Read Online Smoked by Mari Mancusi - Free Book Online Page A

forth, rinse and repeat. But it was better than anything she’d had back at the government lab and certainly better than the old McCormick barn.
    But Emmy hadn’t seemed interested in flying. Instead, she’d retreated to the sleeping nook they’d constructed at the far end of the hangar. Connor had found and hung some old, moth-eaten red curtains from the terminal to give her privacy, and Trin had painstakingly decorated, collecting some of the shinier pieces of plane fuselage and placing them around the nest as stand-ins for actual dragon treasure.
    But Emmy hadn’t seemed to notice their efforts. Nor had she asked to turn on the TV/DVD combo that Trinity’s dad had picked up at a garage sale a few towns over. Even Scarlet’s suggestion of watching the last season of the BBC show Merlin —Emmy’s favorite program—had been dismissed with a shrug. All of which worried Scarlet more than she wanted to admit. As did the fact that Emmy was barely eating or drinking. The others chalked it up to posttraumatic stress, which did seem a logical conclusion, but to Scarlet it seemed more than that. Through their bond, she could feel Emmy’s nervous energy, bouncing around her head. She wasn’t just depressed—she was agitated. Worried about something. But when Scarlet tried to ask her what it was, her words fell on deaf ears.
    â€œHow’s she doing?”
    Scarlet looked up from rubbing to see Trinity hovering hesitantly between the two curtains, shuffling from foot to foot. She sighed and waved her inside. Trinity obliged, still looking a bit nervous as she approached the two of them, and Scarlet could feel Emmy stiffen under her hands.
    It was weird. While the dragon was certainly wary of anyone and everyone who approached since she’d returned, she seemed to get particularly fearful when Trinity showed up, which didn’t make any sense. After all, Scarlet knew more than anyone how much Emmy loved and cared for Trinity—it was all she would talk about back before she’d stopped talking in the government lab. Yet now that they were reunited? The dragon seemed to go out of her way to avoid her.
    â€œShe’s clean at least,” Scarlet said with forced brightness after pushing a reassuring thought in the dragon’s direction. “I scrubbed each scale individually, and now I’m moisturizing. She seems to like that, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.”
    â€œShe always did,” Trinity said sadly, sitting down in the chair across from Scarlet and the dragon, giving them space. She, along with several of the others, had attempted to help with grooming when Emmy first arrived. But Emmy refused to let any of them touch her. Only Scarlet. Which wasn’t exactly helping Scarlet’s already shaky relationship with Trin—as if the girl needed any more reasons to hate her. In fact, Scarlet was pretty sure Trinity wouldn’t be talking to her at all if it wasn’t the only way to reach her dragon.
    â€œHas she said anything else to you?” Trinity asked. “Like where she was all this time after we broke her out of the lab?”
    Scarlet shook her head. “I asked her,” she said. “Repeatedly. But she won’t answer. She hasn’t said anything since she’s been back. It’s like she’s forgotten how to talk.”
    Trinity gave the dragon a heartbreaking look. “What happened to you, Emmy?” she asked, her voice quavering a little. “Whatever it is, you can tell us. We won’t be mad.”
    Scarlet could practically see the waves of frustration radiating off Trin. She turned to Emmy. Come on, Ems , she tried. She only wants to help you.
    The dragon shifted, turning her face to the wall. But not before Scarlet caught a guilty look crossing her face. And was that…a tear leaking from her eye? She frowned. Something must have happened. Something Emmy didn’t want to admit