Fire Song (City of Dragons) Read Online Free Page A

gestured to the back corner of the room, where a bare-looking desk sat all by itself. “You want to join me at my desk? We can have a little chat if you’d like.”
    Sure, fine. Whatever. I strode over to the desk and sat down at the seat beside it.
    He sat down across from me. He leaned forward, gazing at me intently. “Why are you here?”
    “I just… I need to know. If the other body that was found, if it was a dragon girl as well.”
    “Why?”
    “I do, that’s all.”
    He leaned back in his chair. “I can’t quite get a handle on you, Ms. Caspian.” He turned back to his desk. “Right now, I’d say you’re my top suspect.”
    “What?” I got to my feet. “How could you say that?”
    He shrugged. “Well, you’re not a perfect match. You’re a woman, and near as I know, women don’t do crimes like this. Women kill, sure, but it’s not for sexual dominance. Men have the market cornered on that. And everything about these murders seems to point to the idea that the murderer is doing it for pleasure, for kicks.”
    “What if it’s a vampire?” I sat back down again. “Vampires can get magic from dragon blood even if they drink it while the dragon is in human form.”
    “That so?” He cocked his head to one side. “See, these are the kinds of things that it might be valuable for the department to know. You’re a creature expert—”
    “I’m not an expert.”
    “You don’t want to help us, though. But you’re driven to be part of the investigation somehow. Perhaps because you’re involved in some way.”
    “Actually, I came back because I changed my mind,” I said. “I do want to help. If there’s something I can do. If she was a dragon, I mean. If it’s the kind of case that I can even help with…” I was getting quieter with every string of words, as if I was losing faith in what I was saying. I furrowed my brow. “If I’m a suspect, why would you want my help?”
    He made a tent with his forefingers and rested them against his chin. “Did you ever read The Scarlet Letter ?”
    “Maybe. In high school, I think.” I was thrown by this strange shift in subject.
    “In the book, Arthur Dimmesdale, he’s the preacher who impregnated the girl, right?”
    I nodded.
    “Well, she’s ostracized from society, forced to wear the letter on her chest. You remembering this?”
    “I guess so, but I don’t understand why you’re bringing it up.”
    “Do you remember the end, where he pulls aside his shirt and he’s got his own big A on his flesh?”
    “Um…” I was thoroughly confused.
    Flint tapped his tented fingers against his chin. “Some people think he cut it into his own skin, but those people aren’t reading the book right. See, what Nathaniel Hawthorne was trying to say in that book was that guilt wants out. You do something wrong, and it starts to fester in you, and it strains and it pushes and it takes whatever opportunity it can to show itself. The more you push it down, the more it finds a way. So, if you really have been out murdering people, Ms. Caspian, there’s something inside you, some scarlet letter that’s trying to push its way out, and it’s what’s bringing you to me right now. I’d be a bad detective if I didn’t allow you to do whatever you need to do in order to confess to me, because that’s what you want deep down.”
    I drew back. “I’m not… I would never hurt those girls.”
    He smiled. “No?”
    “I’m not that kind of person.”
    “You’re hiding something.”
    “You already know what I’m hiding.” I lowered my voice, leaned closer to him. “I’m a dragon, and I don’t want anyone to know that.”
    “Sure,” he said. “But why don’t you want anyone to know?”
    I sighed, frustrated.
    “You’re hiding something.” He stretched and cupped the back of his head with both hands, looking relaxed. “So, anyway, you want to help the investigation now?”
    “I don’t know if I do, not if you think I’m a