Free Noah's Boy-eARC by Sarah A. Hoyt Page A

took a sip of his coffee. “So, what did he want with you? And did you say no? Is that why two dragons tried to roast you?”
    She covered her face. When she looked up her cheeks were glowing red. “No. Yes. I mean…I said no. But then…but then I don’t remember anything. I woke up in that room, and…and I couldn’t shift.” Her last words came out in a near whine.”
    As Kyrie approached, Tom extended a hand to touch her. He needed the reassurance of her proximity, the comfort of knowing that whatever madness was about to engulf them—from feral shifters to whatever it was the Great Sky Dragon’s people were cooking up now—they would face it together.
    “I think they knocked me out,” the girl said. “I have a lump over my ear. I think they knocked me out and…”
    Kyrie looked at Tom and he looked back at her. Feeling married extended beyond sharing the same bed and kissing without worrying about morning breath. Kyrie’s glance said as clearly as possible, You have to tell her the truth. She has to know what she’s up against.
    Tom didn’t know how much of Bea’s story Kyrie had heard, but he knew she was right. He took a deep breath. “No. I think he killed you.”
    The girl blinked, looked startled. “I-I beg your—pardon?”
    Tom took another deep breath, feeling like he was diving into freezing waters. Kyrie kissed him and patted his shoulder as though to give him courage, before going off. “Sorry. I don’t know how else to say it. The Great Sky Dragon doesn’t think it’s a very bad punishment…He…” He paused and took another deep breath.
    “I’m not dead,” Beatrice said, her voice just a little too loud.
    “No. Of course not. The only way to kill a dragon is to separate the head from the body or cut the body in two. And even that I’m not sure about, if the two halves are brought together immediately. I’m also fairly sure you can’t come back from being burned to cinders, but I might be wrong. You’re not dead, but my guess is that the Great Sky Dragon gave you a killing blow and did it on purpose, so you were temporarily dead. The telltale is that you can’t shift. You usually can’t shift for about a day after you recover…come back to life. Whatever. And he probably had someone else check in in your place, because Louise sounded all confused about your checking in, and you don’t remember it. You must have been dead some days…Usual is three days, of course.”
    “Dead? I…what day is it?”
    “Wednesday.”
    “It was Sunday.” She put her head in her hands.
    “Yeah,” Tom said, as gently as he knew how. “That would…well…Usually it takes a few days to come back, and I’m going to guess he knew exactly where to put you and…I have bad news—I heard two dragons were seen setting fire to the bed-and-breakfast.”
    “He—He wanted me to burn?” She looked almost wooden, her face unnaturally immobile, but she’d gone very pale. And before Tom could answer, she added, “I’m sorry. Where is the—”
    He pointed her to the restroom and she went. She came back minutes later, looking composed, but still faintly green.

Chapter 9
    Bea couldn’t understand why the idea that she’d been dead and was alive again would have made her throw up. Perhaps it was the shock. And she couldn’t say she felt better afterwards. She wasn’t sure “better” was the word, except that the physical distress and then rinsing her mouth and washing her face and hands had made her feel like some time had elapsed. Like she’d had time to catch her breath.
    Ormson was sitting at the table eating, but his girlfriend was hovering at the end of the hallway, waiting. She led Bea to the booth, and Ormson got up, tied on a bandana to confine his hair, and went off to the restroom.
    There was a steaming pot of tea and two cups on the table, and the woman poured the tea and pushed a cup toward Bea, “I thought tea was better for you just now,” she said. Then she pushed a