Riyah plopped onto the couch and rested the carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream on her stomach before she flipped channels, looking for something good to watch. The small apartment was full of boxes she would never unpack because this would never be home. She had a wandering problem. A year at her last job was the longest she’d ever stayed in one place since her parents passed. A few months in, and she would get restless and continue the search for the elusive “home” she’d always craved but never found.

She changed channels until she tracked down a show about Alaska homesteaders and pulled the blanket over her lap, then scooped a spoon of ice cream.

“You’re still awake.”

Riyah jumped so hard she dropped the spoon onto the laminate flooring with a clatter. Terrified, she looked around, but she was alone. “H-hello?”

“Don’t be scared. I can’t burn you from here, Witch.”

“V-Vyr?” she whispered. Fuck! She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and focused, slamming her mind closed.

There. She couldn’t feel him anymore.

Panting, she sat there too scared to move. He’d sounded as if he was sitting right beside her when he spoke. What the hell? He could reach into her mind all the way from the lower levels of the prison? The amount of power he possessed to be able to do such a thing was horrifying. It had built an instant headache behind her eyes. Even with him far away, he could hurt her.

But…

This was kind of like a phone call…right?

Vyr could talk to her. Could she talk back, like when they were facing each other in the prison?

Slowly, she relaxed and opened her mind again. He was gone. She couldn’t feel him anywhere, and the headache had faded as though it had never existed. She tried reaching out for him, but there was nothing to hold onto, and she got mentally exhausted within moments. She would need to use some of Mom’s spells to make her stronger if she wanted to do this. Already she was ticking off a list of plants, herbs, and powders she would need. The spell books were in a box in the corner. She hadn’t looked at them in years, but maybe it was time to dust them off.

She couldn’t focus on the show anymore. She tried for half an hour, but she kept thinking about Vyr and part of her wished he would come back. She’d reacted out of fear, closing her mind like that, and maybe it had pushed him away forever. She should be relieved, but instead, she felt hollow.

Giving up on relaxing before bed, she got up and brushed her teeth and washed her face. It was still early to sleep, but maybe she could get her body to wind down. The alarm would come early enough in the morning.

But as she lay in bed, she thought about Vyr’s eyes, his harsh smile, and straight, white teeth. She tried to remember the footage of his dragon eating that guard, but she kept drifting back to the way his arms pushed against the thin material of his white T-shirt, the way his tattoo ink trailed down his arm to his inner elbow. Even on death’s door, he was a gorgeous man.

“Thank you.”

She’d been half asleep, but Riyah jerked up in bed. “You’re back.”

A deep chuckle echoed through her head. “I tried to leave you alone like you wanted. It’s boring as fuck in here though, so I figured I would try again. What are you doing?”

“I’m lying in bed. And I feel like a crazy person for talking out loud to myself.”

“Maybe you are crazy. Maybe I’m not really in your head. Maybe you just want to talk to me so badly that you’re making all of this up.”

“Are the lights off?” she asked.

There was a mental shrug. “They turned them back off right after you left. I got punished. They made me eat dinner in the dark, too. They have the flashing lights of the hangar doors going though, so there’s that. I’ll probably go insane and twitchy by the next time you see me. Prep yourself. You might not think I look so hot tomorrow.”

“I didn’t say hot.”

“Were you going to touch yourself to me?”

“Stop, or I’ll kick you out again and let you rot in the dark.”

“If I could, I would be jacking off to you. But there are eight grown dudes in the observation rooms. Turns me off.”

Riyah bit back a smile. “You would really jack off to me?”

“Hell, yeah. You’re hot, too.”

“Is this what mental conversations will be like with you? All perverted stuff? Don’t tell me you’re one of those guys.”

“I’m absolutely one of those guys, but okay. Let us pretend to not be attracted to one another. What would you like to talk about?”

Riyah smiled even bigger. “Sometimes you say things strangely.”

“What do you mean?”

“You say them all formal.”

“It’s how my dad talks. Momma bear curses like a sailor, Daddy dragon is millennia old, an ancient who only turned mortal when he met my mom, so he grew up in a different time where manners were everything. Blame him for turning me into this.”

Vyr’s voice had gone all dark though, and had lost the edge of humor he had earlier.

