The Dragon's Keep

Chapter 15

Evie blinked, shaking her head and trying to rouse herself from what she believed was a daydream. "I'm sorry, Cahill. I must be distracted because I could've sworn that you just told me that you're a drag..."

"Dragon, yes," Cahill finished and confirmed. Evie felt her mouth drop open, so many questions crowded her mind.

"Oh no, you don't," she said into the receiver. "You don't get to come into my life and give me a great evening..."

"Evie, please?"

"SHUT UP!" she yelled, tears softly rolling down her cheeks. She continued, her voice broken, "You don't get to save me like a damn damsel in distress and then try to tell me you're a dragon?!"

Cahill remained silent, so Evie continued, "I'm not five years old, Cahill. They don't exist! You're looking for some pathetic excuse to run."

Evie thought she heard a groan from him. "Evie, it is nothing like that. Look, I know you were hurt earlier..."

"Yeah, I was," she roared back. "But I sure as hell am not weak and vulnerable." She bit back tears, letting her anger surge forward, "I'm nobody's doormat and I'm sure as hell not your joke."

She was seething, her breathing heavy into the phone. She waited. Waited him to take it back, waited for him to say he was joking. Nothing. "I can't deny who I am," Cahill whispered.

Evie rolled her eyes, "Then you can take your lying ass to some other woman who will fall for your tricks."

Evie moved to hang up but Cahill's pleading stopped her. "Wait!"

"What!"

"Just..." Cahill paused. "Just give me...us...a chance to explain." He stopped and Evie thought she could hear him pacing. "Allow me to show you am I being honest and allow me to ensure your protection."

"Protection?!" Evie snarled at Cahill's suggestion. "Why would I need protection?"

"For the same reason that I have to go away," Cahill explained. "I have risked our reveal and have to go into hiding. I will be in touch. Just please. Give me this one thing?"

Evie let it pass into her mind and pondered it a moment. Begrudgingly, she sighed. "Fine."

"You won't regret it and you will learn so much!" Cahill said.

"I highly doubt I can learn much from non-existent creatures," Evie scowled. "Good-bye, Cahill." She didn't wait for a response, she just hung up.

Left in the pervading silence of her apartment, sadness quickly overtook her body. Evie heaved deep sobs, cries of a woman who was being lost in a man and feared losing him now in turn. Cries of a woman who felt betrayed by someone she had bore herself to, was vulnerable to. She wandered into her bathroom and looked into the mirror.

There. Where hours before stood a woman oozing confidence, a destroyed woman had taken her place. Her make-up had begun to run, her maskara creating rivers down her face, her nose puffy and runny. It made her sob new and she ran back into her bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

After about an hour passed, though it felt like an eternity, Evie stared at her ceiling in silence. She found her mind wandering to how things had moved so quickly and so naturally. How could he run from this? she asked herself. She picked up her phone and held it over her head. In one swift move, she took a selfie of herself, red-eyed and puffy nose. Evie captioned it, When Prince Charming turns out to be a lie, and sent it to Ary. No sooner did she hit send, she found herself in a deep sleep.