Dragon Witch ✔️

72 - Counseling

Kyton pushed me away. Was the pity kiss already over? Why, did he think I was dead already? Hooking his arm around my waist, he dragged me upward.

My head breached the surface of the water before I could get over how the kiss had ended. We were still in the cave, but the air was back. I gasped.

"Hold your breath, the opening might not stay open for long." As soon as I took another breath, he grabbed my shoulders and shoved me under the water.

I dove toward the entrance. It was open, and the water had stopped rushing through it. Swimming as fast as I could, I made it out of the cave and up to open air in a matter of seconds.

Kyton surfaced beside me. "How-" Wincing, he massaged his forehead. "Nissa."

A few feet away, Nissa surfaced in her shadow form. She looked even angrier than the average shade. Electric shadows zipped off her hands and made the water sizzle.

"On land. Now."

***

Nissa paced up and down the beach, sending off sparks that made Piper flinch near Eva's fire.

"What took you two so long? Five minutes ago, I hit that monster so hard that it swore it would let you go. What, was it lying?" Her shadowy flames leapt into the air as she glared at Kyton. "No, it wasn't. You two just didn't notice because you were playing kissy-face instead of trying to get out. You could've died, and for what?"

Blushing profusely, Kyton not-so-subtly tried to change the subject. "Hey, how did you use your magic if your wings-"

"I'm a shade. My powers have nothing to do with my wings." She growled, and I distinctly felt her anger turn on me. "He's a hopeless romantic, but you should know better. Keeping people safe comes before something as unimportant as kissing."

Piper glanced my way, then quickly looked back at the fire before I could decipher the mixed expressions on her face.

Nissa's words hit me. It wasn't anything she had said explicitly, but I could tell she wasn't just talking about us almost being digested by a monster. She was talking about how I was a danger to Kyton every time I got near him. If the kiss hadn't distracted me from my hunger, I might've hurt him.

When we got back to normal life, things wouldn't be much better. If I was distracted on a normal day and I hadn't eaten at the OPSA cafeteria yet, I might hurt him. On a full moon, I could take every precaution and still hurt him. Nissa was right. No matter how I felt, even if Kyton did like me as a changeling, he and I could never have a future. It'd been cruel to lead him on, even if I'd thought I was about to die.

Kyton kicked sand at Nissa. "Cut her some slack. She thought she was dying."

She glowered back. "That doesn't excuse it, and it can't happen again."

"Until we get back home, of course." Kyton shot me a playful smile.

Keeping her eyes on me, Nissa addressed him. "No, never, or you'll be the reason she fledges."

"Come on, I thought we went over this." He squeezed my shoulder. "Lilly's never going to fledge, and she's not going to eat anyone."

"No, I'm not." Avoiding his gaze, I moved away. "But what happened in the cave isn't going to happen again. It was a mistake."

"What?" The distress in his voice made me feel like I'd just slammed a puppy's tail in a door.

"You heard me." I moved to Piper's side and crouched by the fire.

Piper stood and left. Great, now everyone was angry at me. Well, everyone but Eva. She was resting in the fire, fully bird again. I was exhausted, and it was barely noon. Not wanting to deal with the chaos I'd just caused, I laid next to the fire and let myself drift off to sleep.