I managed to eat two plates of lobster ravioli without an ounce of buyer’s remorse.
All the time I watched them, watched Ginny with her new girlfriend, I wondered if that was how other people saw me and Katie. I don’t think we were quite as effusive about our love, nor as over-the-top with the public display of affection. Hard to see yourself with others’ eyes.
I’m pretty sure Ginny had crushed on both Katie and Melanie back in the day—maybe at the same time. Either way, they hadn’t dated. I think there were a few drunken make-out sessions and maybe some underwear dancing, but it never led to sex. At least not with each other.
I glanced out over the bay. The restaurant had the best damn view. I marveled at the bright blue of the sky, and how it fell to meet the deeper colors of the bay beyond. This exclusive balcony was probably worth every penny it cost to eat here. You could see all the way down to the rocks if you leaned out. It was a little disconcerting, but the day was beautiful, and the company was good. Katie looked hot in her long dress. I was imagining how she would look with that dress on the floor of our hotel room. Fat chance with her being as sick as she was, but it was a nice thought.
I took Katie’s hand and gave it a squeeze. I needed her to be better. We’d survived the battle with the blood cult out in Chumstick at the winter solstice, but the jury was still out on whether or not we’d really emerged unscathed. Something had happened to Katie, and the fact we didn’t know what continued to haunt me.
There was a commotion and I looked around to find Ginny standing, gathering all our attention.
“The last five years have been glorious,” she sang out, throwing her arms wide.
The crowd cheered. I raised my beer to her and cast a glance at Katie, who laughed as she slipped her hand out of mine and clapped with abandon. Ginny was a total attention whore. She was dressed in a flowing evening gown that I’d have expected to see at a prom. Or maybe on a drag queen. It was a bit much for brunch.
“Louder,” someone called from the back. Ginny laughed, waved at the crowd and climbed up onto a chair to get above all the people on their feet.
Her partner, Samantha, stood next to her, one hand on Ginny’s hip. They were cute together. Ginny was a tall redhead, thin with a long face and big hands—boyish. Samantha was shorter, about Katie’s height, with short cropped black hair and a round pleasant face.
“Careful, hon,” Samantha said.
Ginny just laughed and waved at her. “I’m fine.” She put her hands up to shade her eyes and looked over the crowd. The air was warm and golden, as you’d expect for an August in the Pacific Northwest: low seventies with a few clouds scudding across the sky. Beautiful day for an outdoor event. They couldn’t have wished for better.
“I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”
People looked around, confused. Only Katie laughed. She leaned in and kissed me on the ear. “She’s quoting Bilbo’s birthday speech.”
“Bilbo? Like the hobbit?”
I missed most of the rest of the speech as I turned to kiss Katie. By the time I turned back Ginny was standing on the table, holding her glass of wine aloft. Someone in the crowd whistled and Ginny curtsied. People were milling about, raising their glasses of white wine in salute.
“As I said, five years is much too short a time to spend among you.”
She drained her glass of wine in one long pull and someone cheered.
She wiped her mouth on her hand and grinned. She was quite lovely in that moment. “So, I have an announcement.”
Don’t ask me why. One second I was thinking maybe I could see the charm of Ginny, and the next, alarms were going off in my head. I remembered how that speech ended, and her table was too damn close to the edge of the balcony.
Katie whispered, “Oh, no,” and I was on my feet.
“This is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. Goodbye.” Ginny’s voice echoed across the patio, washing over the confused crowd.
I tried to stop her, honest I did.
Ginny gave a silly little wave as she hopped backward off the table and over the edge of the balcony.
I lunged over their table, made a grab for her without going over the balcony myself.
Someone in the back screamed as I grabbed empty air.
I leaned over the edge, holding my hands out to her, too late.
She fell backward, her arms out wide, as if expecting the embrace of a lover. The look on her face was rapturous.
She smashed into the rocks far below, a broken and bloodied ragdoll.
People were screaming. I just stood there, the railing pressed against my chest, arms outstretched. She was a broken doll on the rocks below and I couldn’t stop reaching for her.
Katie pulled me back, grabbed me by the shoulders and wrestled me into a seat.
“She jumped,” I said. My brain refused to put the pieces together. This was insane.
Katie was crying. Nearly everyone was hysterical. One of the guys, Jake something, was screaming for everyone to just calm down.
Samantha had passed out, striking the table on the way down. There was blood.
Someone was talking into a cell phone nearby. Calling 911.
All I could see in my mind was how freaking happy Ginny looked on the way down. No terror, no fear. Just pure bliss.
What the hell?