Regardless, it was very clear that Evie and Becky would never be friends, and that was just fine with her.
Closing the book once more, Evie stood from her desk with her ceramic chalice in hand, praying Edwin had brewed the cauldron of bean juice strong enough to wake the dead.
As she wandered off to the kitchen, though, Evie couldn’t help the little voice in her head, wondering if there was an innocence to their feud, or if it could lead Becky down a different path.
The one of a traitor.
Chapter 4
Evie
Evie spent the rest of the day drowning her sorrows in the mystical effects of the cauldron brew while warily looking at her fellow workers. Someone was guilty, and as much as she’d like it to be Becky, the woman was too much of a staunch rule follower for her to think she’d be capable of that kind of deceit.
Groaning as she straightened, she felt her back crack as she twisted and turned. The ache in her muscles was demanding her attention, and she’d finished the suspiciously little work she had to get done before the end of the workday.
Any minute, the large bell in the north tower would toll, and everyone in the room would scatter back to the monotony of their lives outside of this place. The pixies would return to the wood, whatever creature was wreaking havoc upon the interns would slink off to its cave, the interns would drag themselves back to whatever hovel they could afford, and the remaining employees would head home as well.
There were very few who resided in the manor full-time, Tatianna being one of them, Edwin another, and the only person keeping the dragon currently in their courtyard calm, a man named Blade.
As though thinking of him summoned the charming dragon trainer, she looked up and there he was, striding through the office, a large gash on his forehead.
“Is Tatianna available?” He grinned sheepishly down at Evie, the way he did every time he came in with another injury from the scaled beast they’d acquired shortly after her employment began.
Evie shook her head, smiling. “I don’t know, Mr. Gushiken. Why don’t you ask her yourself?”
Blade leaned down, exposing a large expanse of chiseled chest above his very tight vest. Evie was never certain if he did it ironically, but the dragon trainer always seemed to be wearing colors that drastically opposed each other. Today his vest was a green so bright that it hurt her eyes, and his pants were an orange that reminded her of sunsets and butterflies.
He mock grabbed his chest and said, “So formal, my sweet Evie! You wound me.”
Evie giggled at the hopeless flirt, closing her catalog of names. She stood up from her desk, then walked around to face him head-on. His amber eyes were warm, much like the rest of his personality. He smiled, his full lips pulling up at the corners, softening the sharp angles of his cheekbones and the narrowed edge of his dimpled chin. Blade was the person in the office closest to her age, only younger than her by a year.
“I’m not your anything, you big flirt.” She reached up to brush his dark shoulder-length hair off his forehead, then grimaced at the skin torn away from his scalp. “That thing is going to kill you one of these days.”
When Blade had first arrived, the dragon was barely the size of her palm, and she’d even held the little creature a few times, cooing at it like it was a defenseless infant. But the beast had grown in just a few short months to an alarming size, snapping and growling at everyone. Only Blade managed to get close, but even he didn’t come away from the encounters unscathed.
He was the one who’d found the egg, after all, in the mountains to the east. He’d been hiking there, ever the explorer, and found a nest abandoned by the mother. He’d told Evie after the creature hatched that it took to him immediately.
He’d bonded with the little beast, couldn’t bear to be parted from it, but the upkeep was far more than Blade could afford. Fortunately, it was around that time that he came across an advertisement from someone calling themselves “The Villain,” requesting any and all magical beasts. So Blade turned up on the front steps two weeks after Evie did, offering the dragon in exchange for a place to sleep and a position as the dragon’s tamer. The boss had agreed to his terms, but they’d yet to have any use for the dragon, for many reasons.
One of them being that when it wasn’t trying to bite Evie’s head off, the animal was afraid of everything.
Blade’s smile widened. “That thing is a sweet creature with the occasional temper tantrum.” His eyes brightened as he caught sight of Becky moving past them, carrying a stack of papers to the board pinned to the wall. “Like you, lovely Rebecka!”