The Queen's Flight (Emerging Queens) Read Online Free PDF Page B

flying yet. Does it feel like riding down the highway with the Harley full out?” Viola asked the question to Sergei, who had come back from dropping off her yarn.
    She handed him two copier paper boxes and slid four tote bags over her arm.
    “More yarn?” he asked.
    “No, those are my needles and notions. I’ve got my WIPs.”
    “Any chains in there?”
    “Work in progress,” she said, peeking at him under the curtain of her eyelashes. The thought of Sergei with whips and chains was a little unsettling, more so than turning into a dragon. And that was saying something. Forcing those thoughts away with a delicious shiver, she turned to her mother. “You didn’t answer my question. Am I dead to you?”
    “I don’t like dragons.” Her mother folded her arms and refused to look at her.
    “Why? What did we ever do to you?” Sergei asked, juggling the load Viola handed him.
    “My husband left me for one.” She sniffed and stared down her nose at him.
    “What?” Viola said, almost dropping a skein of Italian cashmere. “That’s not what you told me.”
    Her mother turned and walked down the stairs with the solemnity of a funeral procession.
    “You said he ran off with his secretary.” Viola followed slowly, the news about her father stunning her. All these years, she figured he forgot he had a kid. Where was he now? Did he know she was a dragon all along?
    Viola was back on the first floor when it hit her that she was leaving her mom’s house for good. “Oh crap, maybe I should pack clothes.”
    “Which Queen?” Sergei asked her mother, taking the tote bags from Viola. “There were only five before Lerisse died.”
    “I didn’t catch her name.”
    “Why would a dragon want a human mate?” Viola said, still not going back upstairs.
    “I don’t think they’re mated,” Sergei said. “Humans have their uses.”
    “Listen to him. We humans have our uses.” Her mother gave an exaggerated finger quote over the last word.
    Sergei snorted, then turned to Viola. “Weren’t you going to pack clothes?” When she ignored him, he cursed and pounded back up the stairs two at a time.
    “He never came back,” her mother said. “I wouldn’t have taken him back, even if he did. Sleeping with a lizard. It’s disgusting.”
    “Maybe he’s dead,” Viola said, wishing her mother would lower her voice or at least keep her bigoted opinions to herself. She opened the hall closet and took out a denim jacket. Her leather one was at work, still buried under her desk.
    “He’s not. Every now and then I see him with her on television. She has a fief in Ireland.”
    Viola heard a loud thump from upstairs. A commotion outside caught her attention, and she glanced out the window and saw a giant red dragon. Horns ringed his neck and bulky red plates of armor covered his entire body. He resembled Reed—a flying tank with teeth. Holy Smokes. That was a thousand-dollar photograph, if any of the neighbors were watching. Day-um, he was big.
    “Get away from the window,” her mother shrieked. “The red ones breathe fire.”
    “I think he’s with us,” Viola said. “I think that’s Jack.”
    “Oh, it’s us now is it? Just like your father.”
    “You told me he started a new family.” Viola turned away from the window to confront her mother with that lie. All this time, she thought her father was one kind of schmuck. Now that it turned out he had just been dragon-struck, she didn’t know if that made it better or worse. Would he want to see her now?
    Her mother shrugged. “So she wasn’t his secretary. She was a venture capitalist that sank quite a bit of money into your father’s creations. He was a chemist, always dabbling in some potion or ointment. One day, he hit the goldmine and she whisked him off for an exclusive contract. It was her money that bought this house.”
    Sergei came back with her carry-on luggage and pushed past them to the car. On the way, he gave Viola a glare that would curdle