“You mean blame him for the dragon part?”

“Blame him for everything if you want. You’re a counselor, right? Prison psychologist? You’ll love me. Daddy issues for days. What are you doing? Paint me a picture.”

She giggled and relaxed back in bed. “I’m under mismatched sheets, in my twin-sized bed, in my apartment that is full of boxes from moving. I’m too lazy to unpack them, and I’m fine with clutter.”

“Strike one. I hate clutter.”

“I’m wearing pajama pants with cartoon tacos on them and a white tank top.”

“Bra or no bra?”

“Sports bra.”

“Strike two. What color panties?”

“Get ready for a supermassive boner.”

“I’m prepared.”

“Beige.”

“And there’s your strike three. You’re a boner killer.”

“You’re welcome. Now you don’t have to worry about those eight dudes watching you adjust yourself.”

Another chuckle sounded, low and soft, and it made her smile on reflex. “You have a nice laugh.”

“I can’t sleep lately.” He said it suddenly as though he wanted to do it before he could change his mind.

“Why not?”

“I think it’s the meds. Or The Sickening.”

“What is The Sickening?”

“I’ve been away from my crew and my mountains too long. It started out as nosebleeds, but now I hear things and see things that aren’t there. I feel sick even when I don’t have the meds in my body. Sometimes I Change without knowing. I just…come to and I’ve burned the room again.”

“What did that guard do? The one you ate?”

“He hurt little girls. Thought about it all the time. He was remorseless, and his memories were so loud I couldn’t help but see what he did. Emmitt talks about the lower level being hell, and I’m the devil himself, right? Maybe. But I’m not the only one down here. Paperwork means they’ll have to admit what caliber of guards they hire down here. And they would have to do it publicly. Subject change. Why peonies? In your memory, you had a bouquet of them.”

Riyah swallowed bile at his admission about the man he’d eaten. How awful. She struggled to catch up with the new conversation and stuttered when she said, “Th-they were my mom’s favorite.”

“My mom likes wildflowers. My dad used to buy her big bouquets of expensive roses, but she was never as impressed as when he would go into the yard and pick her some little pink wildflowers. She would put them in this little shot glass and keep them alive for two weeks.”

“That sounds romantic.”

“Oh yeah, my parents would make you puke with their cuteness. Most people don’t get to see it because my dad is so reserved. He has to look in control all the time. But in my house, growing up, I watched them. I used to think I wanted that someday, too.”

“You don’t anymore?”

“Nope. I want dirty talk and beige panties. Wear some extra hideous ones tomorrow, and I’ll guess the color.”

“Deal,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll call them Vyr-panties.”

A satisfied, sexy rumble vibrated through her mind. “Good girl.”

Holy hell, he was sexy.

“Thank you.”

“Stop that.”

“I think you are sexy, too. I like your freckles.”

Riyah pressed her fingertips against her heated cheek. “Really?”

“Do you have freckles on your shoulders?”

“Yes.”

“Back?”

“Yes, and a birthmark. A tiny one under my right shoulder blade.”

“Mmmm. Who knows about that?”

“Just you. I don’t think anyone has paid attention to it before. Why is it so easy to talk to you?”

“Because you’re crazy, and you’re really only talking to yourself.”

“Jerk.”

He chuckled again. God, she liked when he did that.

“These damn flashing lights are going to drive me insane.”

“Put your pillow over your face.”

“Trying to suffocate me already?”

“No, to block out the light. I’ll talk to them about the flashing lights tomorrow and leaving you in the damn dark. It makes me want to stab Emmitt for doing this. Do you want me to tell you boring stories until you get tired? I’m pretty good at them.”

“Back up, woman. Did you just get protective?”

“Maybe.” She smiled at the slowly turning ceiling fan she could barely see in the dark. “It’s bullshit is all I’m saying. If they’re gonna kill you, they might as well try and make it comfortable.”

“Right? I’ve been trying to tell them that all along. They gave me actual gruel for dinner. Makes me wish they would speed the process along, but maybe that’s the point.”

She giggled. “We should not be joking about this. It’s horrible of us, and not funny at all.”

