The Dragon's Secret (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 2) by Katherine Sparrow

 
     
     
     
     
    1
    A Hundred Forest Fires
    “You didn’t,” Lila said.
    “I did.”
    My shop assistant and I walked through Pike Place Market and sipped our coffees from Ghost Alley Espresso. It had been made for us by a flirty, straight-edge vampire. We were on our way to open up my store, Morgan’s Ephemera, housed in the lower levels of the market.
    “You didn’t,” Lila said again.
    I sighed. “Yes. I really did. I thought it would be best to be direct with Merlin. The tactic has never failed me before. And in any case, we were lovers for decades. I didn’t know what else to do.”
    We walked past the fish-throwers packing fresh salmon into the shaved ice.
    “So you for reals showed up at Merlin’s hotel suite wearing only a trench coat and heels? Baller move, Morgan,” Lila said.
    I sighed again. “Enough talk of the man who is much too much of a gentleman.” I remembered the way his eyes had coursed up and down my body, hot and hungry. I remembered how he had told me to cover up as he invited me in for a perfect cup of black tea before sending me home. “Tell me of your studies, Lila. Have you started on Caliban and the Witch?”
    “It’s so weird.”
    “The capitalist battle against the rebel woman’s body?” I asked.
    Lila rolled her eyes. “No, I mean what is even up with Merlin? The two of you had that one perfect kiss two months ago, and now—”
    “Now there is nothing to talk about. He wants nothing to do with me.”
    We walked by the flower sellers putting out riotous bouquets of dahlias that smelled like spring and fresh-cut grass.
    “Please. He takes you out on slickster dates to the Space Needle and the Opera. He brings you flowers and your favorite chocolates. He’s so into you, how could he not be? You’ve seen you, right? Immortal foxy witch Morgan le for reals Fay? Hello. He’s bananas for you. He—”
    “He knows our entire history, from start to finish.” I bit my lip. “He knows the reason why I put a forgetting spell on myself that made me forget his existence. I do not. Perhaps I did something so horrible that the idea of touching me disgusts him. Perhaps he did something so wretched that he knows I will flay him when I finally remember the full truth.” I glanced at my arm, where the forgetting spell, a pale blue band, leaked light. It was breaking slowly, and as it did my own past was coming back to haunt me. Every day, multiple times a day, I considered breaking it completely so that I might know the entirety of my own damn history and whatever mystery lay between Merlin and me once and for all. But the spell breakage already gave me blackouts, headaches, and nose bleeds. I did not want to risk turning myself into a vegetable, or worse, a deranged and powerful witch.
    “Geez, Morgan. Who knows, you know? It could be all doom and gloom, for sure,” Lila said. “But it might not be. It could be all rom-commy and cute, maybe.” We turned toward a concrete staircase and took them slowly down. Even though it had been two months since Lila had been attacked, she was still weak.
    “Enough speculation,” I said. “Do you have any questions about your reading?”
    She shrugged. “I sort of, um, have been spending all my free time with Adam.”
    I sighed. “And how are things with the dog?” I wasn’t being entirely rude about Merlin’s companion and Lila’s current boyfriend: Adam was a werewolf.
    “Awesome. So hot. He made me promise not to tell, but he howls when he—uh oh.” Lila pointed at three women standing before the door to my Wiccan store.
    They had the look. I glared at them as they spotted me and grinned.
    Damnit, no matter how many confusion spells I set, some of them always seemed to find me.
    “Is that her?” a woman asked. She wore a Child of the Moon t-shirt .
    “Hey. Are you, you know?” The second woman wore all black, including lipstick and eye shadow.
    “That is her. Wow,” said the third. She wore an inane assortment of