The Dragon King and I by Adrianne Brooks

out as she began pulling bits of stray cotton out of me with just the tips of her nails. “I don’t,” my words came out on a pant, “feel so lucky.”
    She laughed, and leaned forward to kiss my forehead, and some of pain began to dissipate.
    “Samuel, love, if you’d be so kind as to tell me what in the hell took you so long to inform me that my darling charge was suffering so?”
    “She only just woke up.” his voice was defensive.
    “Your point.”
    He sighed and I saw his shoulders slump. “My point being that I wanted her somewhere safe after the incident with the Fae. Especially considering how long healing can sometimes take.”
    Seraphim’s mouth was still tight with displeasure, but she nodded. “Granted.”
    She examined the hole in my chest with a critical eye, and then, seemingly satisfied that she had gotten rid of any foreign additions, she waved her hand over the wound. I angled my chin down to watch, fascinated, as the skin knit itself back together again. With a tiny puff of sparkled air, it was done, and my collarbone was once again as good as new. I felt it and found that even the fever was gone.
    Wish a sigh of pleasure, Seraphim beamed at me and I couldn’t help but smile back. Mal—(had to be careful about that since she could read my thoughts)—Seraphim may not have been the best Godmother, but at least she hadn’t tried to eat me. Plus she seemed to be coming through for me all right. First with the spell, then by sending Sam to protect me.
    I frowned. I don’t know what she’d been thinking when she picked out Conric. Still, I’d give him a fair chance to prove himself. I was still frowning when I looked up to see Seraphim backing Sam against a wall. Her boots, black leather that came up past her knee with a heel that could stake a vampire, clacked against the tile of the bathroom floor, and poor Sam just grew paler and paler with each step she took towards him.
    “Sammy, don’t be like this. You’re breaking my heart.”
    “I’ll heal fine on my own.”
    “But we need you at full strength to protect our little damsel.” Sam’s eyes cut to me and his jaw worked. “Why spare your strength on something so trivial?” she grabbed the bottom of his battle-worn shirt and began easing it up. “Let me heal you.” she purred, and I found myself lunging to my feet.
    “I’ll do it.” I said, with more force than was necessary and they both turned to stare at me with twin expressions of shock. Though there was a glimmer of amused understanding in Seraphim’s gaze that I didn’t want to examine too closely.
    “How can you—” Sam began, but my Godmother cut him off by hitting him hard enough in the abdomen to make him double over and groan. I took an involuntary step towards them, and she laughed.
    “That’s a wonderful idea. I have to get back anyway. It’s almost time for my set.” She came to stand in front of me and I dragged my eyes away from Sam’s hunched and shuddering form to meet her gaze.
    “Here you are, pup,” she waved one hand over the other with all the flourish of a stage magician and jar appeared in the palm of her hand. “Something to help the healing process.” She offered the jar to me, and feeling a bit like snow white accepting the witch’s apple, I took it.
    The bottom half of the jar was the severed foot of what looked to be a dragon. The ‘lid’ was a crystal stopper, clutched within the dead dragon’s talons. The stub where the foot had been separated from the body acted as the bottom of the jar, and not liking the feel of once-live flesh in my hands, I quickly set it down on the counter. The skin of the dragon’s foot still glimmered with iridescent luster and I admired the combination of greens and golds, reds and yellows, before I turned away from it.
    “Will this work as well as your magic?” I asked, not so sure about my wild claim to help him now that I’d been assigned the job. I didn’t want to botch anything. If she could