“You’re right. Let’s cry together instead. That solves all problems.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed. “I suppose joking is better. Just so you know, I’m not going to let them kill you, though.”

“Oh, are you my knight-ess in shining stilettos?”

“Yep. I’m the heroine to your story. Don’t eat me before I get my job done.”

“Hmm. Eat you, eat you?” His voice dipped lower and went sultry. “Or eat you?”

“Perv.”

“I’ll wait right here while you touch yourself.”

“Okay, I’m going to sleep now.”

“You can’t. You already told me you would tell me boring stories, and you should never break a promise to a dying man. That’s seven years bad luck.”

“I think that’s if you break a mirror.”

“Potato Potah-toh. God, I would literally kill for potatoes. Six months on lower level food, and I’m bored out of my mind. And beer. I would do awful things for a beer.”

“Hey, beer rhymes with Vyr.”

“Ha. One of my crew calls me ‘Beer’ sometimes just to piss me off.” Vyr got quiet for a few seconds. “I would also kill to hear Nox call me Beer again. I miss their stupid voices.”

“Do you like being alpha?”

“No. I suck at it. I don’t care enough about keeping the crew quiet to keep us safe. And now look what I’ve done? I called my crew to me. Asked them to put themselves in this awful place just to try and prolong my life. Alphas are supposed to be selfless, and I’m not. I’m a selfish creature.”

“Because you want to live. It’s not selfish.”

“Mmm. A good alpha would put his crew before himself. But mostly they put themselves before me. They tried to keep me steady, keep me from destroying things. Subject change. What did you eat for dinner? I’m serious when I say the food is boring here and I want to live vicariously through you.”

“A TV dinner. Chicken nuggets and squishy macaroni and cheese and little asparagus bites.”

“Ew. Strike four.”

She snorted. “Judgmental. I don’t have my kitchen unpacked yet.”

“If I was out of here, I would help you unpack.”

It was so unexpectedly sweet of him to say, she didn’t know how to respond. Her stomach dipped with butterflies, and she pursed her lips against a mushy smile. “Admission—I’m not good at unpacking because I never stay in one place long enough, so what’s the point?”

“A roamer?”

“I guess. I’m restless in general. Are you going to say strike five?”

“Nope. I wish I could be a roamer right now. Pacing this damn cell isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

“What are you doing now?”

“Pulling the pillow off my face, giving up on sleep, and I’m going to do pushups until my arms won’t hold me up anymore. Your bedtime stories weren’t boring enough.”

“I’ll try harder then. Tell me every ten pushups so I can cheer you on, though.”

“Ten.”

“Already?”

“Twenty.”

“Good, lord. Okay, tell me every hundred pushups or I’ll never get through a bedtime story. Once upon a time…”

Vyr huffed a laugh.

“There was this badass who Tasered Emmitt for fucking calling her a princess, and there was this hornball dragon who—”

“No, I want a real story. One about your life. One hundred.”

“Go, Vyr, go. Do all the pushups.” She wracked her brain for a memory. “Okaaay, let me see. We used to have peach trees.”

“Oh, good, this sounds super boring. I think I’m getting tired already.”

“Not polite. We had this orchard behind the trailer I grew up in. I loved it out there. My dad was normal. Human with no powers, and he worked a lot so my mom didn’t have to. She couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because she had powers like us, but she couldn’t control them very well. She had anxiety around strangers and would lose control. Shifters were just coming out to the public, and we were watching all the fights and protests on the news every night. My parents were scared of someone finding out about my mom. There aren’t many natural-born witches, so we were very careful. We didn’t have much, my dad was a miner, but we had enough. But when the peaches grew, my mom would always get brave and sell them at a farmer’s market. She would prep herself for weeks to be around people, collecting herbs that would stunt her powers, casting spells that would keep her steady. Keep her numb to all that extra energy of the market maybe, I don’t know. But we would work so hard, my mom and I, picking these peaches and loading them into crates, and we would drive our old dodge pickup to the farmer’s market and sell those peaches. They were the best. I still remember exactly what they tasted like. Sometimes my mom and I would get hungry and tired of picking, so we would sit down and just…pig out. They were the juicy kind too, so we would be covered in sticky-sweet peach juice. Bees were always buzzing around us. The last few years, my mom would make peach preserves, and we sold those, too. Farmer’s market months, we would get to go buck wild at the grocery store because we had extra money. My mom would let me get Jell-O, candy, Fruit Roll-ups, and the expensive cereal.

