Page 12 of Your Final Resting Place

Elion went very still.

The jukebox cut to silence.

“Wait! No! Victor didn’t mean that!” I chortled. “He’s hilarious! Aren’t you, Victor?” A quick slap on his back arched one of his eyebrows. “So funny.” I gripped his shoulder and gave it a jovial shake. “I mean, he has us in fits all the time. He says these crazy things⁠—”

“Dementia,” Zee said, then rolled his eyes. “Fancy Fangs is really old.”

Victor, ignoring us all, picked up his drink and added, “I meant every word.”

Tom dropped a glass. “Shit.”

“Oh, my stars.” I lolled my head back and blinked at the ceiling. What was it Victor had said previously during one of his mentoring talks? The truth was always best? Elion had had plenty of chances to arrest us so far, and hadn’t. Well, apart from that one time when we’d been found surrounded by several massacred fae . . . although he hadn’t done the arresting part. He didn’t appear to have backup with him today—or cuffs—so maybe he’d listen?

“So, here it is.” I puffed out my cheeks, thrust my hands into my pockets and took a deep breath. “I’m a dragon. Gideon Cain is a dark sorcerer who stole my power and is going to use it to make all of us his slaves, so we broke into Silverleaf Goldsmiths to see if Agatha de La Cour might be making some jewelry for Cain to harness my stolen power—which she is—and we’re trying to stop her, so I can stop Cain, save the world, and fulfill a prophecy that’s been hanging over me my whole life.”

Cue awkward silence.

There was a whole lot more to it than that, but saving the world seemed to be something Elion might get behind. Or they might arrest me now, throw me in jail, and collect on the many Chosen One or Last Dragon bounties that would make them and their partner millionaires, setting them up for the rest of their lives.

I sighed, and peeked through my lashes at Elion’s unreadable face.

They raised a finger, summoning Tom. “That’s what I thought.”

“It is?” I asked.

“You clearly think very little of my observational skills.”

“Uhm . . .” Then Elion had known about me all along? I buried my face in my hands. “Just arrest me. Victor and Zee are innocent.”

“Zodiac has never been innocent,” Victor said.

Zee talked over him. “Fancy Fangs knew it all and should go to jail first.”

Elion waited for our reactions to settle, and calmly replied, “I’m not going to arrest anyone. Adam, how do you think you’ve been getting away with your multitude of very obvious infractions so far?”

Victor sipped his Bloody Bitch. “Luck?”

Elion broke out into ripples of smooth laughter. “Fido’s Pies? You think it was luck that investigation was dropped?”

“We don’t know anything about pets in pies,” I squeaked.

“The explosion at Cain Technologies you just happened to walk away from?” Elion said.

“It’s not a crime to go for a walk.”

“A corporate hunt gone wrong in the vampire woods?”

“That wasn’t anything to do with us. We were just driving by and those people came running out . . . We did the neighborly thing by taking them home.”

Elion smiled in a wolfish bounty-hunter way. They were clearly not buying our explanations. “Wherever there is trouble, you three are in the middle of it. A vampire, a demon, and a not-so-innocent human.”

I wiped my sweaty palms on my thighs. “Like Victor said. Just lucky, I guess?”

“You are lucky, yes. Lucky that I’ve been onto Cain’s exploits for many years. But with his influence having spread deep into various authorities, he had been untouchable . . . until you and your hotel emerged as bait delicious enough to lure Gideon Cain from his comfort zone.”

“Hold up.” Zee frowned. “You knew about Cain?”

“All this time, you’ve been helping us to rattle him?” I asked.