PAPER STARS: An Ordinary Magic Story(2)

Our relationship was strong enough to miss one holiday. We’d been there for each other when it really counted. Many times.

When things were dangerous.

But what about when things were happy? Safe?

Worse, what about when things were boring?

Just because we weren’t talking, never saw each other, and he hadn’t been brave enough to say he loved me (except for that one time when he was yelling it at a vampire) didn’t mean our relationship was sinking before it had even left the shore, right?

I sighed. Maybe I was kidding myself. Maybe we were boring now.

Maybe there was a big ol’ iceberg out there ready to sink this ship and it was time to deploy the floating door.

“Has he said it to you yet?” Jean asked.

Jean didn’t have mind reading abilities. Her family gift was that she knew when something bad was going to happen.

Actual mind reading didn’t run in our family. Or at least I hoped it didn’t.

“Not talking about it.”

“You don’t have to be afraid of the ‘L’ word, Delaney.”

“Lifeboat?”

She gave me a weird look. “What is going on in your head?”

Yep. No mind reading.

“Not that ‘L’ word,” she said. “Love. As in: “I love you, Ryder Bailey with your dreamy green eyes and your hunky strong shoulders and your superpower patience when I’m being stupid like getting myself shot. Or when I’m being too stubborn to just call you and tell you I miss you. Or when I’m too moody to admit I want you to come home before Christmas.” Love-love. I checked the rule book and women are allowed to say it first.”

“Good. You should say it to Hogan.”

“You think I haven’t?”

“Have you?” I wouldn’t be surprised. Out of all of us sisters, she was the freest with her affection.

But she and Hogan hadn’t been dating for very long. She had spent most of that time worrying about letting him in on all the supernatural secrets of the town.

I’d just assumed she would be cautious with the secrets of her heart too.

On the other hand, this was Jean. Fearless and full of surprises.

She grunted as she hopped from rock to rock. “Not yet. I’m waiting for the right time to spring it on him. When it’s totally inappropriate and he least expects it.”

I laughed and wiped rain off my face. We ducked under the cave’s overhang. “Why is it so easy for you to believe that romance always works out?”

Jean’s cheeks were red from the wind. Her hair, bright green today, escaped her hood to frame her face.

“Wait. I have an answer for this one. Romance, my dear Delaney, is also known as love. Love is one of the best things about life. A magic thing. A magical romantic thing. Magical romantic things always work out, otherwise they wouldn’t be magical.”

Her blue eyes sparkled. “You know what else is magical and romantic?”

“Don’t say snow.”

“Snow! Especially Christmas snow. Add in a handsome guy, a nice warm fire, and ooh la la, is it hot in here or what?”

“Stop it,” I said.

“What?” All innocence.

“Stop trying to make Christmas romantic.”

“Why shouldn’t Christmas be romantic?”

I opened my mouth to tell her it couldn’t be romantic because my boyfriend wasn’t going to be around, but before I could say anything, movement deeper in the cave caught my eye.

I flicked on my flashlight and Jean did the same with hers. Twin beams cut into the restless shadows.

“It’s the police,” I shouted loud enough to be heard over the waves grinding behind us and the damp dripping inside the cave. “We need to talk with you. Please come out into the light.”

My heart beat a little faster, a little harder. I wasn’t sure what we were dealing with here.

An over-excited rockhound who shouldn’t have been exploring the hidden cave at this time of year, had come into the station this morning.

He had insisted some kind of huge, dangerous creature was snarling around in the shadows.

He said it was a gigantic crocodile. Or a massive snake. Or a dinosaur.

He hadn’t gone so far as to suggest it was a sea monster.

I wouldn’t have believed him anyway. At this time of year most of our sea monsters liked staying out at sea.

That didn’t mean some other kind of monster hadn’t decided to stake claim to the cozy cave though.

Jean and I had hot-footed it out here while Myra and Officer Shoe took the rockhound’s statement. We wanted to get this under control before the papers picked up the story.

I could feel the tension radiating off of Jean as the cave’s blackness remained black.

It was rare that a creature of Ordinary became violent, but it had happened before.

“There.” She angled the beam onto the shape coming toward us.

I held my breath. Reached for my gun.

The shadows slid around, at first huge, then wide, then long and then…

A creature paused in the light, right there on the inside of the cave overhang.

“Is that…?” Jean breathed.

I exhaled all in one rush. “Yep.” I put away my flashlight. “It’s a dragon.”

“Piggy!” Jean crowed. “Look at all that pink. That little nubby nose, chubby cheeks and pointy ears. And that tail. So curly! That’s a pig, Delaney. A wee little piggy-pig-pig.”