“What happened to her?”

An explosion flashed in her mind. Her outstretched fingers, sobbing…the predators. The animals. The pain of the power she hadn’t been able to control. She flinched away from the memory. “Subject change.”

A soft, prehistoric growl filled her head. “Two hundred.”

“Tired yet?”

“No. If I don’t make it out of here—"

“Don’t say that.”

“No listen. If I don’t, I need you to do something for me. I know it’s rude for me to ask you something when we don’t know each other, but I don’t have a connection to anyone else outside of here. I can’t reach my crew. I’ve tried. For some reason, you’re the only one I can communicate with on the outside.”

“Okay.” She swallowed hard and curled on her side in a ball. “Ask.”

“If something happens and I lose this battle…tell my people I went strong, okay? Tell them I didn’t let the New IESA and the prison break me, even if you see it differently…fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nosebleed. Hang on, I’ll be right back. Don’t go to sleep yet. I want to say goodnight. I’ll hurry.”

“Hurry and do what?”

“It’s too much blood. I’m trying to get a guard’s attention. Everything is okay.”

And then there was deafening silence.

“Vyr?” Riyah sat up in bed. “Vyr, are you there? Are you okay?”

By the time ten minutes had passed, Riyah was up and pacing the room. “Vyr, are you there?” Shit. She pulled on a pair of jeans, high heels, and a nice black blouse. Grabbed her bag and jogged as best she could in her work shoes to her Xterra. Shit, shit, shit, Vyr was bleeding. It had been too long since he Changed, since he’d been around his crew and his mountains. He was being dragged to his knees, and she couldn’t just lay in bed when he was going through another wave of The Sickening.

Wait. She sat in her car, gripping the wheel, panting. Riyah needed to think clearly before she acted. She had access to the prison whenever she wanted. She was on call at all times in case one of the inmates needed her services. But if she ran in there, guns blazing at the same exact time Vyr was bleeding, it would throw suspicion on them both. If the New IESA didn’t know he could read minds, she had to protect him from them finding out. “Vyr, please. Just tell me you’re okay. Tell me now or I’m coming to you.”

Another minute passed. She muttered a curse and turned on the SUV.

“Stop. Riyah, it’s late. Turn off the car. I’m okay.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m sitting in my cell, on the bed, leaned against the wall. There is a hazmat team cleaning up the mess. Everything is okay. I’m calm.”

“Is your fist clenched?”

“What?”

“Is your fist clenched?”

There were a few seconds of hesitation and then, “Yes.”

He wasn’t okay then. Not really. “Someday I want a peach orchard of my own. I want peach trees. I want to pick the fruit and sell it at a farmer’s market because those are some of my favorite times.”

“What happened to her, Riyah?”

“I can’t tell you now because it won’t help you. But in a week, when you’re still here, still fighting, still being your badass self, I’ll tell you all about it.”

“I have a pet swan.”

Riyah heaved a sigh and got out of her car, shut the door behind her, and locked it. “I’ll have you know I just put on high heels in the middle of the night to come save you from a nosebleed. I think we are friends now. What is your swan’s name?”

Vyr made an annoyed ticking sound. “It was supposed to be Fergus, but Nox renamed him Mr. Diddles. I have this goddamn majestic swan named Mr. Diddles now, and I used to hate it, but lately I call him that in my head. I wonder if he’s still alive or if Nox has eaten him yet. I found him when he was this ugly, little baby. He was alone at this park I used to go to clear my head. The parents were gone, and he was this hideous, little, gray, fuzzy thing with a messed-up wing. A cat got him or something. I did what I could but his wing was messed up forever. He would never fly, and I was gutted for him. How sad that he would never hit an air current. And yeah, I know they aren’t great flyers, but still.”

“You felt for him.”

“Yeah.”

“Because you don’t let yourself feel the sky very much.”

“I can’t. If I Changed as much as I want, the world would be ash.”

“So you gave up the sky.”

