Nix ran up thenarrow stairs to his bedroom, his wing scraping the wall, andfetched a pair of joggers from his drawer and slipped them on. Nopoint in putting a T-shirt on; he’d never get it over his wing. Nowhe understood why Egan had clothes specially made with slits in theback. He made his way back downstairs and into his kitchen, thenreached for his drinks cupboard. He poured himself a generous glassof whiskey and downed the lot in one.
Savouring theburn in his gullet, he sat at the table and poured himselfanother.
His landlinerang several times, but he ignored it. He sat in the dark anddrowned his sorrows.
The full mooncast shadows around his kitchen, its silvery light showing thebottle of whiskey almost empty. Nix gulped the last few drops fromthe bottle.
The doorbellsounded. He ignored that too.
Someone bangedincessantly on the door. Or was that his head pounding? He couldn’tbe sure as he held his head in his hands.
“Go away!” heyelled.
“It’s me,Egan,” his brother called from the front door. More banging.
Nix grunted. Hescraped the chair across the tiled floor as he got up and thenanswered the door.
“Are you okay?I’ve rung your landline about ten times. You really need to get amobile, mate.”
He had no needfor modern devices—couldn’t see the appeal himself. What was wrongwith good old-fashioned talking, face to face? He wouldn’t evenhave a landline if he had a choice, but Adam, the manager at Nix’spub, needed to call him on occasion. “What do you want, Egan? I’mbusy.”
“Busy gettingpissed by the look of it. I came to see if you’d managed to getyour wing to shift back, but judging by the state of you, it mustbe bad.”
“I don’t give ashit about my wing.” Nix went to close the door, but his brotherstopped it with his foot.
“Whoa, there.What the hell’s happened? Did someone see you?”
“Yeah, someonesaw me all right… no, actually, she didn’t see me.”
“She? Who?You’re not making any sense.”
He gave uptrying to shut the door and traipsed into his lounge.“Katarina.”
Egan followed,flicking on the light switch as he entered the room. “What? You’veseen her?”
Nix blinked inthe bright light. It was definitely his head thumping now. “Itdoesn’t matter. She didn’t recognise me.” He scrubbed his jaw. “Ican’t cope with this damn curse anymore.”
He’d spentcenturies searching for her, travelling the globe, hoping theywould find each other, and she would recognise him, but aftertoday’s encounter, he wasn’t sure if he had the strength to gothrough it all again.
He rememberedthe sorceress’s curse as though it was yesterday. He’d once shownthe witch a smidge of interest, and they’d had a brief fling, alack of judgement he’d rather forget. But then he’d found hissoulmate, Katarina, and his life was complete.
Until thesorceress learned, they were the last full-blood dragons inexistence.
He hadn’t knownshe was a powerful sorceress at the time, not until the day shebroke his heart in two. The day she cursed him to a life ofloneliness, a life where he remembered Katarina and the magicalbond they shared.
Nix gazed atthe aged picture on the wall; Katarina and him, taken in theswinging 20s, the last time he saw her. What fun they’d had at thatflapper party—but it had been just that for her—fun. She’d calledherself Katherine in that life, and if he was honest with himself,she hadn’t recognised him. He’d hoped getting close to her wouldsomehow jog her memory, and he’d tried everything he could to makeher fall in love with him all over again, but the sorceress haddone a number on her, too.
The jealousbitch hadn’t been content with cursing him; she’d cursed Katarinato remember nothing of who she was—an eternity of torment,reincarnated time and time again, never knowing she was a dragon.The most magnificent dragon of all.
“I wish I couldforget it all, Egan.”
“You don’t meanthat.”
He tore hisgaze away. No, he didn’t. At least he had his memories of theirlife together.
“If I ever seethat sorceress again, I swear I’ll incinerate her.”
“Why on earthare you even thinking of her? Tell me where you saw Katarina.”
Nix focused.There was no point going over something he couldn’t change. “When Iwas walking home. She was lost in the woods. Her dog ran off,apparently.”
Egan slapped aclown-sized grin on his face. “That’s brilliant, Nix!”
“I fail to seehow meeting her by chance—while I was in the buff, I might add—isgoing to do anything to help break the curse.”
To add to Nix’sannoyance, Egan laughed. “Wow, you were naked, and she didn’t jumpyour bones and get down and dirty with you right there on theforest floor?”
“No, she didnot.” A vision of her doing just that flooded his thoughts. Heseemed to recall he’d rolled onto a patch of stinging nettles thelast time, but it had been so worth it. Nix shook his head. “Forgetit. I probably looked like a flasher. No wonder she grabbed her dogand ran.”
“Nobody usesthe word ‘flasher’ anymore,” Egan pointed out. “Anyway, it’s fate,kismet, whatever. Something hit you mid-flight, and youcrash-landed right where you could see her again. Screw thesorceress; get out there and find your dragon girl.”
“She’ll be longgone by now.”
“I could thumpyou sometimes. Why do you have to be Mr. Doom and Bloody Gloom allthe time? If she was lost in the woods, it must mean she livessomewhere close by, maybe in town. I wouldn’t have thought shewould walk her dog somewhere that wasn’t local to her.”
Hishalf-brother had a point. A flicker of hope warmed his heart. “Buthow am I going to find her? I don’t even know what name she’s usingthis time.”
With adespairing grunt, Egan manhandled him towards the front door. “Getout there and track her, you doofus.”
Nix’s limp wingknocked over a side table. “You’re right, Egan—of course, I cantrack her. Why didn’t I think of that before?”
“Because youwere too busy feeling sorry for yourself. Show some positivity,mate.” He opened the door. “If nothing else, aren’t you missing thesex? I don’t know how you’ve managed for so long without it. I knowI couldn’t—must be the dragon half of my genes, pumping that
