Mica by Ronin Winters Read Free Book Online

too late to help them.
    Granite’s mate snarling as they entered that hellhole, not knowing they were there to rescue her.
    Against every instinct and desire and every wish he’d had since he learned about Only’s, even against his own dragon, he was not going to put her into that situation. He’d keep her safe and away from his world until Jacobson could be dealt with.
    “Only the parts of my work that are classified, but you said you understood that.”
    “I do, but it’s not that.”
     
     
    His face gave him away.
    Sophie turned from Mica and back to cleaning, disappointment a gnawing sensation through her gut. He might think he was stoic and emotionless, but these last two weeks had given her insight to him, the ability to see through him in ways she’d bet money no one else could claim.
    And right now, she knew he was hiding something from her.
    She didn’t think it was another woman. She had faith he’d never go down that path with her. Still, it was something big, something that left his eyes hollow as he stared at the walls, seeing nothing until she brought him out of it. That, or it left him with breathtaking anger – not directed at her, but directed to an enemy he wanted to fight but couldn’t yet, someone he wanted with everything in him.
    She felt it, that this whatever was the final barrier to them truly committing to each other. If she could get him to acknowledge it, then they could get past it, but he hadn’t yet. He’d smile and wave it off, pretend like it didn’t matter.
    But it did.
    She didn’t like silences. Silences could grow to quickly, multiply at a frightening rate. Too many times she’d witnessed how the small missed connections went wildfire, destroying families and leaving ruin in their wake.
    Even in their short time together, already the silence was expanding, and it terrified her. She couldn’t lose him, but she couldn’t hold onto him if he wouldn’t trust her.
    The bell jingled that signaled a customer. “Sorry, we’re closed,” she called out automatically, but a chair crashed to the floor, and Mica was growling at the man who was in her shop. He was pale. Dark greasy hair and empty eyes, and she shivered when those eyes turned to her.
    “Sophie, get out,” Mica said.
    The other man laughed. “Sophie. What a cute name. What a cute shop.”
    There was nothing of goodness about that man, and Sophie backed away to grab the gun under register, fighting to keep her voice steady. “You need to leave now. The shop is closed, and you are not welcome.”
    The stranger laughed, a high, hysterical, frightening sound. “A gun. How sweet. You’ve told her nothing, Horde dragon?”
    “Sophie, run! ”
    It was impossible. It was a bad dream…no, a nightmare, because the stranger let out a high-pitched scream and where he once stood, a creature that looked like a dragon now resided.
    It was the size of an elephant or larger, and was a sickly acid green, but in all ways in looked exactly like it came from a drawing of a medieval manuscript.
    And Micah had to get away, but there was no Micah. There was only another dragon, this one a deep blue, the shade of the sky at sunset.
    The creatures were fighting, and Sophie ran out the back, away from the crashes, away from the nightmare, the destruction of her beautiful little shop, the one that took five years of savings to open.
    She stayed near, helpless. She didn’t call the police because…this. How could she explain this?  But she couldn’t leave, because Mica was there, and she’d never leave him. He’d told her nothing, and so she had no one to turn to, who might understand or might help. She had no weapons. She had nothing, and she stood where she was, waiting in pathetic uselessness.
    The noise stop. The crashes stopped. The door opened, and it was Mica, not a man with eyes full of nightmares, not a dragon of acid green or a dragon the beautiful blue of a night sky.
    It was Mica, covered in blood, and she ran to him.