A Shade of Dragon by Bella Forrest Page B

paradigm shift. Wouldn’t it have been so much easier if they had just been some undiscovered species of bird-monkeys?
    Theon grimaced with a kind of sorrow. “Perhaps we cannot wait to be allowed on a date with one another. Perhaps tonight is as long as we can possibly wait.”
    I stared at him blankly. “Theon.” I made my voice as dire as I could.
    He drew a deep breath and slowly exhaled. I expected him to meet my eyes, but he closed his instead. “What if I told you that your reality is not as it seems? Nell… Do you know how I did not know the word ‘ambulance’?”
    I shook my head, staring at him.
    Theon continued, “My not knowing the word ‘ambulance’ is like you not knowing the word ‘harpy.’ Although a crucial term in certain circumstances, it is such a small, small element of the world at large.”
    I laughed under my breath, though nothing was funny. “So, what, are you telling me all the conspiracy theorists have been right? The President really does have a shapeshifter in the Secret Service? There really is an underground race of cave-dwelling reptiles which infiltrated the central banks and now control the country’s economy?”
    “No; that’s ridiculous.” His expression darkened. “These beings from other worlds have no need to dally with your social structure. Trust that we have our own problems without inventing new ones in strange lands.”
    These beings from other worlds. And… and… and “we.”
    My heart rampaged in my chest. I was beginning to feel cold again. Very cold.
    “For the millionth time, Theon…” I took in a shuddering breath and attempted to rein in the looming panic attack. “What are you talking about?”
    He scooped me up into his arms and I yelped with surprise. When he strode toward the back ledge of the cliff, I clawed at his shoulder in a near panic; the steep slope must have been at least thirty feet of rocks. Even with full use of my hands and an uncompromised center of balance, I would be nervous descending, but Theon dropped gracefully from one rock to the next. I felt like I was on the verge of vomiting just watching by the time he landed on the sandy shore at its base.
    “I can show you.”

Chapter 23: Nell
    F or some reason , I’d expected Theon to continue walking until he reached a carriage drawn by harpies and chauffeured by a merman in a top hat. That was the world I was starting to expect of him. But his car, hidden behind a knot of weeds and sand, was a silver Honda. He should’ve at least been driving something outrageously expensive, or maybe a motorcycle, but a Honda? It was so… normal.
    “You’ll have to forgive me if I ask any questions,” Theon said, stepping to my side of the vehicle and opening its door. He gestured, and I ducked inside. “I’ve never driven here before, and I’m still getting the hang of it.”
    We drove onto the central strip of Beggar’s Hole, not far from the Emporium at Shoreside and Goose Pond. My jaw dropped as he hung a right into the parking deck of Broadline Towers. Nothing was more surreal than Theon Aena, born of Iphras and prince of some island called The Hearthlands, renting a freaking Honda and owning a studio apartment at Broadline Towers, which featured cookie-cutter balconies for all their guests and tiny slivers of manicured lawn.
    I was staring so hard, I started when Theon appeared at my side and opened the door for me.
    “You can tell me if you need me to stop.” Theon placed one warm palm on the tattered shoulder of my plaid coat. I climbed from my seat. “It is a lot. You don’t need to prove anything to me. You can just say when it’s too much.”
    “You calm me down, you make me nervous. It turns out you have a Honda and an apartment; it almost makes me feel like you’re already a liar.” My fingers went to my temples; I realized I’d come to a halt, and Theon had turned to address me. “Because you have this magic pendant thing. And you can just—show up when I need