Page 28 of The Scent of Salt & Sand

“Melody!” The word was muffled, obstructed by the closed office door.

“Dean?” She ran to Harmony’s office and jiggled the handle. Locked. “Dean? Are you in there?”

“Quiet!” Harmony seethed.

“Harmony?” Melody pressed her ear against the door. “What are you doing? Open the door!” Her fists thundered against the wood.

Don’t let them take him.

“I won’t!” Melody screamed against the ever-present voice whispering between her ears.

Her hands heated as scales surged to life from her fingers to her elbows. She tried the knob again. It caved under her grip, and she ferociously ripped it through the wood, splinters spraying from the new hole. She tore open the door. Her body sizzled against the change creeping up her arms and legs, threatening to engulf her.

“Melody, run!” Dean shouted as Harmony hurled herself against him. His body bounced off of hers, smacking into the brick wall behind him. Groaning, Dean crumpled to the floor.

Melody rushed to his side.

“She’s the monster. The one that killed that man. Get out of here,” he croaked. “Go.” He blinked sluggishly before closing his eyes, his head lolling back against the brick.

“Melody, I—” Harmony began, but Melody’s anger punched through her words.

“What’s wrong with you?” she shrieked, rising to her feet. “Why would you do this?”

“I’m cleaning up your mess.” Harmony’s silvered scales rippled as she spoke. “He’s in danger, Melody. You put him there. How do you not see that?”

“I put him in danger? You would have killed him.” She stepped toward Harmony, so close the waves of heat twisting off of her gray scales bit at her eyes. “And for what? Some ancient code? This isn’t Greece, and we aren’t the ruling species. We don’t have the right to take this realm or murder innocent people. Our time here is over. We belong in Tartarus.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Harmony’s temples pulsed.

“I know enough.”

“Step back.” Harmony’s breath blew back strands of Melody’s wild mane. “Sit down. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“So you’re going to change the rules, and let me have this one good thing in my life?”

Harmony sighed. “Melody, if you’d let me explain—”

“I’m tired of your lessons.” She bent down and placed Dean’s arm around her shoulders, hugging him against her side and hefting him to his feet.

“Melody?” He groaned and looked groggily around the room.

“It’s fine. Everything’s going to be fine,” she assured him, turning her attention back to Harmony. “My mother trusted you to protect me, to make sure I was happy. He makes me happy. Don’t you want that for me? Or do you just want to use me to break the stupid curse like you use the others?”

Harmony paused for three beats of Melody’s hammering heart.

“Be sure about this, Melody. I don’t know that I can shield you from whatever consequence this might carry.”

Melody lifted her chin. “I’ll take my chances.”

Harmony took a deep breath. “Dean, can you hear me?”

He nodded listlessly.

“You don’t remember coming here. You only remember meeting Melody outside the store. You decided to go out. You had a great time, but you drank too much and fell.” Sadness crept into Harmony’s voice as her scales faded, replaced by pink flesh. “I have to tell Rhapsody.”

Melody swallowed against the hard lump building in her throat. “You know the best part about the humans? They’re willing to stand up for what they believe is right.” She adjusted Dean’s arm around her shoulders and supported him as they hobbled out of the store.

Chapter Eleven