Free The Dragon King and I by Adrianne Brooks Page B

little.
    “Greyson.”
    “Yes?”
    “No. That’s what we’re looking for.” he glanced at me and then moved on to the grave.
    My throat went dry. “Why would we be looking for my father’s grave?”
    I would not be digging up my dad. Seraphim and her whole Quest nonsense could go to hell if that were the case.
    “It’s not what you think.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “Really. Usually, when a Fairy Godmother dies, she tries to be buried with her charge. Since you have Seraphim, it only stands to reason that someone else in your ancestry must have had a Godmother as well; otherwise you never would have been assigned one. Plus, it wouldn’t be your father we’d be searching for. The fairies died a few millennia ago, so maybe a great, great something or other. I’m still iffy on human lifespans so I’m not sure how many ‘greats’ that adds up to.”
    “But why are we only looking for graves on my father’s side?”
    Sam paused, opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, and then looked at me nervously from beneath his lashes.
    “Seraphim says she’s descended along the Greyson line.” his face was a mask of guilt and I opened my mouth to call him on it but he turned, and hurried away.
    We moved in silence for a few minutes while I let him stew. I finally spoke, only when I couldn’t take the lack of conversation any longer.
    “We won’t have to dig anyone up will we?”
    He hesitated visibly.
    “It depends.”
    My eyes narrowed. “On what?”
    “On what sort of fairy we’re dealing with.”
    “Explain.” I stopped in my tracks, forcing him to do the same, and folded my arms beneath my breasts. One mini, fairy, body I could handle. The decomposing carcass of my great great something or other? No, sir. Not this day.
    He sighed. “Magic follows certain paradigms. With any species, you’ll find that their denominations usually fall within the five elements. Earth, fire, wind, water, and spirit. This not only determines our strengths in life and magic, but also how our bodies are returned back to the ether. If the Fairy we find was particularly strong in earth magic, then we will have to do some digging in order to find her.”
    “What if she was from the fire nation?”
    “Then I hope you brought matches.”
    * * * *
    “Why are there so many dead people?” I didn’t mean to whine, but I couldn’t help it. We’d been at this for hours already, we’d even had time to stop for a late lunch, and now we were finally nearing the back end of the cemetery. I’d found my Great Aunt Josephine, gave the bird to my skeevy Uncle Peter, and said hello to three out of four of my mother’s ex-husbands. Three out of four. I hadn’t found Dad’s grave yet. In fact there hadn’t been a Greyson anywhere in sight.
    “There are dozens of cemeteries in this city. How do you know they’re even buried here? They could be anywhere.”
    “I Googled it.”
    That actually made a lot of sense.
    I threw myself back into the search with renewed vigor. I’d only been at it another five minutes or so, when I heard it.
    Music.
    Someone was playing a flute or something, and the delicate notes echoed eerily in the gathering twilight. I turned to ask Sam if he’d heard it, only to jump when I realized he stood less than a foot away. He wasn’t looking at me, instead staring over my head and off into the distance. His body was rigid with tension and as I watched his upper lip peeled back from his teeth in a silent snarl.
    “Get to the bike.”
    The fear came, sudden and sharp. “What’s wrong?”
    “Go.” he barked, and grabbed my arm in a grip like iron, steering me around and pushing me in the direction we’d just come from.
    Not wanting to just leave him there, I hesitated. When he realized I hadn’t moved he turned on me like wild thing. He walked into me, breaking into my personal space, with all the lethal grace of a leopard. Those dancing flecks of black had completely swallowed the blue of his eyes and