“Why are you?” I counter.
“I'm not. My last class was cancelled because my history teacher is sick. They let us all go home early,” he explains.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Come on, I want to know,” he nudges my shoulder gently. Dagan catches and holds my gaze when he finds me looking at him, “I want to help, let me.”
“You can’t help, not with this,” I mutter.
“Explain, and then we will see,” he replies.
“Fine. My boyfriend died in the gym, and I went there today. I don’t know, it just freaked me out, and upset me,” I tell him, and he nods.
“How did he die?”
“A fire a few years ago,” I say, because I can’t really tell him the truth. That my step aunt stabbed him through the heart with a dagger.
“I’m sorry, I really am. They say you never lose someone close to you, not really. Not in here,” he points at his chest.
“But you miss them. You miss them so much it hurts sometimes,” I say, and he reaches over, lifting my hand and just silently holding it.
“I can’t relate to you, I can’t tell you how to feel. So, I won’t, but I can be here as your friend, or whatever you want me as Isola,” he says, more serious than he is ever usually like with me.
“I sometimes wonder if Jace would hate me for moving on, for even thinking of someone else that way.”
“If he loved you, no he wouldn’t. He would want you to be happy, to love, and to live life to the fullest. That’s all anyone wants for someone they love, and I’m sure he felt that way about you,” he says, just as we spot the Tesco. We take two more turns until we pull into the car park and get out. I hadn't realized until he lets go, but he'd been holding my hand, lightly stroking it with his thumb, the entire time we'd been talking.
“Did she give you a list?” I ask, wanting to change the subject. From the look Dagan throws me over the car bonnet, he realizes, but still allows it.
“Yeah, not that I have a clue what half the things on here are,” he shrugs, pulling a list out his pocket.
“Okay, you push the trolley, and I’ll put things in, nice and simple,” I say, opening the list and seeing mainly herbs, meat, and fresh food. There is also in big bold letters at the bottom saying, “Buy your own junk food,”
“Apparently you need to buy your own junk food,” I show Dagan, who chuckles as he gets a trolley, and we walk into the store. It’s really strange how normal this is, shopping in the human world with Dagan, a big scary dragon. I'm sure he never would have done this if he remembered who he is.
“Okay, so let’s get the junk food first. It’s near the entrance,” I muse, and Dagan claps his hands.
“You should hold the trolley then,” he grins as he starts throwing god knows how much junk food into the trolley. When it’s basically full, we are at the end of the isle.
“You can’t possibly eat all this!” I say, just not believing it.
“I don’t want to come back to the store, and Korbin and Elias will eat shit loads too,” he shrugs, and then steps backwards. Everything seems to slow down, just like in the movies, as as Dagan bumps into a stack of dozens of cereal boxes piled on top of each other in a triangle shape, and they go flying everywhere.
“Whoops,” Dagan says, straightening up, and we look over to see an angry shop assistant glaring at us.
“Dagan,” I hiss, turning the trolley around and getting the hell out of there. Dagan and I basically run down the aisle and into the next one, both of us stopping to stare at each other before bursting out laughing. By the time we stop laughing, we have tears running down our faces.
“Come on, before they find us, and we get kicked out,” I tease him. He takes the trolley as I get the list back out. This was just what I needed to cheer me up. Dagan is just what I needed.
Chapter Ten
Isola
I’ll go get the last bag, don’t worry about it,” I say, stopping Dagan from walking out of the kitchen. He chucks his keys at me, and I reach out a hand to catch them. I eye the twenty or so bags lying all over the kitchen and mentally sigh. It’s going to take forever to unpack all the junk food he has bought.
“Okay, I will start putting everything away. Can you lock the car when you're finished?” he asks me, rolling that lip ring between his lips, and totally distracting me enough to drop the keys. I reach down, picking them up as I mentally curse myself. Gotta get it together Isola.
“Sure,” I smile at him, and walk out. The sun is bright today, making it almost warm unlike the usual cold, wet weather we have. I walk out to the car and reach into the boot.
“Danger,” my dragon’s voice warns me, hissing the words in my mind. I open my senses, still trying to act normal. As I'm reaching for the last bag, I hear it, the sound of something flying at me from behind. I turn, and hold both of my hands out, making an ice wall just as two daggers slam into it, one cutting my hand.
“Shit,” I hiss in pain as I lower my hand, seeing the deep cut but knowing I have bigger problems. I slowly look around the ice wall, keeping my senses open, but see nothing. I can't smell anyone around either, only the residual scents of the people living with me.
“Dragon? Can you sense them?” I ask her, trusting her senses.
“Gone,” she whispers. Looking back at the wall of ice, I spin around and kick the bottom, and it falls to pieces. I reach down and pull one of the daggers out of the ice. It is dragonglass, with a red dragon symbol etched into the wooden handle. The second one is the same.
“Isola?” Dagan shouts from inside, and I quickly throw the dagger into the boot of the car. I pull the second one out, shoving that in too. I will have to remember to get these out before Jules sees them and has a heart attack. I grab the last grocery bag with my good hand, cursing at the blood dripping freely from the other, and shutting the boot. I look at the ice briefly, hoping it will melt before anyone sees it. I run up the stairs, looking behind me once more for any threats, before shutting the front door.
“What the hell happened?” Dagan says, dropping the cereal box in his hands, and rushing over to me when I get into the kitchen. He lifts my cut hand, pulling me into the kitchen so he can see it under the spotlights and picking up a towel, placing it on the cut.
“I err…shut my hand in the boot door,” I claim, the only thing I can think of, as I put the plastic food bag down on the floor.
“When you said you try not to be clumsy, you were lying, right?” he asks, a small concerned smile on his lips, making me chuckle.
“Yep,” I reply, and he shakes his head at me.
“Hold this on it, while I go get the first aid box,” he presses my free hand on the towel and steps away.
“It’s under the sink in the bathroom downstairs,” I tell him. He nods, heading in that direction. I watch him walk away, as I run the image of the dagger through my mind. It wouldn’t be Tatarina’s or someone she sent, because I have no doubt she would use a dagger with an ice dragon and fire dragon on it to make a point when killing me. I guess it could be her, yet she would make a curse by killing me because of Bee, and she isn’t that stupid. Thorne doesn’t want me dead, he made that clear by stopping his mother from killing me before. So, who would do this? Dagan comes back and I try to relax, attempting to forget that someone just tried to kill me. Even though that’s impossible.
“Let’s go upstairs. Jules will be home any minute and I don’t want to explain this to her. She will only freak out, and want me to go to hospital,” I ask, hopping off the seat after Dagan nods his agreement.