“So I stay on the ground where I’m most uncomfortable, just like Mr. Diddles. Are you back in your apartment safe?”

“Yes, just got back into my bedroom. Getting back into my PJs.”

“Veto, just wear those sexy brown panties tonight. Feel those sheets on your skin.”

“Perv.”

“Not this time. I sleep in just underwear. At least I did before this place. The feel of sheets on my back is good. I used to wake up just to think, ‘Damn, that feels nice,’ before I fell asleep again. Sleep in your panties for me because I can’t.”

Riyah hesitated, then pushed her PJ pants back down her legs and crawled into bed in just her panties. “Is the hazmat team still there?”

“Just finishing up. I’m trying to stay out of their heads. Monsters, monsters, all around.”

“Is your fist still clenched.”

“…yes.”

“Tell me what you miss the most.”

“What do I miss the most? The sky. The stars. Sometimes I like to think that even if I can’t see them, they’re smiling down on me. And sure, the smiles are sad because they miss me too, and can see I’m going through hell. They hurt for me…but their smiles exist because they can also see something better coming.”

Wow. Riyah held a pillow close and stared at the dark doorframe of the on-suite bathroom. Vyr was deep. He was real. He wasn’t monster. Everyone was so, sooo wrong about him.

“That means a lot.”

“Huh?”

“You said people are wrong about me. You don’t think I’m a monster. You’re one of the first people to think that.”

“I forget you’re in my head sometimes. Feels like you are right here, lying beside me in the dark instead of miles away underground.”

“Will you miss me when I’m gone?”

“No.”

“Pity.”

“Because you aren’t going anywhere.” Riyah yawned and snuggled her face against the pillow.

“The badass princess and the broken dragon, Vyr said softly. Emmitt doesn’t know you’re a queen, and perhaps you shouldn’t let him know you are boss down here. Maybe let him think he is the power for a while. Watch what happens down here. Wait. The New IESA is making a weapon. I can see their thoughts. I can see how close they are getting. Someday, when I’m too weak to fix it, you may have to use those powers of yours and step in. Save the world and shit.”

“What are they making?”

“They’re making a new dragon. I can’t Turn a new dragon, and they’re working out a way to change that.”

“Only certain shifters can Change their mates, right?”

“Correct. The New IESA is killing my dragon, but they are putting part of him in a bottle, and they are going to save it for when they want a red dragon they can control.”

“Oh, my God.” Out of all the scenarios she’d been considered down in that mad scientist lab, creating a dragon serum hadn’t even crossed her mind. “That could change everything.”

“It will wreck the world. All they have to do is put my dragon in someone who isn’t strong enough, and that power can be unleashed on everything. They think they can make the dragon less aggressive with gene therapy. They’re wrong. So wrong. Dragons aren’t creatures you tame. They’re creatures you try not to piss off. The second they try to control the dragon they make? He’ll be the new Apocalypse. The new End of Days.”

“Jesus.”

“Jesus has nothing to do with what they are doing in that lab. You yawned earlier. Are you tired?”

“A little. I have to be up early to go to work.”

“To see me.”

Riyah giggled. “Yes, I have an early morning therapy session scheduled with this really crazy dragon shifter I met today. He’s kinda cute, but he’s an easy bleeder.”

Vyr snorted. “Hey…don’t look at the video from tonight, okay? I don’t want you seeing me like that.”

“I need to see everything.”

“You don’t. For me, just…don’t. I’ll see you in the morning, Riyah. Enjoy those sheets on your skin. Wish I was there.”

“Perv.”

“Nah, I would let you sleep. Would be a complete gentlemen and sleep on the couch. But I would keep the nightmares away. I can do that, you know.”

“I think you can do a lot of things people don’t realize. How do you know about the nightmares?”

“I saw what happened to your mom. I didn’t mean to. It was there, a bright memory when you were talking about the peaches. Someday you’re going to get your orchard. Goodnight, Badass Princess.”

Riyah hugged the pillow against her stomach. “I’ll see you in the morning. Goodnight, Broken Dragon.”

“Hey, Riyah?”

“Yeah, Vyr?

“Thanks for helping me unclench my fist.”

She smiled to herself in the dark. “Anytime.”