Savage Saints (Monsters of Saint Mark's)

What are the odds of that?

Then I get a new idea. What if I can wear more than one of these rings, the same way Pie can?

What if I can make more than one door?

What if these doors lead all over the fucking world?

And… what if I can walk through them, the same way I walk through the gates of Saint Mark’s?

Well. There’s only one way to find out.

I step through and then come out inside my tomb.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN – TOMAS

Batty is going on and on about his plan for tonight. He squawks at me. “Yes, yes,” I tell him. “But are you sure—”

He cuts me off with some growling.

“Well, I know that, Batty. I’m not an idiot. But I have concerns about your lack of empathy for the humans.”

He goes off, ranting and raving. Hands waving in the air. Wings flapping.

“All right, all right.” I push my open palms at him, giving in to shut him up. “I understand that part. But if anyone gets hurt, I’m holding you responsible.”

He sighs. Smiles. Wins.

“Good,” I say. “Now”—I look around—“where did Eyebrows go?”

Batty squawks at me again.

“I know his name is Clarence, thank you, Darrel. But Pie calls him Eyebrows and you Batty, so now his name is Eyebrows and yours is Batty. Anyway. I need to find him. I would like an outfit for tonight. So I will see you later. Do not”—I say these words sternly, then repeat them for emphasis—“do. Not. Leave here without me.”

He shoots me a coy look. And babbles on and on about how he’s trapped here like everyone else.

But it’s not true.

I caught Batty flying over the wall earlier this morning.

Turns out there’s a zone high above the sanctuary walls where the curse doesn’t work if one is a magic flying thing with rock mage powers. He has been out in the woods every single night since Pie brought that little sandstone rock back from Tarq’s tomb.

If I had known about this loophole from the beginning, I could’ve left Saint Mark’s eons ago.

But then I would be a dragon forever and not this handsome specimen of a man who could attract a perfect woman such as Madeline.

So I think it all evens out.

“We shall have another chat before I leave, do you understand?”

Batty is already walking away, so he makes a dismissive motion in the air with his hand that probably isn’t agreement.

But what can one do? I am not in charge of anything here. I am but a simple dragon chimera who would rather leave this place for good and be a human man with a human wife—named Madeline, of course—and never think about monsters again.

I push Batty out of my mind and go searching for Eyebrows. I must have a new outfit. Something worthy of both a hunt, and a date. Because I envision this hunt taking about an hour, and then I envision going to town and meeting up with Madeline so we can practice our kissing.

Perhaps we might even practice other intimate things?

I find Eyebrows up in the hallways in a room filled with luxurious fabrics and sewing paraphernalia. He’s making a coat for Pie, but when I tell him I have a date, he claps his hands and tells me to climb up on a stool so he can fit me up.